Growing up in the US 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". 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). There she spent most of her time and money distributing anarchist propaganda in the factory that she worked in. During a workers' demonstration on 17 January 1915, Fanya was physically assaulted by police and arrested, but was bailed out by the American activist
Jane Addams.
Moving back to Europe With the outbreak of the
February Revolution, Aron and Fanya Baron returned from their North American exile. They moved to
Kyiv, in
Ukraine, where they participated in the local workers' movement. In the wake of the
October Revolution, the couple then moved to
Kharkiv, where they participated in the establishment of the
Nabat, a confederation of Ukrainian anarchists. 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. 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. The Nabat went on to join the
Makhnovshchina and officially backed
Nestor Makhno's
Revolutionary Insurgent Army of Ukraine. 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. On 25 November 1920, members of the Nabat, including Aron and Fanya Baron, were arrested in Kharkiv and transferred to Russian prisons. In prison, Fanya was beaten by the guards and kept in squalid conditions.
Prison break On 10 July 1921, Fanya joined a prison break launched by a cell of the
Underground Anarchists. She managed to escape from
Ryazan prison and went to Moscow, where she lived on the streets until her discovery by
Emma Goldman and
Alexander Berkman. With their aid, Fanya found refuge with her brother-in-law Semion Baron, a member of the
Communist Party. She confided in Semion that she planned to break her husband out of prison, and he promised to help her, with Berkman reporting that she kept in high spirits as the preparations for the prison break went forward. But on 17 August 1921, she was discovered and arrested by the
Cheka, before she was able to carry out her plans. She joined her husband and a dozen other Russian anarchists in
Taganka prison, at a time when the founding congress of the
Profintern was underway. In an attempt to attract the attention of the foreign
syndicalist delegates, the anarchists imprisoned at Taganka staged a
hunger strike, which Fanya joined.
Persecution and execution 's funerals. (
collections of ''L'Éphéméride anarchiste'') Despite formal protests made to the Bolshevik leadership, the accusations of
political repression were repeatedly denied by the authorities, with
Leon Trotsky declaring "We do not imprison the real anarchists, but criminals and bandits who cover themselves by claiming to be anarchists." 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. On 17 September 1921, most of the anarchist prisoners were released and scheduled for deportation, but Fanya Baron and
Lev Chernyi were kept behind bars. Baron herself was accused of a number of criminal acts, including
counterfeiting of the
Soviet ruble,
banditry and
terrorism. 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. On the night of 29–30 September 1921, Fanya Baron was
executed by the
Cheka. 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. Goldman attempted to protest the execution, but was dissuaded by her friends and eventually left the country,
thoroughly disillusioned with the
Russian Revolution. After 18 years in prison, Aron Baron himself was executed during the
Great Purge. Over the years, Baron's death became symbolic of the Russian anarchists who fell victim to Soviet political repression. Decades after her execution, the
Sydney-based
Jura Books named its library after Fanya Baron. ==See also==