Encyclopedia of Russian emigration - Ekaterina Dmitrievna Kuskova. Beginning of life and revolutionary activity

Russian political and public figure, publicist and publisher, activist of the revolutionary, liberal and Masonic movements

Biography

Beginning of life and revolutionary activity

Ekaterina Kuskova, née Esipova, was born in 1869 in Ufa into the family of a gymnasium teacher. His father taught literature at a local gymnasium, then served as an excise official, his mother was a simple, illiterate Tatar. Elementary education Kuskova received her education at the Saratov Women's Gymnasium. In 1884, at the age of 15, she was left without parents: her father shot himself, her mother died of tuberculosis. In order to feed herself and her younger sister, Kuskova was forced to take over her mother’s job of managing the almshouse. She was expelled from the gymnasium for missing classes, but in 1885 she successfully completed it, passing the exams as an external student. In the same year, she married school teacher I.P. Yuvenaliev, with whom she had two children. Yuvenaliev was a former participant in populist circles, and he and his wife organized a home university in their apartment, where they taught high school students the natural sciences and read the works of populist writers. In 1889, Yuvenaliev died of tuberculosis, and Kuskova remained a widow.

In 1890, Kuskova moved to Moscow and enrolled in obstetric courses. Here she got involved in student populist circles and was involved in the distribution of illegal literature. In 1891 she returned to Saratov, where she entered paramedic courses. She took part in the fight against the cholera epidemic and witnessed the cholera riot. In Saratov she continued her illegal activities, participated in the populist circle of N. M. Astyrev, and met famous revolutionaries M. A. Nathanson and V. M. Chernov. She took part in the creation of the revolutionary party "People's Law", which was crushed by the police shortly after its founding. For participation in a revolutionary circle, she was prosecuted, served 1 year in prison and was under open police surveillance for 3 years. She entered into a fictitious marriage with the imprisoned “popular rights” student Kuskov, who was on a hunger strike in order to free him from prison. From that time on, she bore the surname Kuskova, under which she became famous.

In 1894 she moved to Nizhny Novgorod, where she met V. G. Korolenko, N. F. Annensky, M. Gorky and her future husband Sergei Prokopovich. Here she moved from populism to the new teachings of Marxism. She was engaged in propaganda among Sormovo workers. In 1895 she married S.N. Prokopovich, and in 1896 she went abroad with him for treatment for tuberculosis. Abroad, she met G.V. Plekhanov and other leaders of Russian Social Democracy, and together with her husband she joined the “Union of Russian Social Democrats Abroad.” She attended lectures on social sciences at the University of Brussels and studied the European trade union movement. She soon discovered ideological differences with Russian Social Democrats.

Social democracy, revisionism and economism

While living abroad, Kuskova and Prokopovich became acquainted with the latest revisionist trends in European social democracy. The peculiarity of these movements, dating back to E. Bernstein, was that they emphasized the economic struggle of the working class to the detriment of the political one. Returning to Russia, Kuskova and Prokopovich began to promote a new understanding of social democracy, which brought them into conflict with Russian Marxists. In 1899, Kuskova wrote a document containing summary her revisionist views. The document, which was not intended for publication, became known in Marxist circles under the name “Credo” (Latin: “Credo”). The name was assigned to it without the knowledge of the author. In the document, Kuskova argued that the struggle of the Social Democrats to create a proletarian party and seize political power has no prospects in Russia. Therefore, the task of Russian Social Democrats should not be to seize power, but to participate in the economic struggle of workers against capitalists and to help other opposition forces in the struggle for political freedoms. This kind of view is called “economism”.

1869-1958), politician. In the late 1880s - early 1890s. joined the populists in the 1890s. Marxist. Participant in the creation of the "Union of Liberation", "Union of Unions". After October 1917 in opposition to the Bolsheviks; one of the leaders of Pomgol. In 1921 she was exiled to the North, in 1922 - abroad.

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Kuskova, Ekaterina Dmitrievna

Genus. 1869, d. 1958. Populist revolutionary, later Marxist. Member of the "Union of Liberation", "Union of Unions". Opponent of the Bolsheviks after they came to power. In 1922 she was deported abroad.

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KUSKOVA (Esipova) Ekaterina Dmitrievna

(1869-1958) Society. and watered. activist Wife of S.N. Prokopovich (since 1895). Since 1891, a participant in populist circles, she was persecuted by the authorities. In 1897 she switched to the position of Marxism, sided with “economism”, and advocated a broad alliance of leftist forces. Since 1905, she has been an active worker in the Liberation Union, but refused to join the Cadets Party. Since 1904 employee. gas. “Our Life”, from 1906 - “Comrade”, from 1908 - “Russian Gazette” and other liberal publications. After the revolution, she lived in Moscow and published gas. "Power of the People", which opposed the Bolsheviks, together with her husband took part in the cooperative movement. In 1921 one of the hands. All-Russian Famine Relief Committee (“Pomgol”). From 1921 she was in exile, in 1922 she was arrested and sent abroad. She played an active role in politics. life of the Russian emigration. She lived in Berlin and Prague, and from 1939 in Geneva. Author of works on current political issues. Topics. Book memoirs "Long Past" (1955).

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Kuskova, Ekaterina Dmitrievna - writer. Born in 1869. She received her education at the highest women's courses in Moscow. In 1890 - 1893, she belonged to Astyrev’s circle in Saratov, whose members later joined the “people’s law” organization. Kuskova even then took a Marxist point of view with a bias towards revisionism. The conviction of the need for political struggle served as a motive for Kuskova to take an active part in the Union of Liberation. She avoided joining the Constitutional Democratic Party, although she was elected (in absentia) as a member of its central committee. Kuskova's literary activity began in the late 80s in Volga newspapers. Abroad, Kuskova wrote brochures: “A Dream on the First of May” and “Strike of Lies”, republished in Russia in 1905. She worked a lot in the newspapers “Our Life”, “Comrade”, “Our Century” and “Our Newspaper”, as well as in the weekly magazine “Without a Title”, in “Byloy”, “ "Contemporary" and "Modern World". Recently, Kuskova has been taking part in “Russian Vedomosti”.

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KUSKOVA Ekaterina Dmitrievna

nee Esipova, after Yuvenaliev’s first husband) (1869, Ufa - 1958, Geneva) - public and political figure, publicist, memoirist. From the family of a literature teacher, then an excise official and an illiterate Tatar woman. At the age of 15, while studying in the last grade of the Saratov girls' gymnasium, she was left without parents (her father shot himself, her mother died of tuberculosis). To ensure the existence of herself and her younger sister, K. took her mother’s place in charge of the almshouse; participated in various self-education circles, formally for missing large number lessons, in fact, for the “outrageous” nature of an essay on the theme of Pushkin’s poem “The Poet and the Mob”, she was expelled from the gymnasium. In 1885 she graduated from high school together with her classmates, passing exams as an external student and receiving a certificate with honors. In the fall of 1885, she married her high school physics teacher I. Yuvenaliev, a former participant in one of the populist circles of the early 1880s. Together with her husband, she organized a “home university”, the students of which were high school students and girls who graduated from high school (about 15 people); besides in-depth study mathematics, physics, chemistry, history, the subjects of reading and debate were the works of populist writers N. Zlatovratsky, G. Uspensky, articles by N. Mikhailovsky, satires by M. Saltykov-Shchedrin and others, materials from the journals “Bulletin of Europe” and “Domestic Notes” " Soon Yuvenaliev died of consumption, and in 1890, K.’s youngest son died of diphtheria.

In the fall of the same year, K. became a student of obstetric courses at an orphanage in Moscow, was a member of the student “self-education” circle, where philosophy was studied (Kant, Hegel, Spencer, etc.), listened to lectures by the historian V. Klyuchevsky at Moscow University, and provided assistance in the distribution of illegal literature published by the populist circle of the writer N. Astyrev. In the summer of 1891 she returned to Saratov, where she participated in meetings of the radical intelligentsia, which formed the core of the People's Law organization, and met M. Nathanson and V. Chernov. According to K.’s memoirs, she made her debut as a publicist in the newspaper “Saratovsky Vestnik” (publications not identified). After completing paramedic courses, she joined the sanitary detachment to combat cholera. K.'s meeting with an angry crowd during the cholera riot, which almost cost her her life, became one of the decisive factors in her political self-determination: for her, the tasks of cultural and political education of the people, their organization, and, consequently, the reformist path of transforming society became preferable.

Soon, for involvement in the circle, Astyreva was exiled to Penza, and from there to Moscow: she spent a month in prison and 3 years under open police surveillance. In the spring of 1894, in order to rescue from prison a member of the People's Law, law student P. Kuskov, who had been on a hunger strike for many days and had reached the point of complete exhaustion, she entered into a fictitious marriage with him; in the summer she was sent to Nizhny Novgorod, where she became closely acquainted with V. Korolenko, N. Annensky and M. Gorky, and conducted propaganda among Sormovo workers. During this period, she switched from the position of populism to the position of Marxism. At the end of 1895, having served her term of exile, she returned to Moscow, became the wife of S. Prokopovach and together with him in February 1896 went abroad to treat worsening tuberculosis and to establish connections with the Liberation of Labor group; became close to Plekhanov, took a course in social sciences at the University of Brussels. In 1897-98 in Berlin, on the recommendation of Plekhanov, K. and Prokopovich joined the local group of the Union of Russian Social Democrats, however, having become more familiar with the program of the Union, they criticized it.

In 1899 she returned to Russia and tried to promote her views among St. Petersburg Social Democrats and workers. In order to acquaint a narrow circle of like-minded people with her position, K. briefly outlined it in writing, and this is how “Credo” appeared, which was not intended for publication; however, A. Ulyanova-Elizarova sent one of the “Credo” lists to V. Lenin in Shushenskoye, who published it, accompanied by sharp criticism.K. believed that Russian conditions required a Marxism different from Western. In Russia, which had not yet experienced its bourgeois revolution, the direct preaching of socialism, according to K., was premature, even harmful, because weakened the energy of the struggle for political liberation, which Russian Social Democrats were supposed to wage together with liberals, while simultaneously helping the proletariat to wage an economic struggle. Particularly outrageous for orthodox Russian Marxists was K.’s opinion that the Russian proletariat did not yet need an independent political party. Branded by representatives of this current of Russian social democracy as “Bernsteinians”, “traitors to the labor movement”, “economists”, K. and her like-minded people organizationally broke with Russian social democracy.

From the beginning of the 1900s, she energetically joined the “liberation” movement, participated in the delivery from abroad and distribution of the magazine “Osvobozhdenie” in Russia. Since the fall of 1904, one of the editors of the legal liberation newspaper “Our Life”. In 1905, among the active organizers and leaders of the Union of Unions. At the founding congress of the Constitutional Democratic Party in October 1905, she was elected to the Central Committee, but due to programmatic and tactical differences she refused to join the party. From January to May 1906 - publisher, one of the editors and permanent contributors to the political weekly "Without a Title", author of the programmatic article "The answer to the question - who are we?" (No. 3), opposed the tactics of boycotting the 1st and 2nd State Dumas, for a bloc of all left forces, including the Cadets. In 1906-7 she collaborated with the newspaper Tovarishch; from 1908 - in the newspaper "Russian Vedomosti". In the post-revolutionary period, together with her husband, she dealt with issues of the cooperative movement and tried to revive the “liberation” movement. In 1911, she participated in negotiations that took place on Gorky’s initiative on the creation of a magazine capable of uniting the broad democratic forces of society. In 1912-14, she collaborated with the Sovremennik magazine and published large articles in it: “What to believe in?” (1912, No. 5), which called on the intelligentsia to help the cultural growth of the people, their organization, which should, according to K, protect them from extremist hobbies, and “Complicating goals” (1913, No. 9), in which they made a call to overcome the split in the working class and social democratic movement, etc.

During the First World War, she took a “defensive” position. At 19-15 she participated in repeated attempts to create a printed organ similar to the closed Sovremennik; according to N. Berdyaev, “E. Kuskova and S. Prokopovich were at the center” of closed public meetings that took place in Moscow before February 1917. According to some data from K.

was a member of the women's Masonic lodge and in 1916, Masons gathered at her Moscow apartment (at one of these meetings in April 1916, the composition of the future Provisional Government was outlined). In 1917 K.

supported the Provisional Government; in August, at the Democratic Conference in Moscow, representatives of the cooperation K. were elected to the so-called.

The Pre-Parliament, at whose meetings it stated that carrying out social revolutionary transformations “in all their scope during war is a crime,” called for the defense of the state. After October revolution lived in Moscow, published the newspaper “Power of the People,” which was one of the centers of opposition to the Bolsheviks. During the Civil War, she stood on the platform of the “third force”, opposing the dictatorship of both the Bolsheviks and the Whites. She was a member of the leadership of the Children's Rescue League, created on the initiative of V. Korolenko, and a member of the Council of the Political Red Cross.

In 1921, one of the organizers and leaders of the Famine Relief Committee. For attempting to establish contact with foreign countries, the Committee was dispersed, K., Prokopovich and N. Kishkin were arrested and sentenced to death, from which they were saved by the intercession of G. Hoover and F. Nansen.K. and Prokopovich, sent into exile in the North, were taken to Moscow in 1922 and deported abroad. Initially she lived in Berlin, was elected chairman of the Political Red Cross, then moved to Prague. In 1939, after the occupation of Czechoslovakia by German troops, she moved to Geneva, where she lived the rest of her life. She collaborated in the newspapers “Last News”, “Days”, “Novoe Slovo” and others, as well as in the magazines “Modern Notes”, “Will of Russia”, “New Journal”, played an active role in the political life of the emigration, her apartment in Prague was a “political salon”, together with P. Miliukov she negotiated the creation of the so-called.

Republican-Democratic Center. Oral and written presentations by K. on issues of emigration tactics in relation to Soviet Russia were the subject of heated discussions, In 1922-26 she sharply criticized plans for new military campaigns against Soviet Russia, called for “filling up the ditch of the civil war”, believed that under the conditions of NEP in Russia it was possible to act without renouncing one’s views and without adapting to the Bolshevik regime, and therefore efforts should be aimed at finding a peaceful but dignified way of returning to their homeland. K.’s position did not find support from the overwhelming majority of political figures close to her. Milyukov, N. Avksentyev, A. Kerensky, M. Aldanov spoke out against it. The establishment of Stalin's regime of personal power, violent forms of collectivization and industrialization, revelry political repression forced K.

abandon hopes for the democratic transformation of Bolshevism, for the possibility of reconciliation with it. During the Great Patriotic War K.'s sympathies were unconditionally on the side of Russia, and the heroism of the Russian people and their victory over fascism was again revived in K.

former hopes for the possibility of returning to Russia.

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Kuskova Ekaterina Dmitrievna

(nee Esipova, after Yuvenaliev’s first husband) (1869, Ufa 1958, Geneva) public and political figure, publicist, memoirist. From the family of a literature teacher, then an excise official and an illiterate Tatar woman. At the age of 15, while studying in the last grade of the Saratov girls' gymnasium, she was left without parents (her father shot himself, her mother died of tuberculosis). To ensure the existence of herself and her younger sister, K. took her mother’s place in charge of the almshouse; participated in various self-education circles, formally for missing a large number of lessons, in reality, for the “outrageous” nature of an essay on the theme of Pushkin’s poem “The Poet and the Mob”, she was expelled from the gymnasium. In 1885 she graduated from high school together with her classmates, passing exams as an external student and receiving a certificate with honors. In the fall of 1885, she married her high school physics teacher I. Yuvenaliev, a former participant in one of the populist circles of the early 1880s. Together with her husband, she organized a “home university”, the students of which were high school students and girls who graduated from high school (about 15 people); in addition to the in-depth study of mathematics, physics, chemistry, history, the subjects of reading and debate were the works of populist writers N. Zlatovratsky, G. Uspensky, articles by N. Mikhailovsky, satires by M. Saltykov-Shchedrin and others, materials from the journals “Bulletin of Europe” and "Domestic Notes". Soon Yuvenaliev died of consumption, and in 1890, K.’s youngest son died of diphtheria.

From the beginning of the 1900s, she energetically joined the “liberation” movement, participated in the delivery from abroad and distribution of the magazine “Osvobozhdenie” in Russia. Since the fall of 1904, one of the editors of the legal liberation newspaper “Our Life”. In 1905, among the active organizers and leaders of the Union of Unions. At the founding congress of the Constitutional Democratic Party in October 1905, she was elected to the Central Committee, but due to programmatic and tactical differences she refused to join the party. From January to May 1906, publisher, one of the editors and permanent contributors to the political weekly “Without a Title,” author of the programmatic article “The Answer to the Question Who Are We?” (No. 3), opposed the tactics of boycotting the 1st and 2nd State Dumas, for a bloc of all left forces, including the Cadets. In 1906-7 she collaborated with the newspaper Tovarishch; since 1908 in the newspaper “Russian Vedomosti”. In the post-revolutionary period, together with her husband, she dealt with issues of the cooperative movement and tried to revive the “liberation” movement. In 1911, she participated in negotiations that took place on Gorky’s initiative on the creation of a magazine capable of uniting the broad democratic forces of society. In 1912-14, she collaborated with the Sovremennik magazine and published large articles in it: “What to believe in?” (1912, No. 5), which called on the intelligentsia to help the cultural growth of the people, their organization, which should, according to K, protect them from extremist hobbies, and “Complicating goals” (1913, No. 9), in which they made a call to overcome the split in the working class and social democratic movement, etc.

supported the Provisional Government; in August, at the Democratic Conference in Moscow, representatives of the cooperation K. were elected to the so-called.

The Pre-Parliament, at whose meetings it stated that carrying out social revolutionary transformations “in all their scope during war is a crime,” called for the defense of the state. After the October Revolution, she lived in Moscow and published the newspaper “Power of the People,” which was one of the centers of opposition to the Bolsheviks. During the Civil War, she stood on the platform of the “third force”, opposing the dictatorship of both the Bolsheviks and the Whites. She was a member of the leadership of the Children's Rescue League, created on the initiative of V. Korolenko, and a member of the Council of the Political Red Cross.

Republican-Democratic Center. K.’s oral and written speeches on issues of emigration tactics in relation to Soviet Russia were the subject of heated discussions. In 1922-26 she sharply criticized plans for new military campaigns against Soviet Russia, called for “filling up the ditch of the civil war,” and believed that under the conditions of NEP in Russia You can act without renouncing your views and without adapting to the Bolshevik regime, and therefore efforts should be aimed at finding a peaceful but dignified way to return to your homeland. K.’s position did not find support from the overwhelming majority of political figures close to her. Milyukov, N. Avksentyev, A. Kerensky, M. Aldanov spoke out against it. The establishment of Stalin's regime of personal power, violent forms of collectivization and industrialization, and rampant political repression forced K.

abandon hopes for the democratic transformation of Bolshevism, for the possibility of reconciliation with it. During the Great Patriotic War, K.'s sympathies were unconditionally on the side of Russia, and the heroism of the Russian people and their victory over fascism was again revived in K.

former hopes for the possibility of returning to Russia.

She took part in the creation of the revolutionary party "People's Law", which was crushed by the police shortly after its founding. For participation in a revolutionary circle, she was prosecuted, served 1 year in prison and was under open police surveillance for 3 years. She entered into a fictitious marriage with the imprisoned “popular rights” student Kuskov, who was on a hunger strike in order to free him from prison. From that time on she bore the surname Kuskova, under which it became famous.

Kuskov's "Credo" provoked a sharp reaction from orthodox Marxists. On the initiative of A.I. Ulyanova-Elizarova, “Credo” was sent to Minusinsk exile, where her brother V.I. Ulyanov-Lenin was serving his sentence. Having familiarized himself with the document, Lenin saw in it a mortal danger for Russian Social Democracy and immediately began writing a refutation of it. The article written by Lenin was entitled "Protest of Russian Social Democrats". Under it were collected signatures of exiled Marxists from the Minusinsk and Turukhansk regions; in this form it was sent abroad and published in the Marxist press. In the article, Lenin argued that the ideas set out in the “Credo” threaten to “seduce Russian Social Democracy from the path it has already charted - the formation of an independent political workers’ party.” “The proletariat must strive to found independent political workers’ parties, the main goal of which must be the seizure of political power,” Lenin argued.

Lenin's protest was also supported by the leaders of Russian Social Democrats abroad, led by G. V. Plekhanov. On Plekhanov’s initiative, Kuskova and Prokopovich were expelled from the “Union of Russian Social Democrats Abroad”, and their views were condemned. Having parted ways with the Social Democrats, Kuskova and Prokopovich did not join another, populist movement in the Russian revolutionary movement. Subsequently, Kuskova argued that her and Prokopovich’s break with the party revolutionaries was due not so much to political as to moral disagreements. In a letter to V.L. Burtsev, she wrote: “We were both in love with culture, with knowledge, with the honesty of knowledge, with morality and with other nonsense, from the present point of view. And from this height of culture on which we imagined ourselves, the revolutionary environment was deeply disgusting to both of us. Lies, provocation, the end justifies the means - and oases (only oases) of real heroism... We jumped out of there as if scalded.”

"Union of Liberation" and the beginning of the First Russian Revolution

Having broken relations with the revolutionary parties, Kuskova and Prokopovich in the early 1900s joined the liberal movement and took part in the creation of the illegal organization “Union of Liberation”. The decision to create the organization was made in 1903 at a congress in Schaffhausen, in which about 20 people participated, including Kuskova and Prokopovich. The liberal “Union of Liberation” set as its main and, in fact, the only goal the conquest of political freedom in Russia, which allowed it to unite people of different political convictions. Having entered the Liberation Union, Kuskova and Prokopovich took a prominent position in it and took an active part in its activities. “Here,” Kuskova recalled, “it was possible to do ‘revolutionary work’ without fear of selling your soul to the devil, that is, getting dirty with some kind of dirt from the ‘party dictatorship’. This was the only bright spot in our political career." In January 1904, at the congress of the Liberation Union, Kuskova and Prokopovich were elected to its governing council.

In terms of its composition, the Liberation Union was divided into two wings: right and left. The right included liberal representatives of zemstvos, and the left consisted mainly of people from among the Social Democrats, who broke with orthodox Marxism and went through various shapes revisionism. This wing included many famous thinkers and public figures: P. B. Struve, N. A. Berdyaev, S. N. Bulgakov, S. L. Frank, B. A. Kistyakovsky, V. Ya. Yakovlev-Bogucharsky and others . Kuskova and Prokopovich joined this left wing. The left wing had a particularly strong influence in St. Petersburg. Here, representatives of the Liberation Union managed to attract wide sections of the intelligentsia into their ranks. They managed to subordinate to their influence such public organizations as the Free Economic Society, the Technical Society and others. While working for the Liberation Union, Kuskova was involved in the distribution of illegal literature, in particular, the magazine “Osvobozhdenie”, published by Struve. In the fall of 1904, against the backdrop of failures in the Russo-Japanese War, a zemstvo petition campaign began in the country on the initiative of the Liberation Union. Zemstvos and other public organizations turned to the tsar with demands for the introduction of a constitution and popular representation.

In an effort to expand their influence, the St. Petersburg “Osvobozhdeniye” began to attempt agitation among the common people. For the purpose of agitation among the broad masses, in the autumn of 1904 they began publishing cheap newspapers “Our Life” and “Our Days”. Kuskova was chosen as the editor of the newspaper “Our Life”. The newspaper popularized the ideas of popular representation and political freedom, and associated the economic situation of workers with their political lack of rights. To penetrate work environment, in November 1904, Kuskova, Prokopovich and Bogucharsky met with the leader of the legal organization “Meeting of Russian Factory Workers of St. Petersburg” priest Georgy Gapon. At the meeting, they invited him and the workers to take part in the zemstvo petition campaign. Gapon enthusiastically seized on this idea and promised to use all his influence on the workers to carry it through in the workers’ “Assembly”. By agreement with Gapon, the newspapers “Our Life” and “Our Days” began to be distributed in the “Sobranie” departments. The workers read them, and the leaders of the “Assembly” gave them the necessary interpretation, which led to the rapid politicization of the working population of St. Petersburg. On January 9, 1905, more than 200,000 St. Petersburg workers, led by priest Gapon, marched to the Winter Palace demanding political freedoms and popular representation. The shooting of this procession by the tsarist troops marked the beginning of the First Russian Revolution of 1905-1907.

Manifesto of October 17 and the group “Without a title”

During the Revolution of 1905-1907, Kuskova actively worked in the liberation movement. She continued to edit the newspaper “Our Life,” which campaigned in favor of political freedom. She participated in the congresses of the Liberation Union and advocated a united front of all forces opposing the autocracy.

The group “Without a Title” did not gain much political influence and remained a marginal movement in Russian political life. After the onset of the Stolypin reaction, the magazine “Without a Title” was closed, and the group ceased to exist. After the closure of the magazine, Kuskova continued her journalistic activities in other publications. She collaborated in the newspaper "Comrade" (1906-1907), "Russian Vedomosti" (1908), the magazine "Our Contemporary" (1912-1914), etc. She participated in the struggle for women's equality, as well as in the cooperative movement. She outlined the goals and ideals of the cooperative movement in her work “Dream on the First of May (fairy tale-truth).”

Participation in Masonic activities

After the defeat of the Revolution of 1905-1907, Kuskova and her like-minded people began to look for new forms of struggle for the political liberation of Russia. One of these forms was chosen, according to Kuskova, Freemasonry, its politicized part, which moved away from the traditional forms of Masonic work. Freemasonry existed in Russia since the 18th century and was a convenient form secret organization to unite people who set common goals. In 1910, there was a shift towards politics in liberal Russian Freemasonry. In 1912, at the founding convention, a special organization was created - “Great East of the Peoples of Russia”, which set itself purely political goals. Kuskova herself in 1955, in a letter to N. Volsky (Valentinov), reported the following about this movement:

The movement began shortly after the collapse of the Revolution of 1905-1907 and the subsequent political repressions;
The movement had no connection with foreign Freemasonry; there were no rituals and no mysticism in it;
The goal of the Masonic movement was purely political - to revive the Liberation Union in a new form and work underground for the liberation of Russia;
The Masonic form of the movement was chosen in order to involve representatives of the upper classes and ruling circles;
Initiation into Freemasonry consisted of only one oath, obliging one to maintain complete and absolute silence.

According to Kuskova herself, none of the participants in the movement ever violated this oath. Research by the historian G. M. Katkov confirms that practically nothing was known to the Police Department about the political Masonic movement: no documents about it were found in the archives of this department. There were no informant agents in the Masonic movement. The General Secretary of the VVnR A.F. Kerensky, who after the February Revolution had access to the royal archives, insisted on this.

According to Kuskova’s memoirs, the participants in the movement included a large number of famous political and public figures, scientists, representatives of the upper classes, and the military class. “We had our own people everywhere,” Kuskova recalled. “Societies such as Free Economic and Technical were captured entirely... February Revolution all of Russia was covered with lodges.” In fact, the number of members of VVnR did not exceed 400 people at the time of the maximum prosperity of this organization. According to Kuskova’s recollections, meetings took place in her apartment at which plans for the political liberation of Russia were developed. At one of these meetings in April 1916, the future composition of the Provisional Government was outlined. According to various testimonies, at least five members of the first composition of the Provisional Government were Freemasons. P. N. Milyukov, who was not a Freemason, recalled that several members of the government were bound by some kind of secret obligations emanating from the same source. Subsequently, in the context of the party struggle for power, VVnR presumably disintegrated due to internal inter-party contradictions. There is also a version, reflected in the works of historians A.I. Serkov and S. Karpachev, that VVnR ceased its activities after the October Revolution, as it was focused on political goals, which collapsed with the overthrow of the Provisional Government and its head, Kerensky.

February Revolution and Bolshevik victory

Kuskova criticized no less sharply the cadets, who, in search of a counterbalance to the Bolsheviks, relied on General L. G. Kornilov. Being an opponent of any dictatorship, Kuskova believed that “Kornilovism is opposed to democracy.” After the split of political forces caused by the Kornilov rebellion, Kuskova remained one of last defenders Provisional Government. In July 1917, Kuskova's husband S.N. Prokopovich became one of the last ministers of the Kerensky government. Kuskova herself in September 1917 at the Democratic Conference was elected as a delegate from the cooperators to the Provisional Council of the Russian Republic (Pre-Parliament). Speaking at a meeting of the Pre-Parliament, she called for unity to defend the country from an external enemy. During the October Revolution, she actively helped the defenders of the Provisional Government, besieged in the Winter Palace. After the Bolshevik victory, she continued to publish the newspapers “Power of the People” and “Right of the People”, which were in irreconcilable opposition to the new government. In 1918, the newspapers were closed by the Bolsheviks.

Bolshevik power and expulsion from Russia

After the Bolsheviks came to power, Kuskova and Prokopovich did not want to emigrate and decided to stay in Russia. In the ensuing Civil War, they did not join any of the fighting sides. They opposed both the red and white dictatorships equally. According to Kuskova, the restoration aspirations of the participants in the White movement were as alien to them as the extremes of Bolshevism. They remained to live in Bolshevik Russia, “without bending their heads, every minute risking losing these heads.” They openly condemned the behavior of the Bolsheviks during meetings with high-ranking Soviet officials.

Under Soviet rule, attempts to engage in social activities continued. In the fall of 1918, on the initiative of V. G. Korolenko, Kuskova and a number of other public figures organized the “Children’s Rescue League,” which was engaged in the construction of shelters and colonies for street children. The leadership of the “League” included E. D. Kuskova, N. M. Kishkin, E. P. Peshkova and other famous people. The Children's Rescue League was a legal organization approved by the Council of People's Commissars. The League had over 18 colonies, 11 kindergartens, a sanatorium, children's clubs and vegetable gardens. Children were taken straight from the street. Over the 2.5 years of its existence, the League helped 3.5 thousand orphans. In 1920, the League petitioned the Soviet government to allow it to receive aid for starving children from abroad. However, the Bolsheviks saw a political catch in this proposal. Kuskova and Kishkin were prohibited from traveling abroad, and by the beginning of 1921, all League orphanages were transferred to the government. As one Soviet official stated, “We cannot allow the Kishkins and Kuskovs to raise proletarian children, even street children.”

The Famine Relief Committee did not last long. Already in August, Lenin heard rumors that at one of the committee meetings Prokopovich made “anti-government speeches.” Lenin immediately wrote a letter to J.V. Stalin, in which he instructed the Politburo to dissolve the committee and arrest its leaders. Lenin saw in the actions of the committee an open preparation of a conspiracy against Soviet power. Kuskov, Kishkin and others were ordered to be expelled from Moscow, and Prokopovich to be kept in prison for three months until all the circumstances of the case were clarified. At the same time, Lenin ordered to organize newspaper persecution against the members of the committee: “We will give a directive to the newspapers: tomorrow they will begin to ridicule the “Kukish” in hundreds of ways... Make fun of them and persecute them with all your might at least once a week for two months.” As a result of the decision of the Cheka in November 1921, Kuskova and Prokopovich were administratively expelled to the Vologda region, and then lived in other northern regions of Russia. IN next year they were returned to Moscow again, and in June 1922 they were sent abroad.

Life and work in exile

After being expelled from Russia, Kuskova and Prokopovich settled in Berlin. They continued to be involved in social activities and journalism. In Berlin, Kukova was elected chairman of the Berlin Committee for Assistance to Prisoners and Exiles in Russia (Political Red Cross). This organization was engaged in organizing assistance to Russian political prisoners. In Moscow, a similar organization was headed by Kuskova’s acquaintances E.P. Peshkova and M.L. Vinaver, with whom she maintained active correspondence. In 1924, Kuskova moved to Prague, where she collaborated in various newspapers: “Last News”, “Days”, “New Word” and in the magazines “Modern Notes”, “Will of Russia”, “New Journal”, etc.

After the occupation of Czechoslovakia by Hitler in 1939, Kuskova and Prokopovich moved to Geneva, where they lived until the end of their lives. Kuskova continued to engage in journalistic activities, collaborated in the newspaper “Novoe Russian word”, in “New Journal” and other publications. During World War II, she took the side of the Soviet Union, hoping that after the victory over fascism it would be possible to return to Russia. These illusions were also not destined to come true. Kuskova lived in exile for more than 35 years, fully believing in the possibility of returning to Russia, but she never received this opportunity. In 1955, Sergei Prokopovich died, and Kuskova herself died in Geneva on December 22, 1958.

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Literature

“Our dispute with you will be decided by life”: Letters from M. L. Vinaver and E. P. Peshkova to E. D. Kuskova. 1923-1936. Comp., preface. and comment. L. A. Dolzhanskaya. - M.: Bratonezh, 2009. - ISBN 978-5-7873-0421-3
E. D. Kuskova “The Month of Compromise: Memoirs”). Fragments from letters from E. D. Kuskova to M. A. Begman and N. A. Rubakin // O. L. Voronin “Silhouettes of East and West”, Irkutsk, 2006.

Notes

“Our dispute with you will be decided by life”: Letters from M. L. Vinaver and E. P. Peshkova to E. D. Kuskova. 1923-1936. Comp. L. A. Dolzhanskaya. M., “Bratonezh”, 2009.
V. I. Lenin. Protest of Russian Social Democrats / Complete Works. M., 1967, volume 4.
R. Pipes. Struve. Biography. Volume 1. Struve: left liberal. 1870-1905. M., 2001
A. V. Tyrkova-Williams. On the path to freedom. M., 2007
I. P. Belokonsky. Zemstvo movement. M., “Zadruga”, 1914
S. I. Potolov. Georgy Gapon and the liberals (new documents) / Russia in the 19th-20th centuries. Digest of articles. St. Petersburg, 1998
L. Ya. Gurevich. Popular movement in St. Petersburg on January 9, 1905 / Bygone, 1906, No. 1.
No title. Political weekly. Published by E. D. Kuskova. 1906, no. 1.
E. D. Kuskova. The answer to the question - who are we? / Without title. Political weekly. 1906, no. 3.
G. M. Katkov. February revolution. Paris, YMCA-Press; M., Russian way, 1997

Excerpt characterizing Kuskova, Ekaterina Dmitrievna

- Sire! - he said. - Votre Majeste signe dans ce moment la gloire de la nation et le salut de l "Europe! [Sovereign! Your Majesty signs at this moment the glory of the people and the salvation of Europe!]
The Emperor bowed his head and released Michaud.

While Russia was half conquered, and the inhabitants of Moscow fled to distant provinces, and militia after militia rose to defend the fatherland, it involuntarily seems to us, who did not live at that time, that all Russian people, young and old, were busy only with to sacrifice oneself, save the fatherland or cry over its destruction. Stories and descriptions of that time, without exception, speak only of self-sacrifice, love of the fatherland, despair, grief and heroism of the Russians. In reality this was not the case. It seems to us that this is so only because we see from the past one common historical interest of that time and do not see all those personal, human interests that the people of that time had. Meanwhile, in reality, those personal interests of the present are so much more significant than general interests that because of them the general interest is never felt (not even noticeable at all). Most people of that time did not pay any attention to the general course of affairs, but were guided only by the personal interests of the present. And these people were the most useful figures of that time.
Those who tried to understand the general course of affairs and wanted to participate in it with self-sacrifice and heroism were the most useless members of society; they saw everything inside out, and everything they did for the benefit turned out to be useless nonsense, like the regiments of Pierre, Mamonov, plundering Russian villages, like lint plucked by the ladies and never reaching the wounded, etc. Even those who, loving to be clever and express their feelings, they talked about the present situation in Russia, involuntarily bearing in their speeches the imprint of either pretense and lies, or useless condemnation and anger at people accused of something for which no one could be guilty. In historical events, the most obvious is the prohibition of eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Only one unconscious activity bears fruit, and the person who plays a role in historical event, never understands its meaning. If he tries to understand it, he is struck by its futility.
The significance of the event that was taking place in Russia at that time was all the more unnoticeable, the closer human participation was in it. In St. Petersburg and provincial cities distant from Moscow, ladies and men in militia uniforms mourned Russia and the capital and talked about self-sacrifice, etc.; but in the army that was retreating beyond Moscow, they hardly spoke or thought about Moscow, and, looking at its conflagration, no one swore revenge on the French, but thought about the next third of their salary, about the next stop, about Matryoshka the sutler and the like...
Nikolai Rostov, without any goal of self-sacrifice, but by chance, since the war found him in the service, took a close and long-term part in the defense of the fatherland and therefore, without despair and gloomy conclusions, looked at what was happening in Russia at that time. If they had asked him what he thought about the current situation in Russia, he would have said that he had nothing to think about, that Kutuzov and others were there for that, and that he had heard that the regiments were being recruited, and that they would probably fight for a long time , and that under the current circumstances it would not be surprising for him to receive a regiment in two years.
Because he looked at the matter this way, he not only accepted the news of his appointment on a business trip for repairs for the division in Voronezh without regret that he would be deprived of participation in the last struggle, but also with the greatest pleasure, which he did not hide and which his comrades understood very well.
A few days before the Battle of Borodino, Nikolai received money and papers and, sending the hussars ahead, went to Voronezh by mail.
Only those who have experienced this, that is, have spent several months without ceasing in the atmosphere of military, combat life, can understand the pleasure that Nicholas experienced when he got out of the area that the troops reached with their forages, supplies, and hospitals; when he, without soldiers, wagons, dirty traces of the presence of the camp, saw villages with men and women, landowners' houses, fields with grazing cattle, station houses with fallen asleep caretakers. He felt such joy as if he had seen it all for the first time. In particular, what surprised and pleased him for a long time were women, young, healthy, each of whom had less than a dozen officers looking after her, and women who were glad and flattered that a passing officer was joking with them.
In the most cheerful mood, Nikolai arrived at the hotel in Voronezh at night, ordered himself everything that he had been deprived of for a long time in the army, and the next day, having shaved clean and putting on a dress uniform that had not been worn for a long time, he went to report to his superiors.
The head of the militia was a civil general, an old man, who apparently was amused by his military rank and rank. He angrily (thinking that this was a military quality) received Nicholas and significantly, as if having the right to do so and as if discussing the general course of the matter, approving and disapproving, questioned him. Nikolai was so cheerful that it was just funny to him.
From the chief of the militia he went to the governor. The governor was a small, lively man, very affectionate and simple. He pointed out to Nikolai those factories where he could get horses, recommended to him a horse dealer in the city and a landowner twenty miles from the city who had the best horses, and promised all assistance.
– Are you Count Ilya Andreevich’s son? My wife was very friendly with your mother. On Thursdays they gather at my place; “Today is Thursday, you are welcome to come to me easily,” said the governor, dismissing him.
Directly from the governor, Nikolai took the saddlebag and, taking the sergeant with him, rode twenty miles to the landowner’s factory. Everything during this first time of his stay in Voronezh was fun and easy for Nikolai, and everything, as happens when a person is well disposed, everything went well and went smoothly.
The landowner to whom Nikolai came was an old bachelor cavalryman, a horse expert, a hunter, the owner of a carpet, a hundred-year-old casserole, an old Hungarian and wonderful horses.
Nikolai, in two words, bought for six thousand and seventeen stallions for selection (as he said) for the horse-drawn end of his renovation. Having had lunch and drunk a little extra Hungarian, Rostov, having kissed the landowner, with whom he had already gotten on first name terms, along the disgusting road, in the most cheerful mood, galloped back, constantly chasing the coachman, in order to be in time for the evening with the governor.
Having changed clothes, perfumed himself and doused his head with cold milk, Nikolai, although somewhat late, but with a ready-made phrase: vaut mieux tard que jamais, [better late than never] came to the governor.
It was not a ball, and it was not said that there would be dancing; but everyone knew that Katerina Petrovna would play waltzes and ecosaises on the clavichord and that they would dance, and everyone, counting on this, gathered at the ballroom.
Provincial life in 1812 was exactly the same as always, with the only difference that the city was livelier on the occasion of the arrival of many wealthy families from Moscow and that, as in everything that happened at that time in Russia, it was noticeable some kind of special sweepingness - the sea is knee-deep, the grass is dry in life, and even in the fact that that vulgar conversation that is necessary between people and which was previously conducted about the weather and about mutual acquaintances, was now conducted about Moscow, about the army and Napoleon.
The society gathered from the governor was the best society in Voronezh.
There were a lot of ladies, there were several of Nikolai’s Moscow acquaintances; but there were no men who could in any way compete with Knight of St. George, a hussar repairman and at the same time a good-natured and well-mannered Count Rostov. Among the men was one captured Italian - an officer of the French army, and Nikolai felt that the presence of this prisoner further elevated the importance of him - the Russian hero. It was like a trophy. Nikolai felt this, and it seemed to him that everyone was looking at the Italian in the same way, and Nikolai treated this officer with dignity and restraint.
As soon as Nicholas entered in his hussar uniform, spreading the smell of perfume and wine around him, he himself said and heard the words spoken to him several times: vaut mieux tard que jamais, they surrounded him; all eyes turned to him, and he immediately felt that he had entered into the position of everyone’s favorite that was due to him in the province and was always pleasant, but now, after a long deprivation, the position of everyone’s favorite intoxicated him with pleasure. Not only at stations, inns and in the landowner’s carpet were there maidservants who were flattered by his attention; but here, at the governor’s evening, there was (as it seemed to Nikolai) an inexhaustible number of young ladies and pretty girls who were impatiently waiting for Nikolai to pay attention to them. Ladies and girls flirted with him, and from the first day the old women were already busy trying to get this young rake of a hussar to marry and settle down. Among these latter was the governor’s wife herself, who accepted Rostov as a close relative and called him “Nicolas” and “you.”
Katerina Petrovna really began to play waltzes and ecosaises, and dances began, in which Nikolai even more captivated the entire provincial society with his dexterity. He surprised even everyone with his special, cheeky style of dancing. Nikolai himself was somewhat surprised by his manner of dancing that evening. He had never danced like that in Moscow and would even have considered such an overly cheeky manner of dancing indecent and mauvais genre [bad taste]; but here he felt the need to surprise them all with something unusual, something that they should have accepted as ordinary in the capitals, but still unknown to them in the provinces.
Throughout the evening, Nikolai paid most of his attention to the blue-eyed, plump and pretty blonde, the wife of one of the provincial officials. With that naive conviction of cheerful young people that other people's wives were created for them, Rostov did not leave this lady and treated her husband in a friendly, somewhat conspiratorial manner, as if, although they did not say it, they knew how nicely they would get together - then there is Nikolai and this husband’s wife. The husband, however, did not seem to share this conviction and tried to treat Rostov gloomily. But Nikolai’s good-natured naivety was so boundless that sometimes the husband involuntarily succumbed to Nikolai’s cheerful mood of spirit. Towards the end of the evening, however, as the wife's face became more ruddy and livelier, her husband's face became sadder and paler, as if the share of animation was the same in both, and as it increased in the wife, it decreased in the husband .

Nikolai, with a never-ending smile on his face, sat slightly bent in his chair, leaning close over the blonde and telling her mythological compliments.
Briskly changing the position of his legs in tight leggings, spreading the smell of perfume from himself and admiring both his lady and himself, and the beautiful shapes of his legs under the tight kichkirs, Nikolai told the blonde that he wanted to kidnap a lady here in Voronezh.
- Which one?
- Lovely, divine. Her eyes (Nikolai looked at his interlocutor) are blue, her mouth is coral, whiteness... - he looked at her shoulders, - the figure - of Diana...
The husband approached them and gloomily asked his wife what she was talking about.
- A! Nikita Ivanovich,” said Nikolai, standing up politely. And, as if wanting Nikita Ivanovich to take part in his jokes, he began to tell him his intention to kidnap a certain blonde.
The husband smiled gloomily, the wife cheerfully. The good governor's wife approached them with a disapproving look.
“Anna Ignatievna wants to see you, Nicolas,” she said, pronouncing the words in such a voice: Anna Ignatievna, that it now became clear to Rostov that Anna Ignatievna is a very important lady. - Let's go, Nicholas. After all, you allowed me to call you that?
- Oh yes, ma tante. Who is this?
– Anna Ignatievna Malvintseva. She heard about you from her niece, how you saved her... Can you guess?..
– You never know I saved them there! - said Nikolai.
- Her niece, Princess Bolkonskaya. She is here in Voronezh with her aunt. Wow! how he blushed! What, or?..
– I didn’t even think about it, ma tante.
- Well, okay, okay. ABOUT! what are you!
The governor's wife led him to a tall and very fat old woman in a blue cape, who had just finished her card game with the most important persons in the city. This was Malvintseva, Princess Marya's maternal aunt, a rich childless widow who always lived in Voronezh. She stood paying for the cards when Rostov approached her. She narrowed her eyes sternly and importantly, looked at him and continued to scold the general who had won against her.
“I’m very glad, my dear,” she said, holding out her hand to him. - You are welcome to me.
After talking about Princess Marya and her late father, whom Malvintseva apparently did not love, and asking about what Nikolai knew about Prince Andrei, who also apparently did not enjoy her favors, the important old woman let him go, repeating the invitation to be with her.
Nikolai promised and blushed again when he bowed to Malvintseva. At the mention of Princess Marya, Rostov experienced an incomprehensible feeling of shyness, even fear.
Leaving Malvintseva, Rostov wanted to return to dancing, but the little governor’s wife put her plump hand on Nikolai’s sleeve and, saying that she needed to talk to him, led him to the sofa, from which those who were there came out immediately, so as not to disturb the governor’s wife.
“You know, mon cher,” said the governor’s wife with a serious expression on her kind little face, “this is definitely the match for you; Do you want me to marry you?
- Who, ma tante? – Nikolai asked.
- I'm wooing the princess. Katerina Petrovna says that Lily, but in my opinion, no, is a princess. Want? I'm sure your maman will thank you. Really, what a lovely girl! And she's not that bad at all.
“Not at all,” Nikolai said, as if offended. “I, ma tante, as a soldier should, do not ask for anything and do not refuse anything,” said Rostov before he had time to think about what he was saying.
- So remember: this is not a joke.
- What a joke!
“Yes, yes,” said the governor’s wife, as if speaking to herself. - But here’s what else, mon cher, entre autres. Vous etes trop assidu aupres de l "autre, la blonde. [my friend. You look after the blonde one too much.] The husband is really pathetic, really...
“Oh no, we’re friends,” Nikolai said in the simplicity of his soul: it never occurred to him that such a fun pastime for him could not be fun for anyone.
“What a stupid thing I said, however, to the governor’s wife! – Nikolai suddenly remembered during dinner. “She’ll definitely start wooing, and Sonya?..” And, saying goodbye to the governor’s wife, when she, smiling, once again told him: “Well, remember,” he took her aside:
- But to tell you the truth, ma tante...
- What, what, my friend; Let's go sit here.
Nikolai suddenly felt the desire and need to tell all his innermost thoughts (those that he would not have told his mother, sister, friend) to this almost stranger. Nikolai later, when he recalled this impulse of unprovoked, inexplicable frankness, which, however, had very important consequences for him, it seemed (as it always seems to people) that he had found a stupid verse; and yet this outburst of frankness, together with other minor events, had enormous consequences for him and for the whole family.
- That's it, ma tante. Maman has long wanted to marry me to a rich woman, but the thought alone disgusts me, marrying for money.
“Oh yes, I understand,” said the governor’s wife.
– But Princess Bolkonskaya, that’s another matter; first of all, I’ll tell you the truth, I really like her, she’s after my heart, and then, after I met her in this position, it’s so strange, it often occurred to me that this was fate. Think especially: maman has been thinking about this for a long time, but I had never met her before, as it all happened: we didn’t meet. And at a time when Natasha was her brother’s fiancée, because then I would not have been able to think about marrying her. It’s necessary that I met her exactly when Natasha’s wedding was upset, and then that’s it... Yes, that’s what. I haven't told this to anyone and I won't tell it. And only to you.
The governor's wife shook his elbow gratefully.
– Do you know Sophie, cousin? I love her, I promised to marry her and I will marry her... Therefore, you see that this is out of the question,” Nikolai said awkwardly and blushing.
- Mon cher, mon cher, how do you judge? But Sophie has nothing, and you yourself said that things are very bad for your dad. And your maman? This will kill her, for one. Then Sophie, if she is a girl with a heart, what kind of life will she have? The mother is in despair, things are upset... No, mon cher, you and Sophie must understand this.
Nikolai was silent. He was pleased to hear these conclusions.
“Still, ma tante, this can’t be,” he said with a sigh, after a short silence. “Will the princess still marry me?” and again, she is now in mourning. Is it possible to think about this?
- Do you really think that I will marry you now? Il y a maniere et maniere, [There is a manner for everything.] - said the governor’s wife.
“What a matchmaker you are, ma tante...” said Nicolas, kissing her plump hand.

Arriving in Moscow after her meeting with Rostov, Princess Marya found there her nephew with his tutor and a letter from Prince Andrei, who prescribed them their route to Voronezh, to Aunt Malvintseva. Concerns about the move, worries about her brother, the arrangement of life in a new house, new faces, raising her nephew - all this drowned out in the soul of Princess Marya that feeling of temptation that tormented her during her illness and after the death of her father, and especially after meeting with Rostov. She was sad. The impression of the loss of her father, which was combined in her soul with the destruction of Russia, now, after a month that had passed since then in the conditions of a calm life, was felt more and more strongly by her. She was anxious: the thought of the dangers to which her brother, the only close person left with her, was exposed, tormented her incessantly. She was preoccupied with raising her nephew, for whom she felt constantly incapable; but in the depths of her soul there was an agreement with herself, resulting from the consciousness that she had suppressed the personal dreams and hopes that had arisen in herself, connected with the appearance of Rostov.
When the next day after her evening, the governor’s wife came to Malvintseva and, having talked with her aunt about her plans (having made the reservation that, although under the current circumstances it is impossible to even think about formal matchmaking, it is still possible to bring the young people together, let them get to know each other ), and when, having received the approval of her aunt, the governor's wife under Princess Marya spoke about Rostov, praising him and telling how he blushed at the mention of the princess, Princess Marya experienced not a joyful, but a painful feeling: her inner agreement no longer existed, and again Desires, doubts, reproaches and hopes arose.
In those two days that passed from the time of this news to the visit to Rostov, Princess Marya continually thought about how she should behave in relation to Rostov. Then she decided that she would not go into the living room when he arrived at his aunt’s, that in her deep mourning it was indecent for her to receive guests; then she thought it would be rude after what he had done for her; then it occurred to her that her aunt and the governor’s wife had some kind of plans for her and Rostov (their looks and words sometimes seemed to confirm this assumption); then she told herself that only she, with her depravity, could think this about them: they could not help but remember that in her position, when she had not yet taken off her plereza, such matchmaking would be insulting both to her and to the memory of her father. Assuming that she would come out to him, Princess Marya came up with the words that he would say to her and that she would say to him; and sometimes these words seemed to her undeservedly cold, sometimes they had too much meaning. Most of all, when meeting with him, she was afraid of embarrassment, which, she felt, should take possession of her and betray her as soon as she saw him.
But when, on Sunday after mass, the footman reported in the living room that Count Rostov had arrived, the princess did not show embarrassment; only a slight blush appeared on her cheeks, and her eyes lit up with a new, radiant light.
-Have you seen him, auntie? - Princess Marya said in a calm voice, not knowing how she could be so outwardly calm and natural.
When Rostov entered the room, the princess lowered her head for a moment, as if giving time to the guest to greet his aunt, and then, at the very time Nikolai turned to her, she raised her head and met his gaze with sparkling eyes. With a movement full of dignity and grace, she stood up with a joyful smile, extended her thin, gentle hand to him and spoke in a voice in which for the first time new, feminine chest sounds were heard. M lle Bourienne, who was in the living room, looked at Princess Marya with bewildered surprise. The most skillful coquette, she herself could not have maneuvered better when meeting a person who needed to please.
“Either black suits her so well, or she really has gotten so prettier and I didn’t notice. And most importantly – this tact and grace!” - thought m lle Bourienne.
If Princess Marya had been able to think at that moment, she would have been even more surprised than M lle Bourienne at the change that had taken place in her. From the moment she saw this sweet, beloved face, some kind of new power life took possession of her and forced her, against her will, to speak and act. Her face, from the time Rostov entered, suddenly changed. When suddenly, with unexpected, striking beauty, that complex, skillful artwork, which previously seemed rough, dark and meaningless, when the light turns on inside: so suddenly the face of Princess Marya was transformed. For the first time all that pure spiritual inner work, with which she had lived until now, came out. All her inner work, dissatisfied with herself, her suffering, desire for good, humility, love, self-sacrifice - all this now shone in those radiant eyes, in her thin smile, in every feature of her tender face.
Rostov saw all this as clearly as if he had known her all her life. He felt that the creature in front of him was completely different, better than all those he had met so far, and better, most importantly, than himself.
The conversation was very simple and insignificant. They talked about the war, involuntarily, like everyone else, exaggerating their sadness about this event, they talked about the last meeting, and Nikolai tried to divert the conversation to another subject, they talked about the good governor’s wife, about the relatives of Nikolai and Princess Marya.
Princess Marya did not talk about her brother, diverting the conversation to another subject as soon as her aunt spoke about Andrei. It was clear that she could talk about the misfortunes of Russia feignedly, but her brother was a subject too close to her heart, and she did not want and could not talk lightly about him. Nikolai noticed this, just as he, with an astute observation unusual for him, noticed all the shades of Princess Marya’s character, which all only confirmed his conviction that she was a very special and extraordinary creature. Nikolai, just like Princess Marya, blushed and was embarrassed when they told him about the princess and even when he thought about her, but in her presence he felt completely free and said not at all what he had prepared, but what instantly and always opportunely came to his mind.
During Nikolai's short visit, as always when there are children, in a moment of silence Nikolai resorted to little son Prince Andrei, caressing him and asking if he wants to be a hussar? He took the boy in his arms, began to twirl him cheerfully and looked back at Princess Marya. A tender, happy and timid gaze followed the boy she loved in the arms of her loved one. Nikolai noticed this look and, as if understanding its meaning, blushed with pleasure and began to kiss the boy good-naturedly and cheerfully.
Princess Marya did not go out on the occasion of mourning, and Nikolai did not consider it proper to visit them; but the governor’s wife still continued her matchmaking business and, having conveyed to Nikolai the flattering things that Princess Marya had said about him, and back, insisted that Rostov explain himself to Princess Marya. For this explanation, she arranged a meeting between the young people at the bishop's before mass.
Although Rostov told the governor’s wife that he would not have any explanation with Princess Marya, he promised to come.
Just as in Tilsit, Rostov did not allow himself to doubt whether what was recognized by everyone as good was good, so now, after a short but sincere struggle between an attempt to arrange his life according to his own mind and humble submission to circumstances, he chose the latter and left himself to the power that (he felt) irresistibly attracted him somewhere. He knew that, having promised Sonya, expressing his feelings to Princess Marya would be what he called meanness. And he knew that he would never do anything mean. But he also knew (and not that he knew, but in the depths of his soul he felt) that, now surrendering to the power of circumstances and the people who led him, he not only was not doing anything bad, but was doing something very, very important, such important, something he had never done before in his life.
After his meeting with Princess Marya, although his way of life outwardly remained the same, all his former pleasures lost their charm for him, and he often thought about Princess Marya; but he never thought about her the way he, without exception, thought about all the young ladies he met in the world, not the way he had long and once thought with delight about Sonya. Like almost every honest young man, he thought of all the young ladies as a future wife, tried on in his imagination all the conditions of married life: a white hood, a wife at the samovar, his wife’s carriage, children, maman and papa, their relationship with her etc., etc., and these ideas of the future gave him pleasure; but when he thought about Princess Marya, with whom he was matched, he could never imagine anything from his future married life. Even if he tried, everything came out awkward and false. He just felt creepy.

The terrible news about the Battle of Borodino, about our losses in killed and wounded, and even more terrible news about the loss of Moscow were received in Voronezh in mid-September. Princess Marya, having learned only from the newspapers about her brother’s wound and not having any definite information about him, got ready to go look for Prince Andrei, as Nikolai heard (he himself had not seen her).
Having received the news of the Battle of Borodino and the abandonment of Moscow, Rostov did not so much feel despair, anger or revenge and similar feelings, but he suddenly felt bored, annoyed in Voronezh, everything seemed ashamed and awkward. All the conversations he heard seemed feigned to him; he did not know how to judge all this, and felt that only in the regiment would everything become clear to him again. He was in a hurry to complete the purchase of horses and often unfairly became heated with his servant and sergeant.
A few days before the departure of Rostov, a prayer service was scheduled in the cathedral on the occasion of the victory won by the Russian troops, and Nicholas went to mass. He stood somewhat behind the governor and with official gravity, reflecting on the most various subjects, survived the service. When the prayer service ended, the governor’s wife called him to her.
-Have you seen the princess? - she said, pointing with her head to the lady in black standing behind the choir.
Nikolai immediately recognized Princess Marya not so much by her profile, which was visible from under her hat, but by the feeling of caution, fear and pity that immediately overwhelmed him. Princess Marya, obviously lost in her thoughts, was making the last crosses before leaving the church.
Nikolai looked at her face in surprise. It was the same face that he had seen before, the same general expression of subtle, inner, spiritual work was in it; but now it was illuminated in a completely different way. There was a touching expression of sadness, prayer and hope on him. As had happened before with Nikolai in her presence, he, without waiting for the governor’s wife’s advice to approach her, without asking himself whether his address to her here in church would be good, decent or not, he approached her and said that he had heard about her grief and sympathizes with him with all my heart. As soon as she heard his voice, suddenly a bright light lit up in her face, illuminating her sadness and joy at the same time.
“I wanted to tell you one thing, princess,” said Rostov, “that if Prince Andrei Nikolaevich were not alive, then as a regimental commander, this would now be announced in the newspapers.”
The princess looked at him, not understanding his words, but rejoicing at the expression of sympathetic suffering that was in his face.
“And I know so many examples that a wound from a shrapnel (the newspapers say a grenade) can be either fatal immediately, or, on the contrary, very light,” said Nikolai. – We must hope for the best, and I’m sure...
Princess Marya interrupted him.
“Oh, that would be so terrible...” she began and, without finishing from excitement, with a graceful movement (like everything she did in front of him), bowing her head and looking at him gratefully, she followed her aunt.
In the evening of that day, Nikolai did not go anywhere to visit and stayed at home in order to settle some scores with the horse sellers. When he finished his business, it was already too late to go anywhere, but it was still too early to go to bed, and Nikolai walked up and down the room alone for a long time, pondering his life, which rarely happened to him.
Princess Marya made a pleasant impression on him near Smolensk. The fact that he met her then in such special conditions, and the fact that it was her at one time that his mother pointed out to him as a rich match, made him pay special attention to her. In Voronezh, during his visit, the impression was not only pleasant, but strong. Nikolai was amazed at the special, moral beauty that he noticed in her this time. However, he was about to leave, and it did not occur to him to regret that by leaving Voronezh, he would be deprived of the opportunity to see the princess. But the current meeting with Princess Marya in the church (Nicholas felt it) sank deeper into his heart than he foresaw, and deeper than he desired for his peace of mind. This pale, thin, sad face, this radiant look, these quiet, graceful movements and most importantly - this deep and tender sadness, expressed in all her features, disturbed him and demanded his participation. Rostov could not stand to see in men the expression of a higher, spiritual life (that’s why he did not like Prince Andrei), he contemptuously called it philosophy, dreaminess; but in Princess Marya, precisely in this sadness, which showed the full depth of this spiritual world alien to Nicholas, he felt an irresistible attraction.
“She must be a wonderful girl! That's exactly the angel! - he spoke to himself. “Why am I not free, why did I hurry up with Sonya?” And involuntarily he imagined a comparison between the two: poverty in one and wealth in the other of those spiritual gifts that Nicholas did not have and which therefore he valued so highly. He tried to imagine what would happen if he were free. How would he propose to her and she would become his wife? No, he couldn't imagine this. He felt terrified, and no clear images appeared to him. With Sonya, he had long ago drawn up a future picture for himself, and all of this was simple and clear, precisely because it was all made up, and he knew everything that was in Sonya; but it was impossible to imagine a future life with Princess Marya, because he did not understand her, but only loved her.

KUSKOVA (nee Esipova) Ekaterina Dmitrievna, Russian social and political activist, publicist, memoirist. Noblewoman. In the 1st marriage she was married to I.P. Yuvenaliev (1885-89), in the 2nd - to P.I. Kuskov (1894-95; fictitious marriage), since 1895 married to S.N. Prokopovich. After graduating from the Saratov Women's Gymnasium (1885), she was engaged in self-education, was an organizer and participant in populist circles in Saratov. Together with her first husband, she organized a “home university”, where graduates and high school students studied. Kuskova graduated from paramedic courses at the Moscow Orphanage (1891), and was involved in the distribution of illegal literature. She joined the sanitary detachment to fight cholera in the Volga region, during the “cholera riot” she barely escaped from an angry crowd (1891; she began to pay special attention to cultural and educational work among the people, she believed that only after this could they begin to become acquainted with politics). In the summer of 1894 she was exiled to Nizhny Novgorod, where she conducted propaganda among the workers. Political Views The Kuskovoi of this period were close to Marxism. In January 1896 she returned to Moscow. At the end of the 1890s, together with Prokopovich, she traveled around Western Europe. In Geneva she became a member of the Liberation of Labor group. In Berlin, on the recommendation of G.V. Plekhanov, together with Prokopovich, she joined the local group of the Union of Russian Social Democrats (1897-98), but soon they both criticized the union’s program. Upon returning to Russia, Kuskova outlined her views in an essay published in 1899 against her will by V.I. Lenin entitled “Credo” (after this publication, Lenin’s supporters subjected Kuskova and her like-minded people to sharp criticism, and she broke off relations with them). Kuskova believed that Russia was not ready for socialism, since it had not yet experienced the bourgeois democratic revolution, emphasized the need for a joint struggle between Social Democrats and liberals for “political liberation”, opposed the idea of the dictatorship of the proletariat, in support of its economic struggle, believing that the Russian working class does not yet need an independent political party. In the early 1900s, Kuskova participated in the delivery from abroad and distribution of the Liberation magazine in Russia, and from 1904 she was one of the editors of the newspaper Our Life, the organ of the Liberation Union. She participated in the organization of the Union of Unions (1905) and its leadership. Elected in absentia to the Central Committee of the Constitutional Democratic Party (October 1905), however, due to programmatic and tactical differences, she refused to join the party. Publisher, editor and permanent contributor to the political weekly “Without a Title” (January - May 1906), opposed the boycott of the 1st and 2nd State Dumas, for a bloc of all left forces. After the Revolution of 1905-07, together with Prokopovich, she worked on issues of cooperation. In 1912-14 she collaborated in the Sovremennik magazine.

After the February Revolution of 1917, Kuskova supported the Provisional Government. Member of the Pre-Parliament. After the October Revolution of 1917, Kuskova lived in Moscow, a member of the Council of the “Political Red Cross”, and made efforts to alleviate the fate of political prisoners. Contributed to the establishment of contacts between anti-Bolshevik organizations. During the Civil War of 1917-22, Kuskova opposed the dictatorship of both the Bolsheviks and the Whites, and was involved in the creation public organizations to help children (Children's Rescue League). Kuskova is one of the organizers and leaders of the All-Russian Committee for Famine Relief (VSERPOMGOL; July 1921). In August 1921, together with its other leaders, she was arrested, and in June 1922, together with Prokopovich, she was exiled abroad. She lived in Berlin (1922-24), Prague (1924-39), then in Switzerland. She collaborated in the largest emigrant periodicals. She believed in the inevitable, in her opinion, evolution of Soviet power towards democracy. In 1922-26 she sharply criticized plans for new military campaigns against Soviet Russia. Her statements on the issue of the responsibility of the people for the establishment of the Soviet regime caused a wide resonance. After the end of the Great Patriotic War, Kuskova tried, through the mediation of V. A. Maklakov and others, to help Russian emigrants who found themselves in the American and Soviet occupation zones.

Works: Russian famine // Modern Notes. 1924. Book. 22; Postcards (From a notebook of memories) // Ibid. 1925. Book. 25; About utopias, realities and mysteries. Village under the NEP // Ibid. 1925. Book. 26; In search of law and justice // Russian Notes. 1938. No. 8-9; Long past // New magazine. 1955. No. 43; 1956. No. 44, 45, 47; 1957. No. 48-51; 1958. No. 54; Liquidation of VSERPOMGOL: Letters from E.D. Kuskova to V.N. Figner 1921-1922 // Russian past. St. Petersburg, 1993. Book. 4; What's inside? // Journalism of Russian abroad (1920-1945). M., 1999.

Lit.: Norton V. T. The making of a Female Marxist: E. D. Kuskova’s conversion to Russian social democracy // International Review of Social History. 1989. Vol. 34. No. 2; Barabanova N. A. E. D. Kuskova on the civil war and intervention // Scientific works of the Moscow Pedagogical state university. M., 2005.