Assassination of Alexander II of Russia
On 13 March [1 March, Old Style] 1881, Alexander II, the Emperor of Russia, was assassinated in Saint Petersburg, Russia while returning to the Winter Palace from Mikhailovsky Manège in a closed carriage.
Painting of Alexander II on his deathbed by Konstantin Makovsky | |
| Date | 13 March 1881 |
|---|---|
| Location | Near the Catherine Canal, Saint Petersburg |
| Coordinates | 59°56′24″N 30°19′43″E |
| Deaths | Alexander II of Russia, Ignacy Hryniewiecki, Alexander Maleichev, Nikolai M. Zakharov, and possibly others. |
| Convicted | Members of Narodnaya Volya |
| Charges | Regicide |
| Weapon | Nitroglycerin and piroxylin bombs |
The assassination was planned by the Executive Committee of Narodnaya Volya ("People's Will"), chiefly by Andrei Zhelyabov. Of the four assassins coordinated by Sophia Perovskaya, two of them actually committed the deed. One assassin, Nikolai Rysakov, threw a bomb which damaged the carriage, prompting the Tsar to disembark. At this point a second assassin, Ignacy Hryniewiecki, threw a bomb that fatally wounded Alexander II.
Alexander II had previously survived several attempts on his life, including the attempts by Dmitry Karakozov and Alexander Soloviev, the attempt to dynamite the imperial train in Zaporizhzhia, and the bombing of the Winter Palace in February 1880. The assassination is popularly considered to be the most successful action by the Russian nihilist movement of the 19th century.