The Execution of Sofia Perovskaja For The Assassination of Tsar Alexander II
Sofia Perovskaja – for the assassination of Tsar Alexander II.
Sofia (or Sophia) Perovskaya was born in 1854 as the daughter of a governor-general in St. Petersburg. She was described as short and strongly built with a round face and large grey eyes.
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As a teenager she became a revolutionary feminist. She joined a radical fraction, called Land and Liberty that wanted to end the Russian Empire and transfer of land to the peasantry. This group split into two and Sofia joined the more radical Narodnaya Volya group which translates as “Peoples Will.” Andrei Zhelyabov was the leader of this group and also possibly Sofia’s boyfriend.
Two unsuccessful attempts were made to assassinate Tsar Alexander II, but finally on March the 1st 1881 the group was successful, killing him as he travelled through St. Petersburg.
They threw two bombs, one at his carriage and the other at him after he got out of it to help the injured from the first blast. Nikolai Rysakov was arrested at the scene of the crime and was tortured into revealing the names of the rest of the group who were quickly rounded up.
The trial of Zhelyabov, Sofia, Nikolai Kibalchich, Nikolai Rysakov, Gesia Gelfman and Timofei Mikhailov, opened on the 25th of March, 1881. All were found guilty and sentenced to death. Gesia Gelfman was four months pregnant and her execution was therefore stayed until after she had given birth. Both she and the baby later died in prison.
A new gallows was constructed in Semenovsky Square, having six hooks on the beam.
The prisoners, wearing black, were driven to the place of execution in two "shameful chariots", each wearing a sign on the chest saying "Regicide”, and with their hands tied behind their backs.
They were led from the carts to the gallows, and their death warrants read out. At 9.20 a.m. on the morning of April the 15th 1881 the group were hanged one by one removing a black bench from under their feet. After hanging for 20 minutes the bodies were taken down and placed in coffins. By 10 a.m. it was all over. It was the last public execution in St. Petersburg.
Picture from left to right - Zhelyabov, Perovskaya, Kibalchich, Rysakov and Mikhailov. The unused hook was for Gesia Gelfman.
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