Background
Peshkova, Ekaterina was born in 1876 in the Ukraine.
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Ekaterina Pavlovna Peshkova
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also known as
Born Volzhina
Education
Educated at secondary school in Samara, 1895.
Career
First wife of Maksim Gorkii (1896— 1904), and his life-long friend. In the 1900s, worked in the Red Cross in Nizhnii Novgorod, and helped revolutionary sailors in the Crimea. Lived in Paris, 1907-1914, studied at the Sorbonne.
Became an SR. Helped political prisoners in Russia when she returned after the start of World War I (from Italy to Odessa). During World War I, head of the Commission for Aid to Children, 1914-1918. After the February Revolution 1917, worked at the Moscow office for the help of released political prisoners.
Member of the Central Committee of the SR Party, 1917. After the October Revolution, head of the Moscow Committee for Aid to Political Prisoners (Political Cross-Pompolit, closed by Ezhov in summer 1937). Close to Dzerzhinskii, head of the Cheka.
During World War II. in charge of aid to evacuated children. In old age, consultant on Gorkii in literary institutions. The only person in the USSR allowed to continue the old tradition of helping political prisoners, but under the close supervision of state security agents.
