| Show Monarchs and Their Murderers HOW A CZAR BY LADBROKE BLACK To understand to the full the grim terror with which anarchism must in inspire Inspire inspire spire the mind of a monarch it is only necessary to turn to the tragic story stor of ot the Czar Alexander II Five FIe times was his Ills life Ufe attempted with a perseverance and Ingenuity worthy of or a nobler cause The sixth time he was killed From the first moments of his Isis reign a horrible and agonizing death stared him into the face Everywhere he went the as assassin assassin assassin sassin waited for him Whether walk walking lag ing driving traveling by train or even sitting down to dinner in the thin privacy I of his hits own on apartments his life Ufe was as assailed assailed i sailed He was a bravo man and nev never never never er in the courso course of ot his autocratic career did ho show a sign of nervousness or fear fearIn fearIn fearIn In the tho matter of courage his secret opponents it must be admitted were his equals They went to the gibbet or the prison or to certain death from the explosion of their own wn infernal ma machines machines machines chines without hesitation Even Eyen the application of torture not of the thumbscrew and rack mck order but of oC that kind which tears teals and rends the mind and shakes the foundations of the brain never made them reveal the tho names of ot their confederates or the se secrets secrets Secrets crets of their society The first two attempts on the czars life were both feeble and futile The anarchists had not then realized the necessity for tor organization It was sas only after the tho third attempt by the assassin on April 14 1879 that meas incas measures measures ures urea were taken takemi by the secret serret societies to systemize their bloodthirsty efforts effort seeing that he had failed f in the tho task with which he lie had been en entrusted entrusted trusted endeavored to kill himself himsel by swallowing some poison polson which he lie had concealed beneath his fingernails Doctors saved him from this death so that he lie might hang on the gallows as us asa usa asa a warning to others They had better have let him die for the immediate effect of ot his execution was the electrifying lying f of the energies of anarchism Up to then the anarchists had been simply organized In separate circles each completely Independent of the theother theother theother other but Immediately after Sober lefts death an executive committee committe was formed to direct and control the work of at all followers of the faith The first action of or the executive com corn committee committee was to appoint three of Its members to act as an administrative council Of Ot these three Sophia Peroy was the most important and the most active This remarkable woman was no vulgar vulgar vulgar gar plebeian but b t a lady of birth and education Her father was a Russian general genral who had once been military governor of St t Petersburg Becoming at an early age Inoculated with the tho principles of or anarchism she left her home and her people to lead the dreary dangerous life of a conspirator In place of the fine dresses she had been accustomed to wear she donned the commonest peasant garb and unused to any physical exercise harder than dancing or riding labored with the lowest of the low at the rough manual work of a Russian peasant Before Befort this administrative council of at which Sophia was the time leading mem member member ber a no man called Leo Hartmann pre presented seated himself shortly after atter the death of He had evolved a plan the blowing up UI of the time czar as he traveled by train The plan was duly presented by the administrative coun council council cil oil to the executive committee It was approved and accepted by the latter body bod and Hartmann Was made a member of oC the executive committee on taking an oath that he lie would submit himself unconditionally to whatever commands command they should deem de m necessary to impose on him The czar at the time was staying in inthe Inthe inthe the Crimea at a place called pol Agents were sent to examine ex all the railways over which he must pass on oil his return to St Petersburg with Instructions to find a house which could be used as an Available point for starting a mine They reported to the executive com corn committee committee that the very ery house h JU they re required required was to be had in Moscow It stood within 1000 feet of the Southern railway The executive committee im immediately Immediately mediately bought It for 2500 roubles and Hartmann was ordered to go down and put the plan ho hind had conceived into execution He selected for his assistants Sophia S phia a man named Goldenberg and two other men He Ho dressed him himself himself himself self up as a Russian merchant Sophia passing for his wife In order to lull the suspicions of tho the police pollee they both attended church hurch regularly and to set the final endorsement on their respectability respectability respectability frequently invited the local priests priest to their house houseIn In the daytime they occupied them themselves themselves themselves selves like ordinary citizens but all night they labored with steel knives at cutting a triangular tunnel from the Ule coal cellar of the house to the railway embankment Their difficulties were ere tremendous The tunnel was only three feet ten inches In height and to add to the difficulties of this cramped space for working in they tapped a spring which immediately flooded oded the shaft Night after night they the had to work lying 1 on their stomachs In icy water Sophia doing her share as asif asif if ii she were a man manAt manAt manAt At last when their tas task k was com corn completed completed it was found f that they had no sufficient dynamite Goldenberg was sent to purchase more but while he was absent on this duty the police pollee seized him hUn nd he was promptly sent to prison Unable to obtain a new supply of explosives Hartmann determined to tomake tomake tomake make the attempt with what little he had A large copper cylinder seven even feet teet long and one and feet In diameter was filled with pounds of oZ dynamite and ami placed in position Vires Wires were vere fastened to it which communicated communicated communicated with the spiral in a trunk full of linen in bedroom Thence the wires were connected with witha a placed with a galvanic battery In a barn overlooking the line lineIn lineIn lineIn In Nov Nor 19 ID the czar traveled north northward northward northward ward As a rule the royal train was preceded by a train carrying the czars luggage but owing to a slight mis mistake mistake take on the part of the railway y officials tie the baggage train followed Instead of preceding the royal train This mis mistake mistake mistake take saved the czars life Thinking that the second train contained conta ned the theman theman theman man whose life they so 50 hungrily de desired desired desired sired Hartmann and Sophia allowed the first train to go by As soon mon as the second train appeared Sophia gaVe gaire the signal from the barn the dynamite bomb was fired whole train was lifted in the air all and hurled down the tho embankment Hartmann and Sophia never learnt of ot the time failure of ot their murderous enter enterprise prise until they reached rea hed St Petersburg There they saw the czar hom they Imagined they thay had killed arrive at his hlf capital amidst st the plaudits of at the crowd Though they had failed the executive committee were still as determined as ever to destroy the th man who represented represented seated In their eyes all aU that was cruel and abominable in the world In the following February the czar was entertaining at it the Winter palace In St Petersburg several of lila his royal relatives r latles among am ng them the Duchess or Edinburgh The Imperial servants came cameto to S 5 to the royal guests hut hat dinner was served and the party parts be I gan to move toward the dining room roomI I which was situated immediately the guard room which In turn was wasI I built over a cellar Just as the door luor of the dining room were about to be flung open there was a tremendous ex cx explosion explosion By some extraordinary means which have never been explained the anarchists anarchIsts hits had been able to get into the al aJ alace alace ace closely guarded though it was wasand wasand wasand and to introduce into the cellar i t hug mige bomb filled with pounds og dynamite How they got it then without being seen remains a unfathomable to this day The force of the explosion destroyed the guard room killing ten soldiers r outright and seriously wounding fifty three others Such alas Is only too often the record of these assassinations assassinations The man aimed timed at escapes anO I dozens of innocent people who have 10 no connection with quarrel surfer suffer suffern n a his stead The attempt must hav proved at any rate ineffectual though the guard room was 1 the dining room above was only very verj ver slightly damaged The discovery that he was not even safe In his own palace created some sorn something thing like Of ir panic amongst the zare tZ rF supporters and advisers The police pollee force was immediately increased an anC every effort was made to stamp ou om u I ruthlessly the seeds of at anarchy But I it was of no avail Foiled again the executive commit committee committee tee Immediately set to work ork to devise another plan A little more than a year later they were able to put It into ex execution this time with fatal success suc It was known that the czar czar drive out on March 31 1881 In me thE hope that he would pass down Sado vaya vaja street a mine was there hut bet betit It was arranged that if the did not go In that direction a signal should be given by the organizer or of orthe orthe the plot a man named so 50 that the attempt might be made ma else elsewhere elsewhere elsewhere where A few days before b ore the plot lot was t no nobe ti tibe be carried out was was and thrown into prison Had this nap Hap Happened in any other country the whole scheme would have been thwarted for tor forthe forthe the man was tho soul of at the conspiracy conspIracy acy ricy he had h d planned the ways ana and means means and was waa himself to s see e the crime committed But In Russia and the anarchists things are not done flone as ap asin apIn asin in the rest of Europe Sophia immediately step stepped stepped stepped ped into the breach and took buffs hoffs place She rearranged every everything everything everything thing and undertook the entire direction direction tion of the assassination As Alexander Alex did not drive down the mined street Sophia gave her ber prearranged prearranged prearranged ranged signal to a man called Ryssa koff korf indicating to him the place where he was to meet the imperial victim threw a bomb but it only anI killed a Cossack and WO the horses The czar stepped out unhurt to help the dying soldier As he hc stood in iii the roadway another of the conspirators tors a man called threw second bomb When the tho smoke cleared away Alexander II was seen lying in a great pool of blood his body shattered and mutilated A few feet away la lay himself killed by the very verj weapon with which he had committed the murder I Swiftly the czar was vas borne to hlF palace on tile sledge of the chief of o police But there was no hope that ne he could live Jive and before nightfall he passed away awa There was found in hi liim desk a sketch in his own handwriting of ot that very verj constitution which the th an anarchists anarchists anarchists had demanded and for hi hii supposed refusal of which the czar csar hac been murdered The police pollee worked night and jay day to discover the authors of the tho th plot but only six of them were they able abl J to t ar arrest arrest arrest rest One of them on account of or tin th fact that she was about to become n a mother was reprieved the other five on April 15 were vere conveyed hound bound in m carts with their backs to the tha horses to the scene of execution They wore were clad in black clothes and flat capr and round the necks of each of or them c black board was hung on which wa transcribed In white letters Assassin of the Czar C r j Among tho the five condemned d was w s o ophia ophia phia She met her death de th with a face ace and a heart openly glorying in the tho crime she sh hind committed It is if persons of at the tho spirit ami tem lern temper per p r of Sophia who make a monarchs tn l life one long dread exp cy of ot a violent death All rights reserved |
