The Rise and Fall of Narodnaya Volya (The People's Will)

the desire to kill an autocratic head of state was not a new idea especially in Tsarist Russia during the 1880s over 5000 people were arrested in Russia for anti-state activities among those arrested were affiliates of a terrorist organization Iran naive olya in this video I will tell you about the rise and fall of neuron I Avaya along with this lasting impact on Imperial Russia and the world this tale begins with a Russian revolutionary organization called Zemlya Volia which translates to liberty and land liberty and lands primary objective was to convince the peasantry to incite a revolution against the tsar the organization passed out pamphlets and other forms of propaganda but after lacking success Liberty and land decided to use terrorism as a means to fulfill its political desires the organization's short-lived terrorist efforts came to a halt after one member named Alexander Sol Aviv tried to assassinate Czar Alexander the second on April 2nd 1879 during the Czar's morning walk Sullivan aimed his revolver and shot six times but he missed and was arrested so l'viv was swiftly hanged on May 28th in front of a large crowd the government responded to Sol Aviv's actions with an aggressive crackdown on revolutionaries in the six regions where the revolutionary movement thrived power was placed into the hands of military dictators to handle the situation Odessa in particular had a large escalation of death sentences with this crackdown Liberty and land had to make a decision on whether to continue using terrorism so they held secret meetings from June 15th to the 17th with 25 revolutionaries in attendance to discuss this issue members of the party were split on this matter with people like nikolai morozov being in favor of terrorism and others like gregory Plekhanov who disapproved of the use of terrorism so a new executive committee was established excluding Plekhanov and others who disagreed with the use of terrorism the remaining 19 members met nearby in Verona yesh to hear Aundre che abbath argue in favor of using terrorism in his speech J Abbas set Ana media goal to overthrow the absolutist government by assassinating the Tsar the plan to assassinate the Tsar was put to a vote it was adopted by a majority vote on August 26th 1879 the newly created executive committee sentenced tsar alexander ii to death following the meeting in verona ash several members reconsidered their commitment to terrorism and decided to follow Plekhanov the breakdown caused the end of Zemlya Volia and the birth of neuron i of alia neuron i of alia and Sharon Eber Adel were the two successors to Liberty and land soon after neuron died of aleeah's creation it released a public manifesto that stated its goals which were quote gradual popular representation local autonomy replacement of the standing army with a militia complete freedom of speech press assembly and elections ownership of mines and factories by the workers and ownership of land by the people some of these goals directly criticized the reforms alexander ii instituted years earlier despite alexander ii sansa patient of serfdom the state retained ownership over more than half of the Empire's territory peasants lived and farmed on land they did not own and were required to pay on sustainable annual taxes additionally crop failures were frequent and received little help from the government which became one of the reasons why neuron died Avaya believed the state neglected the masses if you are familiar with the Italian Republican extremist carlopa sconnie then Iran naive oles ideology may sound familiar Iran naive olya was the first organization to implement bus kinase theory of propaganda by deed propaganda by deed argues that quote violence is necessary not only to draw attention to or generate publicity for a cause but also to inform educate and ultimately rally the masses behind the revolution the didactic purpose of violence could never be effectively replaced by pamphlets wall posters or assemblies and quote neuron naive olya felt the neglect and alienation of the Russian masses by the state left few options besides dramatic acts of violence to attract attention to the cause the committee selectively targeted specific individuals who were considered the embodiment of the autocratic oppressive state hence the reason why the czar leading members of the royal family and senior government officials were all chosen as targets for their symbolic value as leaders of Russia during autumn and winter of 1879 to 1880 Noorani of olia shifted all its efforts on assassinating alexander ii instead of using traditional methods like shooting a revolver or knife attacks the committee opted to use dynamite nikolai ivanovich who was the committee's explosives expert created a bomb that could be thrown at its target kabbalah church also suggested tunnelling from adjoining buildings under streets that would be crossed by the imperial carriage the committee listened to his suggestion and dubbed the first tunnel in May of 1879 under the bank of Harrison in st. Petersburg although nothing came from this specific tunnel near Ania Volia plotted a series of similar attacks in November of that same year these attacks were on a rail line that was allegedly being used to transport the Tsar back to st. Petersburg from his vacation in Crimea the second attack was planned by Kabbalah Kitsch alexander kuvvatov ski and Vera figner the three waited to attack at a grade crossing in Odessa but the Tsar instead traveled by sea and avoided that rail line the second attack was led by chilly above at Alexandra but the devices failed to explode the third attack was executed by a nine member team led by Alexander Mikhailov this attack was closer to Moscow but the team blew up the wrong train after all of these train attacks failed a carpenter named Stepan Halton and offered his services to neuron naive olya Stepan was a part of a construction team that was repairing portions of the Winter Palace and while on the job Stepan smuggled dynamite into the Winter Palace and placed it underneath the floorboards of the dining room Stepan time the dynamite to explode during the Tsar's dinner and then just waited this attack seemed foolproof but the Czar's guest of honor was running late and since the guest was running late the tsar and his family were not in the dining room when the dynamite exploded eleven people were killed and fifty-six were wounded but the Zhou remained unharmed the Czar knew he had to address the repeated threats on his life but he was unsure how to respond should he respond with more repression against the revolutionary terrorists or with liberal reforms well he kinda did both Alexander the second disbanded the third section and appointed mikhail loris Malikov to the chairman of the supreme executive committee as chairman Loris Malakoff had control over the police and security machinery but he was a liberal and his appointment brought the committee to a liberal majority in April of 1880 Malakoff submitted a report to the Tsar about the steps to improve the current situation in Russia the Tsar accepted the report along with two other submissions in August of 1880 and January of 1881 while Malakoff was drafting liberal reforms the intense repression by the state led to the arrest of numerous narenai of olia members the state had infiltrated the underground worlds by recruiting informers to report any potential revolutionary activity building janitors became a huge asset to both the police and revolutionaries because the janitors knew the layout of the city and which houses had multiple exits in the winter of 1880 members of Narada of olia worked out of a cheese factory they bought to build a tunnel under Malaya sadovaya Street while rumors spread about a potential attack Jayla Baath was arrested after the police increased their surveillance after his arrest neuron nya Volia finalized his plan of attack which involved blowing up the tunnel dug underneath Malaya sadovaya Street and throwing bombs at the Tsar the assassination was planned to take place at noon on March 1st when alexander ii was supposed to ride his royal carriage down Malaya sadovaya Street to travel to the riding school bomb throwers would be deployed along the Czar's probable travel route just in case the bomb underneath the street failed to detonate when March first came around Alexander's former mistress turned wife Princess Katarina convinced him to alter his travel route Sofia parofsky quickly adapted and ordered the bomb throwers to wait at the Catherine canal for Alexander's return from the riding school as the Tsar approached the canal with his casa escort Nikolai Raisa cough through the first bomb at the passing carriage and missed it by inches the convoy halted as soldiers seized Raisa cough and the Tsar left the carriage unharmed to check on a bystander who was injured by the explosion the Tsar reportedly stated thank God I am safe just as the second bomber emerged and detonated his explosive mortally wounding himself and the Tsar Alexander the second insisted on being brought to the Winter Palace where he died later that day most of the plotters of the attack were arrested over the next few days largely due to Raisa cough and miracle offs cooperation with the police Raisa cough revealed all the details of the plot after his arrest and miracle off took the police on a tour through st. Petersburg streets to point out every revolutionary he saw the secret police sweat through neuron diof olya safe houses and hideouts quickly capturing the members involved in the plot the six members accused of plotting the assassination of alexander ii were all sentenced to death for regicide and on March 3rd 1881 five of the members were hanged in seminoff Ski Square gelfman sentence was the only sentence commuted because she was eight months pregnant neuron naive olya effectively cease to exist after the execution of the five plotters within a year of the assassination only one original member remained at large but she was eventually captured in 1883 the story of neuron naive olya would be incomplete if the video ended right here largely because I haven't told you how significant their influence was on the Russian Empire and terrorism in general so here's how neuron died of olya changed the Russian Empire two hours before the ambush Alexander the second signed in order to convene a special commission mandated to draft a constitution for the Russian Empire this would have been the first step towards an actual Constitution for a country that abolished serfdom nearly two decades prior but when alexander ii died so did the constitutional reforms his successor and son Alexander the third initially supported the reforms but he ultimately decided to scrap the project which led to Melek Hoffs resignation instead of instituting reform alexander ii decided to crack down on revolutionaries even harder than his predecessor six months after alexander ii death the government issued an ordinance known as the emergency laws of 1881 the emergency laws were designed to quote radically increase the administrative powers of the police and of the governor's to put under surveillance detain in prison and exile individuals suspected of involvement in or even sympathy with the revolutionary movement end quote the emergency laws were supposed to only last three years but Alexander the third and his successor kept renewing the laws until 1917 in addition to government repression the assassination triggered anti-jewish laws and sentiments from April 5th to December 25th 1881 The Pale of Settlement was tormented by a wave of pogroms at the helm of the pogroms was an aristocratic group called the holy Brigade which was a precursor to the Union of the Russian people Jews were being held as the scapegoat for Alexander the second death and to make matters worse for the Jews Alexander the third instituted the may laws in 1882 to restrict the rights of Jewish residents within the Empire Jews were already confined to the Pale of Settlement but the May laws took it a step further some restrictions included not allowing Jews to take out mortgages do business on Sundays and to settle outside of towns that aren't pre-existing Jewish agricultural settlements like the emergency laws the may laws were supposed to be temporary but were renewed until 1917 the assassination of alexander ii had caused a resurgence of anti-semitism within the russian empire lastly on the topic of impacting the russian empire Vladimir Lenin's older brother was a member of a successor organization to neuron IO boliya in 1887 five members of the successor group including Lenin's older brother were hanged for plotting to murder Alexander the 3rd the execution of his older brother had a profound impact on Lenin's upbringing for example Lenin was expelled from the university of Kazan by police order simply because his brother was a convicted traitor Vladimir Lenin later on became one of the pivotal figures in the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and leader of the Russian state neuron naive olya not only changed the course of the Russian Empire it also changed terrorism less than four months after alexander ii death a group of radicals in london held a conference where they praised the assassination and commended tyrannicide as a method to achieve revolution the radicals agreed to establish the anarchist international in hopes to encourage anarchist activities all over the world neuron naive olya successful high-profile assassination paved the way for other anarchists to apply in Iran I of aleeah's ideology and tactics in their own country the 1892 attempted assassination of Henry Frick the 1897 assassination of Spanish prime minister Antonio Canova del Castillo the 1900 assassination of Italy's King Umberto and the 1901 assassination of US President William McKinley are all among the many high-profile assassinations that were committed by anarchists who adopted the propaganda by deed ideology also the second bomber who sacrificed his own life to kill Alexander the second was the world's first suicide bomber to conclude narodny Evalia succeeded in assassinating tsar alexander ii but failed to create a revolution or reform narodny of olia thought that once alexander ii died the Tsarist government would bend to their desires but the government actually did the opposite even though it failed to incite a revolution Neron died of olia inspired the anarchist movement of the late 19th to early 20th century with their tactics and ideology still having a presence over a century later now that you know the tale in Iran I of olia I want to know what you think would you be interested in seeing more videos that cover historical terror groups like in Iran naive olya I'd love to hear your thoughts down the comment section below and feel free to make a suggestion on any sort of historical topic that you want to see I have been recently combing through some of your suggestion that you left in past videos I plan on bringing some of them to life soon and if you've made it this far into the video I would really appreciate if you subscribe and click the bell to get instant updates on when I upload next also you should follow me on twitter at tails history I'm gonna try to post on there more often as well and with all that said I hope to see you in the next chapter [Music]