Alexander II was killed in March 1881 in a bombing carried out by Ignacy Hryniewiecki. The bomb thrown at the tsar’s feet literally cut him in half! What else do we know about the tsar’s death? Why did this event happen in the first place?
Hunting the Emperor
Before carrying out the assassination of Alexander II, the conspirators spent many weeks closely observing their target, tracking his every passage through the capital. They noticed that the ruler’s routes varied, though on Sundays he always attended the ceremonial guard parade at the Mikhailovsky Manège, after which he returned to the Winter Palace. The return journey followed either along the Catherine Canal or through Malaya Sadovaya Street.
Based on these observations, the narodniki determined that Alexander should be eliminated on a Sunday at the mined Malaya Sadovaya. As a backup, in case the bomb failed to explode or the timing was off, several men equipped with dynamite positioned themselves on the street with the task of completing the deed. If the tsar traveled along the canal, these same men were to run there and throw their charges.
How to Kill the Ruler?
To make the intricately plotted intrigue possible, the conspirators decided to purchase premises at the intersection of Malaya Sadovaya and Nevsky Prospekt. The premises were converted into a shop offering various types of cheeses and cottage cheeses imported from abroad. The shop owners, Gesya Gelfman and Aleksandr Mikhailov, operating under the false name Kobozev, enjoyed great respect among customers, who gladly stopped by and left considerable money for purchased products.
But the business was merely a cover for what was actually happening in the basement, where day and night they intensively prepared a deep tunnel under Malaya Sadovaya. When the work was completed, they installed a powerful explosive charge there, set up detonators, and ultimately waited only for the signal to detonate the mine. The entrance to the tunnel was meanwhile camouflaged with a brick wall that could be easily demolished using minimal force.
The entire effort nearly went to waste. One day, police knocked on the shop door intending to conduct an inspection, which in tsarist Russia could surprise no one. One of the officers approached a barrel covered on top with cheeses but containing excavated earth inside. When asked what was in the barrel, the shop owner answered in a breaking voice that it was cheese.
This answer satisfied the man, who, had he tried harder, could have discovered the lie of the woman trembling with fear. The policemen also checked the shop’s backroom but noticed nothing alarming and left.
Narodniki in the Crosshairs
The conspirators breathed a sigh of relief, but only briefly. The police arrested Andrei Zhelyabov, who headed the People’s Will, the terrorist organization intending to kill Alexander II. They feared he wouldn’t withstand interrogation and, broken by beating and torture, would tell everything he knew about the matter. They even considered suspending the operation they had been preparing for several months and proceeding with its implementation when a more favorable moment arrived.
After Zhelyabov, leadership of the narodnik movement was taken over by the energetic and young Sophia Perovskaya. She firmly advised against interrupting the operation, arguing that the current head of the People’s Will would not break and would not reveal any names, which could end tragically for each conspiracy participant.
And indeed, Zhelyabov didn’t utter a word, which motivated the narodniki to continue, or rather complete, what they intended.
They hastily set about preparing bombs, which engineer Nikolai Kibalchich handled. They prepared simple but extremely effective glass bulbs filled entirely with nitroglycerin.
To detonate, one simply had to throw and break the bulb. This task was entrusted to four men: Nikolai Rysakov, Timofei Mikhailov, Ignacy Hryniewiecki, and Ivan Emelianov. Each was given one bomb.
The Ruler’s Last Sex
Finally came March 1, 1881. The day when the seventh assassination attempt on Alexander II was to take place. It was a beautiful but cold Sunday. The tsar rose early in the morning. He felt well. He attended a service at church, drank coffee, then went to his study. After leaving it, he said goodbye to his wife, who with tears in her eyes begged him to stay home.
However, the tsar didn’t heed his wife, who instinctively sensed that something bad would happen that day. Upon departing, as recorded in one source, „he laid his wife on the table and made love to her.” Both didn’t know that this was the last time they would be so close.
The tsar was taken to the manège in a sleigh, escorted by numerous guards. Upon arrival at the square, the military greeted him ceremoniously. Also present were the emperor’s son, Tsarevich Alexander, and the ruler’s brother, Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich.
As contemporary historian Dmitry Milyutin stated, „the parade proceeded most successfully. His Imperial Majesty was satisfied with its course, was clearly in good spirits, joked. After the parade ended, the emperor, having exchanged a few words with his close associates and dignitaries surrounding him, left the manège.”
This text is an excerpt from Dr. Mariusz Samp’s latest book „Checkmate. How Russia’s Rulers Died,” published by Hi:story (Krakow 2024). The book, telling the story of Putin’s predecessors’ deaths, is available in many online bookstores.
First Stage of the Assassination
On his way home, Alexander II stopped briefly at his cousin’s, Grand Duchess Catherine, who lived in the Mikhailovsky Palace. He drank his last tea with her and chatted on various topics. Then he said goodbye and got into the sleigh waiting for him outside.
The return route led along the boulevard by the Catherine Canal. Beside the tsar’s sleigh rode two Cossacks on horseback, while behind were two pairs of sleighs in which the highest-ranking police officers sat comfortably. On the boulevard, at least a dozen policemen guarded the emperor’s security.
Alexander II’s procession was first spotted by Sophia Perovskaya, standing at the turn and supervising the entire operation. Dropping a handkerchief, she gave the three assassins further ahead the signal to prepare their bombs.
At the last moment, Timofei Mikhailov, who was supposed to attack the tsar’s carriage first, withdrew from the assassination. He did leave home but quickly returned, not even reaching the agreed-upon location. Fear overcame him, unlike the remaining men who were ready to die for the cause.
The first to run up to the carriage with Alexander II was the young, fair-haired Nikolai Rysakov. With a quick motion, he pulled from under his coat a bomb wrapped in white fabric and threw it in front of him, counting on it falling under the sleigh itself. The explosion was so powerful that it threw Rysakov some distance, but he was unharmed.
When he got to his feet, he saw everywhere clouds of dust, smoke, and snow powder raised upward by the force of the explosion. On the road lay one dead Cossack, while another, seriously wounded, tried to catch his breath. On the sidewalk lay a dying boy from whom the explosion had torn a basket of meat from his hands. A bit further away stood another passerby writhing in pain. Among the wounded and killed, however, Alexander II was missing – the bomb hadn’t even scratched the ruler, only damaging the rear part of the sleigh.
Rysakov had therefore miscalculated. When it dawned on him what had happened, or rather what hadn’t happened, he began to flee with all his might. His escape was interrupted by a street worker who put a crowbar under his feet. The assassin fell, and a moment later they threw themselves on him and overpowered him. His fate was already sealed.
The Pole’s Desperate Throw
Meanwhile, the emperor, stunned by events, ordered the sleigh to stop. When he opened the door, he crossed himself and when asked how he felt, replied: „Thank God, I’m not wounded.”
The guards accompanying the ruler suggested leaving the scene as quickly as possible, but Alexander insisted on seeing the hole created in the roadway. On the way, he approached the captured Rysakov and wagged his finger at him. Then he took a few steps but suddenly stopped at the sight of another assassin emerging from the crowd. Ignacy Hryniewiecki, who pulled a nitroglycerin sphere from his bag and desperately threw it from a distance of several meters directly at the ruler’s feet.
A terrible roar rang out, deafening everyone. According to an eyewitness account, the explosion was so powerful that it bent into an arch a pole of a nearby gas lamp.
After a moment, a horrifying sight appeared to everyone: two guards lay dead, around them were a dozen or so men lightly or seriously wounded. Some of them stood up on their own, while others crawled or tried to get out from under those who, falling, had pinned them to the ground. All around could be seen mangled bodies, pools of blood, and uniforms, weapons, and epaulettes torn to shreds.
Alexander Cut in Half
The explosion cut Alexander II almost in half. It tore off one leg and crushed the other, blood pouring profusely from both. Countless wounds also appeared on the ruler’s face and head. Alexander had one eye completely closed, while with the other he looked at the crowd gathered around, growing larger by the minute. The tsar, whose consciousness was leaving him along with the flowing blood, was looked upon with pity.
After Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich arrived at the scene, the mutilated tsar was quickly transported to the palace. They acted in panic. None of the people trying to help the ruler thought of transporting him to the nearby military hospital, where there was appropriate equipment to stop the bleeding.
But doctors were present at the Winter Palace and it was expected that they would provide help to the mangled emperor. Several burly men carried Alexander up the palace stairs to the study. As one of the physicians working in the palace later wrote:
„When I ran into the study, I found the tsar in a semi-recumbent position on a bed that had been pulled from the alcove and placed right by the desk, so that the emperor’s face was turned toward the window. The emperor wore a shirt without a tie, on his neck a Prussian order, on his right hand they had put a white chamois glove stained with blood in places. At the head of the bed stood Grand Duke Michael Nikolaevich in gala uniform, all in tears. When I ran up to the bed, the first thing that struck my eye was the terribly mutilated lower limbs, especially the left one, which, starting from the knee, was a crushed bloody mass; the right limb was also damaged, but somewhat less. Both crushed limbs were cold to the touch. I began to press, as hard as possible, both femoral arteries, which were barely pulsating, thinking that in this way I would save at least the rest of the blood. The emperor was in a state of absolute unconsciousness. All the efforts of the doctors who arrived after me proved futile.”
Alexander’s life was clearly fading. The arriving clergyman still managed to perform the last rites and read the prayer for the dying. Shortly after, the physician measuring the ruler’s pulse lowered the bloodied hand and announced: „His Imperial Majesty is dead.” From the moment of the assassination to death, barely an hour had passed, though it seemed to everyone that this moment stretched into infinity.
