Attempted assassination of Alexander 2 in Paris. About all the assassination attempts on Emperor Alexander II

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 peasant uprisings, many protest groups appeared 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 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 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 land plot not far from railway for the purpose, allegedly, of building a tannery here. 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 the 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 acquaintances, 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 spanning 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), upon 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.

Alexander II ascended the throne in 1855. His reign remained in the memory of the people as a period of reforms that gave a powerful impetus development of Russia, in including the peasant reform, which sent serfdom into oblivion. There was also an unrealized (its implementation was prevented by the murder of the tsar) draft of the “Loris-Melikov constitution”, according to which the third estate of cities and zemstvos would have the right to participate in a deliberative meeting under the emperor, i.e. . some restrictions on autocracy were introduced, etc.

Alexander II

But despite all the reforms of Tsar Alexander II, nicknamed the Liberator, they wanted to kill him like no other Russian monarch. For what? The sovereign himself asked the same question: “ What do they have against me, these unfortunate people? Why are they chasing me like a wild animal? After all, I have always strived to do everything in my power for the good of the people!”

First attempt

It happened on April 4, 1866. This day and this attempt are considered the beginning of terrorism in Russia. The first attempt was made by Dmitry Karakozov, a former student, a native of the Saratov province. He shot at the emperor almost point-blank at the moment when Alexander II was getting into his carriage after a walk. Suddenly, the shooter was pushed by a person nearby (later it turned out that it was the peasant O. Komissarov), and the bullet flew above the emperor’s head. The people standing around rushed at Karakozov and, quite likely, would have torn him to pieces on the spot if the police had not arrived in time.

The detainee shouted: "Fools! After all, I am for you, but you don’t understand!” Karakozov was brought to the emperor, and he himself explained the motive for his action: "Your Majesty, you have offended the peasants".

Shot by Karakozov

Second attempt

It happened on May 25, 1867, when the Russian emperor was in Paris on an official visit. He was returning from a military review at the hippodrome in an open carriage with children and the French Emperor Napoleon III. Near the Bois de Boulogne, a young man, a Pole by origin, emerged from the crowd and, when the carriage with the emperors caught up with him, he fired a pistol twice at point-blank range at Russian Emperor. And here Alexander was saved by an accident: one of Napoleon III’s security officers pushed away the shooter’s hand. The bullets hit the horse.

Second attempt

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

Terrorist Berezovsky

On July 15, as a result of the consideration of Berezovsky's case by a jury, he was sentenced to life hard labor in New Caledonia (a large island of the same name and a group of small islands in the southwestern part of Pacific Ocean, in Melanesia. This is an overseas special administrative-territorial entity of France). Later hard labor was replaced by lifelong exile. But 40 years later, in 1906, Berezovsky was granted amnesty. But he remained to live in New Caledonia until his death.

Third attempt

On April 2, 1879, Alexander Solovyov made the third attempt on the life of the emperor. A. Solovyov was a member of the “Land and Freedom” society. He shot at the sovereign while he was on a walk near the Winter Palace. Soloviev was quickly approaching the emperor; he 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, A. Soloviev said: “The idea of an attempt on His Majesty’s life came to 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 not available to the majority.”.

Terrorist Soloviev

Solovyov, like Karakozov, was sentenced to death by hanging, which took place in front of a huge crowd of people.

Fourth attempt

In 1879, the People's Will organization was created, which broke away from Land and Freedom. The main goal of this organization was to kill the king. He was blamed for the incomplete nature of the reforms carried out, the repression carried out against dissidents, and the impossibility of democratic reforms. Members of the organization concluded that the actions of lone terrorists cannot lead to their goal, so they must act together. They decided to destroy the tsar in another way: by blowing up the train in which he and his family were returning from their vacation in Crimea. An attempt to blow up a train carrying the royal family took place on November 19, 1879.

Crash of a baggage train after an explosion

One group of terrorists operated near Odessa (V. Figner, N. Kibalchich, then they were joined by N. Kolodkevich, M. Frolenko and T. Lebedeva): a mine was planted there, but the royal train changed the route and went through Aleksandrovsk. But the Narodnaya Volya members also provided for this option; the Narodnaya Volya member A. Zhelyabov (under the name Cheremisov) was there, as well as A. Yakimova and I. Okladsky. Not far from the railway, he bought a plot of land and there, working at night, he laid a mine. But the train did not explode, because... Zhelyabov failed to detonate the mine; there was some technical error. But the Narodnaya Volya members also had a third group of terrorists, led by Sofia Perovskaya (Lev Hartmann and Sofia Perovskaya, under the guise of a married couple, the Sukhorukovs, purchased a house next to the railway) not far from Moscow, at the Rogozhsko-Simonova outpost. And although this section of the railway was especially guarded, they managed to plant a mine. However, fate protected the emperor this time too. The royal train consisted of two trains: one was passenger and the other was luggage. The terrorists knew that the baggage train was coming first - and they let it through, hoping that the next one would be royal family. But in Kharkov the locomotive of the baggage train broke down, and the royal train moved first. The Narodnaya Volya blew up the second train. Those accompanying the king were injured.

After this assassination attempt, the emperor said his bitter words: “Why are they chasing me like a wild animal?”

Fifth assassination attempt

Sofya Perovskaya, the daughter of the St. Petersburg Governor-General, learned that the Winter Palace was renovating the basements, including the wine cellar. The Narodnaya Volya found this place convenient for placing explosives. The peasant Stepan Khalturin was appointed to implement the plan. He recently joined the People's Will organization. Working in the basement (he was lining the walls of a wine cellar), he had to place the bags of dynamite given to him (2 pounds in total were prepared) among the building material. Sofya Perovskaya received information that on February 5, 1880, a dinner would be held in the Winter Palace in honor of the Prince of Hesse, which would be attended by the entire royal family. The explosion was scheduled for 6 p.m. 20 minutes, but due to the delay of the prince's train, dinner was moved. The explosion occurred - none of the senior officials were injured, but 10 guard soldiers were killed and 80 were wounded.

Dining room of the Winter Palace after the explosion

After this assassination attempt, the dictatorship of M. T. Loris-Melikov was established with unlimited powers, because the government understood that it would be very difficult to stop the wave of terrorism that had begun. Loris-Melikov provided the emperor with a program whose goal was to “complete the great work of state reforms.” According to the project, the monarchy should not have been limited. It was planned to create preparatory commissions, which would include representatives of zemstvos and urban estates. These commissions were supposed to develop bills on the following issues: peasant, zemstvo, and city management. Loris-Melikov pursued a so-called “flirting” policy: he softened censorship and allowed the publication of new printed publications. He met with their editors and hinted at the possibility of new reforms. And he convinced them that terrorists and radically minded individuals were interfering with their implementation.

The Loris-Melikov transformation project was approved. On March 4, its discussion and approval was supposed to take place. But on March 1, history took a different turn.

Sixth and seventh attempts

It seems that the Narodnaya Volya (daughter of the governor of St. Petersburg, and subsequently a member of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Sofya Perovskaya, her common-law husband, law student Andrei Zhelyabov, inventor Nikolai Kibalchich, worker Timofey Mikhailov, Nikolai Rysakov, Vera Figner, Stepan Khalturin, etc.) failure brought excitement. They were preparing a new assassination attempt. This time the Stone Bridge on the Catherine Canal, through which the emperor usually passed, was chosen. The terrorists abandoned their original plan to blow up the bridge, and a new one emerged - to lay a mine on Malaya Sadovaya. Perovskaya “noticed that at the turn from the Mikhailovsky Theater to the Ekaterininsky Canal, the coachman was holding back the horses, and the carriage was moving almost at a walk.” Here it was decided to strike. It was envisaged in case of failure, if the mine did not explode, to throw a bomb at the Tsar’s carriage, but if this did not work, then Zhelyabov had to jump into the carriage and stab the Emperor with a dagger. But this preparation for the assassination attempt was complicated by the arrests of Narodnaya Volya members: first Mikhailov, and then Zhelyabov.

Assassination of Tsar Alexander II

Increased arrests led to a shortage of experienced terrorists. A group of young revolutionaries was organized: student E. Sidorenko, student I. Grinevitsky, former student N. Rysakov, workers T. Mikhailov and I. Emelyanov. The technical part was headed by Kibalchich, who manufactured 4 bombs. But on February 27, Zhelyabov was arrested. Then Perovskaya took over the leadership. At the meeting of the Executive Committee, the throwers were determined: Grinevitsky, Mikhailov, Rysakov and Emelyanov. They're from two opposite sides at both ends of Malaya Sadovaya they were supposed to throw their bombs.” On March 1, they were given bombs. “They had to go to the Catherine Canal at a certain hour and appear in a certain order.” On the night of March 1, Isaev laid a mine near Malaya Sadovaya. The terrorists decided to speed up the implementation of their plans. The emperor was warned about the danger that threatened him, but he replied that God was protecting him. On March 1, 1881, Alexander II left the Winter Palace for Manezh, attended the changing of the guards and returned to the Winter Palace through the Catherine Canal. This broke the plans of the Narodnaya Volya members; Sofya Perovskaya urgently restructured the assassination plan. Grinevitsky, Emelyanov, Rysakov, Mikhailov stood along the embankment of the Catherine Canal and waited for Perovskaya’s conditioned signal (wave of a scarf), according to which they were to throw bombs at the royal carriage. The plan worked out, but the emperor was not harmed again. But he did not hastily leave the scene of the assassination attempt, but wanted to approach the wounded. The anarchist Prince Kropotkin wrote about this: “He felt that military dignity required him to look at the wounded Circassians and say a few words to them.” And then Grinevitsky threw a second bomb at the Tsar’s feet. The explosion threw Alexander II to the ground, blood poured from his crushed legs. The Emperor whispered: “Take me to the palace... There I want to die...”

Grinevitsky, like Alexander II, died an hour and a half later in the prison hospital, and the rest of the terrorists (Perovskaya, Zhelyabov, Kibalchich, Mikhailov, Rysakov) were hanged on April 3, 1881.

This ended the “hunt” for the Tsar. This murder predetermined the conservative course of the next Tsar, Alexander III.

Equestrian portrait of Alexander II

As you know, Alexander II ascended the throne in 1855. During his reign, a number of reforms were carried out, including the peasant reform, which resulted in the abolition of serfdom. For this, the emperor began to be called the Liberator.

Meanwhile, several attempts were made on his life. For what? The sovereign himself asked the same question: “ What do they have against me, these unfortunate people? Why are they chasing me like a wild animal? After all, I have always strived to do everything in my power for the good of the people!”

First attempt

The detainee shouted: “ Fools! After all, I am for you, but you don’t understand!” Karakozov was brought to the emperor, and he himself explained the motive for his action: “Your Majesty, you offended the peasants.”

Shot by Karakozov

The court decided to execute Karakozov by hanging. The sentence was carried out on September 3, 1866.

Second attempt

It happened on May 25, 1867, when the Russian emperor was in Paris on an official visit. He was returning from a military review at the hippodrome in an open carriage with children and the French Emperor Napoleon III. Near the Bois de Boulogne, a young man, a Pole by origin, emerged from the crowd and, when the carriage with the emperors caught up with him, he fired a pistol twice at point-blank range at the Russian emperor. And here Alexander was saved by an accident: one of Napoleon III’s security officers pushed away the shooter’s hand. The bullets hit the horse.

Second attempt on Alexander II

The terrorist was detained; he turned out to be a Pole, Berezovsky. 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.”

Terrorist Berezovsky

On July 15, as a result of the trial of Berezovsky by a jury, he was sentenced to life in hard labor in New Caledonia (a large island of the same name and a group of small islands in the southwestern part of the Pacific Ocean, in Melanesia. This is an overseas special administrative-territorial entity of France). Later hard labor was replaced by lifelong exile. But 40 years later, in 1906, Berezovsky was granted amnesty. But he remained to live in New Caledonia until his death.

Third attempt

At the trial, A. Solovyov said: “ The idea of an attempt on His Majesty’s life came to 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.”

Terrorist A. Soloviev

Solovyov, like Karakozov, was sentenced to death by hanging, which took place in front of a huge crowd of people.

Fourth attempt

In 1979, the People's Will organization was created, which broke away from Land and Freedom. The main goal of this organization was to kill the king. He was blamed for the incomplete nature of the reforms carried out, the repression carried out against dissidents, and the impossibility of democratic reforms. Members of the organization concluded that the actions of lone terrorists cannot lead to their goal, so they must act together. They decided to destroy the tsar in another way: by blowing up the train in which he and his family were returning from their vacation in Crimea. An attempt to blow up a train carrying the royal family took place on November 19, 1879.

Baggage train crash

One group of terrorists operated near Odessa (V. Figner, N. Kibalchich, then they were joined by N. Kolodkevich, M. Frolenko and T. Lebedeva): a mine was planted there, but the royal train changed the route and went through Aleksandrovsk. But the Narodnaya Volya members also provided for this option; the Narodnaya Volya member A. Zhelyabov (under the name Cheremisov) was there, as well as A. Yakimova and I. Okladsky. Not far from the railway, he bought a plot of land and there, working at night, he laid a mine. But the train did not explode, because... Zhelyabov failed to detonate the mine; there was some technical error. But the Narodnaya Volya members also had a third group of terrorists, led by Sofia Perovskaya (Lev Hartmann and Sofia Perovskaya, under the guise of a married couple, the Sukhorukovs, purchased a house next to the railway) not far from Moscow, at the Rogozhsko-Simonova outpost. And although this section of the railway was especially guarded, they managed to plant a mine. However, fate protected the emperor this time too. The royal train consisted of two trains: one was passenger and the other was luggage. The terrorists knew that the luggage train was coming first - and they let it through, hoping that the next one would be the royal family. But in Kharkov the locomotive of the baggage train broke down, and the royal train moved first. The Narodnaya Volya blew up the second train. Those accompanying the king were injured.

After this assassination attempt, the emperor said his bitter words: “ Why are they chasing me like a wild animal?

Fifth assassination attempt

Sofya Perovskaya, the daughter of the St. Petersburg Governor-General, learned that the Winter Palace was renovating the basements, including the wine cellar. The Narodnaya Volya found this place convenient for placing explosives. The peasant Stepan Khalturin was appointed to implement the plan. He recently joined the People's Will organization. Working in the basement (he was covering the walls of a wine cellar), he had to place the bags of dynamite given to him (2 pounds in total were prepared) among the building material. Sofia Perovskaya received information that on February 5, 1880, a dinner would be held in the Winter Palace in honor of the Prince of Hesse, which would be attended by the entire royal family. The explosion was scheduled for 6 p.m. 20 minutes, but due to the delay of the prince's train, dinner was moved. The explosion occurred - none of the senior officials were injured, but 10 guard soldiers were killed and 80 were wounded.

The dining room of the Winter Palace after the assassination attempt in 1879

The Loris-Melikov transformation project was approved. On March 4, its discussion and approval was supposed to take place. But on March 1, history took a different turn.

Sixth and seventh attempts

Assassination of Alexander II. Chromolithography performed by F. Morozov

Increased arrests led to a shortage of experienced terrorists. A group of young revolutionaries was organized: student E. Sidorenko, student I. Grinevitsky, former student N. Rysakov, workers T. Mikhailov and I. Emelyanov. The technical part was headed by Kibalchich, who manufactured 4 bombs. But on February 27, Zhelyabov was arrested. Then Perovskaya took over the leadership. At the meeting of the Executive Committee, the throwers were determined: Grinevitsky, Mikhailov, Rysakov and Emelyanov. They “had to throw their bombs from two opposite sides at both ends of Malaya Sadovaya.” On March 1, they were given bombs. “They had to go to the Catherine Canal at a certain hour and appear in a certain order.” On the night of March 1, Isaev laid a mine near Malaya Sadovaya. The terrorists decided to speed up the implementation of their plan. The emperor was warned about the danger that threatened him, but he replied that God was protecting him. On March 1, 1881, Alexander II left the Winter Palace for Manezh, attended the changing of the guards and returned to the Winter Palace through the Catherine Canal. This broke the plans of the Narodnaya Volya members; Sofya Perovskaya urgently restructured the assassination plan. Grinevitsky, Emelyanov, Rysakov, Mikhailov stood along the embankment of the Catherine Canal and waited for Perovskaya’s conditioned signal (wave of a scarf), according to which they were to throw bombs at the royal carriage. The plan worked out, but the emperor was not harmed again. But he did not hastily leave the scene of the assassination attempt, but wanted to approach the wounded. The anarchist Prince Kropotkin wrote about this: “He felt that military dignity required him to look at the wounded Circassians and say a few words to them.” And then Grinevitsky threw a second bomb at the Tsar’s feet. The explosion threw Alexander II to the ground, blood poured from his crushed legs. The Emperor whispered: " Take me to the palace... I want to die there..."

The “hunt” for Emperor Alexander II was over.

Mournful commemorative medal commemorating the death of Emperor Alexander II

This medal was awarded to persons who accompanied Emperor Alexander II during the assassination attempt on him on March 1, 1881, and to eyewitnesses who were wounded during the explosion. A total of 200 medals were issued.

Alexander II can be considered a record holder in Russian and even world history for the number of attempts on his life. The Russian emperor found himself on the brink of death six times, as a Parisian gypsy had once predicted to him.

"Your Majesty, you offended the peasants..."

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. 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 from 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. Turned out to be a terrorist 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"

...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.

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 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, it became hard for me that... my beloved people were dying, and so I decided to destroy the villain king and die for my own kind 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 in 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 spent nights dragging right place bags of dynamite. 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 left the Winter Palace for 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. Participants " Narodnaya Volya"were hanged on April 3, 1881.