IB European History

IB European History

Mr. Mehlbach

Russian Terrorism, 1877-1881

Though it is popular to associate contemporary terrorism with the jihad of radical Islam, the modern terror model is a byproduct of 19th century Russia. In the latter part of the 19th century there were a number of high profile court cases in Imperial Russia testing the reforms of Alexander II. The Trial of the 193 was a series of criminal trials held in Russia in 1877-1878. The trial consisted of 193 students and other “revolutionaries” charged with populist “unrest” and “political agitation against the Russian Empire.” The Trial of the 193 was the largest political trial in Czarist Russia. The trial ended in mass acquittals, with only a small percentage being charged with sentences of hard labor or prison. This seemed to indicate that the 1864 judicial reforms of Alexander II were a complete success, for the independent courts had stood up against the autocracy and won. One of the unintended consequences of the trial, however, was a dramatic increase in homegrown political terrorism in Imperial Russia. Anti-government terror cells viewed the Trial of 193 as a sign of Czarist weakness, hence stepping up their terror campaigns. The more Alexander II tried to reform the country, the greater the proliferation of terror cells; the more liberal the reforms, the greater the out lash of terror strikes.

In July 1877, a political prisoner, Alexei Bogolyubo, refused to remove his cap in the presence of General Theodore Trepov, the governor of St. Petersburg, infamous for his suppression of the Polish rebellions in 1830 and 1863. In retaliation, Trepov ordered that Bogolyubov be flogged with the knout, which outraged not only revolutionaries, but also sympathetic Russian intelligentsia. The entire affair became known as The Trepov Incident. A group of 6 revolutionaries plotted to kill Trepov, but a woman assassin, Vera Zasulich, acting alone, was the first to act. She waited until after the verdict was announced at the Trial of 193and then, on 24 January 1878, shot Trepov in the face three times.

At her widely publicized trial, a sympathetic jury found her not guilty. The decision again showed the effectiveness of the 1864 judicial reforms of Alexander II and demonstrated the courts' ability to stand up against the authorities. Fleeing before she could be rearrested and retried, Vera became a hero to populists and the radical part of the Russian society. Despite her previous record, she was against the bloody terror campaign that would sweep through Russia after her trial.

In 1869, two Russian writers, Mikhail Bakunin and Sergi Nechayev published the book Catechism of a Revolutionist. It included the famous passage: "The revolutionary is a doomed man. He has no private interests, no affairs, sentiments, ties, property nor even a name of his own. His entire being is devoured by one purpose, one thought, one passion - the revolution. Heart and soul, not merely by word but by deed, he has severed every link with the social order and with the entire civilized world; with the laws, good manners, conventions, and morality of that world. He is the government’s merciless enemy and continues to inhabit the world with only one purpose - to destroy society and all within it."

The book had a great impact on young Russians and in 1876 the groupLand and Liberty(Земля и воля) was formed. Most of the group shared Bakunin's anarchist views and demanded that Russia's land should be handed over to the peasants; the Czarist autocratic state had to be destroyed. In October 1879,Land and Liberty split into two factions. The new group became thePeople's Will(Наро́дная во́ля),which was dedicated to unleashing a violent terror campaign against the Czarist autocracy. Ironically the members of the People’s Will came from Russia’s intelligentsia and not from the peasantry. Docile, ignorant and illiterate peasants rarely produce terrorists. Russia’s 125 million peasants had neither the education, the motivation, nor the inclination to overthrow the Czarist autocracy. Of all of Russia’s social classes the agrarian peasants were the least political. They were Russia’s most conservative and reactionary social class. It was Russia’s emerging intelligentsia (Russian for “artists, writers, students and member of the literate, though tiny middle class”) thatspawned the home-grown terrorists. This tiny social stratum was educated, literate and outraged by Czarist oppression.

Terrorism is a tactic, not an ideology. Terrorism is the methodical and systematic use of violence to infect a population with fear. The goal of terrorism is coerce governments to change. Though terrorism can be a tactic of the radical left (The People’s Will in Imperial Russia, 1879-1899) or the radical right (the Nazi SA in Weimar Germany 1923-1934) the goals remain the same. Terrorism is a counterintuitive phenomenon. The more oppressive the state, the less terrorism; the more liberal and open the society, the more frequent the acts of terror. Governments that wage “a war on terror” are doomed to fail. On the other hand, states that are committed to eradicating the terrorist and their seed will ultimately prevail. In both scenarios the struggle is long, unrelenting and, in terms of blood and treasure, costly.

The People’s Will was an ultra-violent, ultra- leftist, Russian terror organization. The People’s Will was dedicated to the violent overthrow of the Czarist autocracy. Not only was the Czar targeted for assassination, but Czarist officials (judges, military officers, tax collectors, government bureaucrat) were considered fair game as well. One of the confusing phenomenons of the Emancipation of the Serfs in 1861 was the growth and proliferation of Russian terror cells over the next two decades. There was a one-to-one correlation between Alexander II’s reforms and the explosive growth of homegrown Russian terror cells. The largest security threat to Imperial Russia after the Emancipation ukase of 1861was not the Austrians or Ottoman Turks but the People’s Will

The People’s Will determined to unleash a terror assault on the government of Alexander II. In 1879 Czar Alexander II was sentenced to death by the organization. Swearing to butcher any official associated with the autocracy, Imperial Russia was shaken by the sheer violence of the campaign. Policemen, judges, government bureaucrats and military officers were all condemned as “legitimate targets of an illegitimate government.” Along with the Czar’s death sentence of 1879, the People’s Will issued the People’s Ultimatum of 1879. Czar Alexander the II would be acquitted and his death sentence lifted only if the government would agree to the followingreforms:

• Establishment of universal male suffrage for all Russian men over the age of 18
• Creation of an Imperial Duma elected by universal male suffrage
• Creation of a People’s Constitution guaranteeing basic civil liberties, including the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the right to assemble and freedom from arbitrary government arrest
• The abolition of the Russian autocracy and the creation of a peasant mir republic
• The abolition of the Imperial Russian Army and the creation of a peasant militia
• Redistribution of all Crown and boyar land to the peasants

From 1879 to 1881 the People’s Will tried to assassinate Czar Alexander II nine separate times. The fanaticism of the organization was unprecedented. Hundreds of czarist officials were also shot, blown to pieces, poisoned and cleaved in half. The terror campaign ran unabated for three bloody years, reaching a violent climax on 13 March 1881.

Assassination of Czar Alexander II, 13 March 1881

1