Perovskaya Sophia Lvovna (born September 1 (13), 1853 - see April 3 (15), 1881), one of the leaders of Narodnaya Volya, directly supervised the assassination of Alexander II.
A revolutionary populist, an active member of the People's Will organization. The first female terrorist convicted in a political case and executed as the organizer and participant in the assassination of Emperor Alexander II.
It has long been known that the achievement of any goals by violent methods leads to reciprocal cruelty and that aggression can only engender aggression. However, even women, initially recognized as weaker physically, more spiritual and, in general, apolitical individuals in comparison with men, often kill without thinking about the sacrifices and consequences. One of them - Sophia Perovskaya - considered terrorism the most effective way to influence the government.
She repeated more than once that she would have given up terror if she had seen a different path. But that was the trouble of this most educated young woman, that an obsession completely absorbed her thoughts, forced her to abandon her usual way of life and commit a crime contrary to Christian and noble upbringing.
Sophia was born on September 13, 1853 in St. Petersburg. Her father, Lev Perovsky, a high-ranking official, was the great-grandson of the last hetman of Ukraine, Kirill Razumovsky, and her mother, Varvara Stepanovna, came from a simple family of Pskov nobles. Over time, this difference in background led to a rift between the parents. Sophia spent her childhood playing games in provincial Pskov, where her father served. Her friends were her elder brother Vasya and the neighbor boy Kolya Muravyov, who many years later, becoming a prosecutor, would demand the death penalty for her childhood friend.
Soon the family moved to St. Petersburg, where his father took over as vice-governor of the capital. Now everything in their house was on a grand scale. Sonya, like her brother, could not stand the deceit and snobbery of the high society, which were so conspicuous at the often held balls and receptions. Most of all she loved to communicate with her cousin Varya, daughter of the Decembrist A. V. Poggio. In their family, she heard disputes about the fate of Russia, about the cruelty of the autocratic regime, which is high time to overthrow.
At the time of the first and unsuccessful attempt on Alexander II's life, Sophia was only 12 years old, and she was still unable to assess the significance of this event as a political one. However, this dealt a crushing blow to the Perovskys' usual life. The father, because of the shown "hindsight" had a chance to resign, and the family gradually went bankrupt. Varvara Stepanovna, leaving her husband, took the children to the Crimea.
The old estate was in the middle of nowhere. No one visited the Perovskys, and reading was the girl's only entertainment. But the quiet provincial life soon came to an end. In 1869 the estate was sold for debts, and Sophia returned to St. Petersburg. In the same autumn, she entered the Alarchi courses. She was interested in many sciences, in chemistry, physics and mathematics, the girl showed remarkable abilities and was one of the few students who were admitted to classes in the chemical laboratory.
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From that moment on, Perovskaya's life completely changed. The girlfriends around her were distinguished by their advanced views at that time. They read forbidden literature, cut their hair short, smoked and - “worst of all” - wore men's clothing. At the age of 17, Sophia decisively broke up with her family and left home. At the same time, she joined the populist circle of the Tchaikovites and immediately became actively involved in their work.
Every day, from morning until late at night, Sophia conducted secret propaganda work among the workers. In addition, according to the program drawn up by the "Chaikovites", she was to attract the peasants to the populist movement, on whom the main stake was made in the coming revolution. In the spring of 1872, Sophia went to the Samara province to see with her own eyes how they live for the first time. But the Narodniks immediately realized that socialist and revolutionary ideas were alien to the peasants. Returning to St. Petersburg, Sophia continued her studies in working circles.
At that time Perovskaya lived in a small house on the outskirts of the city. According to legend, everyone considered her the wife of a worker, and no one knew that she was a noblewoman and the daughter of a former vice-governor. The pampered lady washed and cooked for everyone, despite her poverty, she tried to keep the house clean. She was getting used to living in suspense, in constant expectation of a search and arrest.
Soon mass arrests of populist propagandists began in St. Petersburg, and Sophia also ended up behind bars. Only thanks to the old connections of her father, a few months later, she was released on bail. At the trial she listened to the fiery speeches of Pyotr Alekseev, one of the founders of the populist movement, spellbound. Each of his words fell on fertile soil, and Sophia became more and more convinced of the correctness of the path she had chosen.
After the verdict was passed, very few comrades from her organization remained at large. Sophia, together with her friends V. Figner and V. Zasulich, joined the society "Earth and Freedom". There was a growing desire among young people to take revenge on the government for reprisals against dissidents. Many of her friends carried weapons, and Vera Zasulich in January 1878 launched them against General Trepov. The fact that she was acquitted by the jury inspired Perovskaya to further armed struggle.
It seemed to her that society was listening to the voice of the revolutionaries and was in solidarity with them. But after another series of arrests, she realized that no one in Russia was particularly eager for revolutionary change, and gradually came to the conclusion that the old propaganda methods of work were not effective. And the idea of regicide has long been in the air: "The one who does not want to share responsibility with anyone - the autocrat of all Russia, should be responsible for the Russian order."
Perovskaya agreed with such an uncharacteristic solution of the political issue for her upbringing as a result of many conversations with her revolutionary friends and, of course, after meeting AI Zhelyabov, one of the founders and leaders of Narodnaya Volya. He headed her military, student and workers' organization. This tall, courageous young man, a native of a family of serfs, conquered Perovskaya with his eloquence, conviction and passion. It was he who managed to persuade Sophia to join a terrorist group preparing an attempt on Alexander II.
Following Zhelyabov, she began to see in the murder of the emperor the only means that could stir up society and bring a revolutionary coup closer. Perovskaya stood out among other female terrorists for her self-confident authority, thoughtful calmness and tireless energy. According to friends, "in everything related to the case, she was demanding to the point of cruelty, a sense of duty was the most outstanding feature of her character."
The first attempt, in the preparation of which Sophia took part, was haunted from the very beginning. The work of laying mines on the route of the royal train was very difficult and dangerous. Sophia always carried a pistol with her, and in the event of a search, she had to blow up the house, firing at a bottle of nitroglycerin. An explosion on December 1, 1879, which thundered on a railway near Moscow, blew a regular train off the tracks. Innocent people died. However, the terrorists did not care, they were ready to make any sacrifices.
Perovskaya was persuaded to go abroad, but she preferred to be hanged in Russia. And of course, Perovskaya wanted to stay with her beloved, although the organization's charter was strict and harsh. For the sake of the cause, Sophia forgot about her relatives, did not have her own property for a long time, but her relationship with her common-law husband, Andrei Zhelyabov, was so pure and deep that friends who knew both said: “It was pleasant to look at this couple in those minutes when business go well when troubles are especially willingly forgotten. But no friendship or love could cancel the preparation of the next assassination attempt.
Only by a miracle was the Tsar able to escape during the explosion right in the Winter Palace. The secret police were knocked off their feet looking for terrorists. Every St. Petersburg gendarme now knew Sophia's signs. Meanwhile, under the name of Maria Prokhorova, she was trading in a grocery store in Odessa during the day, and at night she was preparing another terrorist act. But he was not crowned with success either.
Perovskaya did not allow herself to think about failures and sacrifices. She continued to work with workers, set up libraries and a new underground printing house. In addition, she had the most ordinary human concerns: go to the market, cook dinner. Accustomed to wealth, Sophia learned to appreciate the money that was allocated to her from the organization's fund. To reduce the spending of public funds for personal needs, she earned money through correspondence and translations.
In early 1881, Zhelyabov developed a new terrorist act in which Sophia was assigned an important role. She organized and personally participated in observing the permanent routes of the king's movement in the capital. She was able to establish the most convenient places for the assassination attempt.
On Malaya Sadovaya Street, the revolutionaries, under the name of the peasant family of the Kobzevs, rented a cheese shop, from the basement of which they dug in order to install a mine under the pavement. There were not enough people, the arrests did not stop. Sophia lived in constant anxiety for Zhelyabov. And not in vain: a few days before the assassination attempt, he was arrested.
The entire burden of organizing the terrorist attack fell on the fragile shoulders of his girlfriend, wife and assistant. Of course, she was a leader by nature, but not at all as strong as Zhelyabov. But stopping halfway was not her rule. Perovskaya decided to act under any circumstances. 1889, March 1 - the tsar, accompanied by the St. Petersburg police chief Dvozhitsky and the Cossack convoy, returned from the Mikhailovsky Manege to the Winter Palace. Alexander II refused to travel along Malaya Sadovaya and turned onto the embankment of the Catherine Canal. But that didn't save him.
Sophia quickly orientated herself and placed the bomb throwers at predetermined points. She did not leave the place of events, did not leave everything to the mercy of fate. Perovskaya waved her white handkerchief, and Rysakov threw the first bomb into the tsar's carriage. The king remained unharmed. Two Cossacks and a peasant boy were wounded. The second terrorist, Erinevetsky, taking advantage of the impermissible delay of the emperor at the scene, detonated a bomb between himself and the king. The badly wounded monarch died of blood loss, as did his assassin.
Perovskaya Sophia Lvovna achieved her goal. Did she think about the innocent dead or wounded passers-by, about their families? Hardly. As V. Figner later said: "They simply took someone else's life, and in return gave theirs." Perovskaya devoted nine days before her arrest to unsuccessful attempts to release Zhelyabov from prison. During interrogations, Sophia admitted her participation in the assassination attempts near Moscow, in Odessa and in the last - a sensational regicide.
She said that she herself did not drop the bomb only because her comrades managed to do so. At the trial, Sophia Lvovna Perovskaya behaved calmly and confidently, she heard the death sentence without external emotions, demonstrating faith in her revolutionary cause. She had been preparing herself for this kind of outcome for a long time.
Neither the manifesto of the executive committee of "Narodnaya Volya" that a terrorist act was the execution of the emperor at the will of the people, nor the ultimatum put forward by the revolutionaries in support of political prisoners, changed the fate of 5 convicts: Perovskaya, Kibalchich, Zhelyabov, Mikhailov and Rysakov (the sixth defendant, Gelfman, the execution was postponed due to pregnancy). 1881, April 3 - the direct participants in the preparation and assassination of the tsar were publicly hanged on the Semenovsky parade ground. For the first time, a woman convicted in a political case ascended the scaffold. Perovskaya Sophia Lvovna achieved equality with men, at least in this matter.
The demonstrative execution did not stop the revolutionary, ideological, political and religious terror in Russia. As in the rest of the world, it continues its cruel existence, although it has long been obvious that terror is a dead-end way of the struggle to transform society and rid it of social diseases.
V. Sklyarenko