Anna Yakimova-Dikovskaya

Anna Vasilievna Yakimova (Russian: Анна Василиевна Якимова; 24 June [ O.S. 12 June] 1856 – 12 June 1942) was a Russian revolutionary, one of the group who assassinated the Tsar Alexander II, and a long serving political prisoner.

Early life Anna Yakimova was born in a village called Tumyumuchascha, in Vyatka province, the daughter of the village priest. She was educated in the Vyatka diocesan school to the age of 16, then took a teacher training course, and in 1873, took up a post as a village teacher. Like dozens of other of her age, she was caught up in the ‘back to the people’ movement, and started spreading propaganda among the peasants. Arrested on 12 May 1875, she was a defendant in the Trial of the 193, but was acquitted. After her release, in January 1878, she joined Zemlya I Volya. When it split, she joined Narodnaya Volya, and was co-opted onto the party's executive committee. This plan was aborted when Isaev accidentally blew three fingers off his hand. Yakimova cleaned and bandaged the injury, took him to hospital, and stayed with him during the operation in case he said anything incriminating while under anesthetic.

In February 1881, Narodnaya Volya used the same plan to attempt to assassinate Alexander II in St Petersburg. Yakimova and Yuri Bogdanovich, using false passports that identified them as a married couple named Kobozev, rented a shop at 56 Malaya Sadovaya, saying that they wanted to run a business selling cheese, while a team led by Andrei Zhelyabov dug a tunnel under the street, which they expected the Tsar to use. The ‘Kobozevs’ aroused suspicion because they were well educated but seemed to know very little about cheese, and were visited by police, who failed to spot the tunnel. This plan was abandoned when the Tsar took a different route, and was killed by a team of bomb throwers led by Sophia Perovskaya.

Prison and exile After the assassination, Yakimova moved to Kyiv, but was arrested there in April 1881. As a defendant at the Trial of the 20, she was sentenced to death, but after pleas for clemency, notably by Victor Hugo, her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. While she was in solitary confinement in the Peter and Paul Fortress, the authorities learned that she was pregnant, probably by Isaev. She was moved to a separate building, her rations were improved, and she was permitted to sew baby clothes, but was denied any books. Her son was born in prison, and she had to keep constant watch to ensure he was not eaten by rats. and arrested at a train station in August 1905, and sent back to Chita, where she spent eight months in prison. After her release, she lived in Chita for the next ten years.