Karakozov D.V. (1840-1866), revolutionary

Categories / Social Life/Personalia
KARAKOZOV Dmitry Vladimirovich (1840-1866, St. Petersburg), participant of the revolutionary movement of the 1860s. Upon graduating from Penza Gymnasium (1860) studied at the faculties of Law at Kazan University, then at Moscow University. From 1864, a member of the Moscow revolutionary circle headed by his cousin N.A. Ishutin. In March of 1866 on his own initiative he came to St. Petersburg to assassinate Emperor Alexander II, stayed at the Znamenskaya Hotel. On 4 April 1866 Karakazov fired a pistol at the Emperor, who was walking from the Summer Garden to the Neva Embankment, but missed. He was arrested and committed to the prison of the Third Department, then in Alexeevsky Ravelin. The hand-written leaflet To my working friends was found in his pocket; in it Karakazov charged the Emperor, privileged classes and officials with the people's miseries. To investigate the circumstances of the attack a Committee of Inquiry headed by M.N. Muravyev was established, at its Decree numerous arrests were made in St. Petersburg (mainly among students and literati), the authorities closed down the magazines Sovremennik and Russkoe Slovo. The Supreme Criminal Court sentenced Karakazov to death by hanging and he was executed on 3 September on Smolenskoe Field and buried, presumably, on Goloday Island (today Decembrists' Island). The assault of Karakozov increased considerably the conservative tendencies in society, Government and court circles, and became one of the reasons of the reversal of the 1860-70s reforms. In honour of the Emperor Alexander II's survival the Chapel of Saint Alexander Nevsky was built in 1866-67 on the Neva Embankment, at the entrance to the Summer Garden (in 1930 - demolished; in the same year a plaque commemorating the shot of Karakozov was placed on the railing of the Summer Garden close to the gates).

References: Зильберман Е. Г., Холявин В. К. Выстрел: Очерк жизни и рев. борьбы Д. Каракозова. Казань, 1968; Ерошкин Н. П. Выстрел у Летнего сада // ВИ. 1993. №7. С. 170-173.

A. G. Kalmykov. Alexander II, Emperor
Ishutin Nikolay Andreevich
Karakozov Dmitry Vladimirovich
Muravyev Mikhail Nikolaevich
Зильберман Е. Г., Холявин В. К. Выстрел: Очерк жизни и рев. борьбы Д. Каракозова. Казань, 1968
Ерошкин Н. П. Выстрел у Летнего сада // Вопр. истории, 1993 Alexeevsky Ravelin
Sovremennik (Contemporary), journal
Russkoe slovo (The Russian Word), journal, 1859-1866
1866