Two hundred years ago, on April 29 (April 17, old style), 1818, Emperor Alexander II was born. The fate of this monarch was tragic: on March 1, 1881, he was killed by Narodnaya Volya terrorists. And experts still have not come to a consensus on how many assassination attempts the Tsar Liberator survived. According to the generally accepted version - six. But historian Ekaterina Bautina believes that there were ten of them. It's just that not all of them are known.

DISCONTENT WITH THE PEASANT REFORM

Before we talk about these assassination attempts, let us ask ourselves a question: what caused the wave of terror that swept Russia in the sixties and seventies of the nineteenth century? After all, terrorists attempted not only on the life of the emperor.

In February 1861, Russia abolished serfdom- perhaps the most important thing in the life of Alexander II.

Very late peasant reform“This is a compromise between various political forces,” doctor told a Komsomolskaya Pravda correspondent historical sciences Roman Sokolov. “And neither the landowners nor the peasants were happy with its result. The latter, because they freed them without land, essentially doomed them to poverty.

The serfs were granted personal freedom, and the landowners retained all the lands that belonged to them, but were obliged to provide the peasants with plots of land for use, says writer and historian Elena Prudnikova. - For the use of them, peasants must continue to serve corvee or pay quitrent - until they redeem their land.

According to Roman Sokolov, dissatisfaction with the results of the reform became one of the main reasons for terrorism. However, a significant part of the terrorists were not peasants, but the so-called commoners.

The peasants for the most part, speaking modern language, adhered to traditional values, says Sokolov. “And the assassination of the emperor on March 1, 1881 caused them anger and indignation. Yes, the Narodnaya Volya committed a terrible crime. But we must say this: unlike modern terrorists, none of them was looking for personal gain. They were blindly confident that they were sacrificing themselves for the sake of the people's good.

The Narodnaya Volya members did not have any political program; they naively believed that the murder of the Tsar would lead to revolutionary uprisings.

The liberation of the peasants was not accompanied by political changes, says Doctor of Historical Sciences Yuri Zhukov. - At that time in Russia there were no political parties, democratic institutions, in particular, parliament. And therefore terror remained the only form of political struggle.

“YOU HAVE OFFENSED THE PEASANTS”

The first attempt on the sovereign's life occurred on April 4, 1866 in the Summer Garden. Dmitry Karakozov, by the way, a peasant by birth, but who had already managed to study and be expelled from the university, as well as participate in one of the revolutionary organizations, decided to kill the tsar on his own. The Emperor got into the carriage with the guests - his relatives, the Duke of Leuchtenberg and the Princess of Baden. Karakozov wormed his way into the crowd and aimed his pistol. But the hatmaker Osip Komissarov, who was standing next to him, hit the terrorist on the hand. The shot went into the milk. Karakozov was captured and would have been torn to pieces, but the police intercepted him, taking him away from the crowd, to whom the desperately fighting terrorist shouted: “Fool! After all, I am for you, but you don’t understand!” The Emperor approached the arrested terrorist, and he said: “Your Majesty, you offended the peasants!”

ALL YOUR LIFE I DREAMED OF KILLING THE RUSSIAN TSAR

We didn’t have to wait long for the next assassination attempt. On May 25, 1867, during the sovereign's visit to France, the Polish revolutionary Anton Berezovsky tried to kill him. After a walk through the Bois de Boulogne in the company of the French Emperor Napoleon III, Alexander II of Russia was returning to Paris. Berezovsky jumped up to the open carriage and fired. But one of the security officers managed to push the attacker, and the bullets hit the horse. After his arrest, Berezovsky stated that his entire adult life he had dreamed of killing the Russian Tsar. He was sentenced to life in hard labor and sent to New Caledonia. He stayed there for forty years, then he was amnestied. But he did not return to Europe, preferring to live out his life at the end of the world.

The first militant revolutionary organization in Russia was “Land and Freedom”. On April 2, 1878, a member of this organization, Alexander Solovyov, carried out another attempt on the life of the Tsar. Alexander II was walking near the Winter Palace when a man came out to meet him, pulled out a revolver and started firing. From five meters he managed to shoot five (!) times. And I never hit it. Some historians express the opinion that Solovyov did not know how to shoot at all and picked up a weapon for the first time in his life. When asked what prompted him to take this crazy step, he answered with a quote from the works of Karl Marx: “I believe that the majority suffers so that the minority enjoys the fruits of the people’s labor and all the benefits of civilization that are inaccessible to the minority.” Solovyov was hanged.

“PEOPLE’S WILL” TOOK THE CASE

Photo: KP archive. Narodnaya Volya members Sofya Perovskaya and Andrei Zhelyabov in the dock

On November 19, 1879, an assassination attempt took place, prepared by the Narodnaya Volya organization, which separated from Land and Freedom. On that day, terrorists attempted to blow up the royal train, on which the monarch and his family were returning from Crimea. A group led by the daughter of the actual state councilor and governor of St. Petersburg, Sofia Perovskaya, planted a bomb under the rails near Moscow. The terrorists knew that the baggage train was coming first, and the sovereigns were coming second. But for technical reasons, the passenger train was sent first. He passed safely, but it exploded under the second train. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

Let us note that all the activists of Narodnaya Volya were young and relatively educated people. And engineer Nikolai Kibalchich, who designed and prepared the charges for killing the sovereign, was even keen on the ideas of space exploration.

It was these youth who carried out two more attempts on the emperor’s life.

Sofya Perovskaya learned about the upcoming renovation of the Winter Palace from her father. One of the Narodnaya Volya members, Stepan Khalturin, easily found a job as a carpenter at the royal residence. While working, he carried baskets and bales of explosives to the palace every day. I hid them among construction debris (!) and accumulated a charge of enormous power. However, one day he had the opportunity to distinguish himself in front of his comrades and without an explosion: Khalturin was called to repair the royal office! The terrorist was left alone with the emperor. But he did not find the strength to kill the sovereign.

On February 5, 1880, the Prince of Hesse visited Russia. On this occasion, the emperor gave a dinner, which was to be attended by all members of the royal family. The train was late, Alexander II was waiting for his guest at the entrance to the Winter Palace. He appeared, and together they went up to the second floor. At that moment an explosion occurred: the floor shook and plaster fell down. Neither the sovereign nor the prince were injured. Ten guard soldiers, veterans of the Crimean War, were killed and eighty were seriously wounded.

The last, alas, successful attempt took place on the embankment of the Catherine Canal. A lot has been written about this tragedy; there is no point in repeating it. Let's just say that as a result of the assassination attempt, twenty people were wounded and killed, including a fourteen-year-old boy.

TOLD!

Emperor Alexander II: “What do they have against me, these unfortunates? 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?”

BY THE WAY

Leo Tolstoy asked not to execute the murderers

After the assassination of Alexander II, the great writer Count Leo Tolstoy addressed the new Emperor Alexander III with a letter in which he asked not to execute the criminals:

“Only one word of forgiveness and Christian love, spoken and fulfilled from the height of the throne, and the path of Christian kingship that you are about to embark on, can destroy the evil that is plaguing Russia. Every revolutionary struggle will melt away like wax before the fire before the Tsar, the man who fulfills the law of Christ.”

INSTEAD OF AN AFTERWORD

On April 3, 1881, five participants in the assassination attempt on Alexander II were hanged on the parade ground of the Semenovsky regiment. A correspondent for the German newspaper Kölnische Zeitung, who was present at the public execution, wrote: “Sofya Perovskaya shows amazing fortitude. Her cheeks even retain their pink color, and her face, invariably serious, without the slightest trace of anything feigned, is full of true courage and boundless self-sacrifice. Her gaze is clear and calm; there is not even a shadow of panache in it"

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

2

"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.

3

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.

4

"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?”

5

"In the Lair of the Beast"

And the “unlucky ones” prepared 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.

6

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

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

7

The hunt is over

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

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

Russian Emperor Alexander II the Liberator (1818-1881) is considered one of the most outstanding monarchs of the Great Empire. It was under him that serfdom was abolished (1861), and zemstvo, city, judicial, military, and educational reforms were carried out. According to the idea of ​​the sovereign and his entourage, all this was supposed to bring the country to a new round of economic development.

However, not everything worked out as expected. Many innovations extremely aggravated the internal political situation in the huge state. The most acute discontent arose as a result of the peasant reform. At its core, it was enslaving and provoked mass unrest. In 1861 alone there were more than a thousand of them. Peasant protests were suppressed extremely brutally.

The situation was aggravated by the economic crisis, which lasted from the early 60s to the mid-80s of the 19th century. The rise in corruption was also notable. Massive abuses occurred in the railway industry. During the construction of railways, private companies stole most of the money, while officials from the Ministry of Finance shared with them. Corruption also flourished in the army. Contracts for supplying troops were given for bribes, and instead of quality goods, military personnel received low-quality products.

In foreign policy the sovereign was guided by Germany. He sympathized with her in every possible way and did a lot to create a militaristic power under the nose of Russia. In his love for the Germans, the Tsar went so far as to order that the Kaiser's officers be awarded the Cross of St. George. All this did not add to the popularity of the autocrat. There has been a steady increase in popular discontent in the country, both internal and foreign policy state, and the attempts on the life of Alexander II were the result of weak rule and royal lack of will.

Revolutionary movement

If state power suffers from shortcomings, then many oppositionists appear among educated and energetic people. In 1869, the “People's Retribution Society” was formed. One of its leaders was Sergei Nechaev (1847-1882), a terrorist of the 19th century. A terrible person, capable of murder, blackmail, and extortion.

In 1861, the secret revolutionary organization “Land and Freedom” was formed. It was a union of like-minded people, numbering at least 3 thousand people. The organizers were Herzen, Chernyshevsky, Obruchev. In 1879, "Land and Freedom" split into the terrorist organization "People's Will" and the populist wing, called the "Black Redistribution".

Pyotr Zaichnevsky (1842-1896) created his own circle. He distributed prohibited literature among young people and called for the overthrow of the monarchy. Fortunately, he didn’t kill anyone, but he was a revolutionary and a promoter of socialism to the core. Nikolai Ishutin (1840-1879) also created revolutionary circles. He argued that the end justifies any means. He died in a hard labor prison before reaching the age of 40. Pyotr Tkachev (1844-1886) should also be mentioned. He preached terrorism, not seeing other methods of fighting the government.

There were also many other circles and unions. All of them were actively involved in anti-government agitation. In 1873-1874, thousands of intellectuals went to villages to propagate revolutionary ideas among the peasants. This action was called "going to the people."

Beginning in 1878, a wave of terrorism swept across Russia. And the beginning of this lawlessness was laid by Vera Zasulich (1849-1919). She seriously wounded the mayor of St. Petersburg, Fyodor Trepov (1812-1889). After this, the terrorists shot at gendarmerie officers, prosecutors, and governors. But their most desired goal was the emperor Russian Empire Alexander II.

Assassination attempts on Alexander II

Assassination of Karakozov

The first attempt on the life of God's anointed took place on April 4, 1866. Terrorist Dmitry Karakozov (1840-1866) raised his hand against the autocrat. He was Nikolai Ishutin's cousin and ardently advocated individual terror. He sincerely believed that by killing the Tsar, he would inspire the people to a socialist revolution.

The young man, on his own initiative, arrived in St. Petersburg in the spring of 1866, and on April 4, he waited for the emperor at the entrance to the Summer Garden and shot at him. However, the life of the autocrat was saved by the small businessman Osip Komissarov (1838-1892). He stood in the crowd of onlookers and stared at the emperor getting into the carriage. Terrorist Karakozov was nearby a few seconds before the shot. Komissarov saw the revolver in the stranger’s hand and hit it. The bullet went up, and Komissarov, for his courageous act, became a hereditary nobleman and received an estate in the Poltava province.

Dmitry Karakozov was arrested at the crime scene. From August 10 to October 1 of the same year, a trial was held under the chairmanship of the actual Privy Councilor Pavel Gagarin (1789-1872). The terrorist was sentenced to death by hanging. The sentence was carried out on September 3, 1866 in St. Petersburg. The criminal was hanged on the Smolensk field in public. At the time of his death, Karakozov was 25 years old.

Berezovsky's assassination attempt

The second attempt on the life of the Russian Tsar took place on June 6, 1867 (the date is indicated according to the Gregorian calendar, but since the attempt took place in France, it is quite correct). This time, Anton Berezovsky (1847-1916), a Pole by origin, raised his hand against God’s anointed one. He took part in the Polish uprising of 1863-1864. After the defeat of the rebels he went abroad. From 1865 he lived permanently in Paris. In 1867, the World Exhibition opened in the capital of France. It showed the latest technical advances. The exhibition was of great international importance, and the Russian Emperor came to it.

Having learned about this, Berezovsky decided to kill the sovereign. He naively believed that in this way he could make Poland a free state. On June 5 he bought a revolver, and on June 6 he shot at the autocrat in the Bois de Boulogne. He was traveling in a carriage with his 2 sons and the French emperor. But the terrorist did not have the appropriate shooting skills. The fired bullet hit the horse of one of the riders, who was galloping next to the crowned heads.

Berezovsky was immediately captured, put on trial and sentenced to life in hard labor. They sent the criminal to New Caledonia - this is the southwestern part Pacific Ocean. In 1906, the terrorist was amnestied. But he did not return to Europe and died in a foreign land at the age of 69.

The third attempt occurred on April 2, 1879 in the capital of the empire, St. Petersburg. Alexander Solovyov (1846-1879) committed the crime. He was a member of the revolutionary organization "Land and Freedom". On the morning of April 2, the attacker met the emperor on the Moika embankment while he was taking his usual morning walk.

The Emperor was walking unaccompanied, and the terrorist approached him at a distance of no more than 5 meters. A shot was fired, but the bullet flew past without hitting the autocrat. Alexander II ran, the criminal chased after him and fired 2 more shots, but again missed. At this time, gendarmerie captain Koch arrived. He hit the attacker on the back with a saber. But the blow landed flat, and the blade bent.

Solovyov almost fell, but stayed on his feet and threw a shot at the emperor’s back for the 4th time, but missed again. Then the terrorist rushed towards Palace Square to hide. He was interrupted by people rushing to the sound of gunfire. The criminal shot at the running people for the 5th time, without causing harm to anyone. After that he was captured.

On May 25, 1879, a trial was held and the attacker was sentenced to death by hanging. The sentence was carried out on May 28 of the same year on the Smolensk field. Several tens of thousands of people attended the execution. At the time of his death, Alexander Solovyov was 32 years old. After his execution, members of the executive committee of Narodnaya Volya gathered and decided to kill the Russian emperor at any cost.

Explosion of the Suite train

The next attempt on Alexander II's life occurred on November 19, 1879. The Emperor was returning from Crimea. There were 2 trains in total. One is royal, and the second with his retinue is retinue. For safety reasons, the suite train moved first, and the royal train went at intervals of 30 minutes.

But in Kharkov, a malfunction was discovered in the locomotive of the Svitsky train. Therefore, the train containing the sovereign went ahead. The terrorists knew about the route, but did not know about the breakdown of the locomotive. They missed the royal train, and the next train, which contained an escort, was blown up. The 4th car overturned due to the explosion great strength, but, fortunately, no one was killed.

Assassination of Khalturin

Another unsuccessful attempt was made by Stepan Khalturin (1856-1882). He worked as a carpenter and was closely associated with the Narodnaya Volya. In September 1879, the palace department hired him to do carpentry work in the royal palace. They settled there in the semi-basement. A young carpenter brought explosives to the Winter Palace, and on February 5, 1880, he caused a powerful explosion.

It exploded on the 1st floor, and the emperor was having lunch on the 3rd floor. That day he was late, and at the time of the tragedy he was not in the dining room. Absolutely innocent people from the guard, numbering 11, died. More than 50 people were injured. The terrorist fled. He was detained on March 18, 1882 in Odessa after the murder of prosecutor Strelnikov. He was hanged on March 22 of the same year at the age of 25.

The last fatal assassination attempt on Alexander II took place on March 1, 1881 in St. Petersburg on the embankment of the Catherine Canal. It was accomplished by Narodnaya Volya members Nikolai Rysakov (1861-1881) and Ignatius Grinevitsky (1856-1881). The main organizer was Andrei Zhelyabov (1851-1881). The immediate leader of the terrorist attack was Sofya Perovskaya (1853-1881). Her accomplices were Nikolai Kibalchich (1853-1881), Timofey Mikhailov (1859-1881), Gesya Gelfman (1855-1882) and her husband Nikolai Sablin (1850-1881).

On that ill-fated day, the emperor was riding in a carriage from the Mikhailovsky Palace after breakfast with Grand Duke Mikhail Nikolaevich and Grand Duchess Ekaterina Mikhailovna. The carriage was accompanied by 6 mounted Cossacks, two sleighs with guards, and another Cossack sat next to the coachman.

Rysakov appeared on the embankment. He wrapped the bomb in a white scarf and walked straight towards the carriage. One of the Cossacks galloped towards him, but did not have time to do anything. The terrorist threw a bomb. There was a strong explosion. The carriage sank to one side, and Rysakov tried to escape, but was detained by security.

In the general confusion, the emperor got out of the carriage. The bodies of dead people lay all around. Not far from the site of the explosion, a 14-year-old teenager was dying in agony. Alexander II approached the terrorist and asked his name and rank. He said that he was a Glazov tradesman. People ran up to the sovereign and began to ask if everything was okay with him. The emperor replied: “Thank God, I was not hurt.” At these words, Rysakov bared his teeth angrily and said: “Is there still glory to God?”

Not far from the scene of the tragedy, Ignatius Grinevitsky stood at the iron grating with the second bomb. Nobody paid attention to him. The Emperor, meanwhile, moved away from Rysakov and, apparently in shock, wandered along the embankment, accompanied by the police chief, who asked to return to the carriage. In the distance was Perovskaya. When the Tsar caught up with Grinevitsky, she waved her white handkerchief, and the terrorist threw a second bomb. This explosion turned out to be fatal for the autocrat. The terrorist himself was also mortally wounded by the exploding bomb.

The explosion disfigured the emperor's entire body. He was put into a sleigh and taken to the palace. Soon the sovereign died. Before his death, he regained consciousness for a short time and managed to take communion. On March 4, the body was transferred to the home of the temple of the imperial family - the Court Cathedral. On March 7, the deceased was solemnly transferred to the tomb of the Russian emperors - the Peter and Paul Cathedral. The funeral service took place on March 15. It was headed by Metropolitan Isidore, the leading member of the Holy Synod.

As for the terrorists, the investigation took the detained Rysakov into a tough turn, and he very quickly betrayed his accomplices. He named a safe house located on Telezhnaya Street. The police arrived there, and Sablin, who was there, shot himself. His wife Gelfman was arrested. Already on March 3, the remaining participants in the attempt were arrested. Who managed to escape punishment was Vera Figner (1852-1942). This woman is a legend. She stood at the origins of terrorism and managed to live for 89 years.

The trial of the First Marchers

The organizers and perpetrator of the assassination attempt were tried and sentenced to death by hanging. The sentence was carried out on April 3, 1881. The execution took place on the Semyonovsky parade ground (now Pionerskaya Square) in St. Petersburg. They hanged Perovskaya, Zhelyabov, Mikhailov, Kibalchich and Rysakov. Standing on the scaffold, the Narodnaya Volya members said goodbye to each other, but did not want to say goodbye to Rysakov, since they considered him a traitor. Those executed were subsequently named March 1st, since the attempt was committed on March 1.

Thus ended the assassination attempts on Alexander II. But at that time, no one could even imagine that this was only the beginning of a series of bloody events that would result in a civil fratricidal war at the beginning of the 20th century..

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

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: “Fool! 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.”

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.

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 harbored this thought since I began to recognize myself as having in view of the liberation of the homeland."

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

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. Solovyov said: “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.”

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

Fourth assassination 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.

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. Close to 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 beast?”

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.

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 Catherine Canal, the coachman was holding back the horses, and the carriage was moving almost at a walk.” Here it was decided to strike. In case of failure, if the mine did not explode, it was envisaged 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.

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... 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.

The “hunt” for Emperor Alexander II was over.

Place: St. Petersburg, at the gates of the Summer Garden, from where Alexander II headed to his carriage

Executor: D.V. Karakozov, revolutionary terrorist, from the small landed nobility

Exodus: the bullet flew over the emperor's head

Place: Paris, at the exit from the Longchamp racecourse (French: Longchamp)

Executor: A.I. Berezovsky, leader of the Polish national liberation movement, terrorist, son of a poor nobleman

Exodus: bullets hit the horse

Place: St. Petersburg, in the vicinity of the Winter Palace during the emperor's morning walk

Executor: A.K. Solovyov, a revolutionary populist, was born into the family of a collegiate registrar

Exodus: five shots from a revolver, all bullets missed the target

Place: a bomb explosion on a train traveling from Kharkov occurred near Moscow

Executor: members of the People's Will movement

Exodus: there were no casualties

Place: St. Petersburg, first floor of the Winter Palace

Executor: S.N. Khalturin, Russian worker, revolutionary terrorist, from a family of wealthy peasants

Exodus: the explosion killed 11 of the emperor's guards, members of the Life Guards of the Finnish Regiment, and injured 56 people

Place: St. Petersburg, turn from Inzhenernaya street to the embankment

Executor: N.I. Rysakov, Russian revolutionary, son of a sawmill manager

Exodus: more than 20 people were injured, a 14-year-old boy from a butcher shop was killed

Date of: March 1, 1881

Place: St. Petersburg, embankment of the Catherine Canal

Executor: AND I. Grinevitsky, revolutionary, member of the underground revolutionary terrorist organization "People's Will", from a noble family

Exodus: death of Alexander II

"His heart had an instinct for progress..."

“The name of Alexander II belongs to history; even if his reign ended tomorrow, he would still have made the beginning of liberation; future generations will not forget this...”

A.I. Herzen (1812-1870), writer, publicist

“This sovereign is the noblest man in the world, diligent in business, understanding of it, and full of frankness and straightforwardness.”

Adolphe Thiers (1797-1877), historian, President of France

“Not a single tsar after Peter moved Russia so much from the reactionary path of eastern despotism as Alexander II. I remember we were young together. Then he was seething, worked, was generous, believed in people. Oh, if only he remained like that in his old age What a brilliant era he would bring to ours! national history. His dreams, I still can’t think about them without tears.

We spent entire evenings together when he was heir. In our imagination, all of Russia was covered with schools, gymnasiums, and universities. Literate, free people in a liberated state! And then? It was spoiled by the yard, which, like a bees’ nest, gives honey to some and stings others.”

Count D.A. Milyutin (1816-1912), field marshal, minister of war

“He was called upon to fulfill one of the most difficult tasks that could be presented to an autocratic ruler: to renew to the very foundations the huge state entrusted to his management, to abolish the centuries-old public order established on slavery, and replace it with citizenship and freedom, establish a court in a country that for centuries has not known what justice is, reorganize the entire administration, establish freedom of the press with unlimited power, everywhere call to life new forces and consolidate them with legal order, to raise a suppressed and humiliated society to its feet and give it the opportunity to move in the open. History hardly presents another example of such a revolution..."

B.N. Chicherin (1828-1904), historian, philosopher

“He differed from his immediate predecessors in his lack of inclination to play the Tsar. Alexander II remained himself as much as possible both in everyday life and on weekends. He did not want to appear better than he was, and was often better than he seemed... When a difficult situation arose and a difficult task that gave him time to think, Alexander was overcome by a lingering thought, a suspicious imagination was awakened, imagining possible individual dangers... But in moments of helplessness, Alexander II was rescued by the same character flaw that was so harmful to the entire course of his transformative activity: this cautious suspiciousness of his ... Suspiciousness became a source of determination."

IN. Klyuchevsky (1841-1911), historian

“Alexander II, as a great reformer, knew that Russia must stand on a par with other European states. He understood that it needed freedom, that Russia’s freedom was vital... Freedom for the first time, perhaps in the entire thousand-year history of Russia, became a value, this is the most important thing. And the one who brought it gave his life for it.”

YES. Medvedev, Prime Minister

"I think about this unfortunate man, simple-minded and kind, who has just passed into another world as a result of a bloody crime. In a word, to free fifty million people and die like a hunted animal in his own capital is an irony of fate, predetermined from above. What a night for him, who will pick up the crown of Monomakh in a pool of blood!.. Look at this martyr! He was a great king and deserved a happier fate. He cannot be called a sage, but he had a noble, exalted soul. He loved his people and tried with all his might to help the humiliated and oppressed. ... On the last day of his life he worked on a reform that would set Russia on the path modern development- introduction of a parliamentary system. And so the nihilists killed him! What a dangerous craft this is - a liberator!

Melchior de Vogüet (1848-1910) French writer, diplomat

Taking the rank of autocrat great empire, Alexander II immediately became the target of a group of professional king hunters. Seekers of “happiness for the people”, who went through many years of schooling in Geneva and other most civilized centers of Europe, pronounced a death sentence on him.

Who commanded? Why? By what right?

KARAKOZOV. First call

Both the king and the huntsman have one life. Everyone has their own job. Whatever it is, it must be done.

The Russian Empire lived under Alexander II for 26 years. At the very peak of the battle for Sevastopol and Crimea, he took responsibility for Russia. In a year he will complete Crimean War, agreeing to some losses. Not for a day did I doubt that they would have to be returned. Preferably with a profit.

But Crimea will not give up. He will sacrifice the navy, but Crimea and Sevastopol will remain Russian.

And the fleet will slowly begin to create a new one. Not a wooden one with sails, but an armored one with steam engine traction. We must overcome backwardness. Sevastopol taught.

And officers must be trained professionally, and not according to noble pedigree. And not like himself: on the tenth day after his birth, he was appointed chief of the Life Guards of the Hussar Regiment, and on his seventh anniversary he was promoted to the rank of cornet.

Therefore, he will open the Military Engineering and Artillery Academies.

He will publicly announce the abolition of serfdom and begin implementing a grandiose land reform program.

Then to the reform of secondary education.

Will establish free schools for a completely illiterate Russia.

And on April 6, 1866, the first bell rang: the failed attempt by Dmitry Karakozov on Alexander II. Terrorist Karakozov was executed, 34 accomplices were sentenced to different periods hard labor.

In the same year, when Karakozov missed, the Russian troops of General D. Romanovsky would cross the Syr Darya River and enter the Bukhara Khanate. And a year before that, Russian soldiers under the command of General M. Chernyaev would take the largest trade and political center of the Kokand Khanate - the city of Tashkent. The commander will receive a reprimand from the tsar for this and will be dismissed from the army, because Tashkent was seized without permission.

And a year after the first assassination attempt, Alexander II will issue a decree on the formation of the Turkestan General Government. In 1882, already during the reign of Alexander III, Chernyaev was appointed Governor-General of Turkestan. This will actually complete the process of entry of states Central Asia into the Russian Empire.

DECEMBERISTS. First amnesty

To know that a terrorist system has been created in your country (and the military wing of Narodnaya Volya was just such an organization) and that its main goal is you, the Tsar, the autocrat of the Russian Empire; to know that this system was created specifically for hunting you, the father of twelve children, a man in the very juice, overwhelmed by all human passions, to feel the pupil of an aimed revolver in the back of your head, to catch the movement of a hand to the jacket pocket of every man walking towards the royal carriage - to know and not be able to prevent...

You can go crazy this way.

But he had a job, hard, around the clock and with many unknowns. And in this work, mercy came first. This is the personal specialty of rulers - to show mercy. Not mercy in general, but objectively and personally.

Including those who hunt you.

The first were the Decembrists, whom he granted amnesty. Everyone who remained alive. He was not surprised when he was informed that some of them preferred Baikal to service and refused to return to St. Petersburg. And the choice of further life path left behind everyone.

FIGNER. Last assassination attempt

What does it mean to do with the stroke of a pen something that has been taboo for centuries: to free the peasants, give them freedom and land? But what about the land-soul-owners-nobles? Who will support them?

To do this in one fell swoop is to light the fuse of a popular revolt worse than Pugachev’s. Here, perhaps, everyone will unite against the Tsar-Father.

You need to think and think...

What will break out first - the peasant revolt or the revolutionary bombers? In the Third Department, the best bloodhounds were knocked off their feet: the bombers were preparing tunnels, making bombs for him...

On the calendar August 29, 1879. The execution was especially hastened by the great revolutionary Vera Figner. There were four of them, revolutionary sisters from a family of Kazan nobles, brilliantly brought up and educated, but only she became great - Vera Nikolaevna, who survived the last two Russian tsars, lived to see Stalinist socialism and was not included in Yezhov’s list of “enemies of the people.” Although all her like-minded people in the 30s under Stalin, who were still alive, were subjected to repression. For Vera Figner, everything turned out the other way around: according to the decision of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, signed by V.V. Kuibyshev in 1926, she was awarded a lifelong personal pension. And she carefully received it until her death, when Panfilov’s guardsmen had already immortalized themselves in the battle with the fascists near Moscow.

The paths of those who devoted their lives to hunting kings are inscrutable.

On March 1, 1881, Vera Nikolaevna wrote: “When I went to see my friends, who still did not suspect anything, I could hardly say out of excitement that the Tsar had been killed. I cried, like the others: the heavy nightmare that had been crushing young Russia for ten years was interrupted; the horrors of prison and exile, violence and cruelty against hundreds and thousands of our like-minded people, the blood of our martyrs - EVERYTHING WAS REDEEMED BY THIS ROYAL BLOOD WE SHEED; from our shoulders; the reaction had to end in order to give way to the renewal of Russia."

On the night of February 28 to March 1, three bombers - Sukhanov, Kibalchich and Grachevsky - worked continuously on the shells for 15 hours so that everything would be ready by 8 am. The tunnel was dug and waiting.

Alexander II the liberator had no more than 6 hours to live. Because they, his subjects, otherwise will run out of patience. How then, already in Soviet time, V. Figner will write in his memoirs about that fateful day: “The personal safety of one or another of us worried us. Our entire past and our entire revolutionary future were at stake on this Saturday, the eve of March 1: a past in which there were six attempted regicide and 21 the death penalty, which we wanted to finish, shake off, forget. And the future is bright and wide, which we thought to conquer for our generation. None nervous system I couldn’t bear such intense stress for a long time.”

The bright future of the generation - and the nervous itch of Vera Figner comrades, an intelligent girl from a Kazan noble family.

But everything went the other way around: Alexander III started with a tougher reaction.

ALEXANDER III. Tightening the nuts

The entire history of the world is written in the blood of civil strife and revolutions: people fight for a place in the sun. Is it really true that by definition this unspent power must nest in power in order to lift the marked person to the pinnacle of bliss? And to be thrown from there into oblivion? Is there really nothing more attractive in the sublunary world than power?

Apparently not.

What about poetry? What about art? What about healing? And science is the mother of civilizations?..

Of course yes. But all this comes later. After wars and revolutions, which are commanded by leaders. We measure time by the lives of pharaohs, kings, and leaders. We give their names to the eras. The era of Cyrus the Great, Alexander the Great, Genghisids, Rurikovichs, Romanovs, the Paris Commune...

Perhaps Alexander II, more than any of the Romanovs, felt this push of time: in two generations everything and everyone would end. Others will come.

His death at the hands of terrorist conspirators served as a signal for tightening the screws in the country. His successor Alexander III began with the defeat of Narodnaya Volya, the execution and hard labor of Narodnaya Volya terrorists. But this was more revenge for the murder of his father than a sanitary cleansing of civil society from the infection of a custom-made revolution. Time was lost. From a spark a flame ignited - in 1883 the Marxist group “Emancipation of Labor” was formed in Geneva.

The new power formation was given a sentence several times shorter than the royal one.

XXI CENTURY. Memory and lessons

Today, in free conversations, citizens are trying to draw parallels between the transformations of Alexander II and the current reforms. It is not correct. Between us are not only two centuries, two revolutions, two world wars plus perestroika, but also a scientific and technological revolution.

There are no parallels between the past and the future. There is only memory.

And there are historical lessons.

Of the 20 million peasants freed from serfdom, only a few could immediately pay for the lands provided to them, while the state came to the aid of the vast majority. For many, even this relaxation was beyond their power. The redemption of all allotment lands of former landowner peasants was supposed to end in 1932! But on January 1, 1907, as part of the Stolypin agrarian reform, redemption payments were stopped: the Russian state treasury took over all the land debts of the freed peasants and paid them off. Land reform was truly an outstanding tsarist victory.

What does it have in common with the reform of the 90s of the 20th century, which liquidated collective and state farms and left peasants completely without land? What does the education reform of Alexander II have in common with the post-perestroika breakdown? academic science started by officials? The general thing is that we do not want to learn from the victories of the past. But even less - on mistakes.

In 1988, M. Gorbachev repeated the mistake of Alexander II, ordering the withdrawal Soviet troops from Afghanistan - their place was immediately taken by the Americans. And the Russian Tsar in October 1878 refused to help Afghanistan, a friendly neighbor to the south, when he was at war with England, and withdrew his mission from Kabul. True, forcing the British to sign an agreement in exchange to preserve the integrity of Afghanistan.

And maybe only with Crimea we acted as wisely as Alexander II did in his time, returning the peninsula home without firing a single shot...

STROKE TO THE PORTRAIT

Order of military honor

IN Russian army During the times of Alexander II, military honor was placed above all else. When the Emperor awarded the rank of Field Marshal to 74-year-old General M.S. Vorontsov for his length of service, the whole army knew what kind of “length of service” was valued so highly. While serving as commander of the occupation corps in Paris, Vorontsov learned that Parisian restaurateurs had billed Russian officers for one and a half million rubles. Despite the fact that according to unwritten laws, the victors from time immemorial dined for free in the restaurants of the vanquished.

The general quietly paid off the debts of his officers from own funds and did not order anyone to talk about this.