Yevgenia Bosch facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Yevgenia Bosch
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Євгенія Бош
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| People's Secretary of Internal Affairs | |
| In office 30 December 1917 – 1 March 1918 |
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| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Yuriy Kotsiubynsky |
| Chairwoman of the People's Secretariat (acting) | |
| In office 30 December 1917 – 1 March 1918 |
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| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Mykola Skrypnyk |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Yevgenia Gotlibovna Meisch
3 September [O.S. 22 August] 1879 Ochakiv, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire (today Ukraine) |
| Died | 5 January 1925 (aged 45) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union (today Russia) |
| Political party | RSDLP (1901–1912) VKP(b) (1912–1925) |
| Spouses | Peter Bosch Georgy Pyatakov |
| Children | two daughters: Olha Kotsyubynska ? |
| Alma mater | Voznesensk Female Gymnasium (1903) |
| Signature |  |
Yevgenia Bosch (born Yevgenia Meisch, September 3, 1879 – January 5, 1925) was an important figure in Ukrainian and Soviet politics. She was a revolutionary and a member of the Soviet government in Ukraine during the early 20th century.
Yevgenia Bosch is sometimes seen as the first modern woman to lead a national government. She served as the Minister of Internal Affairs and the acting leader of the temporary Soviet government in Ukraine in 1917. Because of this, some people consider her the first Prime Minister of independent Ukraine.
Contents
Early Life and Family
Yevgenia Bosch was born on September 3, 1879. She was born in Adjigiol village, near Ochakiv, in what was then the Russian Empire. Her father, Gotlieb Meisch, was a German colonist and mechanic. Her mother, Maria Krusser, was a noblewoman from Bessarabia. Yevgenia was the youngest of five children.
After her father died, her mother married his brother, Theodore Meisch. Yevgenia went to the Voznesensk Female Gymnasium for three years. After that, she worked as a secretary for her stepfather due to her health.
At 16, Yevgenia married Peter Bosch, who owned a small wagon shop. She later had two daughters with him.
Becoming a Revolutionary
Yevgenia Bosch became very interested in politics. In 1901, at age 22, she joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). By 1903, she became part of the Bolshevik group within the party. She tried to learn more while also raising her two daughters.
In 1906, police searched her home for illegal political writings. The search found nothing, but Bosch decided to leave her husband. She moved to Kyiv to join the revolutionary underground movement. In 1907, she divorced her husband.
In Kyiv, she worked with the local Bolsheviks. She and her younger sister, Elena Rozmirovich, took part in secret revolutionary activities. Many members of the Kyiv group were arrested in 1910. However, Bosch stayed in Kyiv. She became the head of the Kyiv Committee of the RSDLP.
Bosch and her partner, Georgy Pyatakov, led the Kyiv committee. They were arrested in 1912 and sent to Siberia. While in prison, she became sick with tuberculosis.
Bosch and Pyatakov managed to escape from Siberia. They traveled through Vladivostok, Japan, and then to the United States.
Afterward, Bosch and Pyatakov went to Switzerland. There, they joined a group of revolutionaries who had left Russia. Bosch accepted an invitation from Vladimir Lenin to attend a conference in Bern in 1915. She disagreed with Lenin at first. She did not think the working class was ready for a socialist revolution.
Later, she lived with Pyatakov in Stockholm, Sweden, and Oslo, Norway.
After the February Revolution in Russia, Bosch and Pyatakov were among the first Bolsheviks to return to Petrograd. She soon moved to Kyiv. There, she was chosen to lead the party committee for the Southwestern region. She later changed her mind and supported Lenin's ideas. This change led to the end of her marriage. She was elected to lead a district party committee and then a provincial party committee.
Founding Soviet Ukraine
Bosch played a key role in starting the First All-Ukrainian Congress of Soviets. This meeting happened on December 11–12, 1917, in Kharkiv. At this Congress, the Ukrainian People's Republic was declared a Soviet Republic. It also joined a federation with Soviet Russia. Bosch was elected to the People's Secretariat, which was the Bolshevik government of Ukraine.
The Congress also spoke out against the Central Council of Ukraine. It said that the Central Council's laws were not valid. The rules from the Petrograd Council of People's Commissars were extended to Ukraine. An official alliance with the Russian Red Army was also announced.
In January 1918, when the Bolsheviks took control, Bosch became the Minister of Internal Affairs. As the first Minister of Internal Affairs and Head of the Secret Police for Soviet Ukraine, Yevgenia Bosch was effectively the head of the government. She was in charge of the Soviet fight against those who opposed the revolution.
Against the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
In March 1918, Bosch was very upset when the Soviets signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany. This treaty gave control of parts of western Ukraine to Germany. She resigned from her government job in protest. She then organized groups of workers to fight against the German army advancing through Ukraine.
She joined the Red Army forces with Pyatakov and her daughter Maria. However, she became very ill with tuberculosis and heart disease. After several months of recovery, she left Ukraine for Russia. There, she held political and military jobs for the next few years during the civil war.
In August 1918, she led the party committee in the Penza Governorate. She then worked on the Caspian-Caucasus front and later in Astrakhan. In 1919, she was part of a committee for the defense of Lithuania and Belarus. She then served as a political leader in the war against General Denikin. During this time, it is said she always slept with a revolver under her pillow.
From late 1919, she received treatment for her tuberculosis. She held other positions, including in education and helping those who were starving. She also wrote her memories. From 1922, she was very sick and could not work much.
Later Life and Death
In 1923, Bosch joined the Left Opposition. This group disagreed with the way the Soviet government was being run. She supported Leon Trotsky and signed a statement from the opposition against Joseph Stalin.
Bosch lost favor with the leaders Joseph Stalin and Nikolai Bukharin. In 1924, she felt great despair when Trotsky had to resign as leader of the Red Army. She was also in pain from her heart condition and tuberculosis. She died in January 1925.
Her memories, called A Year of Struggle, were published after her death in 1925.
A large bridge over the Dnieper River in Kyiv was named in Bosch's honor in 1925. This bridge, the Yevgeniya Bosch Bridge, existed from 1925 to 1941. It was built using parts of an older bridge that had been destroyed. The Bosch bridge was also destroyed during World War II. Today, the Metro Bridge stands in its place.
Many other places in Ukraine and the Soviet Union were named after her. Most of these names were changed after 1991. This happened especially after 2015, when laws in Ukraine removed names and monuments related to communism.
Her daughter Olha married Yuriy Kotsyubynsky. They had a son named Oleh Yuriyovych Kotsyubynsky.
See also
In Spanish: Yevguenia Bosh para niños
