Illustration copyright RIA Novosti Image caption Dmitry Karakozov several months before the assassination attempt
On September 3 (15), 1866, Dmitry Karakozov was hanged on Vasilievsky Island in St. Petersburg for the assassination attempt on Alexander II.
“This shot cut Russian history in two. A tall, fair-haired, gloomy-silent young man with a long horse-like face, a low voice and a heavy gaze was destined to open a new era. The bullet he prepared for the emperor did not reach the target; but it was she who brought death to Sipyagin and Stolypin, Volodarsky and Uritsky, Nicholas II, Mirbach, Kirov, countless victims of the Civil War and Stalinist repressions,” wrote historian Andrzej Ikonnikov-Galitsky.
A small pebble triggers an avalanche. The impetus for the process, the consequences of which are felt 150 years later, was given, according to contemporaries and later researchers, by an ordinary person.
Shot wide
Unsuccessful assassination attempts on Alexander II
- May 25, 1867: During a visit to Paris, when the Russian Tsar and Emperor Napoleon III were returning from a military review in an open carriage, the Pole Anton Berezovsky shot at the guest twice. The security officer pushed the attacker, and the bullets hit the horse. Napoleon said: “Now we will find out who they were aiming at. If it’s an Italian, then at me, if it’s a Pole, then at you.” Berezovsky was sentenced to life in hard labor in New Caledonia, commuted to perpetual exile, and was pardoned 40 years later.
- April 2, 1879: Dropout student Alexander Solovyov fired three times from a revolver at close range at the emperor, who was taking a morning walk around the Winter Palace. He missed, was captured at the scene of the assassination attempt, convicted and hanged.
- November 19, 1879: Attempt to blow up the Tsar's train near Moscow on the way from Livadia. The Narodnaya Volya, led by Andrei Zhelyabov and Sofia Perovskaya, knew that the baggage train should go first, but in Kharkov its locomotive broke down, and the royal train moved first. Several people were injured when a mine exploded under the baggage train. The organizers were later arrested and hanged.
- February 5, 1880: People's Volunteer Stepan Khalturin, who got a job as a carpenter at the Winter Palace, laid two pounds of dynamite under the hall where a dinner was to be held in honor of the arrival of the Prince of Hesse. Due to the delay of the prince's train, the bomb went off when high-ranking persons were not in the room. 11 were killed and 56 servants and soldiers were injured. Khalturin was captured in 1882 at the time of the murder by him and another Narodnaya Volya member of the Odessa prosecutor Strelnikov, refused to identify himself, and his identity was established only after the execution.
On April 4, at about four in the afternoon, Alexander II finished his usual walk in the Summer Garden and went out to Nevskaya Embankment.
There was no security for the emperor in those days, only a policeman walked along the sidewalk on the outside of the gate, and a gendarmerie non-commissioned officer was waiting near the carriage, standing at attention at the sight of the king.
Passers-by, as always, stopped to stare at the sovereign.
Alexander, having picked up the long tails of his overcoat, was preparing to sit in the carriage. At that moment, eyewitnesses heard a loud bang and saw a young man running. The policeman and the gendarme rushed after him, knocked him down, took away the heavy double-barreled pistol and began to beat him. Covering his face with his hands, the man shouted: “You fool, I am for you, but you don’t understand!”
The first thing the Tsar did was ask the shooter if he was a Pole. Having not received a convenient explanation, he asked why he did it. The terrorist replied: “Your Majesty, you offended the peasants!” (such was the inertia of the habit that even the regicides called the monarch “Majesty” and “Sovereign” to his face and behind his back).
Alexander went to a thanksgiving service at the Kazan Cathedral, and the criminal went to the Third Department on Fontanka for interrogation.
In his pocket they found a copy of the proclamation he had composed, “To Friends the Workers!”: “I felt sad and heavy that my beloved people were dying, and so I decided to destroy the villainous Tsar. I will die with the thought that I brought benefit to my dear friend, the Russian man. I believe that there will be people who will follow my path."
Written in deliberately vernacular language, the appeal contained mainly attacks on the rich and calls for property equality, which, according to the author, is heaven.
The arrested man identified himself as peasant Alexei Petrov and refused further testimony. But they found a medical prescription on him, contacted a doctor who knew about the patient, that he had come from Moscow, and, most importantly, indicated the hotel where he was staying. During a search in the room, the gendarmes found an unsent letter to cousin Nikolai Ishutin and from him they learned the real name of the terrorist.
"Savior"
A few hours later, at a gala reception in the Winter Palace, the head of the Third Department, Prince Dolgorukov, reported a sensation: it turns out that the bullet flew above the emperor’s head, because the peasant Osip Komissarov, who happened to be nearby, “retracted the villainous hand.”
Alexander, of course, wanted to see him and immediately elevated him to the nobility amid thunderous “hurray.”
Many contemporaries suspected this was a PR move, especially because Komissarov conveniently turned out to be from the Kostroma province, like Ivan Susanin.
“I find it very political to invent such a feat,” wrote the gendarme officer, a participant in the investigation into the Karakozov case, Pyotr Cherevin, and the Minister of Internal Affairs, Pyotr Valuev, noted that Komissarov’s role was not confirmed by the investigation data.
Komissarov was awarded money, given a house, and began to be invited to countless official and social events, where he amazed everyone with his stiffness and tongue-tiedness.
His wife began going to expensive stores and asking for gifts, modestly introducing herself: “I am the Savior’s wife.”
About six months later, Komissarov disappeared from public space and subsequently died of alcoholism.
Path to Terror
After the half-hearted abolition of serfdom in 1861, the intelligentsia decided that the peasants had been robbed and deceived.
- Liberation is half
One of those who did not want to wait, and even considered Herzen to be a compromiser, was the son of small landed Penza nobles, 25-year-old Dmitry Karakozov.
Enough to rejoice! - Muse whispered to me. - It's time to go forward. The people are liberated, but are the people happy? Nikolai Nekrasov, poet
Later, Nechaev, Zhelyabov, Savinkov, Gershuni, Azef - “demons of the revolution”, versatile talents, cold-blooded, calculating adventurers, natural leaders - would come to Russian terror.
Most of the first wave of terrorists were losers with unfulfilled destinies and an unstable psyche, easily moving from euphoria to depression, with unfulfilled ambitions and resentment towards the whole world.
“The French revolution happened after Corneille and Voltaire on the shoulders of Mirabeau, Bonaparte, Danton, and encyclopedists. But with us, expropriators, murderers, bomb carriers are mediocre writers, students who did not complete the course, lawyers without trials, artists without talent, scientists without science,” - wrote Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Many were distinguished in their adolescence by exaggerated religiosity, from which they moved to equally exalted atheism, replacing God with an Idea. It seems that they wanted not so much to hit the victim and achieve some result, but to be honored with martyrdom.
Karakozov joined the revolution under the influence of his peer Ishutin, who was orphaned early and was raised by his parents.
After studying a little at Kazan University, Karakozov transferred to Moscow University. Ishutin attended lectures there as a volunteer, since he did not graduate from high school.
According to the recollections of their mutual friend, later the famous court journalist Elena Kozlinina, Ishutin was “forced to become a hero” by his love for a certain girl of extraordinary beauty, combined with the young man’s inability to prove himself in science.
“Karakozov was even grayer and even more embittered than Ishutin: he positively could not study, and, not being able to adapt to anything, migrated from one university to another. And everywhere he was oppressed by hopeless need. This made him ready to do anything in revenge for their failures,” said Kozlinina.
Populism did not die under the blows of the police, but due to the mood of the revolutionaries of that time, who, at all costs, wanted to take revenge on the government for persecution and generally enter into direct struggle with it. Georgy Plekhanov, Marxist
According to doctors who examined Karakozov after his arrest, he suffered from chronic colitis due to poor diet and constantly suffered from stomach pain.
Ishutin, who passionately wanted to be a leader, founded a student circle, which he called simply and uncomplicatedly: “Organization.” The goal was to promote socialism and help poor students by creating a bookbinding workshop on an artisanal basis.
Within the “Organization” a clandestine, however inept, core emerged under the pretentious name “Hell”.
During gatherings over tea with sugar and cheap sausage, Ishutin talked about regicide, which would cause a “general great revolt”; told stories about an acquaintance who allegedly poisoned his father in order to give his inheritance to the cause of the revolution; fantasized that he was part of the leadership of a powerful international committee preparing a coup throughout Europe.
“Many knew about the existence of “Hell,” but treated it as the chatter of young people,” Kozlinina stated in her memoirs.
As historian Edward Radzinsky suggests, the gendarmes could not help but know about what was happening, but they were not averse to the circle members doing something loud and giving a reason to tighten the screws.
According to the testimony of the arrested Ishuta residents, Karakozov, who joined them in 1865, remained mostly silent at the meetings. And then, without telling anyone, he went to St. Petersburg to kill the Tsar.
According to the testimony of Doctor Kobylin, who prescribed him medication, in recent days he had been on the verge of a nervous fever.
VPerveseafter Pugachev
According to available data, they wanted to declare Karakozov insane: a Russian person, being of sound mind, cannot attempt to assassinate the sovereign. Alexander rejected the offer.
Most of the time in the Alekseevsky ravelin Karakozov prayed.
On August 10, the trial began in the Supreme Criminal Court under the chairmanship of Prince Pyotr Gagarin - in the same house of the commandant of Petropavlovka, where exactly 40 years ago the Decembrists were tried.
Karakozov wrote to the Tsar: “I ask your forgiveness as a Christian from a Christian and as a person from a person.”
The next day they announced to him: “His Majesty forgives you as a Christian, but as a Sovereign he cannot forgive you.”
Karakozov was hanged on the Smolensk field of Vasilyevsky Island in front of a large crowd of people. It was the first public execution in Russia after Emelyan Pugachev.
The sketch of the condemned man on the scaffold was drawn by 22-year-old Ilya Repin.
Ishutin was announced to replace his execution with life imprisonment, having already thrown a robe over him. He was imprisoned in the Shlisselburg fortress and died in 1879 at the Kari penal servitude in a state of gloomy insanity.
Reaction
Alexander II was furious and offended. I gave them freedom, and I got a bullet for it? You didn’t dare say a word in front of your father! In vain did Brother Constantine remind the emperor of his own words: “No weakness, no reaction.”
What terrible people have risen from their graves! Petersburg was dying. Everything was remembered and avenged. Herds of “well-intentioned” people flocked from everywhere. Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, writer
Count Mikhail Muravyov, nicknamed “Muravyov the Hangman,” was appointed head of the investigative commission. After the merciless suppression of the Polish uprising of 1863, he became a monster in the eyes of Europe and liberal Russia and was sent into honorable retirement on the principle: “The Moor did his job.” Now the iconic character has returned to politics.
During the highest audience, Muravyov demanded a cleansing of the government. “They are all cosmopolitans, adherents of European ideas,” he said. Thus, for the first time in Russia, the word “cosmopolitan” was used as a political label, which later became a favorite of Stalin.
St. Petersburg Governor General Alexander Suvorov (grandson of the great commander), chief of gendarmes Vasily Dolgorukov and Minister of Education Alexander Golovnin, who “dismissed youth,” immediately lost their posts.
They were replaced by well-known retrogrades: Fyodor Trepov, who 12 years later would be shot by Vera Zasulich, Pyotr Shuvalov, who essentially received prime ministerial powers, and Dmitry Tolstoy, soon nicknamed “the curse of the Russian school.”
The over-salting of loyal statements becomes tiresome. Local authorities are recklessly exciting them with office tricks Petr Valuev, Minister of Internal Affairs
The Sovremennik magazine was closed, although the editor-in-chief Nikolai Nekrasov tried to save his brainchild by composing an ode to Muravyov, for which he repented to death.
Immediately after the “miraculous rescue,” the patriots, drunk in joy, began to tear off the hats of passers-by, who, in their opinion, were not jubilant enough, and beat the long-haired ones (this is what the students did).
Muravyov died two days before Karakozov was sentenced, but the tsar still did not want to hear about liberalization.
Wasted time
Illustration copyright RIA Novosti Image caption Historians call Alexander II a victim of indecision and inconsistency and are sometimes compared to Mikhail Gorbachev“It is dangerous to start reforms in Russia. But it is much more dangerous to stop them,” writes Radzinsky.
Alexander lost his main support - sensible supporters of progress within the framework of stability.
The ideas of the radicals were dubious, and their methods were sometimes terrible, but their sacrifice aroused sympathy, and the policies of the authorities - irritation.
The government is not supported by anyone now Nikolai Milyutin, Minister of War
Karakozov’s prediction about the people who would follow him came true one hundred percent.
In 1869, Nechaev composed the terrible “Catechism of a Revolutionary,” which inspired Fyodor Dostoevsky to write his visionary novel “Demons” and Vladimir Lenin to create a “party of a new type.”
In 1878, the jury defiantly, to the applause of even part of the high society, acquitted Vera Zasulich - despite the fact that, of course, the jury was not nihilists.
In 1877-1878, the emperor tried to unite society with a war for the “liberation of the Slavic brothers from the Ottoman yoke.”
Enthusiasm arose, but quickly disappeared when the Bulgarians did not show much gratitude, England and Germany reaped the geopolitical fruits, and Russia received only Anna’s sabers for adjutant wings, and endless rows of graves of ordinary soldiers, in the cynical expression of General Dragomirov, “holy cattle.”
Only in 1880 did Alexander, who had by then survived five assassination attempts, return to the path of reform, placing Mikhail Loris-Melikov at the head of the government with his “dictatorship of the heart.”
But the emperor-hunting machine has already gained momentum.
Like all over the world
Terrorism as a means of political struggle is a relatively new phenomenon.
Ancient and medieval history remembers only two such organizations, both of which operated in the Middle East: the Jewish Sicarii in the 1st century AD and the Shiite sect of the Nizari ("assassins"), which terrified the Crusaders and local Sunni rulers in the 12th-13th centuries.
Probably, the aristocracy found murders from around the corner a base matter, and ordinary people did not know how to create effective secret structures. The weapon of the former was war, the latter - rebellion.
A new type of revolutionary began to emerge. A gloomy figure emerged, illuminated as if by hellish fire, which, with a gaze breathing defiance and vengeance, began to make its way among the frightened crowd. It was a terrorist! Sergei Kravchinsky, Narodnaya Volya member
Terrorism flourished in the 19th century with the emergence of an educated middle class. Russia was no exception and was by no means ahead of the rest in this matter.
Only before 1900, British Prime Minister Spencer Percival and his Japanese colleague Toshimichi Okubo, US Presidents Abraham Lincoln and James Garfield, French President Sadi Carnot, Austro-Hungarian Empress Elizabeth (Sissi), Persian Shah Nasser ad-Din and the Italian king became victims of political terror. Umberto I, not counting figures of a smaller scale.
There is an important difference between former and current terrorism that is not in favor of modernity.
Russian Narodnaya Volya and Western anarchists and nationalists killed rulers and their high-ranking henchmen, who, with more or less justification, were considered tyrants and enemies of society. It never occurred to anyone then to blackmail the authorities by blowing up and capturing innocent people who were not involved in anything.
You can become famous not only through politics or show business. Today, television constantly talks about famous terrorists. Their fame is based on blood and murder. The concept of “terror” arose quite a long time ago. Translated from Latin, this word means fear or horror. Physical violence could be used to frighten one's political opponents or the common population.
Terrorism has many forms - collective and individual, religious, nationalistic, state and international. The first terrorists operated in Judea in the 1st century. Then members of the Sicarii sect killed those noble Jews who advocated peace with the Romans. This was regarded as a betrayal of national interests.
In the Middle Ages, the assassins who operated in what is now Iran became famous. These faceless killers destroyed sinners on the orders of their leader. Today, terrorists are no longer faceless; they do not hide, exposing their dark deeds to the public. The most famous such criminals will be discussed below.
Herostratus. This is the first person who managed to go down in history not with his creative or political abilities, but with his destructive activities. A Greek from Ephesus in 356 BC. in his hometown he burned the temple of Artemis, considered one of the wonders of the world. During torture, Herostratus admitted that he did this specifically to perpetuate his name. After the execution, an order was issued to completely forget the name of Herostratus. For this, even the residents of Ephesus hired special heralds who traveled around the country and announced that the name of the ambitious man should be forgotten. However, this crime was outlined in the works of the ancient Greek historian Theopompus. From there, information about Herostratus migrated to the works of later scientists. The story of the arson of the famous temple was invariably accompanied by the name of the perpetrator. Thus Herostratus achieved his goal. Legends say that on the night when the Temple of Artemis was burning, Alexander the Great was born. It’s a stretch to consider Herostratus a terrorist, but he showed how one can achieve fame through criminal means. The phrase “Herostratus’ glory” or “Herostratus’s laurels” appeared, which means fame tantamount to shame.
Boris Savinkov. In the second half of the 19th century, terrorist methods became very popular in Russia - attempts were made on the lives of major officials and even the Tsar. Revolutionary Boris Savinkova supported such methods of fighting the regime. He himself was born into a family of nobles, but all of his closest relatives opposed the authorities in one way or another. For example, an older brother, a Social Democrat, committed suicide in Siberian exile. Savinkov himself was expelled from St. Petersburg University in 1899 for participating in student riots. In 1903, the young revolutionary was only 24 years old, and he already had arrests and exiles behind him. In Geneva, Savinkov joined the Combat Organization of the Socialist Revolutionary Party. Until 1917, he organized numerous terrorist attacks on Russian territory. The most noisy cases were the murder of the Minister of Internal Affairs Plehve (1904), the Moscow Governor-General Prince Sergei Alexandrovich (1905), the assassination attempt on the Minister of Internal Affairs Durnovo and General Dubasov. After the arrest of the terrorist leader Azef, Savinkov heads the Combat Organization. In 1906, while preparing an assassination attempt on the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Chukhnin, the terrorist was caught in Sevastopol and sentenced to death. But Savinkov was able to escape to Romania at night. It was no longer possible to prepare successful terrorist attacks, the Combat Organization disintegrated, and its former leader began to engage in literary activities. After the February Revolution, Savinkov returned to Russia, he became a commissar of the Provisional Government, then an assistant to the Minister of War. The former terrorist did not support the October Revolution of 1917. He tried to fight the new government, then went to Europe, where he found himself in a political vacuum. As a result, Savinkov returned illegally to Russia, where he was captured by the OGPU and was killed in prison (officially, he committed suicide).
Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez, "Carlos the Jackal". The international terrorist was born in 1949 in Venezuela. His name was given in honor of Lenin, because his father was also a convinced communist. In 1968-1969, the young fiery revolutionary studied in Moscow and the Peoples' Friendship University. In 1970, Sanchez acquired the nickname "Carlos" while interning at a terrorist camp in Palestine. During the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the terrorist performed well, and in 1973 he tried to kill an influential Jewish politician and businessman Edward Schiff in London. In the 70s, Sanchez succeeded in a whole series of terrorist attacks - an attack on a bank, an explosion of French newspaper offices, attacks on planes and a restaurant. The Jackal's most famous action was the attack on the OPEC headquarters in Vienna and the taking of hostages in 1975. At the same time, the terrorists managed to escape unpunished. In the 80s, Sanchez was credited with a series of bombings in France, killing 11 people and injuring more than 100 more. The criminal is constantly hiding, now in Hungary, now in Syria, now in Algeria. He began selling weapons, eventually moving away from his main activity. The terrorist was eventually extradited by Sudanese authorities in 1994. In France, Sanchez was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1997, and a second similar sentence was handed down in 2011. Now the terrorist sits in a Paris prison and writes autobiographical books.
Ulrike Meinhof. This German journalist comes from an intelligent bourgeois family - her ancestors were pastors, and her parents were art critics. In 1955, at the age of 21, the smart girl entered the University of Marburg, where she studied philosophy, pedagogy, and sociology. But the musty atmosphere did not suit her active character. In 1957, she transferred to the University of Münster, where she led the student movement against nuclear weapons. In the first half of the 1960s, Meinhof became one of the most famous journalists in Germany, she received large fees. At the same time, she actively participates in the anti-fascist movement, opposes the war in Vietnam and the adoption of anti-democratic laws. When left-wing organizations begin to be banned and persecuted in Germany, Ulrika's activities become much more radical. In 1970, the journalist organized the armed release of the leader of the Red Army Faction (RAF), Andreas Baader. This mission succeeds, albeit at the cost of injuring innocent people. The newly-minted terrorist herself goes underground. Since then, the RAF has been active. The group visited training camps of the Palestine Liberation Front. The terrorists needed money and upon returning to Germany they began to attack banks. Ulrike Meinhof herself was called the queen of terror. The RAF was credited with 555 terrorist attacks. Among the victims were ordinary people and even comrades who wished to retire. In 1972, Ulrike Meinhof was finally arrested. In 1975, she died under strange circumstances in prison. Her funeral turned into a mass protest.
Timothy McVey. Until the emergence of Osama bin Laden, this was the largest terrorist in American history. In his youth, Timothy grew up withdrawn and unsociable. He was more interested in computers, and later firearms, rather than studying and communicating. In 1988, at the age of 20, McVeigh became a soldier in the US Army. He took part in the Gulf War and earned awards. McVeigh underwent special training, studied explosives and sniper tactics. But his career in the army did not work out due to McVeigh’s poor physical condition. In 1992, he was transferred to the reserve. The former soldier was a right-wing anarchist who believed that gun control was a restriction of constitutional freedoms. The actions of the authorities at Ruby Ridge in 1992 and at the siege of the Mount Carmel estate in 1993, when innocent people died as a result of the authorities' actions, became the reason for McVeigh's desire for revenge. On April 19, 1995, a terrorist bombed the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. For these purposes, a car bombed with 5 tons of explosives was used. 168 people died then, including 19 children under 6 years old. Another 680 people were wounded. The total damage from the explosion was $652 million. Within an hour and a half after the explosion, McVeigh was arrested for illegal possession of a firearm. In 1997, a trial was held that sentenced the terrorist to death. In 2001, McVeigh was given a lethal injection. In America itself, legislation was changed that tightened the security of federal buildings.
Patrick Magee. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) is waging a terrorist war against the British. The most famous revolutionary is Patrick Magee. In 1984, he carried out his most famous action. Then the carefully prepared assassination attempt on English Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was practically successful. When the British Conservative Party held its congress in the town of Brighton, Magee managed to plant a bomb in the politician's hotel room. Thatcher narrowly escaped death because she was in the toilet at the time of the explosion. But 5 innocent people died. Magee himself received the nickname “Brighton Bomb Thrower” for his terrorist attack. The terrorist knew in advance which hotel the distinguished guest would be accommodated in. Six months in advance, under a false name, he booked a room next door. And the signature he accidentally left in the guest book gave him away. The court sentenced the Irishman to 8 life sentences. In prison, Magee studied and even passed exams, receiving a second education. After 15 years he was released. Today, Magee continues to actively participate in demonstrations against the authorities.
Shoko Asahara. This man managed to create an entire deadly sect, which, under the guise of a neo-religious organization, began to kill people. Chizuo Matsumoto grew up in a large family. Unable to get into university, he took up the practice of Chinese medicine. Back in 1981, he was arrested for fraud, selling energy-charged drugs. In 1987, Asahara made a pilgrimage to the Himalayas, where he claims to have been spiritually cleansed. A little earlier, he founded an organization called Aum Shinrikyo. Since 1989, the sect has become known in Japan. It attracted many young Japanese students from elite universities. Active cooperation with the Dalai Lama led to his recognition of this organization. Studying Buddhist texts and meditation were just a decoy. Aum Shinrikyo began to act more actively. The rituals included the use of drugs and shock therapy. In 1989, the first murder of a sect member who wanted to leave occurred. In 1990, Asahara tried to run for parliament, but failed. The sect began to secretly acquire weapons, including chemical weapons. Sarin and VX gas have previously been used to kill or assassinate Aum Shinrikyo critics. But on June 27, 1994, gas was released against civilians. Members of the sect used sarin gas in the central park of the city of Matsumoto. Then 7 people died, another 200 were injured. The police were preparing to close the sect, but Asahara managed to carry out another high-profile terrorist attack. On March 20, 1995, a gas attack took place in the Tokyo subway. The victims were 12-27 people; in total, several tens of thousands of people felt the effects of sarin. The trial of Shoko Asahara turned out to be the longest in the country's history. As a result, he was sentenced to death, but the sentence has not yet been carried out.
Shamil Basayev. After completing his military service, Basayev ended up in Moscow. There he never managed to enter university and was content with low-paid work. After the collapse of the State Emergency Committee, Basayev returned to Chechnya and felt a field for self-realization. He became part of the armed formation created under the National Congress of the Chechen People. In the summer of 1991, Basayev created the armed group “Vedeno”, and in October he formed a group of saboteurs. They were supposed to protect the freedom of the Chechen Republic and the interests of the President. On November 9, 1991, as a sign of protest against the introduction of a state of emergency, Basayev hijacked a passenger plane from Mineralnye Vody to Turkey. There the invaders surrendered and were sent to Chechnya. Then Basayev noted his participation in the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, in the Georgian-Abkhaz conflict. During the First Chechen War, the terrorist gradually moved from active participation to sabotage. On June 14-20, 1995, militants led by Basayev seized a hospital in the city of Budennovsk, Stavropol Territory. 1,600 people became hostages, 147 of whom died. Before the Second Chechen War, Basayev was actively involved in politics. Nevertheless, he continued to organize terrorist attacks on Russian territory. These include the hostage taking in Dubrovka in 2002 (129 dead), the explosion of a truck near the government building in Grozny (72 victims), a series of suicide bombings in 2003, explosions in the metro in 2004, the seizure of a school in Beslan in 2004 ( 330 dead hostages). In 2006, Basayev was killed by Russian special services while preparing a new terrorist attack.
Osama bin Laden. This man became the largest organizer of terrorist attacks in modern history. He also quite generously sponsored the entire Islamic radical movement. Osama was born in Saudi Arabia and received a good education. He became involved in the family construction business, but the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan forced bin Laden to join the Afghan Jihad. Bin Laden's activities against Soviet troops (hiring volunteers, active military operations) were under the control of American intelligence. In 1989, Osama returned to his homeland, continuing to sponsor radicals. But the Gulf War and Saudi Arabia's alliance with the United States angered Osama, which led to his expulsion to Sudan. In 1996 and 1998, bin Laden issued proclamations instructing Muslims to fight the Americans. The result was the bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on August 7, 1998. It was just the eighth anniversary of the entry of American troops into Saudi Arabia. As a result of the terrorist attacks, 290 people were killed and about 5 thousand were injured. Then Osama bin Laden was added to the list of most wanted terrorists. After the events of September 11, 2001, Osama's name became known throughout the world. It was he who was declared the main suspect in a series of major terrorist attacks in America. Bin Laden himself either refused to participate in the attack or confirmed his involvement in it. The United States sent troops into Afghanistan, wanting to destroy the Al Qaeda terrorist network. Bin Laden himself hid for a long time until he was killed by special forces in 2011.
Andres Behring Breivik. The recent terrorist attack shocked everyone, because it turned out that the attack could be carried out in quiet, prosperous countries. Norwegian Andres Breivik led an inconspicuous life, but his political activities were active. Since 1997, Breivik has been involved in the youth wing of the Progress Party. In the 2000s, the Norwegian's views became more radical. He positioned himself as a nationalist and hated multicultural politics and Muslims. Breivik gradually came to the conclusion that he could not do anything through political methods, therefore, it was necessary to use weapons. Before carrying out his terrorist attack, Breivik posted a 12-minute video on the Internet and sent out a 1,518-page manifesto. There he called on Europeans to return to the policy of isolationism and Christian medieval values. Breivik was able to legally purchase weapons in his native Norway, and components for explosives from a fertilizer seller. On July 22, 2011, an explosion occurred in the government quarter of Oslo. 8 people were killed and 92 more were injured. Nearby buildings were damaged and a fire started. An hour and a half after this, Breivik arrived at the ferry crossing near the island of Utøya. There was a summer camp for the ruling Workers' Party. There were more than 600 young people there. Dressed in a police uniform, Breivik did not arouse suspicion; he gathered young Social Democrats around him and began shooting at them. The terrorist killed another 69 people on the island. After an hour and a half of massacre, he surrendered to the authorities without resistance. The law provides for a maximum prison term of 21 years; the terrorist himself does not intend to challenge the upcoming court decision.
Activist of the Russian and international socialist movement, took part in revolutionary circles. Together with other rebels, she tried, with the help of false tsarist manifestos, to raise a peasant uprising under the slogan of equalizing the redistribution of land.
She became famous thanks to the attempt on the life of St. Petersburg mayor Fyodor Trepov - on February 5, 1878, at a reception with an official, she shot him with a revolver, seriously wounding him. However, the jury acquitted Vera Ivanovna.
The day after her release, the verdict was protested, and the police issued an order to capture Zasulich, but she managed to hide in a safe house and was soon transferred to her friends in Switzerland. Author of literary and scientific works. I knew Lenin personally. She died in 1919 at the age of 69 from pneumonia.
Sofia Perovskaya
The first woman in Russia to be executed as a result of a political trial. The daughter of the former governor of St. Petersburg, Lev Perovsky, was the direct organizer of the assassination of Tsar Alexander II.
She also took part in the failed assassination attempt on the ruler in November 1879. The task was to blow up the royal train near Moscow. Sonya played the role of the roadman's wife. From the house in which they settled, a tunnel was dug under the railroad bed and a mine was laid. However, the explosion occurred after the emperor had passed the dangerous place. In 1881, the criminals brought the matter to an end. Perovskaya personally drew up a plan of arrangement and, with a wave of her white handkerchief, signaled to Ignatius Grinevitsky, who threw the bomb. On April 3, 1881, she was hanged on the parade ground of the Semenovsky regiment.
Vera Figner
She was the main defendant in the famous “14” trial - the trial of members of the terrorist organization “People's Will”, accused of a number of terrorist acts, including an attempt on the life of military prosecutor Strelnikov. Before this, Figner participated in the assassination attempt and murder of Alexander II, but she was the only one of the organizers to escape arrest. In 1884 she was sentenced to death by the St. Petersburg Military District Court. However, the execution was replaced by indefinite hard labor. She died on June 15, 1942 from pneumonia and was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery.
Lyudmila Volkenshtein
Hereditary noblewoman, born in Kyiv. When in 1877 her husband, zemstvo doctor Alexander Volkenstein, was arrested for propaganda activities, this played a huge role in the woman’s life.
She joined the revolutionaries. In February 1879, she participated in the preparation of an assassination attempt on the Kharkov governor, Prince Kropotkin.
When the prince was killed, she fled abroad, living under the name Anna Pavlova in Switzerland, France, Italy, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania. Using a fake passport, she returned to St. Petersburg, where she was arrested following a denunciation and brought before the military district court. The sentence was harsh - death penalty. Later the punishment was replaced by imprisonment in Shlisselburg prison. She spent almost 13 years in solitary confinement, until in 1896 she was sent into exile to Sakhalin.
Anna Rasputina
The silver medalist of the 4th Women's Moscow Gymnasium has a long track record. As a member of the Flying Combat Detachment of the Northern Region, the Socialist Revolutionary Party participated in the preparation of assassination attempts on the head of the St. Petersburg prison, Colonel Ivanov, the prosecutor of the Main Military Court, General Pavlov, the head of the Main Prison Directorate Maksimovsky, General Min. The organizer of the attempt on the life of Minister of Justice Shcheglovitov.
Arrested on February 7, 1908 along with her comrades, she was sentenced to death. On February 17, 1908, she was hanged in Fox Nose.
Zinaida Konoplyannikova
The killer of General Georgy Mina, known as the leader of the brutal suppression of the armed uprising in Moscow in December 1905, worked as a simple teacher in a rural school in Gostilitsy near Peterhof.
On August 13, 1906, at the New Peterhof station, she approached the carriage in which Major General Min was sitting with his wife and daughter and shot him four times in the back. The wound received by the general turned out to be fatal.
The terrorist was captured and sentenced to death. Zinaida’s last words before her execution were: “Comrade, believe that she will rise, a star of captivating happiness.” She became the first woman hanged in Russia in the 20th century.
Dora Diamond
She was a member of the fighting organization of the Social Revolutionaries, headed by Boris Savinkov. She was directly involved in the manufacture of explosive devices that killed Vyacheslav Plehve and Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich.
Savinkov described Dora as “silent, modest and shy, living only by her belief in terror.” However, according to his own memoirs, after the death of the prince and Plehve, Dora was tormented by remorse.
She was arrested in 1905 during a raid on the secret chemical laboratory of the Social Revolutionaries in St. Petersburg. For her participation in assassination attempts, Dora was imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress, where she went crazy and died in October 1909.
Natalya Klimova
The daughter of a Ryazan landowner joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Maximalist Party in 1906. On August 12, 1906, she participated in the assassination attempt on Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin. Terrorists blew up his official dacha on Aptekarsky Island. Despite the fact that Stolypin himself remained alive, 27 people died, 33 were seriously injured, many later died. Among the victims are Penza Governor Sergei Khvostov and a member of the Council of the Minister of Internal Affairs, Prince Shakhovsky.
On November 30, 1906, Klimova was identified and arrested. She was sentenced to death by a military court, which was commuted to indefinite hard labor. She ran. She died of influenza in Paris in October 1918.
Evstolia Rogozinnikova
She is famous for personally killing the head of the main prison department, Alexander Maksimovsky, because he introduced corporal punishment for political prisoners in prisons.
The crime occurred on October 15, 1907. She came to the Main Reception Department and got a personal reception from the boss. Entering his office, the girl shot Maksimovsky several times with a revolver. Rogozinnikova was captured.
During the search, it turned out that the girl had carried explosives with her: more than 5 kg of extra-dynamite and two detonators connected by a cord. The terrorists’ plan was this: during the interrogation, Rogozinnikova was supposed to pull out the cord that would detonate the bomb. But this was not destined to come true. The criminal was disarmed.
A military court sentenced the terrorist to death. She was hanged on October 18, 1907 in Lisiy Nosa.
Fanny Kaplan
The name of the terrorist who attempted the life of Vladimir Lenin is known to everyone. The assassination attempt took place on August 30, 1918 at the Mikhelson plant in the Zamoskvoretsky district of Moscow, where the leader of the revolution was speaking at a workers’ rally. After the event in the factory yard, he was wounded by several shots. Kaplan was arrested immediately; during a search, Browning No. 150489 was found on her.
During interrogations, she stated that she had an extremely negative attitude towards the October Revolution, considered Lenin a traitor and was sure that his actions “removed the idea of socialism for decades.”
Fanny Kaplan was shot without trial on September 3, 1918, on the verbal orders of the Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, Sverdlov. The corpse was pushed into a tar barrel, doused with gasoline and burned near the walls of the Kremlin.
And although there was a lot of controversy about who actually shot Lenin, recently the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation officially closed the case of the assassination attempt, insisting on the only version - it was Kaplan.
Some members of the organization's opposition groups carried out mainly successful subversive activities among the social masses of the Russian population in the agitation and propaganda sphere, promoting Western values and Western socialist ideas, which were active for one and a half to two decades in the Russian Empire, before the 1905 revolution occurred in Russia. years, their secondary secondary task was to process and recruit new members into the opposition organization in European and Russian centers. For example, Mikhail Gots and Minor toured foreign centers, recruiting fresh forces among students to send to revolutionary work in Russia; mostly seasoned revolutionaries relied on romantic and inexperienced youth (in those years young men began to engage in revolutionary affairs in Russia almost from 15-16 years of age), subsequently recruited students took specialized courses in foreign centers on agitation and propaganda activities, as well as conspiracy.
The remaining selected members of the opposition organization were structured into a separate combat group, which specialized in operations for careful planning with the further implementation of bloody and terrifying sabotage and terrorist acts on the territory of the Russian Empire, the training of this group was carried out by experienced instructors.
Such a scale of subversive activity, one wonders what it was like in the Russian Empire.
But contemporaries of that period correctly said that the All-Russian Emperor Nicholas II was the most inhumane Emperor of all Europe.
The most important role in the revolutions of Russia at the beginning of the 20th century was played by the mass propaganda of Western socialist ideas among all classes of the Republic of Ingushetia, the propaganda “word” sown in social strata, and further incitement gave birth to demonstrations, rallies, strikes, strikes, riots with disobedience to legal authorities, which actually led liberal provocateurs, but this is only a visible iceberg; they were supplemented by public calls for active mass terror, motivating the call by the fact that the goal cannot be achieved peacefully.
In 1904, on July 28, in St. Petersburg, on Izmailovsky Prospekt, near the Warsaw Station, the Minister of Internal Affairs V.K. Pleve was killed. Socialist Revolutionary student Yegor Sozonov, who threw a bomb at his carriage
Extremist organizations and parties were engaged in the creation of base centers, which included: printing houses, safe houses, laboratories for the production of explosives and the purchase of chemical materials, workshops for the manufacture of weapons, training of militants by instructors - specialists in the handling of projectiles, and possession of weapons, in schools of the like Several dozen militants were trained in the family, and the range of knowledge also included mastery of conspiracy, forgery of passports, identity cards, and other documents, prohibited literature in the Russian Empire was smuggled from abroad. (Memoir of the Socialist-Revolutionary V.M. Zenzinov. “Experienced” New York. Chekhov Publishing House).
After the explosion at P. A. Stolypin’s dacha (1906)
Operation of the Security Branch to detain anarchists in the Russian Empire
Those who completed the courses at the training bases safely traveled to the cities of the Russian Empire, and in places of deployment they created similar workshops for the production of bombs. In newspaper reports in Tsarist Russia, and in particular in memoirs, one can find vivid descriptions of those days when such and such a chemical laboratory exploded in such-and-such apartment or private house through negligence during the making of a bomb or news of the seizure of bombs with weapons during a successful police operation.
Also, organized groups published specialized methodological literature and recommendations on carrying out sabotage and terrorist acts on printing presses; the mentioned literature contained special recommendations from professional instructors.
A basket of bombs located in the Bolshevik laboratory school in the village of Haapala (1907)
For example, the uprising in Nizhny Novgorod, on December 8, 1905, right in the workshops of the Sormovsky plant and almost openly, workers began to make homemade edged weapons and bombs. Turner Parikov assembled a homemade cannon according to pre-made drawings, and shells were cast for it in the foundry.
As a result, several armed detachments were formed, the most combat-ready of which was a combat workers' squad led by Pavel Mochalov, numbering about 200 people. Another such detachment was formed in Kanavin, led by Sergei Akimov.
A factory inspector stationed at the plant directly reported to the local authorities: “The workers are preparing weapons on an enormous scale, the forges and sharpeners are busy, a lot of steel is being taken without permission, and files and so on are being remade.”
"The situation in Sormovo is extremely dangerous. There could be riots tomorrow. There are no troops."
On December 12 at 10 a.m., an uprising began at the plant. Detachments of workers began to take control of the surrounding area. There were skirmishes and skirmishes all day, and both sides suffered losses.
On December 13, the chief of gendarmes, Colonel Levitsky, reported to his superiors: “The operations of the telegraph, telephone, and station in the hands of the committee led by Akimov were forcibly stopped. In Sormovo, barricades and telephone poles were cut down.” By order of the governor, Cossacks and a company of gendarmes with cannons were transferred to Sormovo.
Not only Social Democrats took part in the uprising, but also representatives of other political movements, including the Socialist Revolutionaries, which does not in any way diminish the role of Social Democrats and their active functionaries in its organization, preparation and conduct. The Nizhny Novgorod Committee of the RSDLP remained the inspirer of the uprising, which swept the Nizhny Novgorod proletariat, employees, and youth. The main thing for the Social Democrats during the revolution was not who was fighting on the barricades, but that there should be as many fighters as possible, regardless of their political views and criminal past.
The main Sormovo barricade near the Sormovo parish school (1905)
Does anyone remember the October 1905 appeal of V.I. Ulyanov to the combat committee:
“I am horrified, by God with horror, I see that they have been talking about bombs for more than six months and not a single one has been made!.. Let them immediately organize detachments from 3 to 10, up to 30, etc. people. Let them immediately But they arm themselves, some as best they can, some with a revolver, some with a knife, some with a rag with kerosene for arson...
Some will immediately undertake the murder of a spy, the explosion of a police station, others - an attack on a bank to confiscate funds... Let each detachment itself learn at least from beating policemen: dozens of victims will more than pay off in what hundreds of experienced fighters will give...
Even without weapons, detachments can play a very serious role... climbing to the top of houses, into the upper floors, etc., and showering the army with stones, pouring boiling water...
Killing spies, policemen, gendarmes, bombing police stations, releasing those arrested, taking away government funds... such operations are already underway everywhere..." Lenin, October (16th and later) 1905 (Lenin V.I. Complete . coll. vol. 11. pp. 336-337, 338, 340, 343.)
The great conspirator Lenin in makeup during the last underground
V.I. Ulyanov often changed fake passports for other names and surnames, traveled all over Western Europe, and often lived in Germany, Switzerland and London under the surname Richter.
Pass to the Sestroretsk arms factory in the name of K. P. Ivanov
The scope of terrorism at the beginning of the century, according to statistics from Anna Geifman, since October 1905, 3,611 government officials were killed and wounded in the Russian Empire.
By the end of 1907 this number had increased to almost 4,500. Together with 2,180 killed and 2,530 wounded private citizens, Geifman estimates the total number of victims in 1905-1907 to be more than 9,000 people. According to official statistics, from January 1908 to mid-May 1910, there were 19,957 terrorist attacks and expropriations, as a result of which 732 government officials and 3,051 private citizens were killed, while 1,022 government officials and 2,829 private individuals were injured.
Believing that a significant part of local terrorist attacks were not included in official statistics, Geifman estimates the total number of killed and wounded as a result of terrorist attacks in 1901-1911 to be about 17,000 people.
After the start of the revolution, expropriations became a widespread phenomenon. Thus, in October 1906 alone, 362 cases of expropriation were recorded in the country. During the expropriations, according to the Ministry of Finance, from the beginning of 1905 to the middle of 1906, banks lost more than 1 million rubles.
In large cities of Russia, the most active in terrorist actions was the Socialist Revolutionary Party.
Later, some of the transformed and modernized political parties and groups described below entered the State Duma of the Russian Empire (Manifesto of August 6, 1905, Emperor Nicholas II established the State Duma).
Grand opening of the State Duma and State Council. Winter Palace. April 27, 1906. Photographer K. E. von Gann
Tauride Palace
Rights:
Russian collection (1900-1917).
Union of the Russian People (1905-1917).
Union of Russian People (1905-1911, formally until 1917).
Russian monarchical party (1905-1917, from 1907 - Russian monarchical union).
United nobility (1906-1917).
Russian People's Union named after Michael the Archangel (1907-1917).
All-Russian National Union (1908-1912).
Moderate Right Party (1909-1910).
All-Russian Dubrovinsky Union of the Russian People (1912-1917).
Patriotic Patriotic Union (1915-1917).
Union of October 17 (1905-1917).
Centrist:
Constitutional Democratic Party (1905-1917). Leader - P. N. Milyukov.
Trade and Industrial Union of the Russian Empire (1905).
Progressive Economic Party of the Russian Empire (1905).
Commercial and Industrial Party of the Russian Empire (1905-1906).
Party of Legal Order (1905-1907). Leader
Peaceful Renewal Party (1905-1907).
Democratic Reform Party (1906-1907).
Progressive Party (1912-1917).
Left:
Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (since 1898).
Bolsheviks.
Mensheviks.
Group "Forward" (1909-1913).
Interdistrict organization of United Social Democrats (1913-1917).
Socialist Revolutionary Party (1902-1921).
Labor People's Socialist Party (1905-1918, People's Socialists, Popular Socialists).
Union of Socialist Revolutionaries-Maximalists (1906-1911, Socialist Revolutionaries-Maximalists).
Labor group (1906-1917).
People's will
Black redistribution
Young Party "People's Will"
Land and freedom
Freedom or death
Avengers
Young Russia
Group "Forward"
Group of Nikolaev, Belevsky, Serebryakov. P. Nikolaev
Group of Popko, Lizogub, Osinsky
Combat organization
Northern Region Flying Combat Squad
Flying Combat Squad of the Central Region
Moscow opposition to the Socialist Revolutionary Party
Union of Socialist Revolutionaries Maximalists
Bolshevik fighting squad.
Agrarian terrorism.
Anarcho-terrorism.
A group of anarchist-communists.
Group of anarchist-communists "Terror".
United group of anarchists and maximalists.
Group of anarchist-communists "Hunhuzy".
Anarchy group.
Group of anarchist-communists "Red Hundred".
Group "Black Raven".
Group "Red Banner".
Flying squad of anarchist-communists.
A loose group of political terrorists.
Black Banners
Ukrainian:
Ukrainian Socialist Party (1900-1904).
Revolutionary Ukrainian Party (1900-1905).
Ukrainian People's Party (1902-1907).
Ukrainian Socialist Revolutionary Party (1903-1918).
Ukrainian Democratic Party (1904).
Ukrainian Radical Party (1904-1905).
Ukrainian Social Democratic Union (“Spilka” 1904-1913).
Melenevsky. Member of the RSDLP (Menshevik).
Ukrainian Democratic-Radical Party (1905-1908).
Ukrainian Social Democratic Labor Party (1905-1918).
Ukrainian National Democratic Party.
Ukrainian Revolutionary Party (“Independence”).
Ukrainian Radical Democratic Party.
Belarusian:
Belarusian socialist community (1902-1918).
Constitutional Catholic Party of Lithuania and Belarus. This conservative-clerical party during the revolution of 1905-1907. operated on the territory of Belarus. It was created on the initiative of the clergy and Poles living in Belarus. The ideological basis of the party was Catholicism. In the party program (1906), the main task was proclaimed to unite all Catholic Poles, Lithuanians, and Belarusians “into one powerful party” with the aim of fighting the tsarist government “for the development and well-being of the region.” Protecting the religious feelings of believers from Orthodox religious expansion was the main task of the party. In 1907, the Vilna Governor-General dissolved it.
Jewish:
General Jewish workers' union in Lithuania, Poland and Russia "Bund" (early 1890s-1921).
Jewish Social Democratic Labor Party "Poalei Zion" (1900-1928).
Zionist-Socialist Workers' Party (1904-1917).
Socialist Jewish Workers' Party (SELP, 1906-1917).
Volkspartey (People's Party, 1906-1917).
Jewish Territorialist Labor Party.
United Jewish Socialist Labor Party (1917-1920).
Armenian:
Social Democratic Party Hunchakian (since 1887).
Armenian Revolutionary Federation "Dashnaktsutyun" (since 1890).
Armenian Social Democratic Labor Organization.
Dfi.
Mudafe.
Ittifag.
Eshams.
Muslim:
Muslim Social Democratic Party "Gummet" (Azerbaijani, 1904-1920).
Ittifaq al-Muslimin ("Union of Muslims") (1905-1907).
Muslim Democratic Party "Musavat" (Azerbaijani, 1911-1920).
Ichtimai-e-Amiyun (Social democracy, 1906-1916).
Adalat (“Justice”, 1916-1920).
Alash Party (Kazakh, 1917-1920).
Polish:
International Social Revolutionary Party "Proletariat" (First or Great Proletariat, 1882-1886.
Social revolutionary party "Proletariat" (Second or Small Proletariat, 1888-1893..
PPS-Proletariat (Third Proletariat, 1900-1909). Leader - L. S. Kulchitsky.
Polish Socialist Party (since 1892).
Social democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (since 1893).
National Democratic Party of Poland (since 1897).
Polish Progressive Democratic Union (since 1904).
Party of Real Politics (since 1905).
The Polish Socialist Party is leftist (since 1906).
Polish Socialist Party - revolutionary faction (1906-1909).
"Warsaw fighting squad."
Enlightenment of the people
Polish League,
People's Treasures,
People's Labor Union,
Polish White Eagle Union
Polish People's Union
Polish State Party,
Union of National Education,
Union for the Revival of the Polish People,
Union of Polish Youth,
Union of Polish Workers,
Circle of struggle against Russia.
Finnish:
Fennomani (XIX century).
Svekomany (Svekomany, 1860s-1906).
Liberal Club (1877-1880).
Finnish Party (1879-1918).
Liberal Party (1880-1918).
Swedish Party (1882-1906).
Finnish Women's Union (1892-1938).
Young Finns Party (1894-1918).
Social Democratic Party of Finland (since 1899). Leader - V. Tanner.
Constitutional Party (1902-1918).
Finnish Active Resistance Party (Activist Party, 1904-1908).
Finnish Coalition Party (1905-1907).
Finnish Progressive Party (1905-1908).
Union of Rural Workers (1905-1915)
Finnish People's Party (1905-1918).
Swedish People's Party (since 1906).
Agrarian Union (1906).
Christian Workers' Union of Finland (1906-1923).
Finnish People's Socialist Party (1913-1915).
Lithuanian:
Lithuanian Social Democratic Party (lit. Lietuvos socialdemokratų partija, LSDP). Common name: Lithuanian Social Democracy. The oldest political party in Lithuania. It was created in 1896.
Lithuanian Democratic Party (lit. Lietuvių demokratų partija, LDP). 1902-1920. She advocated for the autonomy of Lithuania in the Russian Empire, for national unity, and in support of rich peasants. During the First World War it experienced several splits and became inactive. Officially disbanded in 1920.
Lithuanian Peasant Union (lit. Lietuvos valstiečių sąjunga, LVS). 1905-1922. Created by a group of members of the Lithuanian Democratic Party. He took left-liberal positions, advocating that the land belong only to those who work on it. United into the Lithuanian Peasant People's Union.
Lithuanian Christian Democratic Union (lit. Lietuvių krikščionių demokratų sąjunga, LKDS). 1905-1906. Without receiving the support of the Catholic Church, the party disbanded.
National Democratic Party (lit. Tautiškoji demokratų partija, TDP). 1905-1913. Created by a group of nationalist members of the Lithuanian Democratic Party led by Jonas Basanavičius. She advocated for the political autonomy of Lithuania, democratic governance and self-government, the exclusive rights of Lithuanians, the Lithuanian language and culture. After 1907, the party's activity almost ceased. The future president of Lithuania, Antanas Smetona, was a member of the party.
National Progress Party (lit. Tautos pažangos partija, TNP). 1916-1924. Merged with the Union of Lithuanian Landowners to form the Union of Lithuanian Nationalists.
Estonian:
Estonian National Progressive Party (Estonian Eesti Rahvameelne Eduerakond, ERE; 1905-1917). The first political party in Estonia, created by lawyer, social activist and publisher Jaan Tõnisson during the Russian Revolution of 1905. Constitutional monarchy, autonomism, Estonian nationalism. Ally of the Constitutional Democratic Party. Reorganized into the Estonian Democratic Party.
Estonian Social Democratic Workers' Association (Estonian: Eesti Sotsiaaldemokraatlik Tööliste Ühendus; 1905). Social democracy, federalism, autonomism. Actually destroyed during the suppression of the First Russian Revolution of 1905-1907, the leaders were subjected to repression or emigrated.
Baltic Constitutional Party (Estonian Balti Konstitutsiooniline Partei; 1905-1917). Created by the Baltic Germans. Another name is the Constitutional Party of Estonia (Estonian: Eestimaa Konstitutsiooniline Partei). Constitutional monarchy, conservatism.
Estonian Socialist Revolutionary Party (Estonian: Eesti sotsialistide-revolutsionääride Partei, ESRP; 1905-1919). Created as a branch of the Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party. An independent party since September 1917. Split over the issue of Estonian independence, after which the left wing joined the communists. Joined the Independent Socialist Party of Working People.
Latvian:
Party of Revolutionary Socialists of Latvia (until 1913 - Latvian Social Democratic Union). Formed in 1900. The main program ideas were the social and national liberation of the working people of Latvia, the creation of an independent Latvian state.
As can be seen from the subsequent events of the 1917 revolution, in addition to the internal problems of the Russian Empire, there were additional Russian liberal opposition organizations operating for decades inside the Russian Empire and beyond, in particular abroad in Switzerland (Geneva), the center of Russian political emigration and the main headquarters of the Russian revolution, masterfully manipulating and inciting national, religious, and social discord, skillfully playing on the shortcomings of the system of the Russian Empire, they still succeeded in the craft of undermining the integrity of the powerful Russian Empire, promoting the ideas of Western socialism in all segments of the population of the Republic of Ingushetia.
