Marija Zacharczenko-Szulc

Maria Vladislavovna Zakharchenko-Schulz (December 3, 1893 – June 23, 1927) was a political figure of the White movement. As a participant of World War I, the Civil War, and the Gallipoli campaign, she was one of the leaders of the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS) and a scout.

Biography

Early years

Maria Vladislavovna Lysova was born into the family of an Active State Councillor Vladislav Gerasimovich Lysov. After graduating, she spent a year studying in Lausanne. Upon returning to her family estate, she organized the household and established a small exemplary horse-breeding farm. In 1913, she married Ivan Sergeyevich Mikhno, a participant of the Russo-Japanese War and a captain of the Semyonovsky Life Guards Regiment.

World War I At the beginning of World War I, Mikhno, along with his regiment, departed for the front, where he was soon gravely wounded and died in his wife's arms. In the spring of 1918, he became her second husband. Wounded, he sought refuge in Maria's home, where they grew close. When Maria's activities came under Bolshevik scrutiny, the couple was forced to flee to the Whites.

In October 1923, together with her associate Captain Georgy Nikolaevich Radkovich, a former lifeguard who became her third civil husband (whom she met while in the Gallipoli camp), they crossed the Soviet-Estonian border illegally under the guise of a married couple named Schulz. They visited Petrograd and Moscow on a secret mission for General Kutepov. This was her first illegal underground visit to Soviet Russia. In the following years, she made many such illegal visits and extended stays in the USSR.

In May 1927, after the exposure of the "Trest" operation and the worsening foreign policy situation of the USSR (the rupture of British-Soviet relations and the expectation of the start of a new war), the ROVS decided to take active action and organize acts of terror on Soviet territory. Several terrorist groups crossed into the USSR illegally. One of them, headed for Moscow, was led by Zakharchenko-Schulz.

Literature

Бандиты, покушавшиеся на взрыв здания ОГПУ в Москве — обнаружены // Советская Сибирь. No. 151. 6 июля 1927 yearа. Новосибирск. Бомбы, сделанные в Англии. Как были обнаружены бандиты-белогвардейцы // Советская Сибирь. No. 152. 7 июля 1927 yearа. Новосибирск.