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Maria Grigorievna Nikiforova was born in 1885 in the city of Aleksandrovsk (present-day Zaporozhye) in the family of a staff captain, a hero of the Russian-Turkish war and a recipient of many military awards. Marusya told Nestor that she had been raped.

According to the official version, Maria Grigorievna Nikiforova was born in 1885 in the city of Aleksandrovsk (present-day Zaporozhye) in the family of a staff captain, a hero of the Russian-Turkish war and a recipient of many military awards. However, Marusya later told (in particular to Nestor Makhno) that in her early youth she had to work as a laundress, and that at that time she was raped. Why the daughter of a retired staff captain had to work as a laundress, nanny, and dishwasher at a vodka factory is not known. Although, according to some historians, Marusya ran away from home at the age of 16 and earned her own living - but this version is not supported by any documentary evidence. At the age of 18, Maria joined the Socialist Revolutionary Party and became interested in the theory of individual terror. This was the era of the great terrorists - Gershuni, Azef, Savinkov, Kalyaev. But in 1904, Marusya became acquainted with the ideas of anarchism - and they seemed closer and dearer to her. A society based on private property must be destroyed. The state as an instrument of violence has no right to exist. Marusya interpreted these truths in her own way. She joined the most radical wing of anarchists - the so-called “bezmotivniki”. The “bezmotivniki” threw bombs and shot not only at major officials and politicians - the objects of their hunt were simply wealthy people, the bourgeoisie, representatives of the middle strata of the population, the intelligentsia and even workers - as the main force helping capitalists make money. The most famous terrorist attacks involving Marusya were the explosion of Libman's cafe and a haberdashery store in Odessa, as well as the explosion of a first-class carriage on a train near Nikopol. A little later, the explosion of a bomb thrown by Marusya killed the administrator of one plant, and the plant itself was stopped for two weeks. In 1907, the police were on her trail in Kherson. Marusya tried to commit suicide by detonating a bomb, but there was no explosion. Marusya appeared in court. She was accused of a number of expropriation acts and four murders. For these charges, she received a sentence of 20 years of hard labor with preliminary serving of the sentence in the Peter and Paul Fortress. This is where we encounter the first mystery of Marusya Nikiforova. Her cellmate in Novinskaya prison, Ekaterina Nikitina, recalled: “A very young, angular woman, short, stocky, with a buzz cut and shifty brown eyes. A worn-out boyish face, in which, despite her youth, there was something senile. We have never seen such a political type before. She told her fellow inmates that she had been sentenced to death for the murder of a bailiff, which, due to her youth, was commuted to 20 years of hard labor. She behaved strangely. She alternately called herself an anarchist and a Socialist-Revolutionary, but she herself did not even understand the basics of revolutionary theories. I haven’t read any books.” Soon the prisoners began to prepare their escape. They didn’t particularly trust Marusa, so in order to find out about her, they sent a note to the outside world, and also asked her “comrades” in the Butyrki trial. The answer came: they confirmed from the outside that they knew Marusya as an honest and decent comrade, although she lied about the death penalty. The opinions of political convicts regarding Marusya were divided. Some wanted to demand that the administration transfer her to another cell. Others - older and more compassionate - offered to take her with them to escape. But then “special circumstances” began to appear in Marusya’s behavior, which were hinted at by her accomplices. In the cell they began to suspect that she was a man, there were several reasons for this: firstly, she never took off her outer shirt in front of other women, and secondly, she never went to the bathhouse with everyone else. In the same cell sat Natasha Klimova, an aristocratic beauty, the common-law wife of the famous dashing terrorist and bank robber, the maximalist Socialist-Revolutionary Sokolov-Medved, who later became the mistress of Boris Savinkov. And so Maruska and her love began to flock to this luxurious woman, cry, suffer, and throw up scenes of jealousy. Prominent terrorist Fanya Itkind, who was sitting in the same cell, said that if the information is confirmed that Marusya is a man, then she herself will personally “crash” her.

Historians are still arguing about who the woman named Marusya Nikiforova was. And was she really a woman? And what was her fate? Very short life. There are a lot of mysteries...

The cellmates eventually decided that the most prominent and elderly convict should have called Marusya for a frank conversation and found out what gender she was. Such a conversation took place, and the elder of the cell, Anna Pavlovna, throwing up her hands, said: “Indeed, a man, or rather a boy. Name is Volodya. But the story is completely special: he participated in the murder of a bailiff, then hid in a woman’s dress and was convicted in a woman’s dress. I was in solitary confinement in Chernigov. Then he marched to Moscow and everywhere he was mistaken for a woman. In general, the unfortunate person asks him to understand and for God’s sake have pity. Crying."

The camera gasped! It’s clear, although he lies a lot, it’s obviously boyish... You can’t send him away to the criminals - they’ll immediately report him, leave him in the cell - he’ll ruin both them and himself, because he behaves more stupidly than stupid. In the end, they decided that Manya will remain Manya, they don’t care who she is - a boy or a man. They will put her in an extra bed by the window, prohibit her from singing, jumping, going to the doctor and to the restroom when someone is there, and she will have to leave the cell only accompanied by authoritative political prisoners. When Manka was informed of the decision, she cried, blew her nose, and after a while began singing at the top of her lungs in a strong boyish alto, “At the Poltava River.”

This testimony is very valuable. There is other evidence that Marusya Nikiforova was in fact either a transvestite or a hermaphrodite.

The escape from Novinskaya prison, in the preparation of which young Vladimir Mayakovsky participated, was successful. However, Marusya was arrested again and sent to Siberia. There she organized a secondary escape, reached Vladivostok, from there, using forged documents, to Japan, and then to the USA, where she worked for some time in the editorial offices of anarchist newspapers. Here her journalistic gift was revealed - she wrote articles on the topic of the day and sharp feuilletons.

In 1913, Marusya moved to Europe, living in Spain and France. In Paris, she took sculpture and painting lessons from Auguste Rodin. Old Rodin considered her one of his most talented students. Anarchist Artemy Gladkikh claimed in 1918 that he saw Marusya in Paris, and sometimes she wore a man's suit, posing as Vladimir Nikiforov. He also claimed that in Paris Marusya had undergone sex reassignment surgery and transplantation of female hormonal glands. Although at the beginning of the twentieth century this information was something from the realm of science fiction.

At least in 1914, Marusya, as a woman (and the only woman), joined the French Foreign Legion and studied at an officer school. In 1916, she was sent to Greece, to the Thessaloniki area, to fight the Turks. But with the beginning of the revolution in Russia, Marusya deserted and, having made her way through several front lines, appeared in Petrograd in April 1917.

Here she was greeted as a heroine - the revolution granted amnesty to all political prisoners. She spoke at rallies, calling on the people not to stop at the revolutionary successes achieved and to complete the holy work of the anarchist revolution. In July, after the Provisional Government dispersed the demonstration of leftist forces, Marusya had to flee Petrograd. Her closest friend Alexandra Kollontai went to prison. Marusya herself returned to her homeland, to Aleksandrovsk, which is under the jurisdiction of the Central Rada.

Marusya was perceived as the recognized leader of the anarchist movement in southern Ukraine. She created workers' Black squads in Aleksandrovsk, Yekaterinoslav, Odessa, Nikolaev, Kherson, Kamensk, Melitopol, Yuzovka, Nikopol, Gorlovka. As historian Viktor Savchenko writes, “these detachments began to disorganize and terrorize the state structures of the Provisional Government of Republican Russia, and from November 1917, the young power structures of the Ukrainian People's Republic. To arm and supply the Black Guard Free Fighting Squad, Marusya expropriated one million rubles from the Aleksandrovsky factory owner Badovsky. Marusya donated part of the money to the Alexander Council as a gift. Her detachment also requisitioned a lot of money from the landowners of the Ekaterinoslav province.”

In September 1917, Marusya was arrested by order of the Commissioner of the Provisional Government in the city of Aleksandrovsk. The next day, all enterprises in Aleksandrovsk stopped working. The authorities were forced to make concessions. Marusya was simply carried out of prison in their arms. She turned into a folk heroine!

At the same time, she meets Nestor Makhno, the new leader of the anarchists. If Marusya was a product of the urban anarchist element, then Makhno was a peasant anarchist. And very soon Makhno’s organizational talents began to dominate Marusya’s authority. Although the anarchist leaders did not have serious contradictions. Moreover, some biographers of Makhno claim (without citing sources) about an alleged affair between Marusya and Nestor.

Again, as Viktor Savchenko writes, “with her “Black Guard” detachment, Marusya participates in the establishment of Soviet power in Crimea, in battles with detachments of Crimean Tatars. The Black Sea sailors passed a resolution on the total extermination of the bourgeoisie and moved from words to deeds. More than 500 people were brutally killed in Sevastopol and Feodosia alone. Together with Japaridze’s anarchist detachment, Nikiforova’s detachment broke into Yalta. The Livadia Palace was looted and several dozen officers were shot. Next, Marusya’s path lay in Sevastopol, where, according to her information, eight anarchists languished in a local prison, who were arrested for throwing bombs into the crowd from a hotel balcony. The Sevastopol Bolsheviks, fearing a clash with Marusya’s detachment, released those arrested without waiting for the chieftain’s arrival. It is interesting that Marusya, who appeared in Feodosia for a few days, was immediately elected to the Executive Committee of the district peasant council and managed to organize a local anarchist detachment of the Black Guard. And already on January 28, 1918, Nikiforova’s detachment arrived in Elisavetgrad (Kirovograd) to establish Soviet power. At that time, there was a Ukrainian reserve regiment and a cavalry hundred of the Free Cossacks of Ukraine (900 soldiers in total) in the city. The anarchists, together with a detachment of Bolsheviks, dispersed the local garrison of the Central Rada and arrested representatives of the Ukrainian authorities. Marusya herself shot the local military commander, Colonel Vladimirov, for refusing to give the anarchists the keys to military warehouses. Residents of the district Elisavetgrad will long remember the “vigilantes” of Marusya, who terrorized the city for several days, robbing and killing the “bourgeois”.

In Elisavetgrad, Marusya came into conflict with the local council and, with the support of her friend, the Bolshevik sailor Polupanov, ordered the council to be shot from cannon. This was the first time parliament was dissolved in this manner. Later, this method of combating parliamentarism will become a reliable and proven means.

In Ekaterinoslav (Dnepropetrovsk), which was raided by Marusya, shops and shops were destroyed. She herself robbed mainly confectionery shops and lingerie stores. How is it with Vysotsky? “A woman is like a woman - and why please her?”

In April 1918, under attacks from German and Austrian troops, Nikiforova and her Black Squad had to retreat outside of Ukraine. In Taganrog she was arrested by the Bolsheviks. Marusya was accused of looting, cruelty and robbery. The prosecutor demanded that Nikiforova be shot. The court was headed by Vladimir Zatonsky. After the anarchists present threatened an uprising, the court acquitted Marusya.

And it began to operate again - now on Russian territory. Voronezh, Bryansk, Saratov, Rostov... Here and there, cheerful Marusya appeared. R. Roshal wrote: “A carriage is rushing down the street at breakneck speed. Lounging carelessly in it, a young brunette sits in a kubanka, dressed dashingly on one side, next to him, hanging on the footrest, is a broad-shouldered guy in red hussar leggings. The brunette and her bodyguard are festooned with weapons.”

At the end of 1918, the Bolsheviks arrested Marusya again. She spent some time in Butyrka, and later appeared in court, which banned her from holding command positions for a period of six months. Despite this, she secretly organized - with the support of the Ukrainian Bolsheviks, primarily Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko - a partisan cavalry detachment. But at the very beginning of 1919, this detachment, having carried out several operations against supporters of Simon Petlyura, joined the army of Nestor Makhno in full force.

At the beginning of June 1919, relations between Makhno and the Bolsheviks broke down. The anarchists were outlawed, and some of the representatives of the Makhnovist headquarters, led by Ozerov, were shot. At the same time, Marusya breaks off relations with Nestor Ivanovich. She demanded radical action against the Bolsheviks, Makhno considered this madness and took a wait-and-see attitude. As a result, Makhno threw Marusya out of his armored train and threw a wad of 100 (or even 500) thousand rubles at her.

Marusya immediately moved on to forming groups that were supposed to organize revolutionary terror. The first group, led by Marusya herself and her husband, the Polish anarchist Witold Brzostek, was supposed to go to Moscow to liquidate Lenin and Trotsky. The second group - led by Max Chernyak - went to Siberia to organize the assassination of Admiral Kolchak.

In Moscow, Marusya created the All-Russian Insurgent Committee of Revolutionary Partisans, which included more than 40 people - mostly anarchists. She began to carry out expropriation actions, thus collecting more than 4 million rubles (“For the world revolution,” she explained). The plans included the destruction of the entire leadership of the Bolshevik Party, as well as the explosion of the Kremlin.

On September 25, 1919, in the building of the Moscow Committee of the RCP (b) in Liteiny Lane (this building now houses the Embassy of Ukraine in the Russian Federation) a plenum of the MK RCP (b) was supposed to take place. Lenin and Trotsky were scheduled to speak at the plenum. After the start of the plenum, a deafening explosion occurred. 12 people died, including the leader of the Moscow Bolsheviks, Zagorsky. Nikolai Bukharin and Emelyan Yaroslavsky were wounded. Lenin and Trotsky were simply late for the opening of the plenum and remained unharmed.

During the attempt to blow up the Kremlin, almost the entire anarchist organization was exposed. Many members of the underground group were arrested. Marusa and her husband managed to escape from Moscow to Crimea.

Here Nikiforova began planning an assassination attempt on General Denikin. She wanted to blow up the commander of the white troops along with his headquarters, and then go to Poland to organize an anarchist revolution. But - according to the official version - some White Guard identified her, and Marusya was arrested. In September 1919, she and her husband, Witold Brzostek, were hanged in the courtyard of a Sevastopol prison - and the husband was executed for not informing the authorities about his wife. However, not a single document remains indicating the execution of Marusya.

There is another version: that Marusya secretly went to work for the Cheka and was sent first to Poland and then to France. In 1919-1920, to create reliable legends of this kind, agents were provided with false obituaries in the press. Perhaps the obituaries of Marusa Nikiforova in the anarchist press are also a cover? At the very least, there is unconfirmed evidence that it was Marusya Nikiforova who prepared Schwartzbard for the murder of Simon Petliura. This version was quite common between the First and Second World Wars.

Maria Grigorievna Nikiforova, or Marusya Nikiforova(-), leader of the anarchists in Ukraine, ally of Nestor Makhno. She joined the anarchist movement at the age of 16. Known by the name Marusya. During the Civil War, he became one of the most prominent and respected commanders of anarchist detachments in southern Russia.

Biography

early years

Maria was born in Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporozhye, in Ukraine, in 1885. Maria’s father was an officer and hero of the Russian-Turkish War (1877-1878). At the age of 16, Maria left her parents’ home. She worked as a nanny, a clerk, and washed bottles at distillery, where she joined the anarcho-communist movement.

Maria easily accepted the concept of unmotivated terror. She took part in a number of expropriations, including bank robberies. The most famous terrorist attacks involving Marusya were the explosion of Libman's cafe and a haberdashery store in Odessa, as well as the explosion of a first-class carriage on a train near Nikopol. A little later, the explosion of a bomb thrown by Marusya killed the administrator of one plant, and the plant itself was stopped for two weeks.

After the capture of Aleksandrovsk in January 1918 by the Red Army, she, along with her new ally Nestor Makhno, began negotiations with the Bolsheviks to give the anarchists a seat on the city's revolutionary council. The basis for allied relations with Makhno was initially anarchism. But soon “Marusya began to accuse Nestor of ignoring the ideas of anarchism... She called for a bloody fight against the exploiters, for a fight against Ukrainian nationalism” .

On the council, Nikiforova took the place of deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Committee (the Bolshevik T. Mikhelovich was elected chairman). Nestor Makhno received, in his words, the “dirty” position of chairman of the “military revolutionary commission.” Makhno was obliged to decide the fate of people arrested by the Bolsheviks and accused of counter-revolutionary activities. A few weeks later he refused such cooperation due to the lack of radicalism of the council.

Druzhina

In December 1917, the Black Guard of Marusya helped establish Soviet power in Kharkov, Yekaterinoslavl (Dnepropetrovsk) and Aleksandrovsk (Zaporozhye). Thanks to the support of the Bolshevik leader in the area, Antonov-Ovseenko, Marusya received support from the Free Fighting Squad organization. This unit actively fought with the White Guard, German occupation forces and Ukrainian nationalists during the establishment of Soviet power in Elisavetgrad (Kirovograd).

In April 1918, Nikiforova received gratitude from the Bolshevik leadership for her revolutionary activities. Antonov-Ovseenko, the commander-in-chief of the Bolshevik forces in southern Russia, had been a supporter of Nikiforova since their first meeting in Paris. He provided her with both financial and political support. Nikiforova was tried twice by the Bolsheviks for disobeying their command and looting her units: the first time in Taganrog in April 1918 and in Moscow in January 1919. In the first trial she was acquitted since many witnesses and Antonov-Ovseenko, who sent the telegram, spoke out in her support. On January 25, 1919, the Pravda newspaper reported the decision of the Moscow tribunal. Marusya was found guilty of discrediting the Soviet government and disobeying local councils in the field of military operations. The tribunal could not prove the charges of organizing illegal robberies and carrying out illegal requisitions and therefore they were canceled. Marusya was sentenced to a very peculiar punishment - deprivation of the right to hold responsible positions for six months from the date of the verdict, and was given bail to A. Karelin, who became a member of the Central Election Commission, and V. Antonov-Ovseenko.

Returning to Ukraine, she went to Gulyai-Polye, which was now an autonomous region under the control of Nestor Makhno. Not wanting to quarrel with the Bolsheviks, Makhno did not dare to violate the verdict against Marusya; he refused to appoint her commander of the “black” guard in the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine. For six months, Marusya prepared Makhno’s speeches and organized propaganda work.

Captivity and execution

In June 1919, Makhno's army was outlawed by the Soviet authorities. Avoiding a war on two fronts against the whites and reds, Marusya changed her tactics of struggle. Nikiforova began to create field terrorist groups, which should become the main force of the anarchist struggle. These cell groups operated behind white lines - in Crimea. Soon she and her husband were tracked down in Sevastopol by white counterintelligence. They were arrested, and on September 16, 1919, the court sentenced them to death by hanging. Although in the newspaper “Kyiv Zhizn” dated September 11 (24), 1919, under the heading “In Liberated Russia,” there is a contradictory report entitled “The Execution of M. Nikifirova.” In particular, it states: “In Sevastopol, by the verdict of a military court, the famous Marusya Nikoforova (Maria Brzostska), the commander of a detachment of “anarchist-communists” who carried out bloody executions and massacres, was executed. The indictment charges her with participation in such massacres: in Rostov, Odessa, during the capture of the city by Petlyura, Melitopol and other places. Nikiforova behaved defiantly at the trial, and, after reading the verdict, began to scold the judges. She burst into tears only when saying goodbye to her husband. Her husband, Witold Brzostek, who was accused of concealment, was also shot.”

How did she look

In memoirs, Marusya is described as an unattractive woman, and was sometimes passed off as intersex. Chudnov, a former Makhnovist, wrote in 1918: “She was a woman of thirty-two or thirty-five years old, of average height, with a worn, prematurely aged face, in which there was something of an eunuch or a hermaphrodite. The hair is cut into a circle. A Cossack beshmet with gazyrs deftly sat on it. The white hat is put on askew.” A year later in 1919, Alexey Kiselyov described her in his memoirs as follows: “About thirty years old. Thin with a haggard, worn-out face, she gave the impression of an old student who had been overstaying too much time. Pointed nose. Sunken cheeks... She is wearing a blouse and a skirt, with a small revolver hanging from her belt. "Kiselyov claims that Marusya was a cocaine addict. Marusya's biographer Malcolm Archibald believes that Bolshevik biographers deliberately created an unattractive image of the anarchist. "Descriptions of Nikiforova are divided into two categories: in some she is a repulsive woman, and in others she is a beauty. The exception is the description of Marusya left by the prominent Bolshevik S. Raksha, who in the spring of 1918 was listed as the secretary of the party bureau of the Dnieper Red Guard detachment: “They said that she was a beautiful woman, and that her adjutant, Staff Captain Kozubchenko, also a handsome man and a dandy, did not take his eyes off her “I found both of them. Marusya was sitting at the table and crushing a cigarette in her teeth. The devil was really beautiful: about thirty, gypsy type, black hair, with lush breasts, lifting her tunic high.”

Marusya was considered “one of their own” by workers and Makhnovists, sailors and White Guard officers. She undoubtedly had an extraordinary mind, versatility of interests, excellent command of the craft of an orator, as well as courage and the gift of influencing people, unusual for women. Possessing great willpower, Marusya was an obstinate, rebellious nature.”

see also

Notes

Literature

• Chop V.M. Marusya Nikiforova. - Zaporozhye: RA “Tandem-U”, 1998. - 68 p.
• Belenkin B. I., Leontiev Ya. V. Memories and messages. “Black Shadow of the Revolution” (Atamansha Marusya Nikiforova) // Domestic notes. - 2002. - P. 169-178.

Links

Women began to manifest themselves in the political life of Europe in the second half of the 19th century. The reason for the emergence of the movement of intellectual women was the work of the English philosopher John Stuart Mill, published in 1869, “The Subjection of Women.” As a subject of Queen Victoria, Mill very astutely noted in his treatise that “legislative support for the subordination of one sex to the other is harmful ... and is one of the main obstacles to general human improvement.” A few years later, Emmeline Pankhurst founded the “Organization for the Defense of Women’s Social and Political Rights,” which, by the way, numbered up to 5 thousand members. Pankhurst's followers - suffragettes (from the English word suffrage - the right to vote) - advocated for equal rights for women in property rights, marriage, free choice of profession, and obtaining a full education.

Nikiforova detonated bombs in expensive stores, restaurants and racetracks

In pre-revolutionary Russia, women did not have political rights (like most other classes), however, property rights were guaranteed much better than in the United States and European countries. Therefore, the birth of the women's movement was associated, first of all, with the struggle for freedom to obtain higher education and access to qualified and professional labor. Already at the turn of the century, Russian “feminists” actively joined the pan-European wave of the movement for equal voting rights for men and women. Gradually, among the Russian intelligentsia, representatives of the fair sex are beginning to play an increasingly important role - the “Valkyrie of the Revolution” Alexandra Kollontai or the “Socialist Revolutionary Mother of God” Maria Spiridonova. This series can be safely continued by the activities of the famous anarchist, comrade-in-arms of Nestor Makhno, Maria (Marusya) Nikiforova.

English suffragettes storm Parliament, 1907

The future “thunderstorm of the bourgeoisie” was born in 1885 in the Zaporozhye city of Aleksandrovsk. Her father was a hero of the Russian-Turkish war, however, this fact from the pedigree did not prevent Nikiforova from joining one of the fighting cells of the Socialist Revolutionaries at the age of 18. It was for this revolutionary terrorist activity that in 1908 she was arrested and sentenced to 20 years of hard labor. Already in prison, legends began to circulate about Nikiforova: one of them is connected with the story of her alleged escape from the Narym prison, where she organized a prisoner riot, as a result of which she managed to get to Vladivostok, and from there, using forged documents, travel first to Japan, then to America . By the way, escaping from Narym penal servitude was a real feat for contemporaries, because this institution went down in history as the main place of detention for political criminals, starting with the Decembrists. Exile to the Narym region, 500 kilometers north-west of Tomsk, acquired truly enormous proportions in the 1930s—numerous kulaks-special settlers were held here.

Nikiforova took lessons from the famous sculptor Rodin

In America, Nikiforova appears in the circles of anarchist emigrants, working on the editorial board of the radical publications “Voice of Labor” and “Forward”. Here, hiding under various pseudonyms, she published topical feuilletons - this is how she quickly managed to gain fame as a sharp-tongued publicist. However, the journalistic routine did not suit the determined anarchist, so she decided to leave for Spain, where just at that moment black and red brigades began to gradually form. From Spain Nikiforova moved to Paris, where she began studying with Auguste Rodin, who, by the way, considered her one of his most talented students. In France, Nikiforova, in general, behaved very extravagantly, trying to attract as much attention as possible to her own person. Thus, there is evidence that she publicly appeared in a man’s suit (probably imitating the ideological founder of the women’s movement, George Sand), without fear of a substantial fine for violating public order and morality.

Bust of Maria Nikiforova by Auguste Rodin

Soon after the February Revolution, Nikiforova returned to Petrograd, where, together with Alexandra Kollontai (her friend from Paris), she began to actively participate in various rallies, making angry statements against the ministers of the Provisional Government. A little later, her talent as a public speaker manifested itself in vigorous propaganda activity among the sailors of Kronstadt. In the fall, Nikiforova returns to her native Aleksandrovsk, where she begins to rapidly organize militant anarchist cells that spread throughout South-Western Ukraine (in Ekaterinoslav, Odessa, Nikolaev, Yuzovka, Kherson), and as a result she becomes the de facto ruler of the entire south of Ukraine, which came out from the control of both the Bolsheviks and the Kyiv government. At the start of the October Revolution, Marusya Nikiforova was actively “collecting tribute” from local landowners and bankers in order to provide the anarchist cause with the required finances. There is a well-known case of the expropriation of a million rubles from the cash register of the breeder Badovsky - this clearly willful act of overthrowing the previous order aroused sympathy among local residents, as a result of which the authorities were forced to release the arrested Nikiforova, whom the crowd literally carried out of prison in their arms. She had an amazing talent for finding a common language with people of diametrically opposed political aspirations, equally successfully negotiating with leaders of the white movement and explaining to ordinary people the principles of anarchism.

Nikiforova had her own “army” - the Free Fighting Squad of Ataman Marusya

Since February 1918, Nikiforova organized a combat detachment - a personal “squad”, numbering 580 people and equipped with two cannons, seven machine guns and even an armored car. As one of the Bolshevik agents, I. Matusevich, later recalled, “the appearance of... the fighters of the detachment was, to put it mildly, unusual... There were officer jackets, cross-belted with machine gun belts, and dashingly twisted lambskin hats. Someone was sporting high-quality boots, polished to a shine, with Circassian knives gleaming behind the tops. Civilian jackets and peasant shirts were visible from under the unbuttoned soldiers' and officers' overcoats. Nikiforova was a match for her army.” Thus, the “thunderstorm of the bourgeoisie” was able to again show his passion for shocking, provocative behavior and consciously constructing his own public image. Even on the fields of the civil war (or the “second revolution,” as she herself called this period), Nikiforova managed to create her own personal, unique image: “She sat at the table and crushed a cigarette in her teeth. The devil was beautiful: about thirty, gypsy type, black-haired, with lush breasts that lifted her tunic high.” Or another recollection of a contemporary: “A carriage is rushing down the street at breakneck speed. A young brunette sits casually in it, wearing a kubanka worn at an angle.”

In the center is Makhno’s right hand - a former battleship sailor« John Chrysostom» Fedor Shchus. Next to him are Black Guards Foma Kozhin (right) and Alexander Taranovsky

In April, Marusya Nikiforova and her fighters were arrested by the Bolsheviks, however, the court (among whose members there was not a single anarchist) unexpectedly acquitted her, dropping all the charges brought forward. True, the very next year, 1919, Nikiforova was deprived of the “right to occupy responsible command posts in the RSFSR” for “disorganizing and discrediting the Soviet government.” The negative rebuke of the Bolsheviks was also supplemented by disagreements with Makhno, who sought to enter into a coalition with Ukrainian nationalists. As a result, Nikiforova decides to leave for Crimea, where she intended to carry out a “third revolution”, creating a real stronghold of world anarchism on the peninsula. However, these revolutionary ideas were not destined to come true - in September she was arrested by the White Guards for involvement in the assassination attempt on General Slashchev, and then sentenced to death.

After the sentence was carried out, false Marusi began to appear throughout Ukraine, seeking to take advantage of Nikiforova’s heroic reputation, to the point that rumors began to appear about her living in Paris, from where she allegedly sent secret dispatches to the Soviet OGPU. The surviving memory of the legendary anarchist so impressed the imagination of the Bolsheviks that in the 20s an order was issued to destroy all photographs of Marusya, with the exception of images from her criminal case.

The difficult times of the Civil War in our country revealed many outstanding women. Some of them became revolutionaries, others joined gangs, sometimes even leading them. A special place in this list is occupied by the legendary chieftain Marusya, whose life is worthy of film adaptation - it can be used as the basis for an action-packed action movie.

From Bobbies to Bandits

Maria Grigorievna Nikiforova gained fame long before the start of the Civil War in Russia. At the age of 16, the girl left home and in a short time changed many professions - from a nanny to a bottle washer at a distillery. Of course, such a fate was not the limit of her dreams, and soon Maria was spun by the whirlpool of the anarchist movement, and in its harshest manifestation - the unmotivated. These people fought against all the rich, professing the principle: “Fight for the sake of fighting.” Unmotivated people exploded bombs in shops, restaurants, and haberdashery stores.

The desperate Maria Nikiforova was considered the best of the bombers. She has had many successful terrorist attacks against the authorities in southern Russia. She was caught more than once. One day the girl was ambushed, but did not give up, but tried to blow herself up. However, the homemade bomb did not work. Maria was sentenced to life in hard labor, although the trail of corpses trailing behind her was so long that she, in theory, faced hanging.

International terrorism

Maria, whom by this time everyone around her simply called Marusya, escaped from hard labor in 1910. However, she did not stay in Russia, prudently crossing to Japan and then to the USA. While emigrating, Marusya unexpectedly developed an epistolary talent. She went to work as a journalist for a Russian anarchist newspaper, while simultaneously becoming a prominent figure in the Union of Russian Workers of the USA and Canada. But a quiet life was not for her.

Soon she moved again, this time to Spain. Its appearance in this European country was marked by large-scale robberies of shops and homes of wealthy residents of Madrid. Not only that, the activist of the anarchist movement organized courses for aspiring bombers in Spain. But one day Marusya was wounded, and she was forced to flee to Paris. The political emigrants of France accepted her as their own. Marusya became friends with the revolutionary Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko and married the Polish anarchist Witold Brzostek.

It was here that her passion for art awoke. Marusya began taking sculpting lessons from Auguste Rodin himself, who found her a talented student. At that moment, the First World War broke out as bad luck would have it. Marusya left her husband and went to cavalry officer courses. The most incredible thing is that in 1916 she actually received the rank of French cavalry officer and went to the Balkan front to defeat the Turks.

Under the banner of revolution

The fate of Maria Nikiforova took the next sharp turn in February 1917, after she learned about the bourgeois revolution in Russia. Having decided to settle accounts with the authorities for her poor childhood and hard labor, Marusya quit serving in the French army and miraculously made her way across the front lines and borders of countries to revolutionary Petrograd. Here, as an outstanding speaker, numerous rallies awaited her with calls to storm the Winter Palace.

At some point, Maria decided to visit her native Ukraine. And then her lucky star rose. The gang of anarchists she created captured Aleksandrov, and then joined the famous army of Father Makhno. A riotous life began with robberies, shootings and carousing.

With the help of a revolver and a saber, Ataman Marusya carried out her “fair” trial, in the form in which a professional terrorist could present it. However, the commissioner of the Provisional Government who arrived from Petrograd somehow miraculously managed to arrest Marusya and imprison her in a local prison. True, not for long. The very next day, the prison was stormed by anarchists, and the legendary chieftain was literally carried to freedom in their arms. After the October Revolution of 1917, Marusya's affairs went uphill sharply. Its nominal boss, Old Man Makhno, was known to be on good terms with the Bolsheviks. On their behalf, the armed units of the Red Army in Ukraine were commanded by Marusya’s friend from Paris, Antonov-Ovseenko. Having secured his support with the approval of Father Makhno, Maria Nikiforova formed her own anarchist cavalry detachments, calling them the Free Fighting Squad of Ataman Marusya. The size of the squad ranged from 300 to 500 people at different times, who, in addition to carts, even had their own armored car.

During the Civil War in Ukraine, real panic arose among the German, Austro-Hungarian and Ukrainian military as soon as they heard about the approaching combat detachments of Ataman Marusya. Nevertheless, even her comrades were fed up with the cruelty of Maria Nikiforova.

In 1918, the Bolsheviks arrested her for robbing civilians and put her on trial. It is unknown how long Marusya would have lived in this world if not for the petition of Nestor Makhno. He personally called on the Bolsheviks to release the “old revolutionary”, backing up his request with the force of a detachment of monarchists sent on an armored train to Taganrog to rescue the famous chieftain. Nikiforova was acquitted under pressure from Makhno's authority. For about another year, Marusya robbed Russian cities, until another arrest and trial in Moscow prohibited her from holding command positions in the Red Army. This time Makhno did not dare to stand up for Marusya.

But the restless Nikiforova decided to start all over again and, together with her husband, went to Sevastopol to prepare explosions in the White Guard rear. In the city she was tracked down by white counterintelligence. After a short trial in 1919, she was shot. The last words of the 34-year-old terrorist-atamansha were “Long live anarchy!”

During the Civil War, the territory of modern Ukraine turned into a battlefield between the most politically polar forces. Opposing each other were supporters of Ukrainian national statehood from the Petliura Directory and the White Guards of the Volunteer Army A.I. Denikin, advocating the revival of the Russian state. The Bolshevik Red Army fought with these forces. Anarchists from the Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Nestor Makhno gained a foothold in Gulyai-Polye.

Numerous fathers and atamans of small, medium and large formations kept themselves apart, not subordinate to anyone and entering into alliances with anyone, only for their own benefit. Almost a century later it happened again. And yet, many rebel commanders of the Civil cause, if not respect, then significant interest in their persons. At least, unlike modern “lords-atamans”, among them there were truly ideological people with very interesting biographies. What is the legendary Marusya Nikiforova worth?

To the general public, with the exception of specialist historians and people closely interested in the Civil War in Ukraine, the figure of “Atamansha Marusya” is practically unknown. She may be remembered by those who carefully watched “The Nine Lives of Nestor Makhno” - actress Anna Ukolova played her there. Meanwhile, Maria Nikiforova, as “Marusya” was officially called, is a very interesting historical character. The mere fact that a woman became a real ataman of the Ukrainian rebel detachment is a rarity even by the standards of the Civil War. After all, Alexandra Kollontai, and Rosa Zemlyachka, and other women who took part in revolutionary events, still did not act as field commanders, and even in rebel detachments.

Maria Grigorievna Nikiforova was born in 1885 (according to other sources - in 1886 or 1887). At the time of the February Revolution she was about 30-32 years old. Despite her relatively young years, even Marusya’s pre-revolutionary life was eventful. Born in Aleksandrovsk (now Zaporozhye), Marusya was a fellow countrywoman of the legendary Father Makhno (though the latter was not from Aleksandrovsk itself, but from the village of Gulyaypole, Aleksandrovsky district). Marusya's father, an officer in the Russian army, distinguished himself during the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878.

Apparently, Marusya took after her father in courage and character. At the age of sixteen, having neither a profession nor a means of subsistence, the officer’s daughter left her parents’ home. Thus began her adult life, full of dangers and wanderings. However, there is also a point of view among historians that Maria Nikiforova in reality could not be an officer’s daughter. Her biography in her young years seems too dark and marginal - hard physical work, living without relatives, a complete absence of mention of the family and any relationships with it.

It is difficult to say why she decided to leave the family, but the fact remains that Maria Nikiforova chose the life of a professional revolutionary over the fate of an officer’s daughter, who would, over time, find a worthy groom and build a family nest. Having got a job at a distillery as an auxiliary worker, Maria met her peers from an anarcho-communist group.

At the beginning of the twentieth century. Anarchism became especially widespread on the western outskirts of the Russian Empire. Its centers were the city of Bialystok - the center of the weaving industry (now the territory of Poland), port Odessa and industrial Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk). Aleksandrovsk, where Maria Nikiforova first met the anarchists, was part of the “Ekaterinoslav anarchist zone.” The key role here was played by anarcho-communists - supporters of the political views of the Russian philosopher Pyotr Alekseevich Kropotkin and his followers. Anarchists first appeared in Yekaterinoslav, where propagandist Nikolai Musil (pseudonyms Rogdaev, Uncle Vanya) who came from Kyiv managed to lure an entire regional organization of Socialist Revolutionaries to the position of anarchism. Already from Yekaterinoslav, the ideology of anarchism begins to spread throughout the surrounding settlements, including even the countryside. In particular, its own anarchist federation appeared in Aleksandrovsk, as in other cities, uniting working, craft and student youth. Organizationally and ideologically, the Alexander anarchists were influenced by the Ekaterinoslav Federation of Anarchist-Communists. Somewhere in 1905, a young worker, Maria Nikiforova, also took the position of anarchism.

Unlike the Bolsheviks, who preferred painstaking agitation work in industrial enterprises and focused on mass action by factory workers, the anarchists were inclined to acts of individual terror. Since the overwhelming majority of anarchists at that time were very young people, on average 16-20 years old, their youthful maximalism often outweighed common sense and revolutionary ideas in practice turned into terror against everyone and everything. They blew up shops, cafes and restaurants, first class carriages - that is, places with a high concentration of “people with money”.

It should be noted that not all anarchists were inclined towards terror. Thus, Peter Kropotkin himself and his followers - the “grain volunteers” - had a negative attitude towards individual acts of terror, just like the Bolsheviks, focusing on the mass worker and peasant movement. But during the revolution of 1905-1907. Much more noticeable than the “grain volunteers” were representatives of ultra-radical trends in Russian anarchism - the Black Banners and Beznachaltsy. The latter generally proclaimed motiveless terror against any representatives of the bourgeoisie.

Focusing on work among the poor peasantry, unskilled laborers and longshoremen, day laborers, the unemployed and tramps, the bossless people accused the more moderate anarchists - the "grain volunteers" - of being fixated on the industrial proletariat and "betraying" the interests of the most disadvantaged and oppressed sections of society, while precisely They, and not relatively prosperous and financially secure specialists, are most in need of support and represent the most susceptible and explosive contingent for revolutionary propaganda. However, the “beznachaltsy” themselves, most often, were typical radical students, although there were also openly semi-criminal and marginal elements among them.

Maria Nikiforova, apparently, ended up in the circle of those without motives. During two years of underground activity, she managed to throw several bombs - at a passenger train, in a cafe, in a store. The anarchist often changed her place of residence, hiding from police surveillance. But, in the end, the police managed to get on the trail of Maria Nikiforova and detain her. She was arrested, charged with four murders and several robberies (“expropriations”) and sentenced to death.

However, like Nestor Makhno, Maria Nikiforova’s death penalty was replaced with indefinite hard labor. Most likely, the verdict was due to the fact that at the time of its delivery, Maria Nikiforova, like Makhno, had not reached the age of majority, according to the laws of the Russian Empire, which came at the age of 21. From the Peter and Paul Fortress, Maria Nikiforova was transferred to Siberia - to the place of departure for hard labor, but managed to escape. Japan, the United States, Spain - these were the points of Mary's travels before she was able to settle in France, in Paris, where she was actively involved in anarchist activities. During this period, Marusya took part in the activities of anarchist groups of Russian emigrants, but also collaborated with the local anarcho-bohemian environment.

Just at the time Maria Nikiforova, who by this time had already adopted the pseudonym “Marusya,” was living in Paris, the First World War began. Unlike the majority of domestic anarchists, who spoke from the position of “let's turn the imperialist war into a class war” or generally preached pacifism, Marusya supported Peter Kropotkin. As is known, the founding father of the anarcho-communist tradition came out from “defensive”, as the Bolsheviks said, positions, taking the side of the Entente and condemning the Prussian-Austrian military.

But if Kropotkin was old and peace-loving, then Maria Nikiforova was literally eager to fight. She managed to enter the Paris Military School, which was surprising not only because of her Russian origin, but also, to an even greater extent, because of her gender. However, the woman from Russia passed all the entrance tests and, having successfully completed a military training course, was enlisted in the active army with the rank of officer. Marusya fought as part of the French troops in Macedonia, then returned to Paris. News of the February Revolution that took place in Russia forced the anarchist to hastily leave France and return to her homeland.

It should be noted that evidence of Marusya’s appearance describes her as a masculine, short-haired woman with a face that reflected the events of her stormy youth. Nevertheless, Maria Nikiforova found herself a husband in French emigration. This was Witold Brzostek, a Polish anarchist who later took an active part in the anti-Bolshevik underground activities of the anarchists.

Having appeared in Petrograd after the February Revolution, Marusya plunged into the turbulent revolutionary reality of the capital. Having established connections with local anarchists, she carried out agitation work among naval crews and among workers. That same summer of 1917, Marusya left for her native Aleksandrovsk. By this time, the Alexander Federation of Anarchists was already operating there. With the arrival of Marusya, the Alexander anarchists noticeably radicalize. First of all, a million-dollar expropriation is carried out from the local industrialist Badovsky. Then connections are established with the anarcho-communist group of Nestor Makhno operating in the neighboring village of Gulyaypole.

At first, there were obvious differences between Makhno and Nikiforova. The fact is that Makhno, being a far-sighted practitioner, allowed significant deviations from the classical interpretation of the principles of anarchism. In particular, he advocated the active participation of anarchists in the activities of the Soviets and generally adhered to a tendency towards a certain organization. Later, after the end of the Civil War, in exile, these views of Nestor Makhno were formalized by his comrade-in-arms Pyotr Arshinov into a peculiar movement of “platformism” (named after the Organizational Platform), which is also called anarcho-Bolshevism for the desire to create an anarchist party and streamline political activity anarchists.

Unlike Makhno, Marusya remained an adamant supporter of the understanding of anarchism as absolute freedom and rebellion. Even in her youth, the ideological views of Maria Nikiforova were formed under the influence of the anarchists-beschatels - the most radical wing of the anarcho-communists, who did not recognize rigid organizational forms and advocated the destruction of any representatives of the bourgeoisie only on the basis of their class affiliation. Consequently, in her daily activities, Marusya showed herself to be a much greater extremist than Makhno. This largely explains the fact that Makhno managed to create his own army and put an entire region under control, while Marusya never stepped beyond the status of a field commander of a rebel detachment.

While Makhno was strengthening his position in Gulyai-Polye, Marusya managed to be under arrest in Aleksandrovka. She was detained by revolutionary police officers, who found out the details of the expropriation of a million rubles from Badovsky and some other robberies committed by the anarchist. However, Marusya did not stay in prison for long. Out of respect for her revolutionary merits and in accordance with the demands of the “broad revolutionary public,” Marusya was released.

During the second half of 1917 - early 1918. Marusya took part in the disarmament of military and Cossack units passing through Aleksandrovsk and its environs. At the same time, during this period Nikiforova prefers not to quarrel with the Bolsheviks, who gained the greatest influence in the Alexander Council, and shows herself to be a supporter of the “anarcho-Bolshevik” bloc. On December 25-26, 1917, Marusya, at the head of a detachment of Alexandrov anarchists, participated in assisting the Bolsheviks in seizing power in Kharkov. During this period, Marusya communicated with the Bolsheviks through Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko, who led the activities of Bolshevik formations in Ukraine. It is Antonov-Ovseenko who appoints Marusya as head of the formation of cavalry detachments in Steppe Ukraine, with the issuance of appropriate funds.

However, Marusya decided to use the Bolshevik funds in her own interests, forming the Free Fighting Squad, which was actually controlled only by Marusya herself and acted based on her own interests. Marusya's free fighting squad was a rather remarkable unit. Firstly, it was entirely staffed by volunteers - mainly anarchists, although there were also ordinary “risky guys”, including the “Chernomors” - yesterday’s sailors demobilized from the Black Sea Fleet. Secondly, despite the “partisan” nature of the formation itself, its uniforms and food supplies were at a good level. The detachment was armed with an armored platform and two artillery pieces. Although the squad was initially financed by the Bolsheviks, the squad performed under a black banner with the inscription “Anarchy is the mother of order!”

However, like other similar formations, Marusya’s detachment acted well when it was necessary to carry out expropriations in occupied settlements, but turned out to be weak in the face of regular military formations. The offensive of German and Austro-Hungarian troops forced Marusya to retreat to Odessa. We must pay tribute that the squad of “Black Guards” showed themselves no worse, and in many ways better than the “Red Guards,” bravely covering the retreat.

In 1918, Marusya’s collaboration with the Bolsheviks came to an end. The legendary female commander could not come to terms with the conclusion of the Brest Peace, which convinced her of the betrayal of the ideals and interests of the revolution by the Bolshevik leaders. From the moment the agreement was signed in Brest-Litovsk, the story of the independent path of the Free Fighting Squad of Marusya Nikiforova begins. It should be noted that it was accompanied by numerous expropriations of property both from the “bourgeoisie”, which included any wealthy citizens, and from political organizations. All governing bodies, including the Soviets, were dispersed by Nikiforova’s anarchists. Predatory actions repeatedly became the cause of conflicts between Marusya and the Bolsheviks and even with that part of the anarchist leaders who continued to support the Bolsheviks, in particular with the detachment of Grigory Kotovsky.

On January 28, 1918, the Free Fighting Squad entered Elisavetgrad. First of all, Marusya shot the head of the local military registration and enlistment office, imposed indemnities on shops and enterprises, and organized the distribution of goods and products confiscated from shops to the population. However, the average person should not have rejoiced at this unheard-of generosity - the Marusya fighters, as soon as the supplies of food and goods in the stores ran out, switched to ordinary people. The Bolshevik Revolutionary Committee operating in Elisavetgrad nevertheless found the courage to stand up for the population of the city and influence Marusya, forcing her to withdraw her formations outside the populated area.

However, a month later the Free Fighting Squad again arrived in Elisavetgrad. By this time, the detachment consisted of at least 250 people, 2 artillery pieces and 5 armored vehicles. The situation in January repeated itself: expropriation of property followed, not only from the real bourgeoisie, but also from ordinary townspeople. The patience of the latter, meanwhile, was running out. The point was the robbery of the cashier of the Elvorti plant, which employed five thousand people. Outraged workers rose up in rebellion against Marusya's anarchist detachment and pushed it back to the station. Marusya herself, who initially tried to calm the workers by appearing at their meeting, was wounded. Having retreated to the steppe, Marusya’s detachment began to shoot the townspeople from artillery guns.

Under the guise of the struggle against Marusya and her detachment, the Mensheviks were able to take political leadership in Elisavetgrad. The Bolshevik detachment of Alexander Belenkevich was driven out of the city, after which detachments from among the mobilized townspeople went in search of Marusya. An important role in the “anti-anarchist” uprising was played by former tsarist officers who took leadership of the militia formations. In turn, the Kamensky Red Guard detachment arrived to help Marusya, who also entered into battle with the city militia. Despite the superior forces of the Elisavetgrad residents, the outcome of the war that lasted several days between the anarchists and the Red Guards who joined them, and the front of the townspeople, was decided by the armored train “Freedom or Death,” which arrived from Odessa under the command of sailor Polupanov. Elisavetgrad again found itself in the hands of the Bolsheviks and anarchists.

However, Marusya’s troops left the city after a short time. The next place of activity of the Free Fighting Squad was the Crimea, where Marusya also managed to commit a number of expropriations and come into conflict with the detachment of the Bolshevik Ivan Matveev. Then Marusya appears in Melitopol and Aleksandrovka and arrives in Taganrog. Although the Bolsheviks entrusted Marusya with the responsibility of protecting the Azov coast from the Germans and Austro-Hungarians, a detachment of anarchists voluntarily retreated to Taganrog. In response, the Red Guards in Taganrog managed to arrest Marusya. However, this decision was met with indignation by both its vigilantes and other left-wing radical groups. Firstly, the armored train of the anarchist Garin arrived in Taganrog with a detachment from the Bryansk plant of Yekaterinoslav, who supported Marusya. Secondly, Antonov-Ovseenko, who had known her for a long time, also spoke out in defense of Marusya. The revolutionary court acquitted Marusya and released her. From Taganrog, Marusya's detachment retreated to Rostov-on-Don and neighboring Novocherkassk, where retreating Red Guard and anarchist detachments from all over Eastern Ukraine were concentrated at that time. Naturally, in Rostov Marusya was noted for expropriations, demonstrative burning of banknotes and bonds and other similar antics.

Marusya's further path - Essentuki, Voronezh, Bryansk, Saratov - is also marked by endless expropriations, demonstrative distributions of food and captured goods to the people, and growing hostility between the Free Fighting Squad and the Red Guards. In January 1919, Marusya was nevertheless arrested by the Bolsheviks and transported to Moscow to the Butyrka prison. However, the revolutionary court turned out to be extremely merciful to the legendary anarchist. Marusya was given bail to a member of the Central Election Commission, anarcho-communist Apollo Karelin, and her longtime acquaintance Vladimir Antonov-Ovseenko. Thanks to the intervention of these prominent revolutionaries and Marusya’s past merits, her punishment was only deprivation of the right to occupy leadership and command positions for six months. Although the list of acts committed by Marusya led to unconditional execution by the verdict of a military court.

In February 1919, Nikiforova showed up in Gulyai-Polye, at Makhno’s headquarters, where she joined the Makhnovist movement. Makhno, who knew Marusya’s character and her tendency to overly radical actions, did not allow her to be placed in command or staff positions. As a result, the fighting Marusya for two months was engaged in such purely peaceful and humane affairs as the creation of hospitals for the wounded Makhnovists and the sick from among the peasant population, the management of three schools and social support for low-income peasant families.

However, soon, after the ban on Marusya’s activities in governing structures was lifted, she began to form her own cavalry regiment. The real meaning of Marusya’s activity is different. By this time, having become completely disillusioned with the Bolshevik government, Marusya was hatching plans to create an underground terrorist organization that would start an anti-Bolshevik uprising throughout Russia. Her husband, Witold Brzostek, who arrived from Poland, helps her with this. On September 25, 1919, the All-Russian Central Committee of Revolutionary Partisans, as the new structure under the leadership of Kazimir Kovalevich and Maxim Sobolev dubbed itself, blew up the Moscow Committee of the RCP (b). However, the security officers managed to destroy the conspirators. Marusya, having moved to Crimea, died in September 1919 under unclear circumstances.

There are several versions of the death of this amazing woman. V. Belash, a former associate of Makhno, claimed that Marusya was executed by the Whites in Simferopol in August-September 1919. However, more modern sources indicate that the last days of Marusya looked like this. In July 1919, Marusya and her husband Witold Brzostek arrived in Sevastopol, where on July 29 they were identified and captured by White Guard counterintelligence. Despite the war years, counterintelligence officers did not kill Marusya without trial. The investigation lasted for a whole month, revealing the degree of guilt of Maria Nikiforova in the crimes against her. On September 3, 1919, Maria Grigorievna Nikiforova and Witold Stanislav Brzostek were sentenced to death by a military court and shot.

This is how the legendary chieftain of the Ukrainian steppes ended her life. What is difficult to deny to Marusa Nikiforova is personal courage, conviction in the correctness of her actions and a certain “frostbite”. Otherwise, Marusya, like many other Civil field commanders, brought more suffering to ordinary people. Despite the fact that she presented herself as a defender and intercessor of ordinary people, in reality, anarchism in Nikiforova’s understanding came down to permissiveness. Marusya retained that youthful, infantile perception of anarchy as a kingdom of unlimited freedom, which was inherent in her during the years of her participation in the circles of “bezkanaltsev”.

The desire to fight the bourgeoisie, the philistinism, and state institutions resulted in unjustified cruelty and robberies of the civilian population, which actually turned the anarchist detachment of Marusya into a semi-bandit gang. Unlike Makhno, Marusya was unable not only to lead the social and economic life of any region or settlement, but also to create a more or less large army, develop her own program, and even win the sympathy of the population. If Makhno personified rather the constructive potential of ideas about a stateless social structure, then Marusya was the embodiment of the destructive, destructive component of anarchist ideology.
People like Marusya Nikiforova easily find themselves in the fire of battles, on revolutionary barricades and in pogroms of captured cities, but they turn out to be completely unsuited to a peaceful and constructive life. Naturally, there is no place for them even among revolutionaries, as soon as the latter move on to issues of social development. This is what happened with Marusya - in the end, with a certain amount of respect, neither the Bolsheviks, nor even her like-minded person Nestor Makhno, who prudently distanced Marusya from participating in the activities of his headquarters, wanted to have serious business with her.