The next internal blow to the Russian Empire, after the Decembrist uprising, was the so-called movement. populists. In 1879, after the split of the Land and Freedom party and the collapse of the terrorist group Freedom or Death, the revolutionary terrorist populist organization Narodnaya Volya was created. Its main method of achieving political goals was terror. And the main goal was to kill the “Tsar-Liberator” Alexander II.
The Russian statehood was not ready for the fact that people brought up and well educated in the Russian Empire would treat their own Motherland with such hatred. Russian society was not yet familiar with the extreme fanaticism and bloodthirstiness of the next fighters “for the people’s happiness.” The state has not yet had to deal with attempts on the lives of the Tsar and government officials. Acts of terror and subversive proclamations shocked the citizens of the empire. The actions of the “People's Will” became a harbinger of a new bloody era.
In general, it should be noted that the ideology of populism was born in the West. It was formulated by the creator of Russian socialism and the first famous dissident Alexander Herzen. This idea was adopted and developed by Russian intellectuals such as N. G. Chernyshevsky, V. G. Belinsky, P. N. Tkachev, M. A. Bakunin, P. A. Kropotkin. However, this trend was not accepted by the people, remaining in a narrow circle of intellectuals. The Populist movement coincided with the liberal reforms of Alexander II. The emperor abolished serfdom and introduced unprecedented liberties and freedoms in the country. Zemstvo self-government was established in the empire, and the court took on its familiar form with a jury and a defense attorney.
The call to kill the Tsar and take the “imperial party to the axes” appeared already in 1862: “We will let out one cry: “To the axes!” - and then... then beat the imperial party, without sparing, just as it does not spare us now, beat in the squares, if this vile bastard dares to come out to them, beat in houses, beat in the cramped alleys of cities, beat on the wide streets of capitals, beat in villages and villages! Remember that then, whoever is not with us will be against us; whoever is against us is our enemy, and enemies should be destroyed by all means.” These words were spoken in the “Young Russia” proclamation. Its author was Pyotr Grigorievich Zaichnevsky (1842 - 1896), from the family of a nobleman of the Oryol province, a retired colonel. Zaichnevsky graduated from the Oryol Gymnasium with a silver medal in 1858 and entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University. During his studies, he became interested in socialist teachings. He became one of the organizers of the circle, which was engaged in the publication of prohibited literature: A. I. Herzen, N. P. Ogarev, L. Feuerbach and other authors. He was engaged in the propaganda of revolutionary ideas. He got to the point that in 1861, in the wake of dissatisfaction with the peasant reform of 1861, he decided to prepare a peasant uprising with the goal of seizing the land of the landowners. He was arrested, convicted and in prison wrote the proclamation “Young Russia”.
In the proclamation, Zaichnevsky noted that society in Russia “is entering a revolutionary period of its existence.” Russian society, in his opinion, is quite clearly divided into two groups, whose interests are diametrically opposed, and therefore hostile to each other. The first part is the “oppressed and robbed” people. This is the "people's party". The other group includes “robbers” - officials and landowners, the tsar and his court, the generals, merchants who “made capital for themselves through robbery and deception,” all the property, everyone who has property. This is the "imperial party". It is precisely this that the author proposes for “axes”. In fact, he proposes to physically destroy the existing government, the political elite of the empire - the tsar, the imperial family, the sovereign's closest assistants, the generals, the highest flower of the nobility and merchants. This is a blow to the very foundation of the then Russian statehood; the desire to destroy the Russian Empire and create some kind of democratic Russian republic was openly expressed. The imperial family is especially hated - “Like a purifying sacrifice, the entire house of Romanov will lay down its heads!”
The leaflet named the main program positions of the revolutionary populists. Quite correctly, Dostoevsky will call these people “demons”, and Turgenev - nihilists. They actually proposed to destroy the Russian state, all the foundations of Russian society. According to the revolutionary student, “In the modern social system, in which everything is false, everything is absurd - from religion, which forces one to believe in the non-existent, in the dream of a heated imagination - God, and to the family, cells of society, none of the foundations of which can withstand even superficial criticism, from legitimizing the trade of this organized theft ... ". Workers are constantly exhausted by work from which the capitalists receive all the benefits; women, deprived of all political rights, are in the position of animals. Zaichnevsky and his comrades saw only one method of combating this injustice - “revolution”, and a “bloody and inexorable revolution”, which should change all the foundations of the existing system and destroy the supporters of the “imperial party”.
The author of the leaflet immediately notes that during a revolution “innocent victims” and “rivers of blood” are possible, but this does not frighten him. Zaichnevsky reports that they have studied the West well and will be more consistent “not only with the miserable revolutionaries of 1848, but also with the great terrorists of 1792,” and will not be afraid if they see that in order to overthrow the modern order they will have to “shed three times as much blood as was shed by the Jacobins in 1790."
In this regard, all demonic destroyers are very similar to each other, from the “Decembrists”, Herzen and the Narodniks, to the “Februaryists”, “Trotskyists” and modern figures of Bolotnaya Square. For them, the only way to combat the injustice of the existing order (and in any period of history, there was no such order anywhere in the world) is the complete destruction of the old world.
Zaichnevsky considers the main task of the “people's party” to be the collapse of the Russian Empire. He raises the question of changing “the modern despotic government into a republican-federal union of regions, and all power should pass into the hands of the National and Regional Assemblies.” Obviously, the fight against “despotism” led to the collapse of the Russian state: “Into how many regions the Russian land will split up... we don’t know that...”.
Other proposals also led to the collapse of statehood. Thus, it was proposed, if possible, to disband the army and replace it with national guards. Poland and Lithuania were going to be given freedom. In addition, all regions were given the right of self-determination to decide by voting whether they want to join the new federation. The right of nations to self-determination was also included in the “Land and Freedom” program of the second composition of 1876-1879. In point No. 4 of their program it was proposed to promote the division of the Russian Empire into parts, to support the secession of Poland, Little Russia, and the Caucasus. “People's Will”, a revolutionary populist organization founded in August 1879, after the split of “Land and Freedom”, also along with the demands for the convening of a Constituent Assembly, the introduction of universal suffrage and permanent popular representation, the right to freedom of speech, conscience, press, and assembly ; communal self-government, replacement of the standing army with territorial militia, transfer of land to the people, proposed to grant “oppressed peoples” the rights to self-determination. It should be noted that this demand, the “right of nations to self-determination,” can almost always be found in the programs of organizations, movements and parties that are focused on the destruction of Russian statehood in any historical period (during the times of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union or modern Russia).
The demand to establish, instead of a standing army, a “national guard”, “territorial troops”, “people’s militia”, etc. is also very interesting. Why disband the regular army and establish a “people’s militia”? Although in almost any historical period Russia is surrounded not by friends, but by enemies. The answer to this question is very simple - the Russian army, even in a weakened state, always inspires horror in all our eastern and western “partners and friends.” Therefore, the conductors of the enemy’s will dream of “optimizing” and “reforming” the Russian army so that what remains of it are “amusing regiments” and “national guards.” This is an order from Russia's geopolitical rivals.
In the spirit of liberalism and revolutionary freedom, which we saw in Russia in the 1920s, and after the democratic revolution of 1991 (nowadays these “values” are still actively introduced in Russian society), other demands were voiced. Such as “public education of children”, “complete emancipation of women”, “destruction of marriage as a highly immoral phenomenon and unthinkable with complete equality of the sexes”, destruction of the family, which “hinders human development”. It is proposed to destroy male and female monasteries, “the main dens of debauchery”, where “vagrants” and “parasites” flock who want to idle and “spend their whole lives in drunkenness and debauchery.”
We see what such demands lead to in the example of modern European countries, where families have lost the right to raise children, masculinity is completely suppressed, and aggressive feminists and various kinds of perverts determine the cultural and social policy of the state. The future of such a Europe is obvious - the extinction of indigenous ethnic groups and the settlement of the territory by representatives of African and Asian peoples.
Hunt for the Emperor
The personification of Russian statehood was the autocrat, the emperor, so his murder was the main goal of various secret revolutionary societies and Narodnaya Volya. The first assassination attempt occurred on April 4, 1866, when Emperor Alexander II was walking in the Summer Garden at four o'clock in the afternoon, accompanied by his nephew, Duke Nicholas of Leuchtenberg, and his niece, Princess of Baden. When the tsar headed towards the carriage, an unknown person, it was a young man of noble origin, a dropout student at Kazan and Moscow universities, Dmitry Karakozov. He was prevented from taking good aim; the peasant Osip Komissarov, who was standing next to him, pulled away the villain’s hand. The people wanted to immediately lynch the attacker, but the police saved him. This assassination attempt became a kind of bolt from the blue in Russia. The first public attempt to kill the sovereign! Until this moment, Russian emperors walked freely around the capital and other places, without special precautions. The next day, accepting congratulations from the senators on the failed assassination attempt, the sovereign will say in his hearts: “Thank you, gentlemen, thank you for your loyal feelings. They make me happy. I've always had confidence in them. I only regret that we had to express them on such a sad event. The identity of the culprit has not yet been clarified, but it is clear that he is who he says he is. The most unfortunate thing is that he is Russian.” On September 3 (15), 1866, Karakozov was hanged on the Smolensky field (Vasilievsky Island) in St. Petersburg.
On May 25, 1867, in Paris, during the visit of the Russian Emperor to France, a second assassination attempt occurred. Napoleon III and Alexander II were returning in a carriage after a military review when a shot was fired. It was unsuccessful due to damage to the pistol. The attacker was the Polish nobleman and emigrant Anton Berezovsky. The motive for the assassination attempt was the desire to take revenge on the emperor for the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1863. A jury sentenced him to lifelong hard labor in New Caledonia (later it was replaced by lifelong exile).
On April 2 (14), 1879, in St. Petersburg, right on Palace Square, while walking, Emperor Alexander II noticed a man who was closely watching him. It must be said that, despite two assassination attempts and a series of assassinations and murders of officials, the sovereign still walked around without any special precautions. Only in the distance were gendarmerie officers following him. As a result, the terrorist takes out a revolver and freely fires five (!) shots, the king has to run away and dodge like a hare. Thank God the villain was a bad shooter. The person captured turned out to be another dropout student, Alexander Solovyov. He stated that thoughts of an assassination attempt on the Tsar arose after studying the ideas of the Socialist Revolutionaries. On June 9, 1879, he was sentenced to death by hanging.
On August 26, 1879, the executive committee of Narodnaya Volya decided to “execute” the emperor. The terrorists decided to blow up the train on which Alexander and his family members were traveling. They noticed that the most vulnerable point in the security system was the route along which the tsar annually traveled on vacation to the Crimean peninsula and back to the capital. Several ambushes were prepared along the route of movement of the imperial staff: in Odessa, in case the sovereign went there by sea from the Crimea; on the Simferopol-Moscow railway near the city of Aleksandrovsk; and at the Rogozhsko-Simonovskaya outpost near Moscow. In Odessa, the attack was prepared by V. Figner, N. Kibalchich, N. Kolodkevich, M. Frolenko and T. Lebedeva. They settled in a booth near the Gnilyakovo station and were engaged in mining the railway. However, Emperor Alexander did not go to Odessa from Livadia.
On November 19, 1879, a train was blown up near Moscow. Here the assassination attempt was prepared by Andrei Zhelyabov, Lev Gertman and Sofya Perovskaya. The terrorists knew that the train with their retinue and luggage was coming first, and the second was the royal train. However, in Kharkov, due to a malfunction of the Svitsky locomotive, the departure of the first train was postponed. The royal train went first. The terrorists missed the royal train and blew up the retinue. True, there were no casualties.
The Narodnaya Volya did not calm down and began to develop a new operation. Sofya Perovskaya, through friends, learned that the Winter Palace was renovating the basements, which included a wine cellar, which was located directly under the royal dining room. They decided to lay the infernal machine there. The explosion was supposed to lead to the collapse of the dining room and the death of the people there. Worker Stepan Khalturin was entrusted with carrying out the terrorist attack. He was hired to do carpentry work in the palace and was given access to the cellars. At night he carried bags of dynamite, disguising it among the building materials. This incident shows how much chaos there was in the imperial palace. In February 1880, the terrorists received information that a gala dinner was scheduled for February 5 at the Winter Palace, which would be attended by the sovereign and all members of the imperial family. The explosion was supposed to occur at 6:20 pm, when, presumably, the emperor, who strictly followed the daily routine, should have already been in the dining room. But the incident ruined the whole situation for the villains.
Due to the visit of Duke Alexander of Hesse, his wife's brother, who was half an hour late, the dinner time was moved up. Khalturin did not know about this. When the terrible explosion occurred, the king was near the security room near the dining room. He was not injured. However, 11 veteran soldiers, heroes of the Russian-Turkish war, who were enlisted in the palace guards for their distinction, were killed, and 56 people were wounded.
On March 1, 1881, the villains achieved their goal. The Emperor left the Winter Palace for the Manege, he was accompanied by a rather small guard - a Cossack on the box next to the coachman, six more Cossacks following the carriage, and a sleigh with police chief A.I. Dvorzhitsky and three police officers. After attending the guard duty and drinking tea at his cousin's, the sovereign travels back to the Winter Palace via the Catherine Canal. And the conspirators were waiting for him on Malaya Sadovaya, where the mine was planted, and four terrorist bombers were waiting, in case the mine did not work. An option was even worked out that if the bombs did not kill the tsar, Zhelyabov was supposed to jump into the carriage (he was arrested before the assassination attempt) and stab the emperor with a dagger.
Perovskaya urgently changes the plan. Four Narodnaya Volya members - Grinevitsky, Rysakov, Emelyanov, Mikhailov, take positions along the embankment of the Catherine Canal and wait for Perovskaya’s signal (wave of the scarf). When the imperial carriage drove onto the embankment, Sophia gave a sign, and Rysakov threw the first bomb. She damaged the carriage, killed a passerby and two Cossacks. Alexander was not injured in the first explosion. Here the emperor made a fatal mistake; instead of leaving immediately, he wanted to look at the captured attacker. When he approached him, Grinevitsky threw a bomb. The explosion practically tore off both of Alexander’s legs and disfigured his face. He managed to whisper: “Take me to the palace... There I want to die...”. Soon the sovereign died.
On April 3 (old style), 1881, five Narodnaya Volya members - organizers and perpetrators of the assassination of Tsar-Liberator Alexander II, in front of a large crowd of people, were hanged on the Semenovsky parade ground in St. Petersburg. The demonstration execution of S. Perovskaya, A. Zhelyabov, N. Rysakov, A. Kibalchich and T. Mikhailov, who stood on the scaffold in long black robes and with “regicide” signs on their chests, became the last public death penalty in Russia.
All the terrorists were quite young people. Andrei Zhelyabov, the son of a serf peasant, the eldest of all those executed, was 30 years old. Sofya Perovskaya, the daughter of the former St. Petersburg governor, is 27. Nikolai Kibalchich, the son of a priest and a talented inventor, was the same age. The worker Timofey Mikhailov was only 22 years old, and the tradesman Nikolai Rysakov, who turned in his accomplices during the investigation, was only 20 years old. In addition to these five, 27-year-old Gesya Gelfman was also sentenced to death, but the sentence was replaced by indefinite hard labor, since the terrorist turned out to be pregnant, and according to the laws in force at that time, it was forbidden to execute pregnant women due to the innocence of the child (almost immediately after giving birth, the revolutionary died from purulent inflammation of the peritoneum).
The execution was preceded by a public trial, which took place on March 26-29, 1881. Standing in front of a large portrait of the Tsar they killed, the Narodnaya Volya members tried to prove to society that their struggle was noble and their goals were moral. “It was very interesting to listen to these unfortunate fanatics,” War Minister D.A. Milyutin wrote in his diary , - calmly and almost boastfully talking about their villainous tricks, as if about some kind of exploits and merits. Zhelyabov was the most impressive of all; this person is outstanding. He gave us a whole lecture on the organization of socialist circles and would have developed the entire theory of the socialists if the chairman (Senator Fuchs) had given him the freedom to speak. Zhelyabov did not deny his leading participation in the attempted regicide: in 1879 near Alexandrov, and in the tunnel in Malaya Sadovaya, and, finally, on March 1 on the Catherine Canal. Perovskaya also cynically presented herself as an active participant in a number of criminal activities; The persistence and cruelty with which she acted was striking in contrast to her frail and almost modest appearance. Although she is 26 years old, she has the appearance of an undeveloped girl. Then Kibalchich spoke fluently, with energy and outlined his role in organizing the conspiracy - a technical specialist. (...) Mikhailov had the appearance of a simple artisan and presented himself as a fighter for the liberation of the working people from the heavy oppression of capitalists, protected by the government. The Jewish Gelfman spoke colorlessly (...) Finally, Rysakov, who looked like a boy, spoke like a schoolboy during an exam. It was obvious that he succumbed to temptation out of frivolity and was an obedient executor of the orders of Zhelyabov and Perovskaya.”.
Secretary of State E.A. Peretz assessed the regicides in approximately the same way, according to whom Rysakov was an “unfortunate young man” and a “blind instrument”; Mikhailov - “fool”; Kibalchich is “a very smart and talented, but embittered person”; Zhelyabov - “looks like a clever clerk”, speaking “loud phrases and showing off”; Perovskaya - “must have remarkable willpower and influence on others.”
But the most powerful impression on those present was made by the brilliant speech of Prosecutor N.V. Muravyov (future Minister of Justice).
According to Muravyov, “the judicial investigation, full of stunning facts and terrible details, revealed such a dark abyss of human destruction, such a terrifying picture of the perversion of all human feelings and instincts” what to the judges “It will take all the courage and all the composure of a citizen, before whom the gaping deep ulcer of his homeland has suddenly opened, and from whom this homeland is waiting for the first immediate remedy for its healing.”.
“An unheard of and unprecedented event took place,” continued Muravyov , - we had the sad fate of being contemporaries and witnesses of a crime the likes of which the history of mankind does not know. The great king-liberator, blessed by millions of centuries-old slaves to whom he granted freedom, the Sovereign, who opened new paths to development and prosperity for his vast country, a man whose personal meekness and sublime nobility of thoughts and deeds were well known to the entire civilized world, in a word, the one on whom all the best hopes of the Russian people rested for a quarter of a century - he died a martyr’s death on the streets of his capital, in broad daylight, among the bustling life all around and a population loyal to the throne.”.
Seeing a mocking smile on Zhelyabov’s face, the prosecutor uttered words that spread throughout Russia: “When people cry, the Zhelyabovs laugh.” Speaking about “Narodnaya Volya,” Muravyov noted that what the defendants call “ a pompous name for the party,” “the law calmly calls it a criminal secret society, and sensible, honest, but indignant Russian people call it an underground gang, a gang of political murderers.”. Having listed the evidence incriminating the defendants and giving detailed descriptions of the terrorists, the prosecutor, addressing the court, summarized: “ We have no right to show them the slightest leniency. (...) These consequences are hopelessly harsh and grave, defining the highest punishment, which takes away from the criminal the most precious of human goods - life. But it is legal, necessary, it must defeat the perpetrators of regicide. (...) It is necessary because there is no other means of state self-defense against regicides and seditionists. Human justice stops with horror at their crimes and with a shudder is convinced that those whom it has branded cannot have a place among God's world. Deniers of faith, fighters of universal destruction and general wild anarchy, opponents of morality, merciless corrupters of youth, everywhere they carry their terrible preaching of rebellion and blood, marking their disgusting trail with murder. They have nowhere to go further: on March 1st, they exceeded the limit of their atrocities. Our homeland has suffered enough because of them, which they stained with the precious royal blood, - and in your person Russia will carry out its judgment on them. May the murder of the greatest of monarchs be the last act of their earthly criminal career. Rejected by people, cursed by their fatherland, before the justice of the Almighty God, let them give an answer for their atrocities and return peace and tranquility to shocked Russia.”
The sentence for all six was death by hanging. Only Rysakov and Kibalchich made requests for pardon, but they were rejected. And although, according to prosecutor N.V. Muravyov “among truly honest people there is not and cannot be found a single person who sympathizes with them (the regicides) in any way”, such were found. The call to pardon the terrorists and “not resist evil” was addressed to the Emperor first (even before the trial) by the writer L.N. Tolstoy, and then, when the verdict was announced, by the philosopher V.S. Solovyov, who argued that this was required by the Christian ideal of the Russian people. In this regard, Chief Prosecutor of the Holy Synod K.P. Pobedonostsev wrote to Emperor Alexander III: “People have become so depraved in their thoughts that some consider it possible to spare convicted criminals from the death penalty. The fear is already spreading among the Russian people that they may present perverted thoughts to Your Majesty and persuade you to pardon the criminals. (...) Could this happen? No, no, and a thousand times no - it cannot be that in the face of the entire Russian people, at such a moment you would forgive the murderers of your father, the Russian Sovereign, for whose blood the whole earth (except for a few, weakened in mind and heart) demands revenge and loudly complains that it is slowing down. If this could happen, believe me, Sovereign, it will be considered a great sin, and will shake the hearts of all your subjects. I am a Russian person, I live among Russians and I know how the people feel and what they require. At this moment everyone is thirsting for retribution. Whichever of these villains escapes death will immediately build new forges. For God’s sake, Your Majesty, let not the voice of flattery and dreaminess penetrate your heart.” "Keep calm, - The Sovereign answered Pobedonostsev , - no one will dare to come to me with such proposals, and that all six will be hanged, for this I guarantee.”.
On Friday, April 3, on a cold and cloudy morning, transported under the protection of police and troops in “chariots of shame” to the Semyonovsky parade ground, five of the six attackers were executed. On the eve of the execution, an Orthodox priest was sent to each of the convicts to take confession and admonish them. Rysakov and Mikhailov willingly accepted the shepherds and confessed; Kibalchich only agreed to a “discussion” with the priest, but refused confession. Zhelyabov and Perovskaya categorically refused to communicate with the shepherd.
By 9:30 it was all over. The military doctor recorded the death, after which the corpses of the executed were placed in black coffins and sent under escort to the cemetery. Noting the events of this day in her diary, General A.V. Bogdanovich wrote: “We had a lot of people, everyone came with different details. Only one person said that he saw people who expressed sympathy for them (the terrorists) - everyone unanimously said that the crowd wanted their execution.”
Prepared Andrey Ivanov, Doctor of Historical Sciences
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 the fact 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 hero-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"
134 years ago, Emperor Alexander II, honored in history with the epithet “Liberator,” died in the Winter Palace. The Tsar was known for carrying out large-scale reforms: he was able to lift the foreign economic blockade established after the Crimean War and abolish serfdom.
However, not everyone liked the transformations of Alexander II. The country experienced increasing corruption, police brutality, and an economy considered wasteful. By the end of the tsar's reign, protest sentiments spread among different strata of society, including the intelligentsia, part of the nobility and the army. Terrorists and Narodnaya Volya began the hunt for Alexander II. For 15 years he managed to escape, until March 1, 1881, his luck changed. Revolutionary Ignatius Grinevetsky threw a bomb at the Tsar’s feet. There was an explosion. The emperor died from his injuries.
On the day of the monarch’s death, the site recalled how terrorists hunted Alexander.
Retracted hand
The first attempt on the life of the emperor occurred on April 4, 1866. It was committed by Dmitry Karakozov, a member of the revolutionary society “Organization” headed by Nikolai Ishutin. He was convinced that the assassination of Alexander II could become an impetus for awakening the people to a social revolution in the country.
Pursuing his goal, Karakozov arrived in St. Petersburg in the spring of 1866. He settled in the Znamenskaya Hotel and began to wait for the right moment to commit a crime. On April 4, the Emperor, after a walk with his nephew, the Duke of Leuchtenberg and his niece, the Princess of Baden, sat in a carriage near the Summer Garden. Karakozov, huddled in the crowd, shot at Alexander II, but missed. At the moment of the shot, the terrorist’s hand was hit by the peasant Osip Komissarov. For this he was subsequently elevated to hereditary nobility and awarded a large number of awards. Karakozov was caught and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress.
On the eve of his assassination attempt on the Tsar, the terrorist distributed a proclamation “To fellow workers!” In it, the revolutionary explained the reasons for his action as follows: “It became sad, hard for me that... my beloved people were dying, and so I decided to destroy the villain king and die for my dear people. If my plan succeeds, I will die with the thought that by my death I brought benefit to my dear friend, the Russian peasant. But if I don’t succeed, I still believe that there will be people who will follow my path. I didn’t succeed, but they will succeed. For them, my death will be an example and will inspire them..."
In the case of the assassination attempt on the Tsar, 35 people were convicted, most of whom were sent to hard labor. Karakozov was hanged in September 1866 on the Smolensk field on Vasilievsky Island in St. Petersburg. The head of the “Organization” Nikolai Ishutin was also sentenced to hanging. They threw a noose around his neck and at that moment they announced a pardon. Ishutin could not stand it and subsequently went crazy.
Chapel at the site of the assassination attempt of Alexander II Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
A chapel was erected at the site of the assassination attempt on the Tsar. It was demolished during Soviet times - in 1930.
Killed horse
A significant attempt on the life of the Russian Emperor occurred in Paris in June 1867. They wanted to take revenge on Alexander II for the suppression of the Polish uprising of 1863, after which 128 people were executed and another 800 were sent to hard labor.
On June 6, the Tsar was returning in an open carriage with children and Napoleon III after a military review at the hippodrome. In the area of the Bois de Boulogne, Anton Berezovsky, a leader of the Polish national liberation movement, emerged from the crowd and fired several shots at Alexander II. The bullets were diverted from the Russian Tsar by an officer from the guard of the French Emperor, who hit the criminal in the hand just in time. As a result, the attacker only killed the horse with his shots.
Berezovsky did not expect that the pistol with which he was going to shoot Alexander II would explode in his hand. Thanks in part to this, the crowd apprehended the criminal. The leader of the Polish national liberation movement himself explained his action as follows: “I confess that I shot at the emperor today during his return from the review, two weeks ago I had the idea of regicide, however, or rather, I have harbored this thought since then, how he began to recognize himself, having in mind the liberation of his homeland.”
In July, Berezovsky was exiled to New Caledonia, where he lived until his death.
Portrait of Tsar Alexander II in an overcoat and cap of a cavalry guard regiment around 1865. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Five inaccurate shots
The next high-profile attempt on the life of the tsar occurred 12 years after the Paris attack. On April 2, 1878, teacher and member of the “Land and Freedom” society Alexander Solovyov waylaid Alexander II during his morning walk in the vicinity of the Winter Palace. The attacker managed to fire five shots, despite the fact that before the last two volleys he received a serious blow to the back with a bare saber. Not a single bullet hit Alexander II.
Soloviev was detained. A very thorough investigation was carried out into his case. On it, the attacker stated: “The idea of an attempt on the life of His Majesty arose in me after becoming 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.”
Solovyov was hanged on May 28, 1879 in the same place as Karakozov, after which he was buried on Goloday Island.
Exploded train
In the fall of the same year, members of the newly formed organization “People's Will” decided to blow up the train on which Alexander II was returning from Crimea. To do this, the first group of Narodnaya Volya members went to Odessa. One of the participants in the conspiracy, Mikhail Frolenko, got a job as a railway guard 14 km from the city. His new position made it possible to quietly lay a mine. But at the last moment the royal train changed its route.
The Narodnaya Volya were prepared for such a development of events. At the beginning of November 1879, revolutionary Alexander Zhelyabov was sent to Aleksandrovsk, who introduced himself there as Cheremisov. He bought a plot next to the railway under the pretext of building a tannery. Zhelyabov, who was working under cover of darkness, managed to drill a hole under the tracks and plant a bomb there. On November 18, when the train caught up with the Narodnaya Volya, he tried to detonate the mine, but the explosion did not happen because the electrical circuit had a malfunction.
“People's Will” formed a third group, led by Sofia Perovskaya, to carry out the assassination of the Tsar. She was supposed to plant a bomb on the tracks near Moscow. This group failed due to chance. The royal train followed two trains: the first carried luggage, and the second carried the emperor and his family. In Kharkov, due to a malfunction of the baggage train, the train of Alexander II was launched first. The terrorists ended up blowing up only the freight train. No one from the royal family was injured.
Dynamite under the dining room
Already by February 5, 1880, representatives of Narodnaya Volya prepared a new attempt on the life of Alexander II, who was despised for repressive measures, bad reforms and suppression of the democratic opposition.
Stepan Khalturin. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Sofya Perovskaya, who was responsible for the bombing of the royal train near Moscow, learned through her friends that the basements in the Winter Palace were being repaired. The premises to be worked on included a wine cellar, located exactly under the royal dining room. It was decided to plant the bomb here.
“Carpenter” Stepan Khalturin got a job in the palace and at night he dragged bags of dynamite to the right place. He was even once left alone with the king when he was renovating his office, but was unable to kill him, since the emperor was polite and courteous with the workers.
Perovskaya learned that the Tsar had a gala dinner scheduled for February 5th. At 18.20 it was decided to detonate dynamite, but this time Alexander II was not killed. The reception was delayed by half an hour due to the delay of the Prince of Hesse, who was also a member of the imperial family. The explosion caught the king not far from the security room. As a result, none of the high-ranking persons were injured, but 10 soldiers were killed and 80 wounded.
Bomb at your feet
Before the assassination attempt in March 1881, during which Alexander II was killed, the tsar was warned about the serious intentions of the Narodnaya Volya, but the emperor replied that he was under divine protection, which had already helped him survive several attacks.
Representatives of Narodnaya Volya planned to plant a bomb under the roadway on Malaya Sadovaya Street. If the mine had not worked, then four Narodnaya Volya members on the street would have thrown bombs at the emperor’s carriage. If Alexander II is still alive, Zhelyabov will have to kill the Tsar.
Attempt on the life of the king. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org
Many conspirators were exposed in anticipation of the assassination attempt. After the detention of Zhelyabov, the Narodnaya Volya decided to take decisive action.
On March 1, 1881, Alexander II went from the Winter Palace to the Manege, accompanied by a small guard. After the meeting, the Tsar went back through the Catherine Canal. This was not part of the plans of the conspirators, so it was hastily decided that four Narodnaya Volya members would stand along the canal, and after Sofia Perovskaya’s signal they would throw bombs at the carriage.
The first explosion did not affect the king, but the carriage stopped. Alexander II was not prudent and wanted to see the captured criminal. When the tsar approached Rysakov, who threw the first bomb, the Narodnaya Volya member Ignatius Grinevetsky, unnoticed by the guards, threw a second bomb at the tsar’s feet. There was an explosion. Blood flowed from the emperor's crushed legs. He wished to die in the Winter Palace, where he was taken.
Grinevetsky also received fatal injuries. Later, the main participants in the conspiracy, including Sofia Perovskaya, were detained. Members of Narodnaya Volya were hanged on April 3, 1881.
Emperor Alexander II on his deathbed. Photo by S. Levitsky. Photo:
On April 3 (April 15), 1881, the execution of Narodnaya Volya members took place. This was the last publicly executed execution in St. Petersburg. Thus ended, according to V.I. Lenin, “a desperate battle with the government of a handful of heroes.” Only the seventh attempt on the tsar's life ended successfully. Before this, all attempts - the explosion of the royal train, the desperate explosion in the royal palace itself - remained ineffectual, the monarch eluded what seemed certain death.
Painting by Tatyana Nazarenko "Execution of People's Volunteers" (1969). The artist’s sympathies, as one can easily guess from the extensive croup of the gendarmerie’s horses, are not at all on the side of the gendarmes:)
And now, finally, the success of the plan. And - execution... On the scaffold is Sofya Perovskaya, the first woman in Russia condemned to death for revolutionary activities. The daughter of the former governor of St. Petersburg, broke with her circle, participated in “going to the people,” then arrests, trial, exile... It was she who, with a wave of a white handkerchief, gave the signal to the thrower Ignatius Grinevitsky (who died in the explosion) to throw a bomb, which ended the life of the Tsar. Prosecutor Muravyov, who acted as a prosecutor at the trial, was her childhood friend and, according to legend, she even somehow saved his life in his youth... Now he demanded her execution. 
Sculptures of Sofya Perovskaya near Sevastopol. They, of course, would also be demolished during the current decommunization, but...
The explosion of the second bomb that claimed the life of the emperor
Next to Perovskaya is Nikolai Kibalchich. It was he who invented and manufactured the projectiles with “explosive jelly” used in the assassination attempt. On the eve of his execution, he amazed the jailers and gendarmes when he submitted a note to the Academy of Sciences about another of his inventions - an original design for a jet aircraft capable of space travel. The gendarmes expected that a person in his position could be interested in only one piece of paper - a petition for pardon. But Kibalchich was interested in something else... Of course, his letter did not reach any Academy; it remained to gather dust in police papers until 1917. It took a revolution for “the plans that used to be a brake on foreheads at stations” to become a reality, and for jet vehicles to actually fly into space...
Stamps with the image of Kibalchich were issued not only in the USSR, but also - surprisingly - in independent Ukraine: 
Now, of course, after decommunization, they will no longer be released.
Next to the rest of the First March workers is worker Timofey Mikhailov. He tried to address the crowd on the way to the scaffold, but the drums drowned out his words. During the execution, the rope twice could not withstand Mikhailov’s weight and broke; he was raised and hanged again, which caused a storm of indignation in the crowd of witnesses to the execution. According to the old Russian tradition, such a person who fell from the gallows should have been pardoned (the Decembrists, however, were also hanged more than once).
Andrey Zhelyabov. He was arrested two days before the successful assassination attempt he prepared on Alexander II. He himself demanded to be involved in the case of the regicides. At the trial he made a bright speech, trying to outline the history and ideas of Narodnaya Volya.
The last of the March First soldiers executed on this day was Nikolai Rysakov. It was he who, in response to the words of the king, who survived the first explosion - “Thank God, I survived, but ...” (pointing to those wounded by the explosion) responded with the famous phrase: “Is there still glory to God?” And sure enough, a second explosion occurred, and the emperor was mortally wounded. During the investigation and trial, Rysakov showed cowardice and testified against his comrades, but this did not save him from the gallows. And Sofya Perovskaya, even on the scaffold, refused to go up to say goodbye to Rysakov: she did not forgive him for his weakness and betrayal.
At one time, Fyodor Tyutchev wrote about the Decembrists:
O victims of reckless thought,
Maybe you hoped
That your blood will become scarce,
To melt the eternal pole!
Barely, smoking, she sparkled
On the centuries-old mass of ice,
The iron winter has died -
And there were no traces left.
But this could not be said about the Narodnaya Volya, and this ultimately also turned out to be untrue about the Decembrists. And after another 36 years, in the next revolutionary March, “the iron spring died,” and of the entire “centuries-old bulk of ice,” which seemed to Tyutchev eternal and unmeltable, “not a trace remained.”
Jan Neumann. Parting. S. Perovskaya and A. Zhelyabov
