The Dramatic End of Tsar Alexander II’s Days in Power
People’s Will tried to kill Tsar Alexander II in December of 1879 with explosives on a railway, but missed his train. They tried again two months later, and planted a bomb in his palace. However, the tsar was not in the room when the explosives went off. The unsurprisingly frightened tsar declared a state of emergency, and set up a commission to repress the terrorists. Within a week, a People’s Will assassin attempted to kill the commission’s head. The repression mounted, and People’s Will activists caught with illegal leaflets were hanged. Undaunted, the group doggedly persisted in its relentless efforts to assassinate Alexander.
They finally succeeded on March 1st, 1881. A People’s Will member waited in ambush along a route taken by the Tsar every week, and threw a bomb under his carriage when it passed by. The explosion killed a guard and wounded others, but the carriage was armored, and Alexander was unhurt. A shaken Tsar emerged from the carriage, and crossed himself as he surveyed the damage. His relief was premature, as there was a second assassin concealed in the crowd that gathered in the explosion’s aftermath. Shouting at Alexander “it is too early to thank God!“, the second assassin threw another bomb, which landed and went off directly beneath the Tsar’s feet. Mangled by the explosion, Alexander died soon thereafter.