NIKIFOROVA, Maria. [Nikiphorova.]
Russian anarchist militant & combatant.

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Biographical/historical notes:

Maria Nikiforova.

"The chaotic conditions in the region [Ukraine] nurtured another anarchist leader, Maria Nikiforova, who exercised a substantial influence upon Makhno from the very beginning of their acquaintance.

A member of a local anarchist group, she was engaged in terrorist activities in the years 1905-06, which led to a sentence of death, later commuted to life imprisonment. She served part of her sentence in the Petropavlovsk prison in Petrograd, and in 1910 was then exiled to Siberia, whence she escaped, first to Japan, and then to the United States.

In the summer of 1917, she returned to Oleksandrivs'k, where she soon organized a combat detachment and began to terrorize people in the city. She especially hunted army officers and landlords, killing them.

Later she moved to Elysavethrad, organizing and commanding a combat regiment "Black Guard" which fought each succeeding regime, including the Germans and Denikin. Her main goal was the destruction of all state institutions.

In August 1917, she seized and robbed a military storehouse at the station of Orikhiv. Subsequently, she attacked the regiment in the town, disarmed and dispersed it, executing all captured officers. Part of the confiscated spoils she delivered to Makhno."

from The Anarchism of Nestor Makhno, 1918-21 by Michael Palij.

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"Aucun des commissaires n'osa se montrer devant les ouvriers à la tribune du Soviet. Seule l'anarchiste Marie NIKIPHOROVA occupa cette tribune et appela, de sa voix puissante, les ouvriers à la lutte contre le gouvernement, pour la révolution et pour une société libre de toute autorité."

— Nestor Makhno, La révolution russe en Ukraine

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This page, created September 2005; added March 2006. Source for this text appears at the Spunk Library's "Makhno Quotes"; Makhno citation appears at Ephéméride anarchiste

See also « Nous serons obligés de répondre à nos ennemis les armes à la main. »
http://www.federation-anarchiste.org/ml/article.php3?id_article=1058

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