Maria Pavlivna Kovalevska () 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 , she was released from prison under close surveillance, with threats of exile should she continue her revolutionary activities. On , she was arrested en route to
Shpola with a
fake passport, but managed to escape custody. On , she was arrested again in Kyiv, together with other members of the city's revolutionary circle. On , 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 , Kovalevska
took poison in protest and died. ==Notes==