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 including the peasant reform, which sent serfdom into oblivion. There was also an unrealized (its implementation was prevented by the assassination 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 an advisory assembly under the emperor, i.e. . some restriction of autocracy was introduced, etc.

Alexander II

But despite all the reforms of Tsar Alexander II, nicknamed the Liberator, they wanted to kill him like none of the Russian monarchs. For what? The Emperor himself asked the same question: What do they have against me, these unfortunates? Why do they follow me like a wild animal? After all, I have always strived to do everything in my power for the good of the people!”

First assassination 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 fired at the emperor almost point-blank at the moment when Alexander II got into the carriage after a walk. Suddenly, the shooter was pushed by a man who was nearby (later it turned out that it was a peasant O. Komissarov), and the bullet flew over the head of the emperor. 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’m for you, but you don’t understand! Karakozov was brought to the emperor, and he himself explained the motive for his act: "Your Majesty, you offended the peasants".

Shot by Karakozov

Second assassination 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 birth, stepped out of the crowd, and when the carriage with the emperors caught up with him, he fired twice at point-blank range from a pistol at the Russian emperor. And here Alexander was saved by chance: one of Napoleon III's security officers pushed the shooter's hand away. The bullets hit the horse.

Second assassination attempt

The terrorist was detained, it turned out to be a Pole Berezovsky. His motive was a 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 been feeding this idea since I began to realize myself, meaning the liberation of my homeland.”

Terrorist Berezovsky

On July 15, as a result of consideration of Berezovsky's case by jurors, he was sentenced to life imprisonment 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. It is an overseas special administrative-territorial entity of France). Later hard labor was replaced by life exile. But 40 years later, in 1906, Berezovsky was amnestied. But he remained to live in New Caledonia until his death.

Third assassination attempt

April 2, 1879 Alexander Solovyov made a third attempt on the emperor. A. Solovyov was a member of the "Land and Freedom" society. He shot at the sovereign when he was on a walk near the Winter Palace. Solovyov quickly approached 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 simply had a poor command of weapons and had never used them before the assassination attempt.

At the trial, A. Solovyov said: “The idea of ​​an attempt on the life of His Majesty arose after my acquaintance with the teachings of the Socialist Revolutionaries. I belong to the Russian section of this party, which believes that the majority suffers in order for the minority to enjoy the fruits of the people's labor and all the benefits of civilization that are inaccessible to the majority..

Terrorist Solovyov

Solovyov, like Karakozov, was sentenced to death by hanging, which took place with a huge gathering of people.

Fourth assassination attempt

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

The collapse of the baggage train after the explosion

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

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

Fifth assassination attempt

Sofya Perovskaya, daughter of the St. Petersburg governor-general, learned that in winter palace cellars are being renovated, 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 lined the walls of the wine cellar), he had to place the sacks of dynamite handed over to him (in total, 2 pounds were prepared) building material. Sofya Perovskaya received information that on February 5, 1880, a dinner in honor of the Prince of Hesse would be held in the Winter Palace, at which the entire royal family would be present. The explosion was scheduled for 6 p.m. 20 min., but due to the delay of the prince's train, dinner was postponed. The explosion thundered - none of the highest persons were injured, but 10 soldiers of the guard were killed and 80 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, tk. the government understood that it was 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 was not supposed to be 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, city management. Loris-Melikov pursued a so-called "flirtatious" policy: he softened censorship, allowed the publication of new printed organs. He met with their editors and hinted at the possibility of new reforms. And he convinced that terrorists and radical personalities interfered with their implementation.

The Loris-Melikov conversion project was approved. On March 4, it was to be discussed and approved. But on March 1, history took a different turn.

Sixth and seventh assassination attempts

One gets the impression that the Narodnaya Volya (daughter of the governor of St. Petersburg, and later 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 gave excitement. They were preparing another attack. This time, the Stone Bridge on the Catherine's Canal was chosen, through which the emperor usually passed. The terrorists abandoned the original plan to blow up the bridge, and a new one arose - to lay a mine on Malaya Sadovaya. Perovskaya "noted that at the turn from the Mikhailovsky Theater to the Ekaterininsky Canal, the coachman was delaying the horses, and the carriage was moving almost at a pace." Here it was decided to strike. In case of failure, if the mine did not explode, it was envisaged to throw a bomb into the tsar's carriage, but if this did not work out, 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 the Narodnaya Volya members: first Mikhailov, and then Zhelyabov.

Assassination of Tsar Alexander II

Increased arrests meant that there was 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 in charge of Kibalchich, who made 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 Yemelyanov. They're from two opposite sides at both ends of Malaya Sadovaya they had to throw their bombs. On March 1, bombs were handed over to them. "They were supposed to enter 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 of the danger that threatened him, but he replied that God was protecting him. On March 1, 1881, Alexander II left the Winter Palace for the Manege, was present at the setting of the guards, and returned to the Winter Palace through the Catherine Canal. This broke the plans of the Narodnaya Volya, Sofya Perovskaya urgently rebuilt the assassination plan. Grinevitsky, Emelyanov, Rysakov, Mikhailov stood along the embankment of the Ekaterinensky Canal and waited for the prearranged signal from Perovskaya (waving a handkerchief), according to which they were to throw bombs into the royal carriage. The plan worked out, but the emperor was not injured again. But he did not hastily leave the place of the assassination, but wanted to approach the wounded. Anarchist Prince Kropotkin wrote about this: “He felt that military dignity required to look at the wounded Circassians and say a few words to them.” And then Grinevitsky threw a second bomb at the feet of the tsar. 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…”

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

This ended the "hunt" for the king. This murder predetermined the conservative course of the next king, Alexander III.

On April 4, 1866, at four o'clock in the afternoon, Emperor Alexander II was walking in the Summer Garden, accompanied by his nephew and niece. When the walk was over, and the emperor went to the carriage that was waiting for him outside the gate, an unknown person, standing in the crowd at the garden lattice, tried to shoot at the king. The bullet flew past because someone managed to hit the killer on the arm. The attacker was seized, and the emperor, who quickly mastered himself, went to the Kazan Cathedral to serve a thanksgiving service for a happy rescue. Then he returned to the Winter Palace, where his frightened relatives were already waiting for him, and calmed them down.

Dmitry Karakozov. Photograph 1866

The news of the assassination attempt on the king quickly spread throughout the capital. For Petersburgers, for the inhabitants of all of Russia, what happened was a real shock, because for the first time in Russian history someone dared to shoot the king!

An investigation began, and the identity of the perpetrator was quickly established: he turned out to be Dmitry Karakozov, a former student who was expelled from Kazan University, and then from Moscow University. In Moscow, he joined the underground group "Organization", headed by Nikolai Ishutin (according to some reports, Ishutin was Karakozov's cousin). This secret group claimed as its ultimate goal the introduction of socialism in Russia through revolution, while in order to achieve the goal, according to the Ishutins, all means should be used, including terror. Karakozov considered the tsar the true culprit of all the misfortunes of Russia, and, despite the dissuasion of his comrades in a secret society, he came to St. Petersburg with an obsessive idea to kill Alexander II.

They also established the identity of the person who prevented the murderer and actually saved the life of the tsar - he turned out to be a peasant Osip Komissarov. In gratitude, Alexander II granted him the title of nobility and ordered him to give a significant amount of money.

In the case of Karakozov, about two thousand people were under investigation, 35 of them were convicted. Most of the convicts went to hard labor and settlement, Karakozov and Ishutin were sentenced to death penalty through hanging. Karakozov's sentence was carried out on the glacis of the Peter and Paul Fortress in September 1866. Ishutin, on the other hand, was pardoned, and this was announced to him when a noose was already put on the convict's neck. Ishutin could not recover from what happened: he went crazy in the prison of the Shlisselburg fortress.

Chapel of St. Alexander Nevsky, built into the lattice of the Summer Garden at the site of the assassination attempt on Alexander II

In the fence of the Summer Garden, in memory of the miraculous deliverance of Emperor Alexander II, a chapel was built in the name of the holy noble Prince Alexander Nevsky, on the pediment of which they made the inscription: "Do not touch My Anointed One." The chapel was demolished in 1930.

The text was prepared by Galina Dregulyas

For those who want to know more:
1. Lyashenko L. Alexander II. M., 2003

Part Three

FOREWORD

In the preface to Part I of my History Course Russia XIX century” I declared that part III of this course would include the internal history of Russia over the last 35 years of the 19th century. However, as soon as I began to build this part of the course, adhering to general program that I set for its first parts, I became convinced that the internal history of Russia over the last 35 years of the 19th century. cannot be contained within the framework of one part of the same volume in which the first two parts of my course are composed. This is not allowed by the abundance of the material that had to be introduced into this part. Meanwhile, a decisive turn in the mood of society that took place in Russia after the famine of 1891-1892, as well as a number of new factors and circumstances that had become clear by that moment in the economic and social life of the country and caused, in turn, new trends and aspirations in public life and government activities (for example, the Siberian Railway and Far Eastern politics), - all this in itself serves as a sufficient basis for singling out the last eight years of the 19th century. along with the first years of the 20th century. in a special period, which is already a direct prelude to the great events that played out in 1904-1906. before our eyes.

Whether this period will constitute the subject of a special series of lectures and whether it will be the content of another - the fourth - part of my course, I cannot say with certainty at the present time. But for me, at least, it is clear that the construction of such a fourth and final part of this course is logically quite possible.

The third part of the course, which is now being published, gives an account of the reactionary period of our recent internal history, which began in 1866 and continued with only a small gap in 1880-1881, until the famine of 1891-1892. This era has so far been subjected to little systematic examination. Therefore, the construction of this part of the course was for me a more difficult and more responsible task than the construction of its first two parts. I am therefore confident in advance that it will evoke many critical remarks and indications of the flaws that it undoubtedly contains. But that is why I decide to publish it now, because I consider it extremely fruitful and useful for the speediest and most complete elucidation of the main features of the era under study, that authoritative and impartial criticism of the proposed book, which I allow myself to hope for, following the example of two previously published parts my lectures.

LECTURE XXVII

(Start)

Attempted Karakozov. - The reaction that followed. - What did she say? - The development of the internal life of Russia after the reforms of the 60s, despite the reaction. – Continuation of some transformations.

The attempt on April 4, 1866 on the life of Emperor Alexander II, committed by Karakozov, made a tremendous impression both on Emperor Alexander himself and on society. They did not want to believe that one person could have conceived and committed it at his own will, and therefore they attributed it to some powerful hellish organization, some unknown secret society. And although General M. Muravyov, appointed to the head of a special commission to investigate this crime, famous for his cruelty and stubbornness in pacifying the recent uprising in Lithuania, made every effort to uncover the alleged conspiracy, he was not shy in any way in his actions and orders, with which he terrorized wide circles of civilians, young students, and especially writers, who seemed to him seditious in their direction - nevertheless, no conspiracy was discovered on the life of the sovereign, and only the existence of an insignificant circle of youth in Moscow under the leadership of a cousin was revealed Karakozova Ishutina. This circle consisted of very young people and not only did not seek regicide, but even those of its members who became aware of Karakozov's plan themselves considered it extravagant and pernicious and made quite significant efforts to prevent Karakozov, who was, apparently, by an abnormal person, before the completion of the plan. They themselves sought to organize a broad communist propaganda; but all their plans were extremely ill-conceived, impractical and, in fact, frivolous. Despite the insignificance and frivolity of this circle, the mere fact of its existence and Karakozov's belonging to it cast a big shadow in the eyes of the emperor and the highest court and administrative spheres on the direction of young students, on the state of affairs in universities and on the direction of the Ministry of Public Education itself, which was then under management of an enlightened and liberal person, A. V. Golovnina.

The court reactionaries did not miss the opportunity to take advantage of the impressions made by these events on Emperor Alexander, and the triumphant reaction first of all directed its blows at the Ministry of National Education, without even waiting for the results of the investigation carried out by Muravyov.

On April 4, Karakozov fired at the sovereign, and on April 5, a definite and sharp attack was already made in the Committee of Ministers on the Minister of Public Education by the Chief Procurator of the Synod, gr. D. A. Tolstoy. And although this attack began with a criticism of Golovnin's policy in the North-Western Territory, where Tolstoy insisted on the need for a more definite Russification direction, it soon turned into an attack on the direction of the Ministry of Public Education in general and ended with Golovnin, convinced of the loss of confidence in to him the sovereign, had to retire and give up his place to Count. Tolstoy.

Dmitry Andreevich Tolstoy. Portrait by I. Kramskoy, 1884

Tolstoy at that time was a man of quite a certain reputation. Back in 1859, he made a sharp feudal criticism of the work of the editorial commissions on peasant affairs, and when this criticism became known to Emperor Alexander, he put a resolution on it, in which he expressed that its author did not understand anything about peasant affairs or seemed to be a man clearly malicious.

But this did not prevent Tolstoy in 1864 from taking the post of chief prosecutor of the Synod, and in April 1866 from being appointed to the post of minister of public education with certain reactionary tasks that were in complete harmony with his own reactionary aspirations. If Muravyov did not succeed then in discovering any conspiracy on the life of the sovereign, then he and the court reactionaries who supported him were quite able to connect the fermentation of the minds of the youth and part of the intelligentsia, discovered by the investigation, - a vivid symptom of which was Ishutin's communist circle, - with the policy of the Ministry of Public Education and with direction of the radical press, the main representatives of which were the magazines Sovremennik and Russian word". Both of these journals were immediately closed for good; as for the mood of the government towards young people, the rescript given on May 13, 1866 addressed to the chairman of the Committee of Ministers, Prince. P. P. Gagarin. “Providence,” it was said, among other things, in this rescript, “it pleased to reveal before the eyes of Russia what consequences should be expected from aspirations and philosophies that boldly encroach on everything that is primordially sacred to her, on religious beliefs, on the foundations of family life, to the right to property, to obedience to the law, and to respect for established authorities. My attention has already been turned to the education of youth. I have given instructions to that end, that it be directed in the spirit of the truths of religion, respect for the rights of property and respect for the fundamental principles of social order, and that in educational institutions of all departments, neither open nor secret preaching of those destructive concepts that are equally hostile to all conditions of the moral and material well-being of the people was allowed ... The heads of families were called upon to help the government in this regard.

The same rescript also pointed out the need to protect the foundations of the existing civil system against all destructive attempts, the presence of which was seen in those perverse rumors and views that were preached by individuals (even consisting, as indicated in the rescript, on public service), and some press organs recognized as malicious. “It is necessary,” it was said at the end of the rescript, “to stop repeated attempts to incite enmity between different classes, especially to incite enmity against the nobility and in general against landowners, in whom the enemies of public order naturally see their direct opponents.”

The reaction that took hold in 1866 touched, however, not only the Ministry of National Education. The resignation of Golovnin was followed by the resignations of other senior government officials. Was fired, among other things, the chief of the gendarmes Prince. V.D. Dolgorukov, who could in no way be reproached for liberalism, but who, after the events of April 4, himself admitted that he was outdated for the position he held. He was replaced by the young court general gr. N. A. Shuvalov, who soon became the soul of reaction in the ruling spheres and to whom the ministers of internal affairs P. A. Valuev and state property, General Zelenoy, closely joined in the Committee of Ministers. These individuals formed a very influential triumvirate at that time. The humane and delicate Governor-General of St. Petersburg, Prince. A. A. Suvorov, who was replaced by General Trepov, who was appointed chief police chief of the capital and had previously shown his police skills as police chief of the Kingdom of Poland.

Shuvalov, Valuev and Zelenoy soon submitted to the sovereign a project to strengthen the governor's power, and although this project fundamentally contradicted the liberal reforms just carried out and although the Minister of Justice D. N. Zamyatnin and the Minister of Finance M. Kh. Reitern vigorously opposed it in the Committee of Ministers Nevertheless, Emperor Alexander, whom Shuvalov systematically embarrassed with constant denunciations of the widespread fermentation of minds in the province, recognized the implementation of this measure as necessary. And although this measure, by its nature, required legislative sanction, it was nevertheless carried out in an administrative manner - in the form of the highest approved position of the Committee of Ministers. Persons of judicial rank in the provinces, whose independence had just been established by judicial statutes, were at the same time invited by a special circular to appear before the governor at his first request and generally look at him as a representative of the royal authority in the province. From now on, not a single official, even a freelance employee, could take his place without the consent of the governor; the newly established control chambers and even zemstvo institutions were subject to this rule, although the latter were recognized by law as “public” institutions, and not government ones.

These were the first symptoms of the reaction which took hold in 1866.

It should be noted here that the event of April 4, 1866 and the subsequent white terror in the capital, led by M. N. Muravyov, shocked not only government circles, but also public ones. Some journalists, like Katkov, who then resolutely took the side of the reaction, furiously attacked the "nihilists" and seditious Poles, against whom Katkov was inclined to consider even Muravyov's measures too weak. Others, like Nekrasov, were so frightened that they were ready for all sorts of unseemly fawning over the raging Muravyov, which, however, by no means saved the magazine published by Nekrasov from being closed. Finally, others, like Dostoevsky, were not only sincerely horrified by the event, but made society itself responsible for it. In general, an extraordinary confusion prevailed in the minds, which, of course, played into the hands of the developing reaction. Under such unfavorable conditions, new courts and zemstvo institutions had to begin their activities, which will be discussed later.

However, it must be noted right away that no matter how strong this reaction was, no matter how much the fear and confusion that were observed in wide sections of society after Karakozov's shot, nevertheless this reaction, in the end, contributed to its rooting and development in government spheres powerless to return Russia to its former, pre-reform state. Not to mention the impossibility of restoring the former serfdom, the government could not take back the entire reforms that had just been made in the sphere of the judiciary and local government; even the university charter of 1863 was not immediately abolished, but was only complicated and distorted by the issuance of new rules for students.

This is not enough: the government, in spite of the fact that since 1866 it has been filled with reactionary aspirations and overwhelmed by reactionary fears, not only had to allow and even take upon itself the introduction into life of the newly issued reforms, which it tried only to distort later by partial changes, but even in this reactionary period he had to finish the work of reforms conceived in previous years in various areas of popular life and administration. First of all, he had to complete the arrangement of the peasants by extending the Regulations of February 19 to state (former state) peasants, to extend the principles of self-government to cities, and, finally, to make a great transformation in the full sense of the word in the matter of serving military service by the population and a number of transformations in the structure of the army itself . Along with this, in an effort to develop the economic forces and means of the country and the state, he had to follow the path of a progressive financial and economic policy, no matter how badly this policy conformed to his new reactionary course in matters of internal administration and education.

In view of all this, along with the resignation of Golovnin and his replacement by Tolstoy, along with the formation of the reactionary triumvirate of Shuvalov, Valuev and Zeleny among the Committee of Ministers, Emperor Alexander II had to keep such supporters of progress as Dm. A. Milyutin in the War Ministry, as Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolayevich in the Navy and at the head of the State Council, as V.A. Tatarinov as State Comptroller and as M. Kh. Reitern as Minister of Finance. In a word, life in Russia not only did not stop and did not go back in this difficult time of government and partly public reaction, but, as we shall see, it continued, in essence, to develop and move forward, although, under the pressure of reaction and repression, this development most often assumed painful and distorted forms.

Opponents of progress and supporters of reaction in the face of this unstoppable process, the internal growth and development of the people's organism, could only put spokes in its wheels and try in every possible way to impede and distort its free movement. And they did this - as we will see, sometimes with passion, sometimes routinely - invariably giving this process a painful course and abnormal forms, bringing a lot of evil to the country and people, but by no means stopping the very course of its development.

Ref. article P. I. Weinberg"April 4th, 1866 (from my memoirs)". "Past" for 1906, No. 4, p. 299; N. K. Mikhailovsky Literary Memoirs and Modern Troubles, vol. I, p. 18; A. V. Nikitenko."Diary", vol. II, p. 282 et seq.

Up to the second half of XIX centuries, attempts on the life of monarchs in Russia were exclusively the work of the elite. In the process of struggle among the court parties for power, one of the parties, seeking the victory of its leader, allowed the killing of a competitor. In 1801, state dignitaries and guards officers cleared the way to the throne for Alexander I by physically eliminating his father, the Emperor Paul I.

For the people, the sovereign remained "God's anointed", a sacred and inviolable person.

However, the revolutionary winds reached Russian Empire, where radical citizens began to study with interest Western experience regarding the sending of royal persons under the executioner's ax.

In 1861 the emperor Alexander II accepted historic decision about the abolition of serfdom. Together with this measure, a whole series of reforms were being implemented, which were supposed to provide Russia with a decisive leap forward.

But liberalization measures public life, taken by Alexander II, did not suit the revolutionary-minded youth. According to Russian revolutionaries, the reforms were carried out extremely slowly, and often were a deception of popular expectations.

As a result, the reformer Alexander II was declared a "tyrant" by the radicals. On Russian soil, an idea that originates from antiquity began to rapidly gain popularity - the fastest and most reliable way to bring about changes in society is the "murder of a tyrant."

"You deceived the people"

On April 4, 1866, Emperor Alexander II, as usual, took a walk in the Summer Garden. In those days, the tsar could afford to walk around St. Petersburg without guards or with one or two escorts.

After the end of the walk, the emperor went to the entrance to the Summer Garden, where a carriage was waiting for him. A crowd of those who wanted to look at the sovereign gathered around. At that moment, when Alexander approached the carriage, a shot rang out. The bullet whistled over the emperor's head.

The shooter was arrested on the spot. "Guys! I shot for you!” he shouted.

Dmitry Karakozov. Photo: Public Domain

Alexander II, who survived the shock, nevertheless retained his composure. He ordered to bring the shooter to the carriage and asked:

- You're polish?

The emperor's question was not accidental. Poland, which was part of the Russian Empire, regularly raised revolts, which were also regularly and ruthlessly suppressed. So if someone had reason to wish the death of the Russian Tsar, then it was the Poles.

“I am Russian,” answered the terrorist.

- Why did you shoot me? the monarch was astounded.

“You deceived the people: you promised them land, but you didn’t give it,” the failed murderer answered.

“Take him to the Third Section,” ordered Alexander, who decided to end the political dispute.

killer and savior

Together with the shooter, who called himself a peasant Alexander Petrov, detained and another man who was suspected of complicity. He, however, did not express any revolutionary ideas. His name was Osip Komissarov, he was a hat master, who came from the peasants of the Kostroma province.

Osip Komissarov. Photo: Public Domain

The fate of Komissarov was decided by the general Edward Totleben, who happened to be at the scene and stated that the hat maker pushed the shooter under the arm, which prevented the killer from making an accurate shot.

Thanks to these testimonies, Osip Komissarov instantly turned from a potential villain into a protagonist.

Meanwhile, the detectives were interrogating the "peasant Petrov" to establish whether the assassin had accomplices.

During the investigation, it was established that he lived in room 65 in the Znamenskaya hotel. A search of the room brought the police a torn letter to a certain Nikolai Ishutin who was soon arrested. Interrogation of Ishutin made it possible to establish the real name of the shooter - Dmitry Karakozov.

“I decided to destroy the villainous king and die for my kind people myself”

He was born in 1840, in a family of small estate nobles of the Saratov province. After graduating from the gymnasium in Penza, Karakozov studied at Kazan and Moscow universities, but dropped out due to lack of funds. For some time, Karakozov worked as a clerk under the magistrate of the Serdobsky district.

In 1865, a young man, dissatisfied with the injustice of the world around him, entered into secret society"Organization", founded by his cousin Nikolai Ishutin. Subsequently, the society got another name - "Ishutinskaya circle".

As in many other revolutionary organizations of that time, there was a dispute among the Ishutins about the methods of struggle. Dmitry Karakozov joined those who believed that individual terror and, above all, the assassination of the emperor could raise the Russian people to revolution.

In the spring of 1866, Karakozov decided that he was capable of carrying out a great mission on his own, and left for St. Petersburg. On the eve of the assassination attempt, he wrote a proclamation “To Friends-Workers!” In which he explained the motives of his act: “It was sad, hard for me that ... my beloved people were dying, and so I decided to destroy the villainous king and die for my kind people myself . If I succeed in my plan, I will die with the thought that by my death I have benefited my dear friend, the Russian peasant. But if it doesn’t work, I still believe that there will be people who will follow my path. I failed, they will succeed. For them, my death will be an example and inspire them ... ".

Chapel at the site of the assassination attempt on Alexander II (not preserved). Photo: Public Domain

Execution on the Smolensk field

After Karakozov's failure, the "Ishuta circle" was crushed, more than three dozen of its members were put on trial. The head of the organization, Nikolai Ishutin, was first sentenced to death, which was commuted to life imprisonment. Two years in solitary confinement in the Shlisselburg Fortress led Ishutin to go insane. He died in 1879 after wandering through Russian prisons and penal servitude.

As for Dmitry Karakozov, his fate was actually predetermined even before the start of the process. August 31, 1866 Supreme Criminal Court presided over Prince Gagarin sentenced Karakozov to death by hanging.

The verdict noted that Karakozov “confessed” to the attempt on the life of the “Holy Person of the Sovereign Emperor”, Karakozov “confessed, explaining before the Supreme Criminal Court, when issuing him a copy of the indictment, that his crime was so great that it could not be justified even by that painful nervous condition, where he was at the time.

Portrait by I. Repin (1866). Photo: Public Domain

The execution took place on the morning of September 3, 1866 on the Smolensk field, located on Vasilevsky Island. Thousands of people gathered to watch the hanging. Among those who were present at the execution was the artist Ilya Repin who made a pencil sketch of the condemned. The body hung in the noose for about 20 minutes, then it was removed, placed in a coffin, and taken to Goloday Island, located in the Neva delta, for burial. According to some reports, the grave was under surveillance for several weeks - the detectives hoped to detain Karakozov's accomplices, who would come to pay tribute to the fallen comrade.

"Invention" of General Totleben

Osip Komissarov, declared the savior of the emperor, gained all-Russian fame in the first weeks after the assassination attempt. Already on the evening of April 4, just a few hours after the events, he attended a reception at the Winter Palace, where he received imperial hugs and warm gratitude. Alexander II hung the Vladimir Cross of the IV degree on his chest and elevated him to hereditary nobles with the assignment of a surname - Komissarov-Kostroma.

All the newspapers wrote about his feat, and the newly-minted nobleman himself now said that he deliberately interfered with Karakozov, despite the danger: “I don’t know what, but my heart somehow especially beat when I saw this man who hastily made his way through the crowd ; I involuntarily followed him, but then, however, forgot him when the sovereign approached. Suddenly I see that he took out and aims a pistol: it instantly seemed to me that if I threw myself at him or pushed his hand to the side, he would kill someone else or me, and I involuntarily and forcefully pushed his hand up; then I don’t remember anything, how I was bewildered myself.

Two days before Karakozov's execution, a groundbreaking ceremony for the chapel of St. Alexander Nevsky took place near the Summer Garden in memory of the tsar's miraculous deliverance from death. Interior Minister Petr Valuev, who was present at the event, wrote in his diary: “Among the persons participating in the ceremony was Komissarov. He stood beside his inventor, General Totleben. He is decorated with various foreign orders, which gives him the appearance of an official who has made trips abroad in the retinue of high-ranking persons. Coincidence".

Lubok message about the feat of Osip Komissarov, 1866. Photo: Public Domain

The hero of the empire died in oblivion

In fact, by that time Komissarov was a holder of the Order of the Legion of Honor, the owner of the Commander's Cross of the Austrian Order Franz Joseph, as well as the medal "April 4, 1866" specially established for him.

The 28-year-old hat master became an honorary citizen of a number of Russian cities, houses were decorated with his portraits, he was awarded a lifetime pension of 3,000 rubles. The Moscow nobility presented him with a golden sword, and the military department collected 9,000 rubles to buy a new house for the emperor's savior.

Meanwhile, the national hero remained an illiterate man with a craving for alcohol, which began to greatly disturb the powerful of this world. Osip Komissarov needed to be attached somewhere where he could not compromise the image created by propaganda.

A year later, he was placed as a cadet in the Pavlograd 2nd Life Hussar Regiment. The well-born nobles who served in the elite part shunned Komissarov, considering him an upstart. From longing and from the presence of big money, the savior of Alexander II began to drink too much. In 1877 he was retired with the rank of captain. Komissarov settled in the estate granted to him in the Poltava province and took up gardening and beekeeping. Forgotten by everyone, he died in 1892, before reaching his 55th birthday.

Alexander II, showering Osip Komissarov with awards and sending Dmitry Karakozov to the gallows, could not have imagined that the events of April 4, 1866 were just the beginning of a great hunt for the emperor, which would stretch for 15 years and end with his death on March 1, 1881.