Tatiana Grigorovici (1877–1952) was a remarkable, yet today little-known figure in the history of European socialism. Born in Kamenets Podolski (then part of the Russian Empire, today Kamianets-Podilskyi in Ukraine) into a well-off Jewish family, she received an extensive education and would become a prominent socialist activist and an original thinker.

Educated in philosophy and economics at the universities of Vienna and Bern, Grigorovici moved among the most prominent socialists of her era. In Vienna she worked alongside Victor Adler and Otto Bauer, who would later develop Austro-Marxism – a strand of socialism that promoted rights of nations and ethnic minorities and sought alternatives to revolution as a means of achieving socialism. Grigorovici’s doctoral dissertation, The Theory of Value in Marx and Lassalle: A Contribution to the History of a Scientific Misunderstanding, defended in 1906, showed deep engagement with socialist economic theory, an intellectual commitment that continued throughout her life. Her contributions to Marxist debates on “socially necessary labour”, a concept relevant to both public debate and policy at the time and foreshadowing later discussions of unpaid labour, were appreciated by fellow activists.

Cover of Tatiana Grigorovici's dissertation, published in Vienna in 1908 (Source: WikiCommons)

After her marriage to Romanian socialist Gheorghe Grigorovici, her activist trajectory shifted from knowledge production to more intense involvement in grassroots activism. In 1906 the couple moved to Bukovina (then part of Austria-Hungary), a region Gheorghe represented in the Austrian Reichstag. Despite being offered a university position in Bern – an exceptional opportunity for a woman at the time – Tatiana Grigorovici chose to move to Bukovina. Until 1936, when the family moved to Bucharest, she worked various jobs in Czernowitz (modern-day Chernivtsi in Ukraine) and various other places in the Kingdom of Romania, including directing a maternity clinic and managing a spa resort, all while remaining active in the social-democratic movement.

Recently digitized press sources reveal that in the early 1900s Grigorovici organized women’s sections of Bukovina’s Social Democratic Party and played a vital role in encouraging women’s political engagement at a time when they were still denied political rights. According to a fellow activist, her efforts persuaded many sceptical women to support the labour movement. Not yet allowed to vote, these women nevertheless encouraged “their husbands and sons towards a more intense activity” in politics.

Her activism went beyond party work. She co-led a provincial organization for child protection and youth welfare and spoke out about the exploitation of women in white-collar employment. In 1910, she published a simplified pamphlet on Marx’s theory of value and surplus value, which was then reprinted several times until the 1940s, demonstrating her commitment to making complex economic theory accessible to workers.

Even in her later years, during the first decades Romania’s communist regime, Grigorovici remained outspoken. In a sealed document she left in case of her arrest, she sharply criticized the regime, arguing it was state capitalism rather than socialism. She also contended that, had Marx and Engels been alive at the time, they would have sided with social democrats like herself.

Tatiana Grigorovici died by suicide in 1952, two years after her husband’s death in prison.