Vera Figner circa 1880

Vera Nikolayevna Figner (Filippova) (Вера Николаевна Фигнер (Филиппова)) (6.25(7.7).1852 – 6.15.6.1942) was a Russian revolutionary and narodnik.

In 1863-1869, Vera Figner attended Rodionovsky Institute for Women in Kazan. In 1872-1875, she was a student of Department of Medicine at the University of Zurich. In 1873, Figner joined a student club called Frichi, members of which would later form the nucleus of the All-Russian Social Revolutionary Organization. In December of 1875, she returned to Russia and a year later became one of the separatist narodniks (Yuri Bogdanovich and others among them), who had been siding with Zemlya i volya. Figner took part in the Kazan demonstration in St.Petersburg in 1876. In 1877-1879, woking as a doctor's assistant, she conducted revolutionary propaganda in the villages around Samara and Saratov. In 1879, Figner took part in the Voronezh Congress of Zemlya i volya (Land and Liberty). After the split of Zemlya i volya in 1879, she became a member of the Executive Committee of Narodnaya Volya (The Will of the People), conducting propaganda activities among intelligentsia, students and military in St.Petersburg, Kronstadt and southern parts of Russia. Figner took part in the creation of the paramilitary wing of Narodnaya Volya and its activities. She participated in planning the assassination of Alexander II in 1880 in Odessa and in 1881 in St. Petersburg. After an assassination attempt on the tsar on March 1, 1881, Figner conducted revolutionary activities in Odessa. Being the only member of the Executinve Committee left in Russia, she tried to resurrect Narodnaya Volya starting in 1882, which had been eliminated by the police. As a result of the betrayal by Sergey Degayev, Figner was arrested in Kharkov on February 10, 1883 and a year later sentenced to death during the Trial of the Fourteen. The sentence, however, was changed to eternal katorga. She spent the following 20 years in solitary confinement in Peter and Paul Fortress. In 1904, Figner was sent into exile to the Arkhangelsk guberniya, then Kazan guberniya, and later Nizhny Novgorod. In 1906, she went abroad, where she would organize a campaign for protecting political prisoners in Russia. She spoke in different European cities, collected money, published a brochure on Russian prisons translated into many languages. In 1907-1909, Figner joined the Esers, but left the party after the Azef scandal. In 1915, she returned to Russia for good.

After the October Revolution (she never accepted the way it had happened), Figner published her book called Memoirs of a Revolutionist ("Запечатлённый труд"), which is still considered one of the best examples of the Russian memoir genre. The book made her famous worldwide and was translated into many languages. Figner was also a member of the Society of the Former Political Prisoners and Exiles (Обществo бывших политкаторжан и ссыльнопоселенцев). She took active part in a magazine called Katorga and Exile ("Каторга и ссылка"). Figner authored a number of biographies of several narodniks and articles on history of the Russian revolutionary movement in 1870s-1880s.