Political Trials of 1860-80s

Categories / Social Life/Political Repressions
POLITICAL TRIALS of 1860-80s, state trials that played the key role in the autocratic penal policy after the judicial reform of 1864. Most cases were tried in the Special Office of the Ruling Senate, doors closed and publicity confined. New judicial laws approved in 1864 came into force in April 1866. The first political trial of that period was the Case of Ishutin's Group (August 18 to September 24, 1866) that combined pre-reform and post-reform features. While the investigation was held by the Extraordinary Investigating Commission and the case was heard in private by the Supreme Criminal Court in St. Peter-and-Paul Fortress, defence was allowed for the first time, witnesses were called, and defendants were given the floor. D. V. Karakozov, one of the 36 defendants, was sentenced to death and hanged, 7 of them condemned to penal servitude, the other defendants exiled, and one acquitted. The first political trial to hold an inquest and an investigation under the new judicial laws was the so-called Trial of Nechaev's Group of 1871 that gave rise to a strong public response. Most of the 84 defendants were students who took part in public unrest of 1868-69 in St. Petersburg. The so-called Case of Dolgushin's Group was one of the first trials against Narodniks (Populists) held in July 1874 with 5 out of 12 defendants sentenced to various terms of penal servitude. The case of demonstration heard in 1877 against 21 defendants who demonstrated on the Kazan Cathedral square on 6 December 1876 (see under Kazanskie Demonstrations) showed that sentences passed to workers were deliberately less severe than sentences to students. The Trial of Fifty held in 1877 against factory workers making propaganda was open to public and marked by brilliant speeches of defendants S.I. Bardina and worker P. A. Alekseev. The largest trial of 1870-80s was the Trial of 193 against the participants of Khozhdenie v Narod (Going to the People) held from October 18, 1877 till January 23, 1878 and also known as the Big Trial. The investigation lasted for 4 years, all prisoners were kept in solitary cells through this time and 90 of them were acquitted. The trial of the South Russian Union of Workers, Odessa, conducted against 15 people in May 1877 was the first political trial against workers in Russia. The trial of V.I. Zasulich accused of attempting on the life of F. F. Trepov, St. Petersburg administrator, in 1878 stands out from the other political trials – with the public sympathizing with the defendant, the jury brought a verdict of not guilty. After this trial, however, state crimes were excluded from the jurisdiction of jury trials. In 1880s, it was members of Narodnaya Volya party who were the most frequent defendants in court. The first trial of Narodnaya Volya, also known as the Trial of Sixteen, was held in 25-30 October 1880 with two of the accused sentenced to death. The hearing of the case on 1 March 1881 was open for the public. The six defendants did not seek a lighter sentence and did not deny their involvement in the assassination of Emperor Alexander II. All six were sentenced to death and five of them hanged on Semenovsky Square on April 3, 1881, which turned to be the last public execution in St. Petersburg. The Trial of Twenty held in 1882 resulted in an execution for one of the defendants and unlimited penal servitude for the other 11. The Trial of Seventeen held in April 1883 was a major shock for Narodnaya Volya with 6 members of the Executive Committee sentenced to penal servitude for life and died in prison. Another Narodnaya Volya case - the case of Military Organization also known as the Trial of Fourteen - was heard in the Military District Court in September 1884 with 6 officers accused, of whom 2 were executed and the other 4 sentenced to life penal servitude. The Trial of the 21st was held behind closed doors in the Military District Court of St. Petersburg in 26 May -5 June 1887. G.A. Lopatin and other 15 defendants were sentenced to death, the sentence commuted to penal servitude afterwards. The case of preparing an attempt at Emperor Alexander III (see The First of March, 1887) was tried in the Special Office of the Ruling Senate. While 74 were arrested, 15 of them were brought to trial, 5 of the 15 were sentenced to death and hanged in Shliesselburg Fortress, A.I. Ulyanov among them. The total of 17 Narodnaya Volya trials held in 1880s resulted in 154 convictions, with 74 of the convicts sentenced to death, 7 actually executed, and 43 sentenced to penal servitude for life including 21 women. Further state crimes were mainly settled by administrative decisions up to the early 20th century.

Reference: Государственные преступления в России в XIX веке: Сб. извлеченных из офиц. изданий правительств. сообщений. СПб., 1906. Т. 1; "Народная воля" перед царским судом: В 2 вып. М., 1930-1931; Троицкий Н. А. Царские суды против революционной России: Полит. процессы, 1871-1880 гг. Саратов, 1976; Его же. Безумство храбрых: Рус. революционеры и карательная политика царизма, 1866-1882 гг. М., 1978; Его же. "Народная воля" перед царским судом (1880-1894). 2-е изд., испр. и доп. Саратов, 1983.

Z. P. Solovyeva. Alexander II, Emperor
Alexander III, Emperor
Alexeev Peter Alexeevich
Bardina Sofia Illarionovna
Lopatin German Alexandrovich
Trepov Fedor Fedorovich
Ulyanov Alexander Ilyich
Zasulich Vera Ivanovna
Государственные преступления в России в XIX веке: Сб. извлеченных из офиц. изд. правительств. сообщений. СПб., 1906
Троицкий Н. А. Царские суды против революционной России: Полит. процессы, 1871-1880 гг. Саратов, 1976
Троицкий Н. А. "Народная воля" перед царским судом (1880-1894). 2-е изд., испр. и доп. Саратов, 1983
"Народная воля" перед царским судом: В 2 вып. М., 1930-1931
Троицкий Н. А. Безумство храбрых: Рус. революционеры и карательная политика царизма, 1866 - 1882 гг. М., 1978 Senate
St. Peter and Paul fortress
St. Peter and Paul fortress
Kazansky Demonstrations
Narodnaya Volya
First of March, 1881
First of March 1887
Shlisselburg Fortress.
1871
1874
1874
1877
1878
1881