Stepan Khalturin

Stepan Nikolayevich Khalturin (Russian: Степан Николаевич Халтурин) was a Russian revolutionary, member of People's Will, and responsible for an attempted assassination of Alexander II of Russia.

Early life

Khalturin was born 1857 in Vyatka, Russia. The son of a peasant he became a carpenter, employed in several factories in St. Petersberg.

Revolutionary life

Khalturin became involved in revolutionary politics, joining The People's Will. In 1880 He found work at the Winter Palace allowing him to sleep on the premises; this allowed him to bring in packets of dynamite each day, concealing it in his room, within his bedding.

Under the orders of the Narodnaya Volya, Khalturin constructed a mine on February 17, 1880 in the basement of the building under the dining-room. The mine was set to go off at the time which Narodnaya Volya had calculated the Tsar to be having dinner. Unfortunately for the assassins, Alexander II's guest Prince Alexander of Battenberg arrived late, delaying dinner so the dining-room was empty. The Tsar was thus able to escape assassination unharmed though 67 people were killed or badly wounded by the explosion.

After the failed assassination, Khalturin escaped to Moscow and then to Odessa. On March 18, 1882, he participated in the assassination of a police general named Strelnikov who was sent to Odessa in order to eradicate the revolutionary movement. While Khalturin's accomplice Zhelvakov shot Strelnikov who was seated on a bench into the head, killing him instantly, Khalturin, disguised as a cabman, was going to make Zhelvakov flee, but both were overpowered by the local crowd and arrested. Both men gave to the police fake names, and, following an order by Alexander III, were swiftly court-martialled and hanged without further findings about their identities on March 22, 1882. Thus Khalturin was executed without being known to be the bomber of the Winter Palace.