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Klara Cetkin CLARA ZETKIN
Klara Cetkin drži govor na trgu u Nemačkoj Clara Zetkin gives a speech in a square in Germany
Born 5 th July 1857 in the village of Wiederau in Saxo- ny, Germany, her mother was a teacher who had a strong influence on Clara’s attitude towards education and social justice. Clara trained to become a teacher, but she quickly realised that her path would be neither peaceful nor con- ventional. She joined the labour and socialist movement in her youth, at a time when doing so was a serious risk. Her in- volvement in politics led to her emigrating, with social- ists of the time facing pressure and repression in Germany. She resided in Switzerland and France during that period of her life. It was in Paris that she met Russian revolution- ary Ossip Zetkin, with whom she lived and had two sons. Despite being often mentioned as her husband, it has been confirmed that they never officially married, though Clara did take his surname. Ossip died in 1889, leaving Clara alone with her children, but that didn’t stop her po- litical activism. Upon returning to Germany, she became a key figure in the country’s Social Democratic Party, and subsequent- ly in the communist movement. It is particularly signifi- cant that she spent many years editing the magazine Die Gleichheit ("Equality"), the most important regular publi- cation of the socialist women’s movement of the time. She was also the one who proposed – speaking at the Second International Conference of Socialist Women in Copen- hagen in 1910 – the formal establishment of Internation- al Women’s Day — as a day of joint action, protest and po- litical demands for equality, primarily for the right to vote. Her proposal was accepted unanimously. Zetkin remained politically active until the end of her life. She was also a German MP and it is known that she opened a session of the Reichstag with a speech against fascism in 1932, as the then oldest member of parlia- ment. She died on 20 th June 1933 in the Soviet Union, in Arkhangelskoye near Moscow, where she’d been living in exile since the Nazis rise to power. She was buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, which was a highly symbolic honour in Soviet political culture.
Rođena je 5. jula 1857. godine u mestu Viderau, u Sak- soniji. Majka joj je bila učiteljica i imala je snažan uticaj na Klarin odnos prema obrazovanju i društvenoj pravdi. Kla- ra je školovana za učiteljicu, ali je vrlo rano shvatila da njen put neće biti miran i konvencionalan. U mladosti se priključila radničkom i socijalističkom po- kretu, u vremenu kada je to značilo i ozbiljan rizik. Poli- tički angažman ju je odveo u emigraciju, jer su socijalisti u Nemačkoj bili pod pritiskom i represijom. U tom periodu ži- vota boravila je u Švajcarskoj i Francuskoj. U Parizu je upo- znala ruskog revolucionara Osipa Cetkina, sa kojim je žive- la i sa kojim je dobila dva sina. Iako se često navodi kao njen suprug, istorijski je potvrđeno da se nikada nisu zvanično venčali, mada je Klara uzela njegovo prezime. Osip je umro 1889. godine, što je Klaru ostavilo samu sa decom, ali nije zaustavilo njen politički rad. Po povratku u Nemačku postala je jedna od ključnih fi- gura Socijaldemokratske partije, a zatim i komunističkog pokreta. Posebno je značajno to što je godinama uređiva- la časopis „Jednakost“ (Die Gleichheit), najvažniji medij so- cijalističkog ženskog pokreta tog vremena. Upravo ona je 1910. godine, na Drugoj međunarodnoj konferenciji socija- lističkih žena u Kopenhagenu, predložila ustanovljenje Me- đunarodnog dana žena – kao dana zajedničke akcije, prote- sta i političkog zahteva za ravnopravnost, pre svega za pravo glasa. Predlog je prihvaćen jednoglasno. Klara Cetkin do kraja života ostaje politički aktivna. Bi- la je i poslanica u nemačkom parlamentu, a poznato je da je 1932. godine, kao najstarija poslanica, otvorila sedni- cu Rajhstaga govorom protiv fašizma. Umrla je 20. juna 1933. godine u Sovjetskom Savezu, u mestu Arhangelskoje kod Moskve, gde je živela u egzilu nakon dolaska nacista na vlast. Sahranjena je uz zid Kremlja – što je bila velika simbo- lična čast u sovjetskoj političkoj kulturi.
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