Maria Kovalevska

Maria Pavlivna Kovalevska (Марія Павлівна Ковалевська; August 1849 – 19 November 1889) was a Ukrainian Narodnik. A revolutionary activist from an early age, she became involved with Narodnik circles in Odesa, Kyiv and Kharkiv. She was arrested several times for her activities, before finally being exiled to Siberia in 1879. She spent the last decade of her life between several Siberian prisons, where she and other women prisoners were tortured. In protest, she poisoned herself and died in Kara katorga.

Biography
Maria Pavlivna Kovalevska (Vorontsova) was born in August 1849, in the Katerynoslav province of the Russian Empire.

She graduated from school in Odesa, where she joined a Narodnik revolutionary circle in 1874. She then moved to Kyiv and the Kharkiv, where she was part of other revolutionary circles. While negotiating for closer relations between Kyiv and Kharkiv revolutionaries, she was arrested, tried and found guilty of propaganda. On 20 May 1876, she was released from prison under close surveillance, with threats of exile should she continue her revolutionary activities. On 1 July 1876, she was arrested en route to Shpola with a fake passport, but managed to escape custody.

On 23 February 1879, she was arrested again in Kyiv, together with other members of the city's revolutionary circle. On 16 May 1879, she was prosecuted by the Kyiv district court, which exiled her to Siberia for 14 years of penal labour. She was transferred through Moscow to the Kara katorga, where she arrived in 1880. The following year she was transferred to a prison in Krasnoyarsk; the year after that, she was taken back to Kara; and the year after that, she was taken to prison in Irkutsk. In 1887, she was again taken back to Kara, where she and other women prisoners were tortured. Together with Nadezhda Sigida, on 19 November 1889, Kovalevska took poison in protest and died.