The beginning of political terror in Russia was laid by Dmitry Karakozov's shot. This assassination attempt on Alexander II was overgrown with legends. Which is not surprising: there is too much mysterious and inexplicable in this case.
Countryman Ivan Susanin
On April 4, 1866, Alexander II was walking in the Summer Garden. Having finished the walk, the emperor went out to the embankment of the Neva, where people crowded, wishing to look at the autocrat. Suddenly a tall, fair-haired man in a black coat jumped out of the crowd and shot at Alexander II.
The terrorist missed and started to run. He was caught, badly beaten and arrested. They said that a dialogue took place between him and the king:
-You're polish?
- No, Russian.
- Why did you shoot me?
Promotional video:
- Because you deceived the people: you promised them land, but did not give it.
This conversation is, of course, a legend. Conventional fiction. Apparently, the feat of Osip Komissarov, who pushed the shooting terrorist under the elbow and thereby saved the tsar, is also a fiction.
In those years, the people were not yet accustomed to political terror. And Alexander II, who freed the peasants, was still very popular. Therefore, the attempt on his life caused universal indignation. And the miraculous salvation of the emperor led to the same general rejoicing.
Everyone rejoiced - from aristocrats to Sestroretsk workers who staged a demonstration in honor of the tsar. Letters and telegrams were sent to the Winter Palace from all over Russia. In theaters, the audience demanded to perform the national anthem "God Save the Tsar." Even Moscow students, previously unseen in their love of power, staged a patriotic march.
To enhance, in modern terms, the PR effect, they invented a story about the savior - the captain of Komissarov. Many, including Interior Minister Pyotr Valuev, strongly doubted that the feat had actually taken place. It is interesting that the assailant himself did not notice that someone was pushing him by the arm, and did not say anything about this during the investigation.
But Osip Komissarov was a peasant in the Kostroma province. That is, the countryman of Ivan Susanin. And this made his feat especially beautiful and symbolic. True, there was a small problem: the hero's father was in Siberia, where he was exiled for banal theft. But they preferred not to notice this fact.
Alexander II received Komissarov, made him a nobleman and awarded the Order of St. Vladimir. The Tsar's Savior was elected an honorary citizen of St. Petersburg and an honorary member of the Moscow English Club. He was presented with a golden sword, and one Kostroma landowner presented Komissarov with an estate. Even the shoemaker Sitnov was noted, who promised to sew shoes for the hero for free.
Poems and odes were composed in honor of Komissarov.
Son of the people! I sing to you!
You will be glorious many and many.
You are great as a tool of God, Who guided your hand.
This was not composed by some court painter, but by the revolutionary poet Nekrasov.
Honors did not bring happiness to Komissarov. He did not stand the test of "copper pipes" - he drank himself and died, abandoned and forgotten by everyone.
Revolutionary "hell"
While the people were happy, the authorities did not waste any time either. Alexander II appointed a commission of inquiry. And put at the head of it Mikhail Muravyov, the suppressor of the recent Polish uprising. Muravyov earned himself the nickname Hanger, so everyone was sure that he would conduct the investigation in a tough and thorough manner.
The man who shot the tsar declared that he was a peasant son, Aleksey Petrov. However, it quickly became clear that the terrorist was not a peasant, but a landowner's son. And his name is Dmitry Karakozov. Former student. Member of the Moscow circle, headed by Nikolai Ishutin, a cousin of Karakozov.
The members of the circle dreamed of a socialist reorganization of society. They also thought about the revolution. And they created a revolutionary society, calling it "Organization". And inside it - a more conspiratorial society with a very strange name "Hell".
The Ishuta residents, while in Moscow, established contacts with the St. Petersburg circle, headed by Ivan Khudyakov, and with the Poles. They helped the Polish revolutionary Yaroslav Dombrowski escape from prison, they wanted to free Nikolai Chernyshevsky.
Muravyov's commission of inquiry arrested 197 people - both members of the Ishutinsky circle, and simply people known for their radical views. Most got off with an administrative link. 36 people were brought to trial. Two of them - Karakozov and Ishutin - were sentenced to be hanged.
On September 3, 1866, Karakozov was hanged. Ishutina at the last moment was replaced by a life sentence.
Karakozov's revelations
The problem is that the investigators failed to prove the connection between the activities of the circles and the attempt on the emperor. Karakozov assured that no one offered him to kill the tsar and no one led him.
Was Dmitry Karakozov a lone terrorist or was he under someone's influence?
If we talk about revolutionaries, then, apparently, it was so. Russian revolutionaries have not yet reached the point of regicide. The assassination attempt by Karakozov stands as if it were a separate entity. The following year, Alexander II was shot again. But in Paris. Pole Anton Berezovsky was shooting - he took revenge for the suppression of the Polish uprising. And Russian revolutionaries would make an attempt on the Tsar's life only in 1879 - 13 years after Karakozov.
What drove the terrorist? Karakozov was seriously ill. There is no reliable data on his illness. There is a suspicion that he contracted syphilis. The disease, according to Karakozov, "first led me to the idea of suicide." But then he decided “not to die for nothing, but to benefit the people by this” - to kill Alexander II.
“This thought was born in me at the time when I learned about the existence of a party that wants to make a coup in favor of the Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich,” Karakozov gave such testimony during the investigation. He learned that the "Constantine Party" "has a solid organization" and "wishes the good for the working people."
These revelations are the most mysterious in the "Karakozov case". Grand Duke Konstantin Nikolaevich is the younger brother of Alexander II, chief of the fleet and chairman of the State Council. He was considered a liberal and just in 1866 presented a draft constitution to the tsar for consideration.
The Conservatives hated Constantine. And they accused him of striving to take the place of Alexander II.
Constantine Party
It is unlikely that the Grand Duke seriously thought about this. He lived well with his older brother. However, the elimination of Alexander II could be desired by those close to Constantine - the so-called "Constantine party".
The spring of 1866 is a very opportune time. Just a year ago, the emperor's eldest son, Nikolai Alexandrovich, died. The heir was Alexander Alexandrovich, completely unprepared for this role. And most importantly, the future Alexander III at this time began an affair with the maid of honor Maria Meshcherskaya. The romance was so stormy that the heir expressed his readiness to marry the maid of honor, giving up the rights to the throne.
In such a situation, the assassination of Alexander II gave Konstantin Nikolaevich a chance to take the throne, or - at least - to become something of a regent.
According to one of the members of the Ishutin circle, “Ishutin said that it could easily be that Karakozov was bribed by the party. book Constantine ", because" he became friends with some of the members of this party."
Other facts also speak in favor of this version. The Grand Duke really wanted to preside over the trial in the Karakozov case, but the emperor rather harshly dismissed him. The chief investigator, Muravyov, died suddenly, a few days before Karakozov's execution. And the investigation itself was curtailed quite quickly. The official reason is that Karakozov was to be executed before the arrival of the heir's bride, the Danish princess Dagmar, in Russia. They didn’t want to darken the celebration, they say.
But maybe there was another reason? Perhaps the investigation came up with names that cannot be spoken about aloud.
If Karakozov really was connected with the "Konstantinovskaya party", then the attempt can be looked at in a new way. It was not a fiery revolutionary who shot the tsar, but a participant in a palace conspiracy. A pawn in a serious political game.
However, whoever stood behind Karakozov, this assassination attempt opened a new era - the era of political terror.
Alexander SKABICHEVSKY