Mariia Fedosiivna Vetrova

Mariia Fedosiivna Vetrova was a Ukrainian teacher and revolutionary. After working as a teacher in different parts of Ukraine and briefly joining a theatre troupe, she joined a socialist circle in Azov and became a devotee of the works of Leo Tolstoy. She continued her studies in Saint Petersburg, but was encouraged to become a revolutionary after meeting Tolstoy himself. She was arrested for anti-Tsarist publishing activities and died by self-immolation in the Peter and Paul Fortress. Her death became a rallying cry for the rise of an anti-Tsarist student movement, inspiring dedications by Tolstoy and Maxim Gorky, the latter of whom wrote "The Song of the Stormy Petrel" as a result.²