Auguste Vaillant

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Auguste Valliant was a French anarchist, most famous for his bomb attack on the French Chamber of Deputies in 1893. The government's reaction to this attack was the passing of the infamous repressive Lois scélérates.

He threw the home-made device from the public gallery and was immediately arrested. The weakness of the device meant that the explosion only wounded one deputy. Valliant claimed that his aim was not to kill but to wound as many deputies as possible in revenge for the execution of Ravachol. Despite this, Vaillant was sentenced to death and execution followed on 5 February 1894. His execution in turn inspired the attacks of Emile Henry and Caserio.