Killing a tsar wasn’t enough: Russia’s revolutionaries hit a bloody dead end

They assassinated an emperor and murdered ministers, but bombs and revolvers failed to deliver the revolution they wanted The assassination of Emperor Alexander II on March 1, 1881, was the most famous action carried out by Russian terrorists.

It seemed as though the monarchy was about to collapse simply because of a few dozen individuals armed with bombs, daggers, and revolvers.

However, as the terrorists were about to discover, this was a game two could play.

Read more Bombs instead of ballots: How political terror took root in Russia The end of Narodnaya Volya The terrorists of the Narodnaya Volya (People’s Will) organization lost the highly active militant cell that had assassinated the emperor – almost all its members were captured and hanged.

However, numerous smaller cells remained.

The novel ‘What Is to Be Done?’ deeply influenced Russian terrorists.

Ironically, after Alexander’s death, both sides pondered this question.

The sole desire of the terrorists was to assassinate the emperor, but soon, they discovered that nothing had changed: Alexander II was succeeded by Alexander III.

Moreover, the new tsar rolled back many of his father’s reforms.

A prescient observer might have noted that, in doing so, he was actually hastening the revolution the terrorists so fervently desired.

But the radicals themselves did not look that far ahead.

The underground movement saw a massive influx of new recruits.

Vera Figner effectively headed the movement.

An idealist and intellectual, under different circumstances, she might have become a source of national pride; however, she met anarchist leaders and went underground.