Catherine Breshovsky (1844-1934) was the only Russian revolutionist whose adulthood spanned the entire revolutionary period--from the early 1860s to 1917--and whose lifework was devoted entirely to the welfare of the peasants.

Born to Olga Ivanovna and Constantine Mikhailovich Verigo, Catherine Breshkovsky would often remark later in life, "I had wonderful parents; if there is anything good in me, I owe it all to them." From her father, she inherited frankness, good-heartedness, and a short temper; from her mother--a woman of gentility--she received an education from Bible stories. Her parents never whipped the children, never allowed a word of profanity. But in her childhood, Breshkovsky preferred solitude. In her memoirs, she would later explain that her tendency toward withdrawal sprang from feelings of being unwanted as a child; she recalled her mother saying once: "When you were born, I detested you so much. . . . My other children behave like typical...