Fanya Baron

Born in 1887 as Freida Anisimovna Greck, Fanya at a young age moved with her family from the Russian Empire to the United States, where they took the name "Grefenson".[1] In Chicago, she began a relationship with the exiled Russian anarchist Aron Baron, with whom she participated in the local workers' movement led by the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).[2] There she spent most of her time and money distributing anarchist propaganda in the factory that she worked in.[3] During a workers' demonstration on 17 January 1915, Fanya was physically assaulted by police and arrested,[1] but was bailed out by the American activist Jane Addams.[4]

With the outbreak of the February Revolution, Aron and Fanya Baron returned from their North American exile.[5] They moved to Kyiv, in Ukraine, where they participated in the local workers' movement.[6] In the wake of the October Revolution, the couple then moved to Kharkiv,[7] where they participated in the establishment of the Nabat, a confederation of Ukrainian anarchists.[8] Spurred to action by the political repression against the anarchist movement, she travelled throughout Ukraine to organise workers and peasants, provide prisoner aid and spread the influence of the Nabat.[3] Baron herself was also a delegate to every one of the Nabat's congresses and conferences, both when they were legal and when they were held clandestinely.[9]

The Nabat went on to join the Makhnovshchina and officially backed Nestor Makhno's Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine.[10] Following the defeat of the White movement at the siege of Perekop in November 1920, the Bolsheviks turned on their anarchist allies, launching a surprise attack against them on several fronts.[11] On 25 November 1920,[2] members of the Nabat, including Aron and Fanya Baron, were arrested in Kharkiv and transferred to Russian prisons.[12] In prison, Fanya was beaten by the guards and kept in squalid conditions.[3]

On 10 July 1921,[2] Fanya joined a prison break launched by a cell of the Underground Anarchists.[13] She managed to escape from Ryazan prison and went to Moscow,[14] where she lived on the streets until her discovery by Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman. With their aid,[15] Fanya found refuge with her brother-in-law Semion Baron,[16] a member of the Communist Party.[17] She confided in Semion that she planned to break her husband out of prison, and he promised to help her,[15] with Berkman reporting that she kept in high spirits as the preparations for the prison break went forward.[18] But on 17 August 1921,[2] she was discovered and arrested by the Cheka,[19] before she was able to carry out her plans.[20]

She joined her husband and a dozen other Russian anarchists in Taganka prison,[21] at a time when the founding congress of the Profintern was underway.[22] In an attempt to attract the attention of the foreign syndicalist delegates,[23] the anarchists imprisoned at Taganka staged a hunger strike, which Fanya joined.[24]

Despite formal protests made to the Bolshevik leadership, the accusations of political repression were repeatedly denied by the authorities,[25] with Leon Trotsky declaring "We do not imprison the real anarchists, but criminals and bandits who cover themselves by claiming to be anarchists."[26] Sustained international and domestic pressure forced the government to relent, with Lenin ordering the release of anarchist political prisoners, on the condition they leave the country.[27] On 17 September 1921,[28] most of the anarchist prisoners were released and scheduled for deportation,[29] but Fanya Baron and Lev Chernyi were kept behind bars.[30] Baron herself was accused of a number of criminal acts, including counterfeiting of the Soviet ruble,[31] banditry[32] and terrorism.[9] The Russian anarchist historian Volin denied the charges against Baron and Chernyi, claiming that the alleged counterfeiting had actually been committed by agents of the Cheka.[31]

On the night of 29–30 September 1921, Fanya Baron was executed by the Cheka.[33] According to Emma Goldman, she had resisted her fate until the last moment, having to be carried by Cheka officers to the spot of her execution.[34] Goldman attempted to protest the execution, but was dissuaded by her friends and eventually left the country, thoroughly disillusioned with the Russian Revolution.[35] After 18 years in prison,[36] Aron Baron himself was executed during the Great Purge.[37]

Over the years, Baron's death became symbolic of the Russian anarchists who fell victim to Soviet political repression.[1] Decades after her execution, the Sydney-based Jura Books named its library after Fanya Baron.[28]