Rebbekah Yakovlevna Schneerson
Not really a Schneerson
Ревекка Яковлевна Шнеерсон, Нижнеудинск
I think this heroic lady was a Schneerson via marriage. Married to another revolutionary named Ilya Schneerson in Warsaw. He must have been a “forgotten Alter Rebbe's einikle”. Maybe Ilya was Eliog, the brother of Anatoly Abramovich? His age fits, and we know they loved beautiful ladies in that particular family.
Update:
Boy was I right guessing her husband! Someone emailed. Via archive Государственный архив Российской Федерации (ГАРФ).
There is a list of BUNDT meeting in Dvinsk on February 25, 1903. First two on the list.
1. Шнеерсон Ревекка Яковлевна, 22 лет - его жена - Rebbekah Yakovlevna Schneerson, 22 years old, wife.
2. Шнеерсон Елиог Абрамов, 25 лет - сын купца - Eliog Abramovitch Scheerson, 25 years old, son of a merchant.
There is one issue, this Eliog was 10 yo in 1884, so he would be 29 yo in 1903. But pretty certain we found the older brother of the Menshevik Anatoly Abramovich Schneerson.
Rivka Schneerson has a street and a library named after her in the small town called Nizhneudinsk, a suburb of Irkutsk.
Born in Smorgon, Belarus, Rebekah Yakovlevna early embarked on the path of a revolutionary. Barely 15 years old, she was already carrying out various tasks of the underground: she distributed illegal literature, then led a political club among hosiers and textile workers, which she organized herself, collected a library of banned books for members of the circle.
The first arrest followed, then prison. She moves to Warsaw, where she meets party worker Ilya Schneerson, with whom she connects her future life. Joins Russian Social Democratic Labour Party.
In 1901 - a second arrest. A year of imprisonment in the Vilna prison.
March 1, 1903 - arrest again, Dvina prison in Vitebsk. For spreading among the workers "teachings and judgments that lead to the commission of rebellious acts and the overthrow of the existing system of the state," as they say in the surviving documents.
She escapes from prison. But is captured. Placed in the prison in Bobruisk. After escaping, she was sentenced to three years of hard labor and life of exile. After hard labor, she was in exile in Bratsk, Kirensk, Tulun, Taishet. In 1916, Schneerson was transferred under supervision of the police to the city of Nizhneudinsk.
After the revolution in 1917, Rebekah Yakovlevna Schneerson spoke at rallies and meetings of railway workers and soldiers of the local garrison. The soldiers of the garrison elected her to the Council of Soldiers' Deputies. At the first plenary session of the Council, Schneerson was appointed a member of the revolutionary committee and head of the Department of Public Education. She worked at the library.
During the civil war the legendary Czechoslovak Legion was stationed in Irkutsk. They joined the Whites in the Civil War because the Whites promised them independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
There is actually a film from that time. All soldiers you see in the film are from the Czechoslovak Legion in Irkutsk.
In May 1918 (a year before the film) the soldiers of the Czechoslovak Legion or more likely Russian Whites entered Nizhneudinsk and shot all communists including Rebbekah Schneerson.
After the Civil war, when Czechoslovak Legion was crushed, a street and a library in Nizhneudinsk was named after Rebbekah Schneerson.
