Anna Kuliscioff

Who was Anna Kuliscioff?

Anna Kuliscioff was a Jewish Russian revolutionary, a prominent feminist, an anarchist influenced by Mikhail Bakunin, and eventually a Marxist socialist militant; she was mainly active in Italy, where she was one of the first women graduated in Medicine.

Persecuted by the Imperial Russian authorities, Kulischov took refuge in Paris, where she met the Italian anarchist Andrea Costa, her first husband. After being expelled from France in 1878, she settled in Italy and became the editor of Critica Sociale, a major socialist paper, in 1891. An activist for causes such as women's suffrage, Anna Kulischov was tried and imprisoned on several occasions.

Her views on Marxism influenced Filippo Turati, who became her partner. Together, they contributed to the creation of the Italian Socialist Party as leaders of a reformist wing that came to oppose both Communism and the irredentist attitudes of Benito Mussolini. Their group was itself expelled from the PSI later in 1921, leading to the creation of a United Socialist Party - led by Turati, Kulischov, and Giacomo Matteotti in opposition to the emerging Fascism.