Zhelyabov Andrey Ivanovich: biography, photo, views

In the history of Russian terrorism, the most striking figure is Andrei Ivanovich Zhelyabov, whom another revolutionary fanatic, VI Lenin, compared to Garibaldi and Robespierre. In the understanding of Zhelyabov, a great goal was able to justify any means used to achieve it. It was precisely this goal that became for him and his associates "the happiness of the people", which they imagined was rather vague, but for which they were ready, without hesitation, to shed both their own and others' blood.

Serf-school boy

The future illustrious terrorist was born in 1851 in the family of serfs in the village of Nikolaevka in the Taurida province. As a diploma little Andryusha studied with his grandfather Gavrila Timofeevich, and the first textbook was the Psalter. Contrary to the established opinion that the feudal landlords were completely soulless exploiters, its owner turned out to be a man not only humane towards his peasants, but also a supporter of universal enlightenment. In 1860, at his own expense, he gave nine-year-old Zhelyabov to study at the Kerch Gymnasium.

Acquaintance with the world of Utopia

Thanks to an inquiring mind and enviable assiduity, Andrei graduated in 1869 with a silver medal and in the same year became a student of the law faculty of the Novorossiysk University in Odessa. In the gymnasium years, Zhelyabov became acquainted with the ideas of the revolutionary reorganization of the world, which had a strong influence on him. The final turn in his mind came after reading Chernyshevsky's book "What to do?", Which formed his ideological convictions. This was written by Zhelyabov himself.

Andrei Ivanovich, whose photo was presented in the article during the student years, later recalled that among his friends, who also wanted to rebuild the world, there used to be a fashionable expression in those years: "History moves too slowly, it needs to be pushed." They began to push at the first opportunity, especially since he did not hesitate to introduce himself. General discontent evoked the conservative views of one of the professors - Professor Bogisic, and Zhelyabov led a student's speech against him. Hardly had he pushed the story, but from the university flew, dismissed for misbehavior.

Unfaithful spouse

Further, as in that saying: "I do not want to study, I want to marry." Fate proved to be benevolent. In the former student, full of ambitions, but who did not have a penny for a soul, the daughter of the rich sugar maker Yakhnenko, the owner of enterprises in the Kherson province, fell in love. In 1872, a wedding was held, and soon the birth of their first-born Andryusha - the heir of the grandfather's capital and the glorious revolutionary name of the papa.

Becoming a relative of such a rich and respected person, Zhelyabov Andrey Ivanovich was soon reinstated at the university, where he studied for less than a year - exactly so the director had enough strength to endure his social activity, caused by all the same revolutionary ideas. After another expulsion, he left his wife, "bogged down in bourgeois prejudices" and did not share his views, went to Kiev.

The beginning of revolutionary activity

There, Zhelyabov establishes links with local revolutionaries, and in particular with the leaders of the semi-legal organization Gromada that operated in those years. By the way, we must give him due: after parting with his family, he did not try to use the money of his former father-in-law, and earned his bread by private lessons.

Soon it's time for Zhelyabov to prepare himself for so long. Andrei Ivanovich begins his revolutionary activity, returning in 1873 to Odessa, where he becomes a member of the Narodnik circle headed by VF Volkovsky. Here he is engaged in propaganda among workers and intellectuals. Many who happened to listen to Andrei Ivanovich in those years, noted his outstanding oratorical abilities, which in combination with personal charm helped Zhelyabov to win the audience.

Arrests and "walking to the people"

His propaganda work soon ended in arrest, but he was released from prison on bail. In the period from 1875 to 1877, Zhelyabov Andrey Ivanovich became a participant in the famous "going to the people", when young members of the revolutionary circles went to villages to lead the peasants' educational activity, trying to raise them in the fight for their social rights.

And again the arrest. In 1877 a large group of propagandists-populists, among whom was Zhelyabov, appeared in St. Petersburg before a court that, according to the number of accused, went down in history as "The process of one hundred and ninety-three". Even during the pre-trial detention, he met with those who in the future became his associates in the terrorist organization. Among them was Sophia Perovskaya.

Creation of "Narodnaya Volya"

Fate and this time was favorable to Zhelyabov - he was acquitted. After leaving for freedom, he leaves for Podolsk province, where he resumes propaganda among peasants. However, very soon it becomes obvious to him that the form of struggle is hopeless, and he comes to the conclusion that terrorist activity is the only possible means of achieving the goal.

In the summer of 1879, a congress of the revolutionary organization "Land and Freedom" was held in Lipetsk, of which Zhelyabov was a member. Andrei Ivanovich was one of those who provoked a split between supporters of the peaceful path of political transformation and radicals who saw a possible perspective only in violence. As a result, they separated from the main group, creating their own union, called "Narodnaya Volya". Zhelyabov became one of its most active members.

Under his direct leadership, the whole structure of the organization was formed, consisting of several areas, including the worker, student and military. According to his orders, dozens of tsarist officials of various ranks were killed. He also worked out a program of actions that called for the abolition of the autocracy, the convening of a constituent assembly, the transfer of land to the peasants and the establishment of social freedoms. By the way, according to the documents of the organization, the seizure of power was necessary only to transfer it to the people. But that's what they had in mind - it's unclear.

Hunting for the Sovereign

Zhelyabov Andrey Ivanovich, whose biography is inextricably linked with the Russian revolutionary movement, became the head of the preparation of a number of attempts on the emperor Alexander II, whom his battle group led at his meeting in 1879 sentenced to death.

The first of these was an attempt to undermine the tsar's train on its way from Kharkov to Moscow. Zhelyabov, under an assumed name, rented a house near the railway tracks near the city of Alexandrovsk and personally conducted a mine digging mine. At that time, only chance saved the life of the emperor - an explosion occurred when its composition passed a dangerous place.

Murder of the Tsar - signal to the beginning of the revolution

It is known that he planned the murder of the king eight times, being convinced that his physical elimination would be a detonator of a social explosion on the territory of the whole empire. In a fit of enthusiasm, he even intended to go to the Samara province himself to lead a peasant uprising there. He also was the main organizer and fatal for Alexander II attempt, committed March 13 (in a new style) in St. Petersburg, on the embankment of the Griboedov channel. All the details of the terrorist act were developed by Zhelyabov himself.

Andrei Ivanovich personally did not take part in it, because two days before he had been accidentally arrested on one of the safe houses. The direct management of the terrorist act was carried out by his civil wife Sofya Perovskaya, the daughter of the St. Petersburg governor and one of the most furious fighters against the autocracy. Already after she was arrested, Zhelyabov demanded that he be added to the number of perpetrators of the attempt.

During the pre-trial detention he was kept in the Trubetskoi bastion of the Peter and Paul Fortress. At the trial, he refused a lawyer and used his speech to present the program of Narodnaya Volya to the public. According to the verdict, Zhelyabov, along with the rest of the terrorists, was hanged on the Semyonovsky parade ground in St. Petersburg. Note that this was the last public execution in Russia.

The canonization in the face of the martyrs of the revolution

Zhelyabov Andrey Ivanovich, whose brief biography was published abroad a year after his execution, became an example that inspired many subsequent revolutionaries. This was facilitated, in particular, and the wide coverage of his activities published in St. Petersburg in 1906-1907. By the magazine "The Past".

The journal's materials also served as a basis for the research work of many Soviet historians, who, among other members of the Narodnaya Volya, were primarily interested in Zhelyabov. Andrei Ivanovich, whose views were consonant with the Bolshevik ideology, during the Soviet period took an honorary place in the pantheon of martyrs and heroes of the revolution.

In the thirties, it was planned to create a grandiose monument to Zhelyabov, designed by the sculptor Korolev. They were to become a multi-figure composition, in which, along with a four-meter statue of the revolutionary himself, statues of slaves bursting chains. For the monument it was planned to create a pedestal decorated with six bas-reliefs on the historical-revolutionary theme and the inscription "Zhelyabov Andrey Ivanovich (1851-1881)". Some of the parts have already been manufactured, but the work has been suspended and has not been renewed.