Vera Figner’s Trial Testimony

 

·        “The vague idea that I belonged to the cultured minority, aroused in me the thought of the obligations which my position imposed upon me with respect to the remaining uneducated masses” (159).

·        Decides to become a physician to “satisfy my philanthropic aspirations” (160)

·        Sacrifices her degree to go back to Russia.  “[T]he conferring of the title of doctor of medicine and surgery upon me would satisfy only my vanity” (161).

·        Blocked from doing good by local elites. “Thus not vacillation but bitter necessity forced me to give up my original views and to set out on another course” (163).

·        Did not want to become a physician for wealthy people (164).

·        “The only escape from the position in which we found ourselves lay in militant resistance” (164).

·        “It seemed to me that if I admitted theoretically that only through violence could we accomplish anything, I was in duty bound to take active part in whatever programme of violence might be undertaken by the organisation” (164).

·        “I consider it most important, most essential, that such conditions should be established as will allow the individual to develop his abilities to the fullest extent, and to devote them wholeheartedly to the good of society.  And it seems to me that under our present order, such conditions do not exist” (165).