In September 1879, S. N. Khalturin, a Narodnaya Volya member, got a job as a carpenter in the Winter Palace using forged documents. Khalturin lived in the basement of the Winter Palace. By February 5 of the following year, he managed to carry in parts into the basement of the imperial palace about 2 pounds of dynamite, made in the underground laboratory of the Narodnaya Volya.
The bomb was set off with a fuse. Directly above his room was a guardroom, even higher, on the second floor, a dining room, in which Alexander II was going to dine. The Prince of Hesse, brother of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, was expected for dinner, but his train was half an hour late.
The explosion found the emperor, who was meeting the prince, in the Small Field Marshal's Hall, far from the dining room. The explosion of dynamite destroyed the ceiling between the basement and first floors. The floors of the palace guardhouse collapsed down (the modern hall of the Hermitage No. 26). Double brick vaults between the first and second floors of the palace withstood the impact of the blast wave. No one was hurt in the mezzanine, but the explosion raised the floors, knocked out a lot of window panes, and the lights went out. In the dining room or the Yellow Room of the Third Spare Half of the Winter Palace (the modern hall of the Hermitage No. 160, the decoration has not been preserved), a wall cracked, a chandelier fell on the set table, everything was covered with lime and plaster.
As a result of an explosion in the lower floor of the palace, 11 servicemen were killed, who were on guard that day in the palace of the lower ranks of the Life Guards of the Finnish Regiment stationed on Vasilyevsky Island, 56 people were injured. Despite their own wounds and injuries, the surviving sentries remained in their places, and even upon the arrival of the called-up change from the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, they did not give up their places to those who arrived until they were replaced by their breeding corporal, who was also wounded in the explosion. All the dead were heroes of the recently ended Russian-Turkish war.
Killed:
.
sergeant major Kirill Dmitriev,
non-commissioned officer Efim Belonin,
bugler Ivan Antonov,
corporal Tikhon Feoktistov,
corporal Boris Leletsky,
Private Fyodor Solovyov,
Private Vladimir Shukshin,
private Danila Senin,
Private Ardalion Zakharov,
Private Grigory Zhuravlev
Private Semyon Koshelev.
.
According to some reports, one footman who was in the room next to the guard was killed.
The dead were buried in a mass grave at the Smolensk cemetery in St. Petersburg, on which, on a platform lined with granite, a Monument to Finnish Heroes was erected. By the personal Decree of the Emperor, all the soldiers who were in this guard were presented for awards, cash payments and other incentives. By the same Decree, Alexander II ordered the families of the killed guardsmen to be “enrolled in eternal boarding school”.
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On February 7, despite the severe frost and the danger of a new assassination attempt, the emperor went to the Smolensk cemetery for a funeral. Five days later, on February 12 (24), 1880, an emergency state body, the Supreme Administrative Commission, was established to prevent terrorist activity.
A search query about this assassination attempt will find a photograph for you with a description that this is the dining room of the palace after the explosion. The source of the image comes from the site http://rusarchives.ru and is signed as “The Dining Room of the Winter Palace after the assassination attempt on Emperor Alexander II. 1879. Photographer unknown. 18.7 24.7 (GA RF. F.678. Op.1. D.1084. L.2)”. The attribution is erroneous and, unfortunately, the photo has gone viral on the Internet.
The photo shows the ballroom in the house of Vonlyarlyarsky in St. Petersburg (Angliyskaya Embankment, 36; architects Nikolai Efimov Efimov, Mikhail Dorimedontovich BYKOVSKY; built in 1840). The picture was taken at the beginning of the 20th century before the restructuring of the interiors of the house (1910-1911) into the Old Donon restaurant.
CHARLEMAGN Iosif Iosifovich (1824-1870) "A hall in the Vonlyarlyarsky mansion". 1852
Paper, watercolor.
The hall of the Winter Palace, in which the assassination attempt on Alexander II took place, is depicted in a watercolor by Eduard Hau. The room served as the Small Dining Room in the 1870s (the modern room 160, the decoration has not been preserved). The third spare half is a few rooms located along the Dark Corridor with windows to the Great Courtyard. The composition of the spare half included: Reception, Living Room ("Yellow Living Room"), Study and Bedchamber. The floor below was the main guardhouse.
GAU Eduard Petrovich (1807-1887) “Views of the halls of the Winter Palace. Third spare half. Living room". 1872
Paper, watercolor. 31.8 x 42.3 cm.
State Hermitage, St. Petersburg. Not on permanent display.
Now it is the hall of Russian culture of the first half of XVIII century, which exhibits machines from the court turning workshop of PETER I: three side lathes, two medallions and a machine for cutting gears. They were created in the period from 1712 to 1729. Franz SINGER, A.K. Nartov and other masters of the Turnery. The exposition is complemented by the printing press of the printing house of the Senate, cabinets of carved walnut, Dutch-made chairs, a model of the house in Zaandam, where Peter I stayed in 1697.
About an attempt.
On February 5/17, 1880, at 6:22 pm, a bomb exploded in the Winter Palace. The unsuccessful attempt on the life of ALEXANDER II was organized by Stepan Nikolaevich KhALTURIN (1857-1882).
A rebel, not inclined to compromise, he was a man of strong-willed actions and unshakable decisions. A conscientious student of the Raznochinsk populist intelligentsia, he assimilated the revolutionary outlook and enthusiastically accepted the idea of regicide for the sake of the people's revolution that had matured in the underground.
Khalturin got a job in the palace as a carpenter. Stepan (according to Batyshkov's false passport) was determined with a salary, allowance and housing. He shared a room with two other workers and a special overseer, a retired non-commissioned officer. Stepan seemed unsociable, taciturn, meek and almost a simpleton. The new worker, according to information collected later by the investigation, was by no means distinguished by professional carpentry skills. True, he was a good painter.
The bodies of the political investigation of the terrorist "missed", although Khalturin had long been known to the III branch. The terrorist presented a six-month passport for No. 346, issued to him on August 8, 1879 as living in the village of Sutok, Troitskaya volost, Kargopol district, Olonets province. But in the Kargopol district there is neither the Troitsk volost, the board of which was supposed to issue him a passport, nor the village of Sutok. A tragicomic incident occurred: a paper was sent from the Narodnaya Volya underground "to the village of grandfather", and in the palace commandant's office, subordinate to the minister of the Imperial Court, it was accepted.
Khalturin carried explosives in small batches, hand-made by his associates. His room was in the basement, above it were the premises of the palace guard. The target was higher, on the 2nd floor. According to Khalturin's calculations, the explosion force (30 kg of dynamite) should have been enough to destroy the ceilings of two floors and kill Alexander II.
At the time of the explosion, the emperor was supposed to be in the dining room ("Yellow Living Room"). Alexander Nikolaevich was saved by the fact that the train of the expected guest, Prince Alexander of Hesse, was delayed for thirty minutes, and, accordingly, the entire daily routine of the monarch shifted for half an hour. The explosion found him and the prince on the threshold of the next room.
The floors of the palace guardhouse collapsed down (modern hall 26). On the second floor, the floor rose, a crack went through the wall, a chandelier fell off and the glass of the windows flew out. The capital walls turned out to be stronger than one might have imagined: Francesco RASTRELLI designed and built the palace to the conscience.
ALEXANDER OF GESSEN (brother of Empress MARIA ALEXANDROVNA) recalled those terrible moments: “The floor rose as if under the influence of an earthquake, the gas in the gallery went out, it was completely dark, and an unbearable smell of gunpowder or dynamite spread in the air. In the dining room - right on the set table - a chandelier collapsed.
On this day, as stated in the "Government Communication", "at seven o'clock in the evening, when in the Winter Palace on the occasion of the expected arrival in St. Petersburg of His Highness Prince Alexander of Hesse, in the chambers located above the premises of the main guard, a table was prepared for family dinner of members of the Imperial House, and His Imperial Majesty<...>deigned to meet the distinguished guest in the small field marshal's hall, an explosion occurred from the basement floor, destroying the premises of the main guard and adjacent parts of the building, as well as somewhat damaging the floor of those rooms in which a dining table was supposed to be ”(Government message // Government Gazette. 1882. Feb. 21. No. 40. S. 2.).
The results of the assassination attempt turned out to be tragic: 11 ranks of the Life Guards of the Finnish Regiment were killed in the lower floor of the palace, 56 people were injured. All the dead were heroes of the recently ended Russian-Turkish war, for their distinction, enrolled in the service of the imperial palace. The victims of the terrorist attack were recent peasants in soldier's uniforms - people for whose happiness the "Narodnaya Volya" fought. The three dead soldiers were Vyatichi, fellow countrymen of their killer.
The most august persons survived a short fright and some inconvenience, the solemn meal was transferred to other apartments of the palace.
The Executive Committee of Narodnaya Volya, in its proclamation, escaped with the maxim: such sacrifices are inevitable in the struggle for the good of the people, and the soldiers must go over to the side of the revolutionaries as soon as possible.
Getting acquainted with how the residence of the monarch was guarded in the 1870s - early 1880s, one is only surprised that the attempt on the emperor in the palace did not happen much earlier. There was practically no access system in Zimny; sentries relied on their visual memory much more than on passes. The servants, taking advantage of their acquaintance with the soldiers, often brought relatives and friends with them to the royal residence, often arranging their family holidays in the kitchen, the benefit of both food and wine was at hand.
The reason for the failure of the attempt lay not in the postponed family dinner due to the lateness of the Prince of Hesse, but in the imperfect organization of the entire terrorist act, which was constantly on the verge of failure, as well as in an insufficient amount of dynamite. The explosion still would not have reached its goal, even if lunch had started on time. Although the Narodnaya Volya proclamation assured that “the charge was calculated correctly, but this time the tsar was half an hour late for dinner, and the explosion caught him on his way to the dining room. Thus, unfortunately for the motherland, the king survived.
Khalturin managed to escape, but he was depressed. In a safe house, he was waiting for an arrest all the time, but the police and political detectives failed to track him down. Two years later he was hanged in an Odessa prison for an attempt on the life of the military prosecutor STRELNIKOV.
Stills from the film "Stepan Khalturin" (1925, dir. Alexander IVANOVSKY):
Sources:
Explosion at the Winter Palace(18:22; February 5, 1880) - an act of terrorism directed against Russian emperor Alexander II, organized by members of the Narodnaya Volya movement. Khalturin lived in the basement of the Winter Palace, where he carried up to 30 kg of dynamite. The bomb was set off with a fuse. Directly above his room was a guardroom, even higher, on the second floor, the dining room in which Alexander II was going to dine. The Prince of Hesse was expected for dinner, but his train was half an hour late. The explosion caught the emperor at the door of the dining room. The explosion broke through the ceiling between the basement and the first floor, the ceiling between the first and second floors withstood the impact of the blast wave. As a result of the explosion, 11 servicemen who were on guard in the palace of the lower ranks of the Life Guards of the Finnish Regiment, stationed on Vasilevsky Island, were killed, 56 people were injured. Despite their own wounds and injuries, the surviving sentries remained in their places, and even upon the arrival of the called shift from the Life Guards of the Preobrazhensky Regiment, they did not give up their places to the arrivals until they were replaced by their breeding corporal, who was also wounded in the explosion.
sergeant major Kirill Dmitriev,
non-commissioned officer Efim Belonin,
bugler Ivan Antonov,
corporal Tikhon Feoktistov,
corporal Boris Leletsky,
Private Fyodor Solovyov
Private Vladimir Shukshin
Private Danila Senin
Private Ardalion Zakharov
Private Grigory Zhuravlev
Private Semyon Koshelev.
The dead were buried in a mass grave at the Smolensk cemetery in St. Petersburg, on which, on a platform lined with granite, a Monument to Finnish Heroes was erected. By the personal Decree of the Emperor, all the soldiers who were in this guard were presented for awards, cash payments and other incentives. By the same Decree, Alexander II ordered the families of the killed guardsmen to be “enrolled in eternal boarding school”.
On February 7, despite the severe frost and the danger of a new assassination attempt, the Sovereign went to the Smolensk cemetery for the funeral.
Organization
In September, the secret Narodnaya Volya member S. N. Khalturin, using forged documents, got a job as a carpenter in the Winter Palace. By February 5 of the following year, he managed to carry in parts into the basement of the dining room of the imperial palace about 2 pounds of dynamite, made in the underground laboratory of the Narodnaya Volya. After the explosion in the Winter Palace, on February 24 (February 12 O.S.), an emergency state body was established - the Supreme Administrative Commission.
Bibliography:
1. Mass grave of those killed in the explosion of the Winter Palace in 1880.
2. This day in history: 1880 On February 24 (12) an emergency state body was established - the Supreme Administrative Commission. REGNUM (February 24, 2010).
IN . Khalturin lived in the basement of the Winter Palace. By February 5 of the following year, he managed to carry in parts into the basement of the imperial palace about 2 pounds, made in the underground laboratory of the Narodnaya Volya.
The bomb was set off with a fuse. Directly above his room was a guardroom, even higher, on the second floor, a dining room, in which Alexander II was going to dine. By dinner they were waiting for the brother of the Empress, but his train was half an hour late.
The explosion found the emperor, who was meeting the prince, in the Small Field Marshal's Hall, far from the dining room. The explosion of dynamite destroyed the ceiling between the basement and first floors. The floors of the palace guardhouse collapsed down (modern hall No. 26). Double brick vaults between the first and second floors of the palace withstood the impact of the blast wave. No one was hurt in the mezzanine, but the explosion raised the floors, knocked out a lot of window panes, and the lights went out. In the dining room or the Yellow Room of the Third Spare Half of the Winter Palace (modern hall No. 160, the decoration has not been preserved), a wall cracked, a chandelier fell on the set table, lime and plaster covered everything.
As a result of an explosion in the lower floor of the palace, 11 servicemen were killed, who were on guard that day in the palace of the lower ranks, stationed on Vasilyevsky Island, 56 people were injured. Despite their own wounds and injuries, the surviving sentries remained in their places, and even upon the arrival of the called shift, they did not give up their places to the arrivals until they were replaced by their breeding corporal, who was also wounded in the explosion. All the dead were heroes of the recently ended.
- sergeant major Kirill Dmitriev,
- non-commissioned officer Efim Belonin,
- bugler Ivan Antonov,
- corporal Tikhon Feoktistov,
- corporal Boris Leletsky,
- Private Fyodor Solovyov,
- Private Vladimir Shukshin,
- private Danila Senin,
- Private Ardalion Zakharov,
- Private Grigory Zhuravlev
- Private Semyon Koshelev.
According to some reports, one footman who was in the room next to the guard was killed.
The dead were buried in a mass grave on which, on a platform lined with granite, was installed. By the personal Decree of the Emperor, all the soldiers who were in this guard were presented for awards, cash payments and other incentives. By the same Decree, Alexander II ordered the families of the killed guardsmen to be “enrolled in eternal boarding school”.
On February 7, despite the severe frost and the danger of a new assassination attempt, the emperor went to the Smolensk cemetery for a funeral. Five days later, on February 12 () of the year, an emergency state body was established to prevent terrorist activity -.
On February 5 (Old Style), 1880, a terrible explosion thundered in the Winter Palace, almost killing Emperor Alexander II and members of the royal family. The terrorist attack, which has already become the fifth attempt on the life of the Sovereign, was planned by members of the "Narodnaya Volya" and carried out by the 24-year-old revolutionary Stepan Khalturin.Khalturin, who plotted regicide, got a job as a cabinet maker in the Winter Palace using a fake passport in the name of Stepan Batyshkov. Having received for his use the basement utility room, located under the guardroom and the royal dining room, Khalturin carried dynamite there with tools for four months, having accumulated about three pounds of explosives by the time of the attack.
Here, naturally, a number of questions arise: how could this be possible? where were the corresponding services and palace guards? did no one suspect Khalturin of intending to carry out malicious intent? In part, these questions were answered by the then adherent of Khalturin (and in the future a conservative thinker) L.A. Tikhomirov: “On the occasion of the absence of the Emperor (Alexander II was on vacation in Livadia at the time Khalturin arrived - RNL.), The palace was guarded in the most careless way. The servants and other inhabitants lived with all their will, without constraint. Both morals and way of life were amazing. Debauchery and theft reigned everywhere. There was no supervision of the servants. Ministers, high and low, held parties and drinking parties, to which dozens of their acquaintances came without any permission or supervision. The front doors to the palace remained inaccessible to the most senior officials, and the back doors at any time of the day or night were open to every first acquaintance of the palace employees. These visitors often stayed overnight in the palace. The theft of palace property was rampant and unchecked. Khalturin, in order not to seem suspicious, even himself had to go to steal food in the storerooms ”.
And although it was clear to the Third Division and the police that a real hunt had been declared on the Sovereign and sooner or later the terrorists would try to carry out an assassination attempt in the Winter Palace, they failed to prevent the attack. But back in the autumn of 1879, during one of the arrests, the plan of the Winter Palace fell into the hands of the secret services, on which the royal dining room was marked with a cross!
Of course, precautions were taken (clearly, however, insufficient) - the access control was tightened in the palace, searches of servants' premises began, on the eve of the terrorist attack, Khalturin's closet was also searched, but, as it turned out later, the search was carried out formally and negligently: the policeman opened the chest with dynamite , but was too lazy to stir up the linen that covered the explosives ... Thus, the Emperor was completely unprotected from the assassination attempt. Initially, according to the testimony of M. Frolenko, a Narodnaya Volya member, Khalturin "suggested to end Alexander II with an ax". But another Narodnaya Volya, A. Kvyatkovsky, “Fearing that the Tsar would not snatch the hatchet from Khalturin, but would not kill him himself, he suggested that it would be better to use dynamite”.
True, the original plan almost came true, only instead of an ax, a hammer could turn out to be the murder weapon. Once, when Khalturin was doing work in the Sovereign's office, he was left alone with the Emperor. The thought flashed through the terrorist's head: to hit the Sovereign with a pointed hammer on the head and try to hide, but then something stopped him. "Narodovolka" O. Lyubatovich said: “Who would have thought that the same person, having once met Alexander II one on one in his office, where Khalturin had to make some corrections, would not dare to kill him from behind simply with a hammer in his hands? .. Yes, deep and full of contradictions human soul. Considering Alexander II the greatest criminal against the people, Khalturin involuntarily felt the charm of his kind, courteous treatment of the workers.. However, Khalturin did not leave his criminal plan, and soon everything was ready to blow up the Sovereign with the help of dynamite. The fact that women, children, servants and soldiers would inevitably die in the explosion, in addition to the Emperor, did not bother the terrorist. "The number of victims- said Khalturin, - it will still be huge. Fifty people will certainly be killed. So it’s better not to spare dynamite, so that at least strangers do not die fruitlessly, but so that he himself is probably killed. Worse, as you have to start a new attempt again.
Knowing the schedule of royal dinners, the terrorist calculated the time when the Emperor and his family were supposed to be in the dining room and carried out his plan. The bomb was set off with the help of a fuse designed so that the terrorist himself had time to escape from the scene of the crime ...
A powerful explosion of the infernal machine, which sounded at half past seven, brought down the ceiling between the basement and first floors. The floors of the palace guardhouse collapsed down, and only the double brick vaults between the first and second floors of the palace withstood the impact of the blast wave. No one was hurt in the mezzanine, but the explosion lifted the floors, shattered window panes, and extinguished the lights. A wall cracked in the royal dining room, a chandelier fell on the table set for dinner, everything around was covered with lime and plaster ...
The sovereign and members of his family were saved by the fact that they were delayed that day, waiting for dinner for Prince Alexander of Hesse, brother of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, whose train was half an hour late. The explosion found the Sovereign, who was meeting the prince, in the Small Field Marshal's Hall, located far from the dining room. The Prince of Hesse recalled the incident as follows: “The floor rose as if under the influence of an earthquake, the gas in the gallery went out, complete darkness set in, and an unbearable smell of gunpowder or dynamite spread in the air”.
But not everything went well and the tragedy did happen. The explosion killed 11 soldiers of the Life Guards of the Finnish Regiment, who were on guard duty that day, 56 people were injured of varying severity. "The type of victims, - writes the historian E.P. Tolmachev, - presented a terrible picture. Amidst the mass of rubble and debris lay the bloodied body parts. It took the efforts of many people to extract the unfortunate from the rubble. The muffled groans of the maimed and their cries for help made a soul-rending impression..
All the dead were heroes of the recently ended war with Turkey, for feats sent to honorary service in the royal palace. “Soldiers, recent peasants, were precisely those for the sake of a better life which the Narodnaya Volya organized a terrorist attack ", - rightly notes a modern historian. But the Narodnaya Volya did not seem to care much. The executive committee of the organization, in its proclamation, only stated that the soldiers should have understood that their place was on the side of the revolutionaries, and not on the side of the tsarist regime, since otherwise "such tragic clashes are inevitable."
The behavior of the soldiers-guards is indicative. The surviving sentries, despite the wounds they received, all of them got out from under the rubble and took their places again. Skinned and bloody, barely on their feet, they did not give up their posts even upon the arrival of a shift from the Preobrazhensky Guards Regiment, until, as required by the Charter, they were replaced by their own breeding corporal, who was also wounded.
attitude towards their official duties, shown by the Finnish Guards, struck not only Russia, but also Europe. Upon learning of what had happened in St. Petersburg, the German Emperor Wilhelm I issued an order to the army, in which he demanded that guard duty be carried out in the same way as the Russian Guards Finnish Regiment carried it on the day of the explosion of the Winter Palace.
The next day after the attack, a memorial service was served in the church of the Winter Palace for the dead soldiers and non-commissioned officers, after which the Emperor said, addressing the guardsmen: “I thank you Finnish people... You, as always, honorably fulfilled your duty. I will not forget the survivors and provide for the families of the unfortunate victims.". The Sovereign kept his word: all those who were on guard on February 5 were presented for awards and cash payments, the families of those killed were enrolled "in perpetual boarding." Those killed in the explosion were buried on February 7 in a mass grave at the Smolensk cemetery in St. Petersburg, near the Chapel of Xenia the Blessed. Despite the severe frost and the danger of a new assassination attempt, Emperor Alexander II was present at the funeral. “It seems that we are still at war, there, in the trenches near Plevna”, - such were the words of the Sovereign at parting with the fallen guards.
On the 100 thousand rubles collected throughout the country, a monument was erected over the grave in the form of a granite pyramid, decorated with Ural stones, cast-iron guns, drums and military headdresses. The names of all those who died on this tragic day were engraved on the monument:
Sergeant Major Kirill Dmitriev
Non-commissioned officer Efim Belonin
Bugler Ivan Antonov
Corporal Tikhon Feoktistov
Corporal Boris Leletsky
Private Fyodor Solovyov
Private Vladimir Shukshin
Private Daniil Senin
Private Ardalion Zakharov
Private Grigory Zhuravlev
Private Semyon Koshelev...
Terrorist Stepan Khalutrin managed to escape. Having moved to Moscow, and then to Odessa, in March 1882 he took part in the murder of the prosecutor of the Kyiv Military District Court, Major General V.S. Strelnikov, who proved himself to be an energetic fighter against the revolutionary movement. Detained immediately after the crime by passers-by, Khalturin, on the personal order of the Emperor Alexander III was betrayed court-martial and on March 22, 1882, he was hanged.
