Duel with the monarch. Why did Alexander Ulyanov want to kill the emperor? Alexander Ulyanov - People's Revolutionary, Lenin's brother

One of the anecdotes of the Soviet era described the October Revolution as follows: “And in Russia, one peasant avenged his brother like that!”.

So in folk art the relationship between the two revolutionary brothers was imprinted - Alexander and Vladimir Ulyanov.

The official biography of Lenin, which they began to study at school, fixed the following image in their memory - Vladimir Ulyanov, having learned about the death sentence to his brother, who was preparing an attempt on the emperor, declares: “We will go the other way!”.

In the large Ulyanov family, the figure of Alexander, who was the first to embark on the path of revolutionary struggle, stood apart. It is believed that it was his fate that decisively influenced the future life of his mother, sisters and brothers.

Perhaps that is why in the post-Soviet period his personality attracted increased attention of historians who specialized in debunking "Soviet myths".

Some of them made a sensational discovery - Alexander Ulyanov was not a son at all Ilya Ulyanov. According to this version, he was born from an extramarital affair. Maria Alexandrovna Blank-Ulyanova and future Emperor Alexander III.

This hypothesis gained wide popularity for some time, although a careful study and comparison of the facts reveals its complete inconsistency. Despite this, and today there are those who believe that Alexander Ulyanov tried to settle scores with his "secret parent".

An exemplary student with a great future

Alexander Ulyanov was born on March 31 (April 12 according to the new style), 1866 in Nizhny Novgorod. A comparison of the portraits of Alexander and his real father, a well-known teacher, a real state councilor Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov, leaves no doubt that the "imperial version" of origin does not stand up to criticism.

Ilya Ulyanov, who did a lot for the education of other people's children, approached the upbringing of his own with all responsibility. All the children in the Ulyanov family were excellent students, and Alexander was no exception. Lenin's older brother showed a penchant for the natural sciences, especially chemistry, and even set up experiments in a small home laboratory.

Alexander Ulyanov, 1887 Photo: RIA Novosti

In 1883 he graduated from the Simbirsk classical gymnasium with a gold medal and entered the natural department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of St. Petersburg University.

The teachers characterized Alexander Ulyanov as a very capable student, showing great promise, promising to become a successful scientist.

A biological circle was created at the faculty, where Ulyanov became a recognized leader. In 1886, he joined the student Scientific and Literary Society of Professor of Russian Literature Orest Miller and was unanimously elected its chief secretary. Ulyanov was also a member of the economic circle that existed at the university.

In the same 1886, Alexander Ulyanov received a gold medal for his scientific work on invertebrate zoology "On the organs of segmental and sexual freshwater Annulata".

Boiling Cauldron of Revolution

In such a successful year for Alexander himself, a great grief happened in the Ulyanov family - at the age of 54, the head of the family, Ilya Ulyanov, died.

The father did not have to see the tragic outcome of the fate of the eldest son, who was predicted to have a great future.

However, in the path that Alexander chose, the influence of his father is felt. Ilya Ulyanov was not a revolutionary, but liberal views were close to him, extremely bold for that moment. Ulyanov Sr. was a supporter of the introduction in Russia of universal education, accessible to all categories, regardless of social status and nationality.

Ideas that can be called socialist, Ilya Ulyanov instilled in his children. Therefore, by the time Alexander Ulyanov became a student, he was internally ready not only for scientific, but also for political activity.

The student environment in the Russian Empire was a "boiling cauldron of revolution", and Alexander Ulyanov was quickly involved in these processes.

He took part in illegal meetings, demonstrations, was engaged in propaganda in the workers' circle.

At that moment, a transitional stage was outlined in the revolutionary movement in Russia. "Narodnaya Volya" after the murder Emperor Alexander II were crushed by the authorities and existed in the form of disparate groups, not united by a common leadership. At the same time, the works of Marx, Engels and Plekhanov.

A plan doomed to fail

The ideological base of Alexander Ulyanov and his associates was at the intersection of Marxism and the Narodnaya Volya program. At the same time, students considered terrorist methods of struggle to be true.

In December 1886 Alexander Ulyanov and Petr Shevyrev founded the "Terrorist Faction" of the party "Narodnaya Volya" - a revolutionary organization whose members were students of St. Petersburg University. Among the assets of the "Terrorist Faction" there were no members of the old "Narodnaya Volya".

The organization intended to engage in the creation of a socialist party, the core of which was to be the working class, as well as the disorganization of the activities of the structures of the Russian Empire through terrorist acts.

Emperor Alexander III was chosen as the first target. The assassination attempt was planned for March 1, 1887, the sixth anniversary of the assassination of Alexander II.

To purchase explosives for the bomb, Alexander Ulyanov sold his gymnasium gold medal. He also had to, as a capable chemist, make bombs.

Unlike the terrorists who were preparing an assassination attempt on Alexander II, Ulyanov and his associates approached the matter rather lightly. The idea was not kept secret, the plan of action was not thought through to the end. As a result, the "Terrorist Faction" was exposed, most of its members were arrested on March 1. 15 people ended up in prison in the case of the so-called “Second March 1”.

Ulyanov asked for pardon for the sake of his mother

The trial of the participants in the assassination took place in April 1887 and lasted less than a week. The matter was obvious, the revolutionaries did not renounce their deeds, and the Special Presence of the Governing Senate decided: the five most active participants in the assassination, including Alexander Ulyanov, should be sentenced to death by hanging.

Alexander Ulyanov endured the verdict calmly, obviously having mentally prepared himself for a similar fate for a long time.

Maria Aleksandrovna Ulyanova managed to get a meeting with her son and persuaded him to apply for pardon. Prosecutor Knyazev, who was present at the meeting, claimed that Alexander answered his mother: “Imagine, mom, two are facing each other in a duel. One has already shot at his opponent, the other has not yet, and the one who has already shot turns to the enemy with a request not to use weapons. No, I can't do that."

Despite this, relatives still managed to persuade Alexander to write a petition for pardon. It turned out to be unusual: the revolutionary did not repent, but asked not for himself, but for his mother.

“I have a mother whose health has deteriorated greatly in recent days, and the execution of the death sentence on me will put her life in the most serious danger. In the name of my mother and my younger brothers and sisters, who, having no father, find their only support in her, I decide to ask Your Majesty to replace my death penalty with some other punishment.

This indulgence will restore the strength and health of my mother and return her to the family for which her life is so precious, and save me from the painful consciousness that I will be the cause of the death of my mother and the misfortune of my entire family.

It seems that the petition of Alexander Ulyanov would not have been satisfied even if the revolutionary had declared complete repentance.

Vadim Ganshin as Alexander Ulyanov in Executed at Dawn, 1964. Photo: RIA Novosti / B. Bobrov

“We ascended the platform cheerfully and calmly”

The members of the "Terrorist Faction" sentenced to death were in the Political Prison of the Peter and Paul Fortress, from which they were transferred to Shlisselburg, where the execution was to take place.

The sentence was carried out on the morning of 8 (20 New Style) May 1887. The five suicide bombers were notified half an hour before the execution, they met this news calmly. All five refused the confession and communion offered by him. The scaffold in the Shlisselburg prison was designed for three people, so the execution took place in two stages. The first to be hanged Pakhomiy Andreyushkin, Vasily Generalov and Vasily Osipanov. Then came the turn of the leaders of the "Terrorist faction" - Peter Shevyrev and Alexander Ulyanov.

Comrade Prosecutor of the St. Petersburg District Court Shcheglovitov, who was present at the execution, wrote in a report that "both ascended the platform cheerfully and calmly, and Ulyanov venerated the cross, and Shevyrev pushed the priest's hand away." After that, the sentence was carried out.

Alexander Ulyanov was barely 21 years old - he met his last birthday in prison, on the eve of his death sentence. He was buried in a mass grave on the shore of Lake Ladoga.

Brother 2

When his brother was executed, Vladimir Ulyanov was 17 years old. He remembered for the rest of his life how yesterday's friends and acquaintances began to shy away from their family, how from lepers. At the same time, the Bolshevik leader did not like to talk about his brother.

What happened could forever turn him away from revolutionary activity, but it turned out differently - Alexander's death convinced him that it was not the idea that was vicious, but the methods for achieving it.

Some time will pass, and Vladimir Ulyanov will create a socialist party, the core of which will be the working class, and put an end to the Russian monarchy once and for all.

Was it revenge for a brother? Of course not. The Ulyanov family has always thought big.

One of the most common myths about Alexander Ulyanov says that he was the illegitimate son of Alexander III!

Allegedly, in her youth, Maria Blank served as a maid of honor at the imperial court and attracted the attention of the Grand Duke. She named her eldest son in honor of her real father. When he grew up, Maria told who his own father was, and he was so offended by the parent for the scolded maternal honor that he decided to kill!

Meanwhile, Maria Alexandrovna hardly ever met the emperor, who, moreover, was ten years younger than her. And the first-born in the Ulyanov family was not Alexander, but daughter Anna, born in 1864.

According to another version, Alexander was the son of the terrorist Dmitry Karakozov, who in 1866 made an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Alexander II. But again, there is no evidence that Karakozov ever met Maria Ulyanova. All that was common between Karakozov and Ulyanov was an attempt at regicide and execution for it ...

Since the execution of Alexander, Vladimir Ulyanov saw only one way for himself - to complete the work of his brother. However, as legend has it, he uttered the words: "We will go the other way." If the Narodnaya Volya believed that the assassination of the emperor could change the situation in Russia for the better, then Lenin perfectly understood that one monarch would be replaced by another and that the existing system itself should be changed.

Who knows - if Alexander Ulyanov had not been carried away by the ideas of the revolution and had not been executed for them, then perhaps the October Revolution in 1917 would not have happened. And the execution of the royal family in July 1918 really looks like revenge ...

Lenin's elder brother, Alexander Ulyanov, was an excellent student at the gymnasium and after three years of study at the university he became the second academic secretary, brilliantly defended his work in the natural sciences. He did not participate in any revolutionary circles. He was not worried about political passions, he was an adherent of science. It was these qualities that interested terrorists in him, who needed a man of science to make bombs under the guise of scientific experiments.

On March 1, 1887, the police managed to prevent an assassination attempt on Alexander III: a group of terrorists was detained with bombs in their hands. Three people were supposed to throw bombs at the king - Generalov, Andreyushkin, Osipov. Signalers - Kancher, Gorkun, Volokhov.

Security surveillance and the first case

The Police Department opens case No. 100 "On the wanted list in St. Petersburg in 1886" and establishes covert surveillance of the conspirators.

On December 18, 1886, the police department requested secret information from the St. Petersburg mayor about student Alexander Ulyanov, who, according to them, came into close contact with persons expelled from St. Petersburg for an illegal demonstration on the day of the anniversary of Dobrolyubov's death. He is recognized as a person who compromised himself by communicating with politically unreliable people.

How to make a bomb

At first, the conspirators tried to make a bomb at Lukashevich's apartment. Did not work out. And then someone remembered Ulyanov. For him, as a person who showed great promise in chemistry, it cost nothing to make an explosive. A third-year student of the St. Petersburg Natural Sciences Department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics shows brilliant abilities not only in preparing a terrorist attack, but also in studies, he is elected second academic secretary. Spencer's biology was his favorite book.

Knowing the natural sciences, he very quickly mastered the technology of preparing explosives. Despite the short time - only two or three months - he became so familiar with the theory of explosives that he baffled the government expert Fedorov at the trial.

Evidence is all on the table

In two cans, the conspirators bring dynamite and an explosive mixture. When on March 1 the conspirators began to load two bombs - the third bomb in the form of a thick bound book was already ready - Alexander began to fill the tube of one of the bombs with an explosive mixture.

All this dangerous work is done in the apartment of a fellow student. An interesting fact: at the end of them, Alexander leaves all the laboratory supplies and about one pound of nitroglycerin on the table.

How they were revealed

One of the participants in the upcoming terrorist attack, Andreyushkin, writes a letter to student Nikitin in Kharkov with allusions to the impending "big deal." The letter is intercepted by the police; The Petrograd Okhrana sets up surveillance. On February 27, police agents saw Andreyushkin walking along Nevsky Prospekt with his comrades. They were carrying some heavy objects hidden under their clothes. Generalov carried a thick bound book. One by one, the conspirators were arrested.

Attempt to escape Ulyanov for two days

Three people - Shevyrev, Govorukhin and Ulyanov are recognized as the main organizers of the criminal enterprise. Shortly before the assassination attempt on the king, this trinity is trying to hide. Shevyrev flees from St. Petersburg, Govorukhin disappeared by writing a letter about suicide. And Ulyanov in the first days of February was hired as a teacher to the midwife Ananin, who lives in the 2nd Pargolov (a village in the Vyborgsky district of St. Petersburg). After living with Ananyina for two days, Ulyanov returned to St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, various chemicals for the manufacture of various explosives were sent in his name to the 2nd Pargolovo.

Ulyanov's arrest

The police managed to arrest the main performers - throwers and signalers. Next in line were ideologues and manufacturers. Alexander Ulyanov was arrested at about five o'clock in the afternoon on March 1 at Kancher's apartment, where he went to ask how things were going. As time went. There were no explosions. There was a loud knock on the door. They opened and saw the police. During a search, Alexander's notebook was found with a large number of encrypted addresses.

Alexander takes the blame

And so the police, putting pressure on the most vulnerable and weak, began to demand that they name the organizers. Among many, the name of Ulyanov is mentioned. This came as a shock to him because during the first interrogation on March 3, he asked for a breather, citing poor health. At subsequent interrogations, on March 4 and 5, he tries to shield his comrades, who were the least involved in the case and who were slandered by Kancher and Goncourt. Alexander says that he was neither the initiator nor the organizer of the criminal plan to attempt on the life of the emperor.

His former comrades slander Alexander in every possible way, attributing to him the idea of ​​​​forming several terrorist groups that are not interconnected, but capable of acting in case of failure one after another. During the interrogation, Alexander asks his comrades to attribute many facts to him. This does not escape the attention of the prosecutor, who says that Ulyanov ascribes to himself a lot of things that in reality he did not do.

He kissed the cross in the last minutes of his life

He writes a petition for pardon to Alexander III. There is no resolution of the king on this document. This petition was not mentioned in the government report, which refers to petitions for clemency by 11 out of 15 prisoners.

On May 5, at dawn, three throwers, Shevyrev and Ulyanov, were executed in the courtyard of the Shlisserburg prison. Due to the fact that the scaffold was designed for only three people, Andreyushin, Osipanov and Generalov were the first to be hanged. Before the hanging, Alexander Ulyanov kissed the cross, and Shevyryov pushed the priest's hand away. Count Dmitry Tolstoy wrote about all this in his memorandum addressed to the Tsar on May 8, 1887.

Inspectorate of public schools of the Simbirsk province with director I. N. Ulyanov. 1881

The life story of this man is more than interesting. Alexander, like Volodya, were the sons of a "real state councilor" - a major government official Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov, who was in the service of Emperor Alexander III. (*Here it is in the photo, centered). After his death, the children automatically received the prestigious status of hereditary nobility, which meant a comfortable existence. And when their father unexpectedly died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 55, the right to hereditary nobility was officially secured for them - by decree of Emperor Alexander III. It is curious that on November 25, 1917, Volodya Ulyanov, the son of a real state councilor, would abolish this rank with his own hand "by a decree on the destruction of estates and civil ranks."

It is interesting what motivated the eldest son Alexander Ulyanov when, a year after the death of his father, he made an attempt on the assassination of Emperor Alexander III. There were no material needs in his life. Smart, talented, with a gold medal on graduation from the gymnasium, passionate about natural sciences, with great scientific abilities, promising, one step away from a scientific degree ... What happened to a person in just a year, which made him join a terrorist cell and actually become its leader ?

"Unknown Ulyanov" - how Lenin's older brother became a terrorist

Ulyanov family. From left to right: standing - Olga, Alexander, Anna; sitting - Maria Alexandrovna with her youngest daughter Maria, Dmitry, Ilya Nikolaevich, Vladimir. Simbirsk. 1879 Provided by M. Zolotarev

Version one. Revenge

Inessa Armand, beloved of Vladimir Ilyich, passed on to her acquaintances a secret told to her by someone from the Ulyanovs. The version was not confirmed by any documents, it was perceived only as literary work and not as an actual story. As follows from the story, Maria Alexandrovna, Lenin's mother, was taken to court in her youth, but did not stay there for long, having compromised herself with an affair with one of the Grand Dukes, for which she was sent to her father in Kokushkino and quickly passed off as Ulyanov, providing him regular promotion.

After the death of his father, in 1886, the eldest son Alexander, sorting through the papers of the deceased, came across a document relating to the stay at the imperial court of the maiden Maria Blank (his mother), either a material award for a newborn, or a letter revealing a secret. Alexander shared his discovery with his sister Anna, and both swore revenge. The version has been developed.

According to other sources, Lenin's mother turned out to be the maid of honor of the Empress, the wife of Alexander the Third.

The writer Larisa Vasilyeva cited in her book “Kremlin Wives” the legend she had heard about Lenin’s mother.

“In the spring of 1991, in one company, I heard a legend: it was as if Lenin’s mother, Maria Blank, had been almost a maid of honor at the royal court for some time before her marriage, had an affair with one of the grand dukes, almost with the future Alexander II or III, became pregnant and was sent to her parents, where she was urgently married to a modest teacher, Ilya Ulyanov, promising him a promotion, which he regularly received throughout his life. Maria gave birth to her first child, the son of Alexander, then many more children, already from her husband, and years later, Alexander Ulyanov learned the secret of his mother and vowed to take revenge on the king for her desecrated honor. As a student, he contacted the terrorists and was ready to encroach on the life of the king, his true father. The legend has been questioned."

In the 90s of the last century, one of the St. Petersburg newspapers (“New Petersburg”) published an interview with journalist Alexander Pavlovich Kutenev about the illegitimate children of Tsar Alexander III:

- Alexander Pavlovich, can you tell us more about the illegitimate children of Alexander III?

Alexander III, indeed, had many illegitimate children, since he was a man of unrestrained and passionate. Among the children were historical celebrities. In particular, Alexander Ulyanov, the elder brother of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. The fact is that Maria Alexandrovna, Lenin's mother, was a maid of honor at the court of Alexander II. When Alexander III was just a Grand Duke, he had an affair with Maria Alexandrovna, from him she gave birth to a son, Alexander, as a girl. History knows many similar examples: in Russia, bastards were treated humanely - they were given a princely title, attributed to the guards regiment. It is known that Lomonosov was the son of Peter I, Prince Bobrinsky was the son of Potemkin and Catherine II, Razumovsky was the illegitimate son of Elizabeth. All of them, as you know, have made excellent careers and have never felt like outcasts. The same fate was prepared for Alexander, Lenin's brother.

But Maria Alexandrovna ruined everything: after Alexander, she gave birth to another child - a girl, and this girl had nothing to do with Alexander III. Keeping a maid of honor with two children at court was indecent. To hush up the scandal, they decided to hand over the case to the Okhrana. The Okhrana found an unfortunate man in St. Petersburg - homosexual Ilya Ulyanov. As a person with a non-traditional sexual orientation, he was on the hook of the secret police. He was given a title of nobility, a bread place in the province, as a dowry to Maria Alexandrovna, and the newlyweds went to Simbirsk.

And all this background would have been hushed up if not for the passionate disposition of Maria Alexandrovna. She did not differ in strict behavior even in Simbirsk, and although she could not have a sexual life with Ilya Nikolaevich, she gave birth to four more children, it is not known from what fathers.

You can imagine what it was like for the children of the Ulyanovs in the gymnasium. In a small town, everything immediately becomes famous, and the boys teased their peers Ulyanovs: they remembered both mommy, and the tsar, and Ilya Nikolaevich. Ultimately, all this had a negative effect on Alexander: he grew up very embittered with a desire to spank daddy at all costs. With these plans, he left for St. Petersburg to study. The rest was organized by the secret police. She helped Alexander Ulyanov to enter the Narodnaya Volya revolutionary organization and take part in the assassination attempt on the tsar.

As soon as Maria Alexandrovna found out that her son had been arrested for attempting to assassinate the tsar, she immediately went to St. Petersburg and appeared before Alexander III. An amazing thing: not a single source is amazed that an unknown poor Simbirsk noblewoman, without any delay, gets an appointment with the king! And Alexander III accepted his old passion immediately, and together they visited Sasha in the fortress. The tsar forgave the "regicide", promising to give him a princely title, enroll in the guard. But Sashenka turned out to be with character, he said everything he thinks about both of his parents. And he promised them that as soon as he was free, he would publicize their entire shameless story and be sure to throw a bomb at daddy! Therefore, Alexander Ulyanov was never released, but sent to a psychiatric hospital, where he died a natural death in 1901. Historians do not agree on the methods of execution, but there was no execution.

-Where did you get such amazing information from?

This is also a special and interesting story. Marietta Shahinyan stands at its origins. In the 70s, this writer wrote a book about Lenin and got access to the archives. Apparently, the keepers of the archives themselves did not know what was hidden in the papers behind seven seals. When Marietta Shaginyan got acquainted with the papers, she was shocked and wrote a memorandum to Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev personally. Brezhnev introduced this information to his circle. Suslov lay under pressure for three days and demanded that Shaginyan be shot for slander. But Brezhnev acted differently: he called Shaginyan to his place and, in exchange for silence, offered her a prize for a book about Lenin, an apartment, etc. etc.

- And Shaginyan really received some kind of award for a book about Lenin?

Yes, she received the Lenin Prize for the book Four Lessons from Lenin. And the note was classified, and it lay in the archives of the Central Committee of the Party. When I read this note in the archive, I wanted to see the archival materials themselves. And I asked for copies. Everything was just like that...

Version two. Mistress of a terrorist

The above-mentioned writer Larisa Vasilyeva, not quite sure of the version given to her that the son of Maria Blank - Alexander - was illegitimate from Tsarevich Alexander III, gave another version of the birth of Mary's son, in her opinion more reliable. She writes:

“Alexander Ulyanov was born in 1866 from the famous terrorist Dmitry Karakozov, a former student of Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov at the Penza gymnasium. Dmitry Karakozov was born in 1840 (he is 5 years younger than Maria Blank-Ulyanova) In 1866 Karakozov shot at Emperor Alexander II.

The St. Petersburg newspaper Severnaya Pochta dated May 11, 1866, telling in detail about the personality of the person who made an attempt on the life of Alexander III, reported that Dmitry Karakozov graduated from the course at the Penza gymnasium (the Ulyanovs then lived in Penza, and Ilya Nikolaevich taught at the gymnasium), entered to Kazan University, then moved to Moscow.

“Karakozov’s romance with Maria Alexandrovna was not a secret for everyone who knew the Ulyanov family at that time,” says Natalia Nikolaevna Matveeva, a resident of St. Petersburg. She drew this information from the stories of her grandfather, the revolutionary Vasily Ivanovich Pavlinov, who knew the Ulyanovs well.

Alexander Ulyanov planned to kill Tsar Alexander III on the day of Dmitry Karakozov's assassination attempt on Alexander II - April 4th. In memory of my father. The attempt failed.

Alexander Ulyanov became a student at St. Petersburg University. He studied annelids and was not going to change them for a revolution. His father died in January 1886. Alexander did not go to the funeral - according to the recollections of his sister Anna, his mother did not want to injure him (?) and did not advise him to come, but Anna Ilyinichna herself came to her father's funeral. (Why could she be hurt?)

The summer of the same year, Alexander Ulyanov spent with his mother in the Alakaevka estate (the mother's estate is Kokushkino, the Alakaevka farm was bought only in 1889 - from the author). That summer, after the death of Ilya Nikolaevich, abrupt and for many completely inexplicable changes took place with Alexander. Anna Ulyanova writes in her memoirs,

“that from a calm young man her brother suddenly turned into a real neurotic, running from corner to corner. Returning from vacation to St. Petersburg, he, an exemplary student, who had previously been interested only in science, abandoned his studies and began to prepare an assassination attempt on the tsar.

The children of the Ulyanovs, as the writer Larisa Vasilyeva suggests, could find out the secret of their birth immediately after the death of Ilya Nikolayevich. “Most likely,” she writes, “from her mother. There is also an assumption that Sasha came across some documents at home, sorting through papers on his father's desk. Showed them to my sister Anna. From them, the children understood what was what. The young prosecutor Knyazev, who was present at the last meeting of Maria Alexandrovna with her son Alexander, wrote down the words of Alexander:

“Imagine, mom, two people are facing each other in a duel. One has already shot his opponent, the other has not yet, and the one who has already fired appeals to the enemy with a request not to use the weapon. No, I can't do that."

These words, in the context of new knowledge about the Ulyanov family, take on a new meaning: Alexander undoubtedly considers his act not an attempt, but a duel in which he has nothing to apologize to the enemy for. Both the son and the mother, apparently, both understand the subtext of the whole situation: the son takes revenge for his father, the son of the murdered man takes revenge on the son of the murderer.

L. Vasilyeva even found outwardly a great resemblance between Karakozov and Alexander Ulyanov from photographs. But the documents do not confirm this.

Literary processing of some facts is done by the writer in an attractive and sensational way, which is why this version has gained such popularity. They talked about her on the sidelines, some accepted her unconditionally. Nevertheless, this is literature, and there are no complaints about the writer. But this version has nothing to do with history.

In the version of Larisa Vasilyeva there are many "controversial issues". One of them is very curious: Alexander, the son of Maria, was born in 1866, which means that, according to Vasilyeva, Maria and Dmitry Karakozov should have met in 1865, when the Ulyanovs lived in Nizhny Novgorod, and at the same time Dmitry, who was younger than Maria for 5 years, just a student under police supervision, somehow had to attract Maria, the wife of a court counselor, awarded the Order of St. Anne of the third degree, the mother of a one-year-old daughter and also a Jewish father, brought up in the strict rules of Halakha laws, which are sacred.

Attempts by L, Vasilyeva to substantiate her version by reasoning that Maria named her fourth son Dmitry, in honor of her beloved Dmitry, the absence of Alexander at the funeral of Ilya Nikolaevich, an unexpected change in Alexander's character and his purposeful preparation to take revenge after the death of his father, cannot be accepted by historians. . All these cases could have manifested or occurred for many other reasons. And the ambiguity of their origin for history is of decisive importance. But literature can accept such reasoning.

The reasons that influenced Alexander, who decided to take part in a terrorist organization, should be sought elsewhere.

From Frog Ripper to Terrorist

While still at the gymnasium, Alexander, showing an increased interest in natural science, received the nickname “the frog ripper” in the family. But his real passion was chemistry. At the age of 16, he independently equipped a chemical laboratory in the kitchen at the wing, where he often stayed overnight. In 1883, after graduating from the classical gymnasium with a gold medal, Alexander, together with his sister Anna, went to St. Petersburg, where he entered the natural department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Imperial St. Petersburg University. Three years earlier, Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin, the future Prime Minister of Russia, was admitted to this faculty. Anna wrote in her memoirs:

“My brother arrived in St. Petersburg already with a serious scientific background, with a highly developed ability for independent work, and he really passionately attacked science.”

Among the students of those years there were three separate groups according to their property status. The first were called "white-lining", they included the children of dignitaries, generals, and high society who studied here. They wore jackets lined with white silk. latest fashion. This student body was distinguished by extreme right-wing, monarchist convictions. Each of them knew that he was waiting for a brilliant career in the highest government institutions, the rank of general in his younger years, and in his mature years - the senatorship.

The "White linings" were opposed by the "radicals" - irreconcilable opponents of the system. They put on Little Russian shirts, boots, put on a modest plaid and always wore blue glasses. Narodnik revolutionaries, terrorists, Marxists came out of them.

The third group was represented by "culturists", who were located between the above two, were disposed most of all towards science. From this cohort came many people who glorified Russian science.

By the end of his second year, Alexander, in determining his specialization, settled on invertebrate zoology. They sent several abstracts for the competition to the university council. The jury of the competition decided on February 3, 1886: "The essay of the student of the VI semester Alexander Ulyanov on the topic:" On the organs of segmental and sexual freshwater Annulata "to award a gold medal." No one doubted that a talented student would be left at the university for scientific and teaching activities.

But in January 1886 news came to St. Petersburg about the sudden death of his father. Alexander had exams, he could not go to the funeral. Anna managed to go to Simbirsk.

On November 17, 1886, Alexander took part in a procession through St. Petersburg on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the death of the revolutionary writer Dobrolyubov. More than 1,500 people attended the procession. The city authorities took such a gathering of people as dangerous, and the procession was stopped. The mayor brought in troops to disperse the demonstrators. The next day, Alexander distributed a political propaganda leaflet composed by him, in which he expressed his indignation at the existing order ... His revolutionary views and moods were noticed by the People's Will faction, to whose meeting he was invited. They also invited Alexander's sister, Anna, who supported her beloved brother in every possible way. Alexander, having shown leadership qualities, easily drew up a further program of actions and requirements: “to ensure the political and economic independence of the people and its free development”

Such transformations in the country could begin only after the change of regime, the stronghold of which was the imperial family. Fighting the authorities, as the young revolutionaries believed, is possible only by terrorist methods, and first of all, all the actions of the organization should be aimed at eliminating the autocrat.

At the end of the program, Alexander indicated the path and methods of action that should lead to success:

“In the struggle against the revolutionaries, the government uses extreme measures of intimidation, and therefore the intelligentsia was forced to resort to the form of struggle indicated by the government, that is, terror. Terror is thus a clash between the government and the intelligentsia, which is deprived of the possibility of a peaceful cultural influence on public life. Terror must act systematically and, disorganizing the government, will have a huge psychological impact: it will raise the revolutionary spirit of the people ... The faction stands for the decentralization of the terrorist struggle: let the wave of red terror spread widely and throughout the province, where the system of intimidation is even more needed as a protest against administrative oppression. .

After debate, it was recognized that the bomb is the most effective tool to deal with the emperor.

From the letter they opened from one of the members of the faction, the police managed to find out about the impending conspiracy. On March 1, the Minister of the Interior, Count D. Tolstoy, reported to the Tsar: “Yesterday, the head of the St. Petersburg secret department received intelligence through intelligence that a circle of intruders intends to carry out a terrorist act in the near future and that for this purpose these persons have at their disposal projectiles brought to St. Petersburg ready to "come" from Kharkov.

On March 1, 1887, three student performers, Osipanov, Andreyushkin and Generalov, were captured with bombs on Nevsky Prospekt. Frank testimonies of those arrested allowed the gendarmes to quickly identify the members of the terrorist organization and their leaders.

From the testimony of a member of the circle, E. I. Yakovenko, during interrogation: “Shevyrev was the initiator, inspirer and collector of the circle. Ulyanov - his iron bond and cement. Without Shevyrev, there would be no organization, without Ulyanov there would be no event on March 1, the organization would have disintegrated, the matter would not have been brought to an end.

In total, 25 people were arrested in the very first days of March, and later 49 more people. 15 people were put on trial, and the rest of the cases were resolved in an administrative manner. The police department immediately compiled a report on the arrest of terrorists and sent it to the tsar signed by Count D.A. Tolstoy.

“In order to avoid exaggerated rumors,” Count D.A. Tolstoy asked the sovereign for permission to print a special notice. At the report, the tsar wrote his resolution: “I absolutely approve and in general it is desirable not to attach too much of great importance these arrests. In my opinion, it would be better, having learned everything that is possible from them, not to put them on trial, but simply send them to the Shlisselburg fortress without any noise - this is the most severe and unpleasant punishment. Alexander".

But when the tsar was presented with the “Program of the terrorist faction of the Narodnaya Volya party”, written by Alexander Ulyanov, the tsar reacted indignantly: “This is a note not even from a madman, but from a pure idiot.”

The Ulyanov family was shocked to learn about the misfortune that had befallen, but hoped for the emperor's mercy. Maria Alexandrovna hastily left for the capital and on March 27, 1887 filed a petition for pardon in the name of the sovereign, Alexander III.

A noticeable trace in the revolutionary movement of the second half of the 1880s was left by the circle of Ulyanov, Shevyrev, Lukashevich and others. Their program is an attempt to reconcile the theory and practice of Narodnaya Volya with social democracy and to give a "scientific explanation" of terror. The idea of ​​drawing up a program was born in the circle, according to A. Ulyanov, approximately in the second half of December 1886.

Then, having gathered his friends and his sister Anna at the apartment, young Alexander Ulyanov outlined to them his thoughts, which boiled down to the fact that “in the fight against the revolutionaries, the government uses extreme measures of intimidation, therefore the intelligentsia was forced to resort to the form of struggle indicated by the government, that is, terror.

Terror is thus a clash between the government and the intelligentsia, which is deprived of the possibility of a peaceful, cultural influence on public life. Terror must act systematically and, by disorganizing the government, it will have an enormous psychological effect: it will raise the revolutionary spirit of the people ...

The faction stands for the decentralization of the terrorist struggle: let the wave of red terror spread widely and throughout the province, where the system of intimidation is even more needed as a protest against administrative oppression.

In fact, it was a call for mass murder of everyone who did not like the brother and sister Ulyanov. The boys enthusiastically accepted the calls of their twenty-year-old leader and set about preparing the first terrorist attack. To some extent, one can understand these provincial romantics, who lived in an atmosphere of philistinism and despondency. But like this, go out into the streets and start killing people...

First of all, it was decided to kill the king (it was he who was a tasty morsel in the eyes of young people). The original plan to shoot at the king was rejected, they decided to throw bombs. Their preparation required a special room, dynamite, mercury and nitric acid, which at first were prepared in a "home" way. Gerasimov and Andreyushkin expressed their desire to throw bombs.

However, from the day of the first terrorist attacks by the Ishutins, the authorities began to pay close attention to “pale young men with burning eyes,” especially those who excelled at demonstrations. And, in particular, they did not hesitate to peruse their letters. So, once, having opened a letter addressed to a certain Nikitin, the Kharkov police officer almost fell off his chair after reading the following passage: “The most merciless terror is possible in our country, and I firmly believe that it will be, and even in a short time.”

Nikitin was shaken out of the name of a correspondent - a St. Petersburg friend of Andreyushkin, an active member of the faction. The police began a meticulous operation to identify all the actors in the impending terrorist attack. They established round-the-clock surveillance of the apartment of the bloodthirsty Andreyushkin and all its visitors. Meanwhile, the gendarmes also received alarming information about the impending assassination attempt, only on February 28, if we trust the most humble report of their chief. On March 1, the Minister of the Interior, Count D. Tolstoy, informed the Tsar: “Yesterday, the head of the St. Petersburg secret department received intelligence through intelligence that a circle of intruders intends to carry out a terrorist act in the near future and that for this purpose these persons have at their disposal projectiles brought to St. Petersburg ready to "come" from Kharkov.

Meanwhile, the terrorists decided to go hunting for the king precisely on March 1, and if the assassination attempt on that day fails and the king goes south, then follow him and kill him along the way. However, even the police remembered this date - March 1 - too memorable for both the government and the revolutionaries, so the head of the Secret Department, without waiting for the tsar's resolution, ordered the immediate arrest of the persons tracked down by the agents, hardly suggesting that these were the terrorists, about who had already been warned.

On March 1, 1887, three students, Osipanov, Andreyushkin and Generalov, were captured with explosive shells on Nevsky

avenue. The “frank testimony” of signalmen arrested at the same time (Kancher and Gorkun) allowed the gendarmes to quickly identify the participants in the terrorist organization and the leading role in it of students Ulyanov and Shevyrev. In total, 25 people were arrested in the very first days of March, and later 49 more people. 15 people were put on trial, and the rest of the cases were resolved in an administrative manner.

The police department immediately compiled a report on the arrest of terrorists and sent it to the tsar with a brief notice of the conspiracy and some biographical information about the arrested, signed by Tolstoy. “This time God saved us,” the tsar wrote at the report, “but for how long? Thanks to all the ranks of the police that do not sleep and act successfully - send everything that you learn more.

At first, the king did not attach much importance to the prank of the students. When “in order to avoid exaggerated rumors” Count Tolstoy on March 1 asked the sovereign for permission to print a special notice, the tsar wrote a resolution on the report: “I absolutely approve, and in general it is advisable not to attach too much importance to these arrests. In my opinion, it would be better, having learned everything that is possible from them, not to put them on trial, but simply send them to the Shlisselburg fortress without any noise - this is the most severe and unpleasant punishment. Alexander".

However, having become more familiar with the activities of the faction, the king changed his mind. So, he was presented with the “Program of the terrorist faction of the Narodnaya Volya party”, written personally by Alexander Ulyanov. And the first resolution that the tsar put on it was: "This is not even a madman's note, but a pure idiot."

The “final requirements” necessary “to ensure the political and economic independence of the people and their free development” were reduced by Ulyanov to 8 points:

1. A permanent people's government, freely chosen by direct and universal suffrage.

2. Broad local self-government.

3. Independence of the community as an economic and administrative unit.

4. Complete freedom of conscience, speech, press, meetings and movement.

5. Nationalization of land.6. Nationalization of factories, plants and instruments of production.

7. Replacing the standing army with a zemstvo militia.

8. Free initial training.

The main task of the faction was the elimination of Alexander III.

"The purest commune," Alexander III attributed.

When collecting materials, the gendarmes did not stop at any difficulties and were not embarrassed by any means.

As a result, they received detailed testimony from signalmen Kancher and Gorkun. This service was appreciated by the court and by the tsar himself, who, on the death sentence of 15 people presented to him, with a petition for mitigation of punishment for some of the convicts, made the inscription: “Absolutely right, I believe that Kancher and Gorkun could still reduce the punishment for their frank testimony and repentance.

Only ministers, their comrades, members of the State Council, senators and specially listed persons from the highest bureaucracy were allowed to enter the courtroom. In this respect, the trial of March 1, 1887, far outstripped the trial of March 1, 1881, at which representatives of the press were present during the trial and verbatim records were kept.

The relatives of the defendants were not allowed not only into the courtroom, but also to visit them. So, for example, on the request of Ulyanov's mother to allow her to meet with her son, the following resolution was imposed: "If Mrs. Ulyanov manages to cope, announce that visits are not allowed."

Characteristically, instead of responding to Ulyanova's petition, the director of the police department ordered to respond only in the event of her new appeal.

The Minister of the Interior received a report from the police department on each court session. The Minister of Justice submitted written reports to the Tsar about each meeting. Police Department reports confirm that Senator Dreyer has lived up to expectations. For example, he did not give Ulyanov the opportunity to talk about his attitude towards terror.

The report noted Ulyanov's attempts to defend the defendant Novorussky. He tried to prove that Novorussky could not guess about the manufacture of an explosive in his apartment.

With apparent pleasure, it was reported to the Minister of the Interior that "the speeches of the defenders were short and very decent." This gendarme praise does not do honor to the defenders, but at the same time characterizes the conditions in which the defense was placed.

Of the several dozens prosecuted in the case on March 1, 1887, 15 people were put on trial: Ulyanov Alexander, Osipanov, Andreyushkin, Generalov, Shevyrev, Lukashevich, Novorussky, Ananyina, Pilsudsky Bronislav, Pashkovsky, Shmidova, Kancher, Gorkun, Volokhov and Serdyukova.

Of these defendants, 12 were students. All defendants were sentenced to death, but the Special Presence of the Senate petitioned for eight defendants to commute the death penalty to other punishments. Alexander III approved the death sentence for five convicts, namely: for Ulyanov, Shevyrev, Generalov, Osipanov and Andreyushkin.

An interesting detail: due to the absence of the executioner in St. Petersburg, an encrypted telegram was sent to the Warsaw chief of police with a request to send the executioner on demand, and on April 30 the demand followed: "Send the executioner immediately." Four days later, five sentenced to death and two to life imprisonment were taken from the Trubetskoy bastion to Shlisselburg. The execution took place on May 8th.

On the same day, Count Tolstoy reported in writing to the emperor: “Today in the Shlisselburg prison, according to the verdict of the Special Presence of the Governing Senate, which took place on April 15-19, state criminals were sentenced to death: Shevyrev, Ulyanov, Osipanov, Andreyushkin and Generalov.

According to information reported by Deputy Prosecutor of the St. Petersburg District Court Shcheglovitov, who carried out the sentence of the Senate, the convicted, in view of their transfer to the Shlisselburg prison, assumed that they had been granted a pardon. Nevertheless, when they announced to them half an hour before the execution, namely at 3 1/2 o'clock in the morning, about the upcoming execution of the sentence, they all remained completely calm and refused to confess and receive the holy mysteries.

Due to the fact that the location of the Shlisselburg prison did not provide an opportunity to execute all five at the same time, the scaffold was arranged for three people. The first to be executed were Generalov, Andreyushkin and Osipanov. After hearing the verdict, they said goodbye to each other, kissed the cross and cheerfully entered the scaffold, after which Generalov and Andreyushkin said in a loud voice: “Long live the People’s Will!” Osipanov intended to do the same, but did not have time, as a bag was thrown over him. After removing the corpses of the executed criminals, Shevyrev and Ulyanov were taken out, who also cheerfully and calmly entered the scaffold, and Ulyanov venerated the cross, and Shevyrev pushed the priest's hand away.

On the report, apart from the usual sign about the reading of it by the king, there is no other mark.

The execution of the death sentence and the imprisonment of convicts in hard labor prisons was not the end of extensive clerical work on the process of March 1, 1887, the administrative reprisal against many of the arrested continued, and it began even before the judicial reprisal.