KUSSIA. 



797 



police were strengthened, and a more thorough 

 search revealed the opening leading to a large 

 deposit of dynamite, sufficient to have shat- 

 tered all the buildings in the street. 



Jeliaboff, the agent of the Kevolutionary 

 Executive Committee charged with the execu- 

 tion of their decree of death against the Em- 

 peror, had formerly been a student in the Uni- 

 versity of Odessa, from which he was expelled 

 on account of taking part in a demonstration 

 against one of the professors. He married a 

 daughter of a city official, and was brought 

 before the courts in South Russia in 1872 as a 

 political agitator. He was charged, on his 

 trial, with not only planning the present crime, 

 but with being the author of the mine under 

 the Sebastopol Railway. 



Sophie Peroffskaya was already a famous per- 

 son, and was the most remarked of any of the 

 band who were engaged in the regicide, on 

 account of her aristocratic origin. She was of 

 noble birth, and was the daughter of a gov- 

 ernor of a province, and niece of an army offi- 

 cer of high rank. She had been several times 

 brought to trial, and had attracted much notice 

 in the trial of the one hundred and ninety-four 

 Nihilists, when she narrowly escaped depor- 

 tation. The police were searching for her as 

 a suspected confederate of Hartmann in the 

 Moscow Railroad explosion. This woman had 

 received a superior education, and possessed, 

 with her adventurous and fanatical bent 

 toward political conspiracy, a high degree of 

 intelligence. She was living with Jeliaboff, 

 and these two alone were informed beforehand 

 of the assassination plot, the others acting 

 simply under th eir or der s. Peroffskaya plan ned 

 and superintended the execution of the plot, 

 assigning their places to Ryssakoff, Elnikoff, 

 and perhaps others who had petards to cast in 

 case the first should fail, placing the bombs in 

 their hands, and giving the prearranged signal 

 to each with movements of her handkerchief 

 from the other side of the canal. 



Sablin, or Fessenko, who committed suicide 

 in the place of assembly for the conspirators 

 employed in this plot, in Telejevskaya Street, 

 was a noted Nihilist. He belonged to the 

 Moscow group of Nihilists in 1873, and before 

 then was active in St. Petersburg, paying a 

 visit with his friend Lissogub, who was after- 

 ward executed, to the chiefs of the party in 

 Switzerland. On his return he obtained a po- 

 sition as teacher in the orphan school at Odessa 

 through Nihilist friends in the municipal 

 government. He was arrested in 1875, but 

 released. A man named Michailoff was appre- 

 hended when entering the quarters in Telejev- 

 skaya Street, after the police had taken pos- 

 session of them. He was a peasant, who had 

 become a mechanic. 



The trial of the regicides began April 7th. 

 The court was composed of the president, Sen- 

 ator Fuchs, three other senators, two marshals 

 from the nobility, a municipal mayor, and a 

 village mayor to represent the peasantry. The 



prosecution was conducted by Procurator Mu- 

 rayieff. Ryssakoff declared that he held other 

 opinions from those of the section of the party 

 represented by the " Will of the People," and 

 had undertaken to execute the crime in order 

 to destroy both the " white and the red terror " 

 by proving that the Nihilistic activities could 

 not be repressed, and that the death of the 

 Czar would not benefit the socialistic cause. 

 Michailoff, in his statement, dwelt on the mis- 

 eries of working-men, and the debts imposed 

 on the lands of the peasants, as the causes 

 which had driven him into the revolutionist 

 party, but disclaimed all complicity in the 

 crime. Hessy Helfmann confessed only her 

 connection with the Terrorist wing of the 

 party. Kibaltchich acknowledged his connec- 

 tion with the Terrorists, and stated that his 

 services were of a technical nature. Jeliaboff 

 and Peroffskaya assumed the whole responsi- 

 bility for the crime, and sought to exculpate 

 the others. Jeliaboff freely confessed that he 

 had worked in the mine in Little Garden Street, 

 that he had assisted in placing the mine at 

 Alexandrofsky under the Sebastopol Railway, 

 and that he had been concerned in most of the 

 later plots against the Czar, and enjoyed the 

 confidence of the Executive Committee. The 

 evidence brought out at the trial showed that 

 the Nihilists of St. Petersburg were divided in- 

 to two sections the Terrorists, from whom the 

 crime emanated, and who had for their organ 

 the " Narodnia Volia," or " Will of the People," 

 and the group whose views were expressed in 

 a clandestine print called the "Black Division," 

 who disapproved of terrorism or assassination, 

 except in the case of traitors to the cause. The 

 division in the party dates back to the early 

 part of 1879. A dispute arose as to the ad- 

 visability of carrying on a struggle against the 

 Government. A number of the Narodni, or 

 popular organization, maintained that a polit- 

 ical struggle by terroristic methods was the 

 only way to insure success, and proposed to 

 attempt to bring about an immediate coup 

 d'etat. The majority adhered to the economi- 

 cal tendencies of the popular party, and to the 

 policy of a socialistic propaganda among the 

 people intended to ripen them gradually for a 

 social revolution. The differences led to a 

 schism in the summer of 1879. After two 

 congresses, held at Lipetsk and Voronege, the 

 terroristic faction separated from the others. 

 The u Zemlia e Volia," the organ of the orig- 

 inal party, was discontinued, and two new 

 journals were issued by the two divisions of 

 the party, the " Narodnia Volia," or " Will of 

 the People," by the terroristic offshoot, and 

 the " Tchorny Feredyel," or " Black Division," 

 by the remnant of the original organization, 

 which remained faithful to the policy of a 

 peaceful propaganda. 



The High Court of the Senate found the six 



Erisoners guilty, and sentenced them to be 

 anged, subject in the case of Peroffskaya, as 

 one of the privileged order of the nobility, to 



