In recognition of International Women’s Day 2010, here are some biographical sketches of some women I admire:

Nadezhda Krupskaya  (1869 – 1939)  Married to V.I. Lenin, Krupskaya was a very important revolutionary in her own right, educating and supporting fellow Bolsheviks in the years leading up to the Russian Revolution of 1917.  Suffering through persecution and arrest under the Tsar, Krupskaya endured the struggle and supported Lenin through the tumult that would eventually bring the Soviets to power.  Krupskaya was an archivist and librarian and did much work in the establishment of the new Soviet library system following the revolution.  In 1933, she published Reminiscences of Lenin, a biography of her husband which is often regarded as one of the best assessments of his life and work.
Further Reading:  Nadezhda Krupskaya Internet Archive

Ida B. Wells-Barnett  (1862 – 1931)  Ida B. Wells-Barnett was a journalist and activist who used her exceptional talents as a writer and a speaker to raise global awareness regarding crimes against African-Americans in the South during the decades immediately following the Civil War.  She wrote extensively on the problem of lynching in the United States, beginning with two groundbreaking pamphlets Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases, and a A Red Record.  She co-founded the NAACP with W.E.B. DuBois and others in 1909.
Further Reading:  Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases (full text) by Ida B. Wells-Barnett  

Mother Tsai  Immortalized by Agnes Smedley in her article “No Sacrifice…No Victory,” Mother Tsai was a leader of women in the “south Yangtze valley” during China’s War of Resistance against Japan from 1937 – 1945.  Well into her late 60’s, Mother Tsai worked in the fields with her daughters-in-law while her sons fought in the guerilla armies against the Japanese invaders.  She was an important member of the Women’s Association, delivering inspirational political speeches to to wounded soldiers as they convalesced in hospital wards.  She mounted aggressive campaigns against opium use and corruption in the region, declaring war on the oppressive conventions of sexism and exploitation. 

Further Reading:  Portraits of Chinese Women in Revolution (full text)

Lili Brik (1891-1978)  Intimately involved at a number of levels with the Russia’s Futurist movement of literature and art, Lili Brik was a close personal associate of Russia’s celebrated poet Vladimir Mayakovsky.  After Mayakovsky's death, Brik penned a personal appeal to Joseph Stalin in 1935 in which she advocated for the widespread dissemination and popularization of Mayakovsky’s works.  She wrote: “…I address myself to you because I do not see any other means to realize the tremendous revolutionary heritage of Mayakovsky.”  The appeal was met with the approval of Stalin who famously responded, “Comrade Brik is right: Mayakovsky was and remains the most talented poet of our Soviet epoch.  Indifference to his memory and words is a crime.”  Her memory lives on in the works of Mayakovsky and the art of Alexander Rodchenko.
Further Reading:  I Love:  The Story of Vladimir Mayakovsky and Lili Brik  (Amazon listing)

More reading from greeklish.org

International Women's Day 2009

International Women's Day  2008

International Women's Day in Tehran  2006

In belated recognition of International Women's Day  2006

This is dedicated to Thomai, K., Z. and all of the women who are so important to me.  You are true heroines to me, each and every day.