796 



RUSSIA. 



had been scarcely inaugurated, and their ex- 

 tent and value not yet revealed, when the 

 Nihilists, more embittered than ever by the 

 terrible retribution visited upon hundreds of 

 their compeers, arranged their last plot against 

 the life of the Emperor, a plot which could not 

 fail provided the men who were commissioned 

 to commit the deed did not flinch in the face 

 of certain death; for, unlike the previous at- 

 tempts, there was no chance of escape for the 

 perpetrator. At the very time of the murder 

 preparations were made for a commission of 

 delegates from the nobility, the cities, and the 

 provincial magistracy, to meet and work out a 

 form of representative government suitable for 

 Russia. 



The Emperor had driven in a carriage to 

 view the parade of the Marine Corps. He was 

 attended as usual by his military staff, his 

 adjutant riding with him, and the rest follow- 

 ing the carriage. The numerous body-guard 

 of mounted Cossacks preceded and surrounded 

 the carriage. On the return, as the cortege 

 reached the Catherine Canal, where some 

 laborers were at work removing snow near the 

 bridge, Ryssakoff, who had pressed to the front 

 among the working mujiks, threw the first 

 bomb. It fell behind the carriage, wounding 

 two Cossacks. The prefect of police, Colonel 

 Dvorjetsky, who followed behind in a sledge, 

 leaped out and seized the assassin, who drew 

 and fired a revolver. The Emperor stepped 

 down from the carriage, and at that moment a 

 second bomb was cast, which exploded at his 

 feet, the fragments breaking both his legs and 

 penetrating his abdomen. Dvorjetsky, who 

 was also wounded, drove the Czar in his sledge 

 to the Winter Palace. He breathed his last 

 not two hours after he was struck. The man 

 who threw the fatal bomb, whose name was 

 Grenevitsky, perished himself from the explo- 

 sion. Notwithstanding his Polish name, he 

 was a born Russian. 



The revolutionists chose for the execution of 

 their design the occasion of the inspection of 

 the Marine Corps by the Czar. A mine was 

 laid under the Little Garden Street in case the 

 imperial party went that way to the review, 

 and in case they did not pass through that 

 street, hand-grenades of ingenious design and 

 terrible explosive force were to be carried by 

 several of the conspirators, who should press 

 near the cortege when it passed and hurl them 

 under the Czar's carriage. The organization 

 and discipline for which the anarchist party in 

 Russia is remarkable were displayed in this con- 

 spiracy. The head conspirator and director of 

 the whole plot was a man of peasant birth 

 named Jeliaboff, who was arrested a couple of 

 days before the catastrophe. This arrest was 

 made on the evidence of documents found in 

 the dwelling of the nobleman, Alexander Mi- 

 chaeloff, several months before, in which he, 

 together with a graduated student named Tro- 

 goni, who was captured in his company, was des- 

 ignated as a person deep in the counsels of the 



Nihilist party. The preparation of the bombs 

 was conducted by the latter, who had made a 

 special study of explosive materials, and who 

 had the assistance of a practical chemist named 

 Kibaltchich. This man was detailed for this 

 service, and extraordinary technical ability was 

 shown in the fabrication of the hand-grenades, 

 and of the explosive substances discovered in 

 the Garden-Street mine and in the houses of 

 the arrested conspirators. The explosives were 

 tested by their makers in a lonely spot near 

 the city. The bomb which caused the death 

 of the Czar was probably of the same pattern 

 as a number of others which were found in a 

 room where the confederates congregated. A 

 Jewess named Hessy Helfmann occupied this 

 room with Nicholas Sablin, alias Fessenko 

 Navrotsky. This retreat was discovered by the 

 police the day after the assassination, and the 

 woman was arrested, while her companion, 

 Fessenko, shot himself at the moment when 

 the police burst in. The next most important 

 member of the band after Jeliaboff was a young 

 woman named Sophie Peroffskaya, who as- 

 sumed the direction of the plot after Jeliaboff 's 

 arrest. The police were already searching for 

 this woman as an accomplice in the Moscow 

 Railroad plot. Jeliaboff had also taken a part in 

 the laying of that mine. Peroffskaya, Jeliaboff, 

 and Helfmann had all three stood judicial trials 

 at previous times for treason. The perpetrators 

 of the deed were appointed from the novices in 

 the party, and were not informed of what was 

 expected of them until the plans were matured. 

 The thrower of the first bomb was a student in 

 the School of Mines, of the name of Ryssakoff. 

 Russians were chosen for the murderous deed 

 in preference to Poles and Jews, who were 

 eager for the work. There were forty-seven 

 persons that volunteered to execute the crime. 

 Ryssakoff was a native of the district of 

 Novgorod. He had gained admission to the 

 Mining Institute, which is usually difficult to 

 obtain, by means of a letter of recommendation 

 from Prince Wolkonski, formerly Curator of the 

 University of St. Petersburg, and proved a good 

 student. He had attended the school two years, 

 and was twenty-one years old. He had sought 

 to associate himself with the revolutionary 

 party, and was introduced in January to Jelia- 

 boff, who initiated him into the work, employ- 

 ing him to spread the propaganda among work- 

 ing-men, and, on account of his poverty, paying 

 a portion of his living expenses. The mine in 

 Garden Street was placed under the pavement 

 by tunneling from the wall of a cellar, which 

 was hired by a man who gave the name of 

 Kobizeff, for the ostensible purpose of keeping 

 a cheese-shop. The suspicions of the neigh- 

 bors were aroused by the fact that Kobizeff and 

 his wife did no business, but had many visitors, 

 and the place was examined by city officials 

 without discovering any indications of a mine, 

 although they searched the walls particularly. 

 As Kobizeff and his companion disappeared on 

 the day of the murder, the suspicions of the 



