On March 13, 1881, members of the illegal organization Narodnaya Volya committed a terrorist attack that led to the death of the Russian Emperor Alexander II.

Earlier, the tsar survived several assassination attempts by various revolutionary associations.  

"Why are they following me ..."

Alexander II went down in the history of Russia as a reformer tsar.

He eliminated military settlements and serfdom, reformed the education system, courts, administrative and army bodies, abolished recruitment into the troops and introduced universal military service.

However, despite the reforms, there were many dissatisfied with the activities of the emperor.

According to historians, the former serfs were not satisfied with the half-heartedness of the peasant reform, the Polish nationalists were dissatisfied with the suppression of the uprising of 1863-1864 by the tsarist troops, and the representatives of the populist movement were dissatisfied with social inequality in Russian society.

“The Narodniks said that the peasant reform was unfair and demanded its correction.

They also advocated the democratization of public life, the ability to legally defend their own opinions, "said Vitaly Zakharov, professor at Moscow State Pedagogical University, Doctor of Historical Sciences, in a conversation with RT.

As Leonid Lyashenko, professor of the Department of Russian History at Moscow State Pedagogical University, noted, the Narodniks were worried about the development of capitalist relations in the Russian Empire, which led to the collapse of the peasant community, which they considered the future cell of socialist society.

In addition, according to Vitaly Zakharov, mutual bitterness arose against the background of the confrontation between the police structures and the radical opposition.

“Initially, many populists advocated peaceful forms of struggle, going to the people, but faced with pressure, they began to incline towards terror.

Mutual bitterness that existed in society led to tragedies, ”Zakharov emphasized.

  • Emperor Alexander II

  • © Wikimedia

At the same time, Leonid Lyashenko points out logical contradictions in the actions of the revolutionaries.

“Alexander II was one of the most humane Russian monarchs, close to the people and accessible to ordinary people.

The radical populists believed that the assassination of the emperor would lead to revolution and the establishment of a socialist system in Russia.

Killing the tsar, in their opinion, was the same as giving a signal for a nationwide revolution, ”the expert noted.

In 1866, former student Dmitry Karakozov, who shared the views of the populists, made the first known attempt on Alexander II.

He shot at the monarch, but did not hit, as he was pushed by a peasant who was nearby.

Karakozov explained his act by the fact that the tsar had offended the peasantry.

By a court decision, the one who attempted to kill the emperor was hanged.

In 1867, during the visit of Alexander II to France, the Polish emigrant Anton Berezovsky tried to shoot him.

But one of the security officers interfered with the attacker.

The French authorities sent Berezovsky into exile on the island of New Caledonia.

  • Assassination attempt on the emperor on June 6, 1867.

    Sheet number 14 from the newspaper "d'Epinal"

  • © Wikimedia

In 1879, Alexander Solovyov, a member of the "Land and Freedom" organization, shot at the Russian emperor, but missed.

Later he was executed.

A little later, the Narodnaya Volya organization, which broke away from Earth and Freedom, tried to blow up the imperial train.

There were three groups of demolition workers at once.

However, in the first case, the train went along a different road, in the second, the mine did not go off, and in the third, the participants in the terrorist attack were able to blow up only the train carrying the imperial baggage.

Upon learning of what had happened, Alexander II said: “What do they have against me, these unfortunates?

Why are they following me like a wild beast?

After all, I have always tried to do everything in my power for the good of the people! "

  • An explosion on the line of the Moscow-Kursk railway.

    After the crash of the suite train

  • © Wikimedia

In 1880, Narodnaya Volya staged an explosion in the Winter Palace, but none of the highest government officials was injured.

11 soldiers were killed, and about 80 more were injured.

“The assassination attempts on Alexander II were associated with the growth of revolutionary activity in the country.

Under Nicholas I, it practically did not exist.

And against the background of great reforms, it arose in the light of the growth of public activity in general.

The supporters of terror, as a maximum, wanted to arrange a revolutionary explosion, and at least to intimidate the authorities, ”Yevgeny Pchelov, associate professor of the Russian State Humanitarian University, said in an interview with RT.

The death of the reformer

The preparation of the assassination attempts on Alexander II, behind which was "Narodnaya Volya", was led by a member of the executive committee of the organization Andrei Zhelyabov.

After failures to blow up a train and an explosion in the Winter Palace, he decided to prepare for regicide more thoroughly.

The People's Will decided to blow up the imperial carriage with a mine planted on Malaya Sadovaya Street in St. Petersburg, and if the mine did not work, they would throw a bomb into the carriage.

In an extreme case, Zhelyabov was going to personally stab the tsar with a dagger.

The technical part of the assassination attempt was handled by the designer Nikolai Kibalchich, who made projectile explosive devices for the terrorists.

To lay a mine on Malaya Sadovaya, the Narodnaya Volya members rented a cheese shop located in the basement and made a tunnel out of it.

A local janitor reported to law enforcement agencies that suspicious individuals were renting the retail space, but the police did not find any signs of preparation for the attack.

And yet, the secret services almost thwarted the assassination attempt.

A number of Narodnaya Volya members, including Zhelyabov, were arrested on the eve of the attack on the Tsar.

Alexander II himself was warned that his life was in danger, but he did not want to take any measures in this regard.

After Zhelyabov's arrest, his common-law wife Sofya Perovskaya, the 27-year-old daughter of Lev Perovsky, a member of the council of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the former governor of St. Petersburg, took over the preparations for the assassination attempt.

Ten years earlier, she was carried away by revolutionary ideas and broke off relations with her father.

The attack on the king was scheduled for March 13, 1881.

On this day, Alexander II was accompanied by an ordinary convoy: six mounted Cossacks, Chief of Police Colonel Andrian Dvozhitsky, Head of the Security Guard of the Separate Gendarme Corps Captain Karl Koch and the commander of the Life Guards of the Terek Cossack Squadron of His Majesty's own convoy, Captain Pyotr Kulebyakin.

  • Assassination of Alexander II

  • © Wikimedia

The plan to detonate the mine did not work.

The tsar decided to go not along Malaya Sadovaya, but along the embankment of the Catherine Canal.

Perovskaya ordered the participants in the assassination attempt with throwing bombs to meet the imperial convoy on a new route.

The explosion of the first bomb thrown in the direction of the carriage did not cause any damage to the king.

The guards tried to take Alexander II away from the scene of the attack, but he refused, wishing to look at the terrorist and talk to the people wounded by the explosion.

Then an explosive device at the king was thrown by another of the participants in the assassination attempts, Ignatius Grinevitsky.

The explosion shattered the emperor's legs.

The king was taken to the palace without bandaging him or even clamping the damaged arteries.

As a result of profuse blood loss, the monarch died a few hours later.

Today, there is an opinion among historians that in case of timely medical assistance, Alexander II could be saved.

The murderer of the tsar, Grinevitsky, also received mortal wounds as a result of the explosion.

In addition, nine people from the royal convoy and ten bystanders were injured.

One of the imperial guards and a boy who was not far from the explosion site were killed.

Five participants in the assassination attempt, including Perovskaya and Kibalchich, were soon arrested.

Having learned about the incident, Zhelyabov, who was already in custody, admitted that he was preparing the assassination attempt, and said that he wanted to speak at the trial.

Participants in the regicide were sentenced to death and soon hanged.

Only one of them, Gesya Gelfman, received a reprieve due to pregnancy.

  • Kibalchich, Perovskaya and Zhelyabov at trial

  • © Wikimedia

According to Leonid Lyashenko, the death of Alexander II played a negative role in the history of Russia.

“The assassination thwarted the planned changes in the political life of the country.

Alexander has already approved a project on the creation of new editorial commissions, which were supposed to prepare laws that would involve the creation of a pre-parliament and a pre-constitution.

This was a small step towards abandoning autocracy.

But as a result of the death of the emperor, this process was slowed down, and Alexander III turned to the well-known path of building a patriarchal state.

We had to forget about all the changes that could completely change the history of Russia after the death of Alexander II, ”Lyashenko summed up.