Who organized the assassination attempt on Alexander 2. The hunt for the Tsar. Five famous assassination attempts on Emperor Alexander II. Dynamite under the dining room

Alexander II ascended to the Russian throne in 1855. During his reign, large-scale reforms were carried out, including the peasant reform, which resulted in the abolition of serfdom. For this, the emperor was called the Liberator. At the same time, the era of Alexander II was characterized by growing public discontent. Along with the sharp increase in the number of peasant uprisings, many protest groups emerged among the intelligentsia and workers. As a result, many attempts were made on Alexander's life.

The first attempt on the life of Alexander II occurred on April 4, 1866. It was committed by Dmitry Karakozov, a native of the Saratov province, when the emperor, after a walk with his nephew, the Duke of Leuchtenberg and his niece, the Princess of Baden, was heading from the gates of the Summer Garden to his carriage. Karakozov was nearby and, having successfully squeezed into the crowd, fired almost point-blank. Everything could have ended fatally for the emperor if master Osip Komissarov, who happened to be nearby, instinctively hit Karakozov on the arm, causing the bullet to fly past the target. People standing around rushed at Karakozov.

After Karakozov was detained, he resisted and shouted to the standing people: “You fool! After all, I am for you, but you don’t understand!” When Karakozov was brought to the emperor and he asked if he was Russian, Karakozov answered in the affirmative and, after a pause, said: “Your Majesty, you offended the peasants.” Karakazov was searched and interrogated, after which he was sent to the Peter and Paul Fortress. Then a trial was held, which decided to execute Karakozov by hanging. The sentence was carried out on September 3, 1866.

2 May 25, 1867

In May 1867, the Russian emperor arrived on an official visit to France. On May 25, when, after a military review at the hippodrome, he was returning in an open carriage with children and the French Emperor Napoleon III, in the area of the Bois de Boulogne, a young man stood out from the jubilant crowd and shot Alexander twice with a pistol. One of Napoleon III's security officers noticed a man with a weapon in the crowd and pushed his hand away, causing bullets to hit the horse.

The terrorist was detained; he turned out to be Anton Berezovsky, a leader of the Polish national liberation movement. The motive for his actions was the desire for revenge for Russia's suppression of the Polish uprising of 1863. Berezovsky said during his arrest: “... two weeks ago I had the idea of regicide, however, or rather, I have nurtured this thought since I began to recognize myself, meaning the liberation of my homeland.”

On July 15, Berezovsky's trial took place, the jury considered the case. The court decided to send Berezovsky to lifelong hard labor in New Caledonia. Subsequently, hard labor was replaced by lifelong exile, and in 1906, 40 years after the assassination attempt, Berezovsky was amnestied. However, he remained to live in New Caledonia until his death.

3 April 2, 1879

On April 2, 1879, Alexander Solovyov made a third attempt on the life of the emperor. Soloviev was a member of the Earth and Freedom society. He shot at the sovereign while he was on a walk near the Winter Palace. Soloviev quickly approached the emperor, who guessed the danger and dodged to the side. And, although the terrorist fired five times, not a single bullet hit the target. There is an opinion that the terrorist was simply poor at wielding a weapon and had never used it before the assassination attempt.

At the trial, Soloviev said: “The idea of an attempt on His Majesty’s life arose after I became acquainted with the teachings of the Socialist Revolutionaries. I belong to the Russian section of this party, which believes that the majority suffers so that the minority can enjoy the fruits of the people’s labor and all the benefits of civilization that are inaccessible to the majority.” As a result, Alexander Solovyov was sentenced to death by hanging.

4 November 19, 1879

In the summer of 1879, the People's Will organization was created, breaking away from Land and Freedom. The main goal of the organization was to kill the king. In order not to repeat old mistakes, members of the organization planned to kill the Tsar in a new way: by blowing up the train on which the Tsar and his family were supposed to return from their vacation in the Crimea. The first group operated near Odessa. Here, Narodnaya Volya member Mikhail Frolenko got a job as a railway guard 14 km from the city. At first everything went well: the mine was laid, there was no suspicion on the part of the authorities. But then the plan to blow up here failed when the royal train changed its route, traveling through Aleksandrovsk. The Narodnaya Volya had such an option, and therefore at the beginning of November 1879, the Narodnaya Volya member Andrei Zhelyabov came to Aleksandrovsk, introducing himself as the merchant Cheremisov. He bought a plot of land near the railway with the intention of allegedly building a tannery there. Working at night, Zhelyabov drilled a hole under the railroad and planted a mine there. On November 18, when the royal train appeared in the distance, Zhelyabov took a position near the railway and, when the train caught up with him, he tried to activate the mine, but after connecting the wires nothing happened: the electrical circuit had a malfunction.

Now the hope of the Narodnaya Volya was only in the third group, led by Sofia Perovskaya, whose task was to plant a bomb at the Rogozhsko-Simonova outpost, near Moscow. Here the work was somewhat complicated by the guarding of the outpost: this did not make it possible to lay a mine on the railway. To get out of the situation, a tunnel was made, which was dug despite difficult weather conditions and the constant danger of being exposed. After everything was ready, the conspirators planted the bomb. They knew that the royal train consisted of two trains: one of which contained Alexander II, and the second contained his luggage; the train with luggage is half an hour ahead of the train with the king. But fate protected the emperor: in Kharkov, one of the locomotives of the baggage train broke down and the royal train was launched first. The conspirators did not know about this and let the first train pass, detonating a mine at the moment when the fourth carriage of the second train was passing over it. Alexander II was annoyed by what happened and said: “What do they have against me, these unfortunate people? Why are they chasing me like a wild animal?

5 February 5, 1880

On February 5, 1880, an explosion was carried out in the Winter Palace. Through friends, Sofya Perovskaya learned that the basements in the Winter Palace were being renovated, which included a wine cellar, which was located directly under the royal dining room and was a very convenient place for a bomb. The implementation of the plan was entrusted to a new member of the People's Will, the peasant Stepan Khalturin. Having settled in the palace, the “carpenter” lined the walls of the wine cellar during the day, and at night he went to his colleagues, who handed him bags of dynamite. The explosives were skillfully disguised among building materials.

Perovskaya received information that a gala dinner was scheduled for February 5 at the palace, which would be attended by the Tsar and all members of the imperial family. The explosion was scheduled for 18:20, when, presumably, Alexander should have already been in the dining room. But the plans of the conspirators were not destined to come true: the train of the Prince of Hesse, a member of the imperial family, was half an hour late and delayed the time of the gala dinner. The explosion found Alexander II not far from the security room, which was located near the dining room. The Prince of Hesse said about what happened: “The floor rose as if under the influence of an earthquake, the gas in the gallery went out, there was complete darkness, and an unbearable smell of gunpowder or dynamite spread in the air.” No high-ranking persons were injured, but 10 soldiers from the Finnish Guard Regiment were killed and 80 wounded.

6 March 1, 1881

After the failed assassination attempt in the Winter Palace, the Narodnaya Volya members began to thoroughly prepare for the next attempt. After this, Alexander II began to rarely leave the palace, regularly leaving only to change the guard at the Mikhailovsky Manege. The conspirators decided to take advantage of this punctuality of the king. There were two possible routes for the royal cortege: along the embankment of the Catherine Canal or along Nevsky Prospekt and Malaya Sadovaya. Initially, on the initiative of Alexander Mikhailov, the option of mining the Kamenny Bridge across the Catherine Canal was considered. Demolitionists led by Nikolai Kibalchich examined the bridge supports and calculated the required amount of explosives. But after some hesitation, they abandoned the explosion, since there was no one hundred percent guarantee of success. We settled on the second option - to lay a mine under the roadway on Malaya Sadovaya. If for some reason the mine did not explode, then four Narodnaya Volya members who were on the street should have thrown bombs at the royal carriage. Well, if after this Alexander II would have remained alive, then Zhelyabov should have jumped into the carriage and stabbed the king with a dagger.

Two members of Narodnaya Volya - Anna Yakimova and Yuri Bogdanovich - rented a semi-basement space on Malaya Sadovaya, opening a cheese shop. From the basement, Zhelyabov and his comrades dug a tunnel under the roadway for several weeks in order to plant the mine that Kibalchich was working on.

Soon the terrorists started having problems. The “cheese shop”, completely unfrequented by customers, aroused the suspicions of the janitor of a neighbor’s house, who contacted the police. And although the inspectors did not find anything, the very fact that the store was under suspicion raised concerns about the disruption of the entire operation. This was followed by several heavy blows to the leadership of Narodnaya Volya. In November 1880, the police arrested Alexander Mikhailov, and a few days before the date of the planned assassination attempt - at the end of February 1881 - Andrei Zhelyabov. It was the arrest of the latter that forced the terrorists to act without delay.

On March 1, 1881, Alexander II left the Winter Palace for Manege. He was accompanied by seven Cossack guards and three policemen, led by Chief of Police Adrian Dvorzhitsky, following in separate sleighs behind the royal carriage. After attending the changing of the guards and drinking tea with his cousin, the Tsar went back to Zimny through the Catherine Canal. This turn of events completely ruined all the plans of the conspirators. The mine on Sadovaya was becoming completely useless. Perovskaya, who headed the organization after Zhelyabov’s arrest, hastily changed the plan of action. Four Narodnaya Volya members - Ignatiy Grinevitsky, Nikolai Rysakov, Alexey Emelyanov, Timofey Mikhailov - took up positions along the embankment of the Catherine Canal and waited for the prearranged signal from Perovskaya (wave of a scarf), according to which they were supposed to throw bombs at the royal carriage.

The royal cortege drove to the embankment. Perovskaya's handkerchief flashed, Rysakov threw his bomb towards the royal carriage. There was an explosion. After traveling some distance, the royal carriage stopped. The Emperor was not injured. However, instead of leaving the scene of the assassination attempt, Alexander II wanted to see the criminal. He approached the captured Rysakov... At that moment, unnoticed by the guards, Grinevitsky threw a second bomb at the king’s feet. The blast wave threw Alexander II to the ground, blood gushing from his crushed legs. He whispered: “Take me to the palace... There I want to die...” On March 1, 1881, at 15:35, the imperial standard was lowered from the flagpole of the Winter Palace, notifying the population of St. Petersburg about the death of Emperor Alexander II.

Grinevitsky died from the explosion of his own bomb in the prison hospital almost simultaneously with his victim. Perovskaya, who tried to go on the run, was caught by the police and on April 3, 1881, hanged along with Zhelyabov, Kibalchich, Mikhailov, and Rysakov on the Semenovsky parade ground.

The assassination attempts were caused by reforms carried out by Emperor Alexander II. Many Decembrists wanted a revolution and a republic, some wanted a constitutional monarchy. Paradoxically, they did this with the best intentions. The abolition of serfdom led not only to the liberation of the peasants, but also to the impoverishment of most of them due to high redemption payments and cuts in land plots. So the intellectuals decided to free the people and give them land with the help of a popular revolution. However, the peasants, despite their dissatisfaction with the reform, did not want to rebel against the autocracy. Then the followers of P. Tkachev’s ideas decided to organize a coup d’etat, and to make it easier to carry out it, kill the tsar.

On April 4, 1866, after another meeting, the sovereign, in a great mood, walked from the gates of the summer garden to the carriage that was waiting for him. Approaching her, he heard a crash in the linden bushes and did not immediately realize that this crack was the sound of a shot. This was the first attempt on the life of Alexander II. The first attempt was made by a twenty-six-year-old lone terrorist, Dmitry Karakozov. Standing nearby, the peasant Osip Komissarov hit Karakozov’s hand with a pistol, and the bullet flew over the head of Alexander II. Until this moment, emperors walked around the capital and other places without special precautions.

On May 26, 1867, Alexander arrived at the World Exhibition in France at the invitation of the French Emperor Napoleon III. At about five o'clock in the afternoon, Alexander II left the ipadrome, where a military review was being held. He rode in an open carriage with his sons Vladimir and Alexander, as well as with the French emperor. They were guarded by a special unit of the French police, but unfortunately the increased security did not help. While leaving the hippodrome, Polish nationalist Anton Berezovsky approached the crew and shot the Tsar with a double-barreled pistol. The bullet hit the horse.

On April 2, 1879, when the emperor was returning from his morning walk, a passerby greeted him. Alexander II responded to the greeting and saw a pistol in the hand of a passerby. The Emperor immediately ran away in zigzag leaps to make it more difficult to hit him. The killer followed closely behind him. It was a thirty-year-old commoner Alexander Solovyov.

In November 1879, Andrei Zhelyabov's group planted a bomb with an electric fuse under the rails along the route of the Tsar's train near the city of Aleksandrovsk. The mine didn't work.

Sofia Perovskaya's group planted a mine on the railway to Moscow. The terrorists knew that the train with their retinue was coming first, but by chance this time the royal train passed first. The attempt failed. Alexander Nikolaevich was already accustomed to constant danger. Death was always somewhere nearby. And even the increased security did not help.

The sixth attempt was made by Narodnaya Volya member Stepan Khalturin, who got a job as a carpenter in the winter palace. During his six months of work, he managed to smuggle thirty kilograms of dynamite into the royal basement. As a result, during an explosion on February 5, 1880 in the basement, which was located under the royal dining room, 11 people were killed and 56 people were injured - all soldiers on guard duty. Alexander II himself was not in the dining room and was not injured as he was greeting a late guest.

On March 1, after visiting the guard service at the Mikhailovsky Manege and communicating with his cousin, at 14:10 Alexander II got into the carriage and headed to the Winter Palace, where he was supposed to arrive no later than 15:00 as he promised his wife to take her for a walk . Having passed Engineering Street, the royal crew turned onto the embankment of the Catherine Canal. Six Cossack convoys followed nearby, followed by security officers riding on two sleighs. At the turn, Alexander noticed a woman waving a white handkerchief. It was Sofya Perovskaya. Having driven further, Alexander Nikolaevich noticed a young man with a white package in his hand and realized that there would be an explosion. The perpetrator of the seventh attempt was twenty-year-old Nikolai Rysakov, a Narodnaya Volya member. He was one of two bombers on duty on the embankment that day. Throwing a bomb, he tried to escape, but slipped and was captured by officers.

Alexander was calm. The commander of the guard, Police Chief Borzhitsky, invited the Tsar to go to the palace in his sleigh. The emperor agreed, but before that he wanted to come up and look his would-be killer in the eyes. He survived the seventh assassination attempt, “Now it’s all over,” Alexander thought. But because of him, innocent people suffered and he went to the wounded and dead. Before the great Emperor Alexander II the Liberator had time to take even two steps, he was again stunned by a new explosion. The second bomb was thrown by twenty-year-old Ignatius Grinevitsky, blowing himself up along with the emperor. Due to the explosion, the sovereign's legs were crushed.

In the 70s, the ideology of the populist movement was finally formed. Considering the peasant community as a cell of the future socialist system, representatives of this movement differed in the ways of its construction. The Russian radical intelligentsia of the 70s of the 19th century was divided according to the directions of their views into three directions: 1) anarchist, 2) propaganda, 3) conspiratorial.

A prominent exponent of anarchism was M.A. Bakunin, who outlined its basic principles in his work “Statehood and Anarchy”. He believed that any, even the most democratic, state power is evil. He believed that the state is only a temporary historical form of unification. His ideal was a society based on the principles of self-government and a free federation of rural communities and production associations based on collective ownership of tools. Therefore, Bakunin sharply opposed the ideas of winning political freedoms, believing that it was necessary to fight for the social equality of people. The revolutionary, in his opinion, had to play the role of a spark that would ignite the flame of a popular uprising.

The ideologist of the propaganda direction was P.L. Lavrov. He shared Bakunin's thesis that the revolution would break out in the countryside. However, he denied the peasantry’s readiness for it. Therefore, he said that the task of a revolutionary is to conduct systematic propaganda work among the people. Lavrov also said that the intelligentsia, which itself must undergo the necessary training before starting to propagate socialist ideas among the peasantry, is not ready for the revolution. His famous book “Historical Letters,” which became very popular among young people of that time, was devoted to the substantiation of these ideas. In the early 70s, circles with a propaganda and educational character began to appear in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Among them, the “Tchaikovsky Circle”, founded by St. Petersburg University student Nikolai Tchaikovsky, the “Big Propaganda Society”, founded by Mark Nathanson and Sofia Perovskaya, and the circle of technology student Alexander Dolgushin, stood out.

WALKING TO THE PEOPLE

In 1873-1874 of the 19th century, under the influence of Lavrov’s ideas, a massive “going to the people” arose. Hundreds of young men and women went to the villages as teachers, doctors, laborers, etc. Their goal was to live among the people and propagate their ideals. Some went to rouse the people to revolt, others peacefully propagated socialist ideals. However, the peasant turned out to be immune to this propaganda, and the appearance of strange young people in the villages aroused the suspicion of local authorities. Soon mass arrests of propagandists began. In 1877 and 1878 high-profile trials took place over them - the “Trial of the 50” (1877) and the “Trial of the 193” (1877-1878). Moreover, as a result of the trials, many of the accused were acquitted, including the future regicides Andrei Zhelyabov and Sofya Perovskaya.

CONSPIRACY DIRECTION

The ideologist of the conspiratorial trend was P.N. Tkachev. He believed that revolution in Russia could only be achieved through a conspiracy, i.e. the seizure of power by a small group of revolutionaries. Tkachev wrote that the autocracy in Russia has no social support among the masses, is a “colossus with feet of clay” and therefore can easily be overthrown through conspiracy and terror tactics. “Do not prepare a revolution, but do it” - this was his main thesis. To achieve these goals, a united and well-secret organization is required. These ideas were subsequently embodied in the activities of Narodnaya Volya.

"LAND AND WILL". "PEOPLE'S WILL".

The failures of the Populists' propaganda campaign in the 1870s. once again forced the revolutionaries to turn to radical means of struggle - to create a centralized organization and develop a program of action. Such an organization, called “Land and Freedom,” was created in 1876. Its founders were G.V. Plekhanov, Mark and Olga Nathanson, O. Aptekman. Soon Vera Figner, Sofya Perovskaya, Lev Tikhomirov, Sergei Kravchinsky (known as the writer Stepnyak-Kravchinsky) joined it. The new organization announced itself with a political demonstration on December 6, 1876 in St. Petersburg, on the square near the Kazan Cathedral, where Plekhanov made a passionate speech about the need to fight despotism.

Unlike previous populist circles, it was a clearly organized and well-secret organization, led by the “Center,” which formed its core. All other members were divided into groups of five people according to the nature of their activities, and each member of the five knew only its members. Thus, the most numerous were the groups of “village workers” who carried out work in the village. The organization also published illegal newspapers - “Land and Freedom” and “Listok “Land and Freedom”.

The “Land and Freedom” program provided for the transfer of all land to peasants on the basis of communal use, freedom of speech, press, meetings and the creation of production agricultural and industrial communes. The main tactical means of struggle was propaganda among the peasantry and workers. However, soon disagreements arose among the leadership of Land and Freedom on tactical issues. A significant group of supporters of the recognition of terror as a means of political struggle emerged in the leadership of the organization.

The key moment in the history of Russian terrorism was the assassination attempt on St. Petersburg mayor F.F. Trepov, committed on January 24, 1878 by Vera Zasulich. However, the jury acquitted the revolutionary, who was immediately released from custody. The acquittal gave the revolutionaries hope that they could count on public sympathy.

Terrorist acts began to follow one after another. On August 4, 1878, in broad daylight on Mikhailovskaya Square in St. Petersburg, S. Kravchinsky stabbed the chief of gendarmes, Adjutant General N. Mezentsov, with a dagger. Finally, on April 2, 1879, the “landman” A. Solovyov shot at the Tsar on Palace Square, but none of his five shots reached the target. The terrorist was captured and soon hanged. After this assassination attempt, Russia, by order of the tsar, was divided into six governor generals, with governors general being granted emergency rights up to and including the approval of death sentences.

The split within “Land and Freedom” intensified. Many of its members strongly opposed terror, believing that it would lead to increased repression and ruin the cause of propaganda. As a result, a compromise solution was found: the organization does not support the terrorist, but individual members can assist him as private individuals. Differences in approaches to tactical means of struggle necessitated the convening of a congress, which took place on June 18-24, 1879 in Voronezh. The disputing parties realized the incompatibility of their views and agreed to divide the organization into the “Black Redistribution”, led by G. Plekhanov, who stood in the previous positions of propaganda, and the “People’s Will”, led by the executive committee, which set as its goal the seizure of power by terrorist means. This organization included the majority of the members of “Land and Freedom”, and among its leaders were A. Mikhailov, A. Zhelyabov, V. Figner, M. Frolenko, N. Morozov, S. Perovskaya, S.N. Khalturin.

The main task of the party leadership was the assassination of Alexander II, who was sentenced to death. A real hunt began for the king. On November 19, 1879, an explosion occurred on the royal train near Moscow during the emperor’s return from Crimea. On February 5, 1880, a new daring attempt took place - an explosion in the Winter Palace, carried out by S. Khalturin. He managed to get a job as a carpenter in the palace and settled in one of the basements, located under the royal dining room. Khalturin managed to carry dynamite into his room in several stages, hoping to carry out an explosion at the moment when Alexander II was in the dining room. But the king was late for dinner that day. The explosion killed and wounded several dozen security soldiers.

"DICTATURE OF THE HEART"

The explosion in the Winter Palace forced the authorities to take extraordinary measures. The government began to seek support from society in order to isolate the radicals. To fight the revolutionaries, a Supreme Administrative Commission was formed, headed by a popular and authoritative general at that time M.T. Loris-Melikov, effectively receiving dictatorial powers. He took harsh measures to combat the revolutionary terrorist movement, while at the same time pursuing a policy of bringing the government closer to the “well-intentioned” circles of Russian society. Thus, under him, in 1880, the Third Department of His Imperial Majesty’s Own Chancellery was abolished. Police functions were now concentrated in the police department, formed within the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Loris-Melikov began to gain popularity in liberal circles, becoming Minister of the Interior at the end of 1880. At the beginning of 1881, he prepared a project to attract representatives of zemstvos to participate in the discussion of the transformations necessary for Russia (this project is sometimes called the Loris-Melikov “constitution”), approved by Alexander II.

Alexander II: “I approve of the main idea regarding the usefulness and timeliness of involving local figures in deliberative participation in the preparation of bills by central institutions.”

P.A. Valuev: “In the morning, the Sovereign sent for me to hand over the draft announcement drawn up in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, with instructions to say my opinion about it and, if I have no objections, to convene the Council of Ministers on Wednesday the 4th. It’s been a long, long time since I’ve seen the Emperor in such a good spirit and even looking so healthy and kind. At 3 o'clock I was at gr. Loris-Melikov (to warn him that I returned the project to the Sovereign without comments), when the fatal explosions were heard.”

Alexander II - Princess Yuryevskaya: “The job is done, I have just signed a manifesto (“Draft Notice of the Convocation of Deputies from the Provinces”), it will be published on Monday morning in the newspapers. I hope he makes a good impression. In any case, Russia will see that I gave everything that was possible, and will know that I did it thanks to you.”

Princess Yuryevskaya - Alexander II: “There are terrible rumors. We have to wait."

REGICIDE

However, the executive committee of Narodnaya Volya continued to prepare regicide. Having carefully traced the routes of the tsar's trips, the People's Volunteers, along the possible route of the autocrat, on Malaya Sadovaya Street, rented a shop for selling cheese. From the shop premises, a tunnel was made under the pavement and a mine was laid. The unexpected arrest of one of the party leaders A. Zhelyabov at the end of February 1881 forced the acceleration of preparations for the assassination attempt, the leadership of which was taken over by S. Perovskaya. Another option was being developed: hand-held shells were urgently manufactured in case Alexander II followed a different route - along the embankment of the Catherine Canal. Throwers with hand bombs would be waiting for him there.

On March 1, 1881, the Tsar drove along the embankment. The explosion of the first bomb thrown by N. Rysakov damaged the royal carriage, wounded several guards and passers-by, but Alexander II survived. Then another thrower, I. Grinevitsky, coming close to the tsar, threw a bomb at his feet, from the explosion of which both received mortal wounds. Alexander II died a few hours later.

A.V. Tyrkov: “Perovskaya later gave me a little detail about Grinevitsky. Before going to the canal, she, Rysakov and Grinevitsky sat in Andreev’s confectionery, located on Nevsky opposite Gostiny Dvor, in the basement, and waited for the moment when it was time to go out. Only Grinevitsky could calmly eat the portion served to him. They left the pastry shop separately and met again on the canal. There, passing by Perovskaya, already towards the fatal place, he quietly smiled at her, a barely noticeable smile. He showed not a shadow of fear or excitement and went to his death with a completely calm soul.”

N. Rysakov: “When meeting with Mikhail (I. Emelyanov), I learned that the Emperor would probably be in the arena, and therefore would be driving along the Catherine Canal. Due to understandable agitation, we talked about nothing else. After sitting for a short time, I left. Mikhail, as I already said, also had something in his hands, I don’t remember what it was wrapped in, and since the thing in his hands was quite similar in shape to my projectile, I concluded that he received the same projectile earlier or later than me , - I waited for him in the pastry shop for about 20 minutes. ...Walking along Mikhailovskaya Street...we met a blonde (Perovskaya), who, when she saw us, blew her nose into a white handkerchief, which was a sign that we should go to the Catherine Canal. Coming out of the pastry shop, I walked around the streets, trying to be at the canal by 2 o’clock, as Zakhar had said before on my date with him and Mikhail. For about two hours I was at the corner of Nevsky and the canal, and until that time I walked either along Nevsky or along adjacent streets, so as not to needlessly attract the attention of the police located along the canal.”

The assassination of the Tsar did not bring the results expected by the Narodnaya Volya; the revolution did not occur. The death of the “Tsar-Liberator” caused grief among the people, and Russian liberal society did not support the terrorists whom it had recently admired. Most members of the executive committee of Narodnaya Volya were arrested. In the case of the “Pervomartovtsy”, a trial was held, according to the verdict of which S. Perovskaya (the first woman in Russia executed for a political crime), A. Zhelyabov, N. Kibalchich, who manufactured explosive devices, T. Mikhailov and N. Rysakov were executed.

“Moskovskie Vedomosti”, March 29: “We will not hide that the trial that is now taking place over the perpetrators of the regicide makes a difficult, unbearable impression, because it allows the revolutionaries to present themselves as a party that has the right to exist, to testify to their triumph, to appear as heroic martyrs. Why this parade, which only confuses the minds and public conscience?.. The court cannot compete in painting, in poetry of its kind, which Zhelyabov and Kibalchich discovered. Can one seriously say that all this is devoid of a certain temptation?

Alexander III: “I would like our gentlemen lawyers to finally understand the absurdity of such courts for such a terrible and unheard of crime.”

G. K. Gradovsky: “In the case of March 1, 1881, there were many reasons to replace the death penalty with another grave, but still correctable punishment: Zhelyabov was arrested even before the regicide, Perovskaya, Kibalchich, Gelfman and Mikhailov did not kill the tsar, even Rysakov (who threw the first bomb at the royal carriage) did not kill him; the direct killer was I. I. Grinevitsky, but he himself died from the second bomb that hit the Tsar.”

By 1883, Narodnaya Volya was defeated, but some of its factions still continued their activities. Thus, on March 1, 1887, an unsuccessful attempt was made to assassinate the new Emperor Alexander III, which was the last act of the struggle. The case of the “second March 1st” also ended with five gallows: P. Andreyushkin, V. Generalov, V. Osipanov, A. Ulyanov (Ulyanov-Lenin’s elder brother) and P. Shevyrev were executed.

However, despite the defeat of the Narodnaya Volya, the experience of their struggle and especially the regicide had a colossal influence on the subsequent course of the revolutionary movement in Russia. The activities of “Narodnaya Volya” convinced subsequent generations of revolutionaries that with insignificant forces it was possible to really resist the repressive apparatus of a powerful empire, and terrorism began to be regarded as a very effective means of struggle.

ALEXANDER BLOK (POEM “RETENGE”)

“...There was an explosion

From the Catherine Canal,

Covering Russia with a cloud.

Everything foreshadowed from afar,

That the fateful hour will happen,

That such a card will appear...

And this century hour of the day -

The last one is called the first of March"

On April 4, 1866, Alexander II was walking with his nephews in the Summer Garden. A large crowd of onlookers watched the emperor's promenade through the fence. When the walk ended, and Alexander II was getting into the carriage, a shot was heard. For the first time in Russian history, an attacker shot at the Tsar! The crowd almost tore the terrorist to pieces. "Fools! - he shouted, fighting back. “I’m doing this for you!” It was a member of a secret revolutionary organization, Dmitry Karakozov. To the emperor’s question “why did you shoot at me?” he answered boldly: “Your Majesty, you offended the peasants!” However, it was the peasant, Osip Komissarov, who pushed the hapless killer's arm and saved the sovereign from certain death. Didn’t understand the “foolishness” of the revolutionaries’ concerns. Karakozov was executed, and in the Summer Garden, in memory of the salvation of Alexander II, a chapel was erected with the inscription on the pediment: “Do not touch My Anointed One.” In 1930, the victorious revolutionaries demolished the chapel.

"Meaning the liberation of the homeland"

On May 25, 1867, in Paris, Alexander II and the French Emperor Napoleon III were traveling in an open carriage. Suddenly a man jumped out of the enthusiastic crowd and shot twice at the Russian monarch. Past! The identity of the criminal was quickly established: the Pole Anton Berezovsky was trying to take revenge for the suppression of the Polish uprising by Russian troops in 1863. “Two weeks ago I had the idea of regicide, however, I had this thought since I began to recognize myself, meaning liberation homeland,” the Pole explained confusingly during interrogation. A French jury sentenced Berezovsky to life in hard labor in New Caledonia.

Five bullets of teacher Solovyov

The next assassination attempt on the emperor occurred on April 14, 1879. While walking in the palace park, Alexander II drew attention to a young man quickly walking in his direction. The stranger managed to fire five bullets at the emperor (and where were the guards looking?!) until he was disarmed. It was only a miracle that saved Alexander II, who did not receive a scratch. The terrorist turned out to be a school teacher, and “part-time” - a member of the revolutionary organization “Land and Freedom” Alexander Solovyov. He was executed on the Smolensk field in front of a large crowd of people.

"Why are they chasing me like a wild animal?"

In the summer of 1879, an even more radical organization emerged from the depths of “Land and Freedom” - “People's Will”. From now on, in the hunt for the emperor there will be no place for the “handicraft” of individuals: professionals have taken up the matter. Remembering the failure of previous attempts, the Narodnaya Volya members abandoned small arms, choosing a more “reliable” means - a mine. They decided to blow up the imperial train on the route between St. Petersburg and Crimea, where Alexander II vacationed every year. The terrorists, led by Sofia Perovskaya, knew that a freight train with luggage was coming first, and Alexander II and his retinue were traveling in the second. But fate again saved the emperor: on November 19, 1879, the locomotive of the “truck” broke down, so Alexander II’s train went first. Not knowing about this, the terrorists let it through and blew up another train. “What do they have against me, these unfortunate people? - the emperor said sadly. “Why are they chasing me like a wild animal?”

"In the Lair of the Beast"

And the “unlucky ones” were preparing a new blow, deciding to blow up Alexander II in his own house. Sofya Perovskaya learned that the Winter Palace was renovating the basements, including the wine cellar, “successfully” located directly under the imperial dining room. And soon a new carpenter appeared in the palace - Narodnaya Volya member Stepan Khalturin. Taking advantage of the amazing carelessness of the guards, he carried dynamite into the cellar every day, hiding it among the building materials. On the evening of February 17, 1880, a gala dinner was planned in the palace in honor of the arrival of the Prince of Hesse in St. Petersburg. Khalturin set the bomb timer for 18.20. But chance intervened again: the prince’s train was half an hour late, dinner was postponed. The terrible explosion claimed the lives of 10 soldiers and injured another 80 people, but Alexander II remained unharmed. It was as if some mysterious force was taking death away from him.

"The honor of the party demands that the Tsar be killed"

Having recovered from the shock of the explosion in the Winter Palace, the authorities began mass arrests, and several terrorists were executed. After this, the head of Narodnaya Volya, Andrei Zhelyabov, said: “The honor of the party demands that the tsar be killed.” Alexander II was warned about a new assassination attempt, but the emperor calmly replied that he was under divine protection. On March 13, 1881, he was riding in a carriage with a small convoy of Cossacks along the embankment of the Catherine Canal in St. Petersburg. Suddenly one of the passers-by threw a package into the carriage. There was a deafening explosion. When the smoke cleared, the dead and wounded lay on the embankment. However, Alexander II cheated death again...

The hunt is over

...It was necessary to leave quickly, but the emperor got out of the carriage and headed towards the wounded. What was he thinking about at these moments? About the prediction of the Parisian gypsy? About the fact that he has now survived the sixth attempt, and the seventh will be the last? We will never know: a second terrorist ran up to the emperor, and a new explosion occurred. The prediction came true: the seventh attempt became fatal for the emperor...

Alexander II died on the same day in his palace. "Narodnaya Volya" was defeated, its leaders were executed. The bloody and senseless hunt for the emperor ended in the death of all its participants.

1879, August - the secret organization “People's Will” appeared in Russia. Its leadership - the Executive Committee - included professional revolutionaries. The founders of Narodnaya Volya demanded that the authorities convene a Constituent Assembly and carry out broad democratic reforms. They set the task of “curbing government arbitrariness.” Terror was considered as one of the means of political struggle. On August 26, the Executive Committee passed a death sentence on Emperor Alexander 2.

Alexander 2 remained a controversial figure in Russian history. On the one hand, he is known as Alexander the Liberator, who gave freedom to the peasants. Savior of the Balkan Slavs from the Turkish yoke. The initiator of the Great Reforms - zemstvo, judicial, military... On the other hand, he was a persecutor not only of socialist students, participants in “going to the people,” but also of very moderate liberals.

Groups of Narodnaya Volya militants began to disperse to their designated cities. They were preparing to attack the Emperor in Odessa, Alexandrovsk (a city between Kursk and Belgorod) and Moscow.

The Moscow group was closest to success. People's Will - Mikhailov, Perovskaya, Hartman, Isaev, Barannikov, Shiryaev and others - built a 40-meter underground passage from a house they bought near the railway. Late in the evening of November 19, a mine exploded under a passing train. The explosion caused a baggage car to overturn and 8 more to derail. No harm done. Moreover, it was a train with a retinue, and the imperial train followed.

The attempted murder of Alexander 2, November 19, agitated society. Even the official press noted the skillful and thorough engineering preparation of the mine. In the “Narodnaya Volya” leaflets distributed after the terrorist attack, Alexander 2 is declared “the personification of hypocritical, cowardly, bloodthirsty and all-corrupting despotism.” The Executive Committee demanded the transfer of power to the national Constituent Assembly. “Until then - struggle! The fight is irreconcilable!

In the winter of 1879/1880, when preparations were underway for the 25th anniversary of the reign of Alexander 2, the situation in the state was turbulent. The Grand Dukes asked the Tsar to move to Gatchina, but the Tsar refused.

1879, September 20 - carpenter Batyshkov got a job at the Winter Palace. In fact, this name was hiding Stepan Khalturin, the son of a Vyatka peasant, one of the founders of the Northern Union of Russian Workers, who later joined Narodnaya Volya. He believed that the emperor should die at the hands of a worker - a representative of the people.

His room with his partner was located in the basement of the palace. Directly above it was a guardhouse, and even higher, on the second floor, were the royal chambers. Khalturin-Batyshkov’s personal property was a huge chest in the corner of the basement - to this day it is unclear why the tsarist police never bothered to look into it.

The terrorist carried small amounts of explosives into the palace. When about 3 pounds of dynamite had accumulated, Khalturin attempted to assassinate Alexander 2. On February 5, he detonated a mine under the dining room, where the royal family was supposed to be. In Zimny, the lights went out and frightened security guards ran in and out. Alas, Alexander 2 did not go out to the dining room as usual, as he was meeting a guest - the Prince of Hesse. As a result of the terrorist attack, 19 soldiers were killed and another 48 were injured. Khalturin was able to escape.

The attempted murder of Alexander 2 on February 5th made Narodnaya Volya world famous. The explosion in the royal palace seemed an absolutely incredible event. At the suggestion of the heir, the Supreme Administrative Commission for the Protection of State Order and Public Peace was established. The emperor appointed Kharkov Governor-General Loris-Melikov as the head of the commission, subjugating not only the police, but also the civil authorities.

Ruthless repression was applied to participants in the revolutionary movement. In March, non-commissioned officer Lozinsky and student Rozovsky were executed for distributing leaflets alone. Even earlier, the same sad fate befell Mlodetsky, who attempted to assassinate Loris-Melikov.

In the spring and summer of 1880, the Executive Committee tried to organize two more assassination attempts on Alexander 2 (in Odessa and St. Petersburg), but both did not take place. It should be noted that Zhelyabov and Mikhailov advocated the continuation of organizational and propaganda work. They saw the assassination of Alexander 2 as a means to awaken society, set the people in motion, and force the government to make concessions.

By the fall of 1880, the authority of Narodnaya Volya had become extremely high. She had many voluntary and selfless helpers, young people were ready to take part in her most dangerous activities, and money collections were conducted in all levels of society for the needs of the party. Even the liberals took part in this action: they believed that the activities of the Narodnaya Volya would force the tsar to agree to some kind of concessions, and they began to seriously talk about the draft of the much-desired constitution.

1880, October - the trial of 16 Narodnaya Volya members, who were betrayed by the traitor Goldenberg, ended. The execution of one of the founders of the organization, A. Kvyatkovsky, and the revolutionary worker, A. Presnyakov, shocked the Narodnaya Volya members. In a proclamation issued on November 6, the Executive Committee called on the Russian intelligentsia to lead the people to victory under the slogan “Death to tyrants.” The Narodnaya Volya members now considered revenge on the emperor not only as a duty. “The honor of the party demands that he be killed,” Zhelyabov said about the upcoming assassination attempt.

This time they decided to eliminate the sovereign at any cost, using, if necessary, several methods of attack at once. An observation detachment of young people monitored the emperor's travels. Technicians Kibalchich, Isaev, Grachevsky and others prepared dynamite, explosive jelly, and casings for throwing bombs.

Back at the end of 1880, a shop was rented in the semi-basement floor of a house on the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and Malaya Sadovaya. The king passed through these streets on his way to the arena. Under the guise of cheese merchants, Narodnaya Volya members Bogdanovich and Yakimova settled there using false passports. The new owners aroused the suspicion of neighboring shopkeepers, and then the police, nevertheless, the revolutionaries began to undermine Malaya Sadovaya.

It seemed like everything had been taken care of. If the sovereign had not been injured in the mine explosion, then the bomb throwers would begin to operate. If the latter failed, Zhelyabov was going to rush at Alexander 2 with a dagger. However, by the end of February, the threat of defeat loomed over the Executive Committee. The betrayal of Okladsky, who was pardoned after the trial of 16, led to the failure of two safe houses and a whole chain of arrests.

The accidental arrest of Alexander Mikhailov in November 1880 had serious consequences. Demanding and unforgiving in the implementation of organizational principles and secrecy, he was a kind of security chief of “Narodnaya Volya”. Mikhailov knew almost all the spies and police officials. It was he who was able to introduce agent Kletochnikov into the III department.

After Mikhailov was arrested, the rules of secrecy were observed with unforgivable negligence, which led to new failures. Following the arrests of Klodkevich and Barannikov, it was Kletochnikov’s turn. The amazement of the police knew no bounds when they discovered that the efficient and quiet official was a secret agent of the revolutionaries.

The government, which knew about the preparation of a new attempt to assassinate Alexander 2, took countermeasures. On February 27, the police received an unexpected gift. Together with the leader of the Odessa circles, Trigoni, who had arrived in St. Petersburg, Zhelyabov was seized in his hotel room with a weapon in his hands, for whom gendarmes had been searching throughout Russia for more than a year to no avail.

Andrei Zhelyabov, the son of a domestic peasant from the Taurida province, expelled from his third year at Novorossiysk University for participating in riots, in 1880 became the de facto head of the Executive Committee and, as a member of the administrative commission, led all terrorist actions. Without a doubt, if the Narodnaya Volya had succeeded in a political coup, the revolutionary government would have been headed by Zhelyabov.

Loris-Melikov, who two weeks earlier warned the sovereign about the impending danger, on the morning of February 28, triumphantly reported to the tsar about the arrest of the main conspirator. Alexander 2 became emboldened and decided to go to the Mikhailovsky Manege the next day.

On February 28, a “sanitary commission” headed by engineer general Mravinsky descended on the cheese shop on Malaya Sadovaya. During a superficial inspection of the traces of the tunnel, the commission was unable to find any traces, and the general did not dare to conduct a search without special permission (for which he was later court-martialed).

In the evening, members of the Executive Committee hastily gathered at Vera Figner’s apartment. The arrest of Zhelyabov was a heavy blow for the Narodnaya Volya members. Nevertheless, they decided to go to the end, even if the emperor did not go along Malaya Sadovaya.

Bombs were being loaded all night, and a mine was planted in the cheese shop, which Mikhail Frolenko was supposed to detonate. She supervised the throwers. The daughter of the St. Petersburg governor, she ran away from home at the age of 16, entered women's courses, and then became interested in revolutionary ideas.

On the day of the assassination attempt, March 1, she showed self-control and resourcefulness. When they found out that the Tsar did not go along Malaya Sadovaya, Sophia went around the throwers and assigned them new places on the embankment of the Catherine Canal, along which the Tsar was supposed to return.

In the end, what the Narodnaya Volya members had been striving for for so long came true. At three o'clock in the afternoon, two explosions were heard one after another in the city center. The first bomb, thrown by Nikolai Rysakov at the feet of the horses, only managed to damage the royal carriage. Two Cossacks from the royal convoy and a boy passing by were killed.

When the Tsar got out of the carriage, Ignatius Grinevitsky threw the second bomb. The emperor and the thrower were mortally wounded in this explosion. Alexander 2, bloodied, with his legs crushed by the explosion, was taken to the palace. The urgently called doctors could not save the monarch. On March 1, 1881, at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, a black flag rose over the Winter Palace.

Grinevitsky died in terrible agony, maintaining his composure to the end. A few minutes before his death he came to his senses. "What is your name?" - the investigator asked him. “I don’t know,” was the answer. The name of the revolutionary was found out only during the trial on March 1.

On the morning of March 1, Grinevitsky, at the direction of Perovskaya, took the most important place on Manezhnaya Square, but when the sovereign changed the route, he ended up second on the Catherine Canal...

For several weeks, St. Petersburg was under martial law. There were policemen, soldiers, and spies scurrying about everywhere. Popular unrest was expected, and many revolutionaries believed that Narodnaya Volya was "beginning to acquire a reputation as a force capable of resisting the forces of the government." They were especially afraid of protests by workers - Rysakov treacherously reported on an entire organization in their midst. Cossack outposts cut off the working outskirts from the center.

The Narodnaya Volya members had the strength to compose an appeal from the Executive Committee to the Russian people and to European society, publish and distribute the “Letter of the Executive Committee to Alexander III.” The letter contained demands for an amnesty for all political prisoners, the convening of representatives from the entire Russian people, and to ensure their elections - freedom of the press, speech, and electoral programs.

In factories and factories, Narodnaya Volya workers were waiting for a call for strikes and demonstrations, or even for open struggle, for an uprising. However, none of the leaders showed up. The proclamation of Narodnaya Volya, received on the third day, did not contain specific calls to action. In essence, the Executive Committee in its terrorist struggle remained a narrow, strictly closed conspiratorial circle. Immediately after March 1, Gelfman, Timofey Mikhailov, Perovskaya, Kibalchich, Isaev, Sukhanov, and then Yakimova, Lebedeva, Langans were arrested. After March 1, friends advised Perovskaya to flee abroad, but she chose to stay in St. Petersburg.

Zhelyabov decided that in the interests of the party he should personally participate in the trial, promoting the ideas of Narodnaya Volya. He wrote a statement to the prosecutor of the judicial chamber, in which he demanded to “involve himself in the case of March 1st” and expressed his readiness to give incriminating evidence. This unusual request was granted.

The trial of the Pervomartovites took place on March 26-29 under the chairmanship of Senator Fuchs and under the supervision of the Minister of Justice Nabokov and those close to the new Tsar Alexander III.

At the beginning of the meeting, a resolution of the Senate was read out rejecting Zhelyabov’s application submitted the day before that the case was not under the jurisdiction of the special presence of the Senate and transferring the case to a jury trial. Zhelyabov, Perovskaya, Kibalchich, Gelfman, Mikhailov and Rysakov were accused of belonging to a secret society aimed at the violent overthrow of the existing state and social system and participation in the regicide of March 1.

On March 29, the court sentenced the defendants to death. For the pregnant Gelfman, the execution was replaced by a link to hard labor, but she died soon after giving birth.

On the morning of April 3, two high black platforms rolled out of the gates of the pretrial detention house on Shpalernaya. Zhelyabov and the repentant Rysakov on the first, Mikhailov, Perovskaya and Kibalchich on the second. On each person’s chest hung a plaque with the inscription: “Kingslayer.” They were all hanged...