Ignacy Hryniewiecki

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Ignacy Hryniewiecki
Born 1856 (1856)
Kalinovka, Klichev District, Russian Empire
Died 13 March 1881 (1881-03-14)
St. Petersburg, Russia

Ignacy Hryniewiecki (Russian: Игнатий Иоахимович Гриневицкий; Ignaty Ioakhimovich Grinevizky; 1856 – 13 March 1881) (Party name: Kotik, Russian for "Kitten")[1] was a member of the People's Will and the assassin of Tsar Alexander II of Russia.

Early life

Hryniewiecki was born in 1856 in Kalinovka, a village in Klichev district, nowaday Belarus.

Revolutionary life

In 1875 Hryniewiecki left for Saint Petersburg, where he enrolled in mathematics at the Polytechnic. Soon he joined the Russian revolutionary Narodnaya Volya (People's Will) movement.

In 1880 Hryniewiecki, Andrei Zhelyabov, Sophia Perovskaya and others were in charge of revolutionary propaganda among students and workers. Hryniewiecki was an organizer of the Workers' Gazette and a typesetter at a clandestine printing establishment.

Assassination of Tsar

In February 1881 Hryniewiecki joined as a part of the bombthrower unit, created for the purpose of assassinating the Tsar Alexander II.[1]

On March 13, (1st Old Style Date[2]), 1881, Alexander II was traveling in a two-seater carriage.[1] An armed Cossack sat next to the coach-driver with Alexander II in the carriage while six other Cossacks followed on horseback.[2] As the carriage approached a street corner near the Catherine Canal, Sophia Perovskaya gave the signal to Nikolai Rysakov and Timofei Mikhailov to throw their bombs.[2] The Tsar was unharmed but two were wounded.[1] Alexander II insisted upon leaving the carriage to check on the wounded.[2][3] At this point Hryniewiecki threw his bomb[2][3] and the blast tore the Tsar apart.[1] Nearby, Hryniewiecki himself lay unconscious from the blast.[1]

The assassination had been meant to ignite revolution. Hryniewiecki's fellow-conspirators — Nikolai Kibalchich, Sophia Perovskaya, Nikolai Rysakov, Timofei Mikhailov, Andrei Zhelyabov — were sentenced to death and were hanged on 3 April 1881. They were buried in an anonymous common grave.

The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood was erected on the site of the assassination.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Yarmolinsky, Avrahm. Road to Revolution: A Century of Russian Radicalism. 
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "Alexander II". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved Aug 25, 2013. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Kropotkin, Peter (2010 (reproduction of 1899 edition)). Memoirs of a Revolutionist. Dover Publications. p. 432. ISBN 978-0-486-47316-1. 
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