26. Painting a Target on the Tsar’s Back
From the outset, People’s Will called for violence and announced an ambitious program of terrorism and assassination to break the government. It issued a proclamation declaring a death sentence against Tsar Alexander II, who was to be executed as an enemy of the people. The group established clandestine cells in major cities and within the Russian military, and began publishing underground revolutionary newspapers and leaflets targeted at industrial workers.
People’s Will tried to kill the Tsar in December of 1879 with explosives on a railway, but missed his train. They tried again two months later, planting a bomb in his palace, but he was not in the room when the explosives went off. A 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. Amid mounting repression, including the hanging of People’s Will activists caught distributing illegal leaflets, the group doggedly persisted with its relentless efforts to kill the Tsar.
