A noticeable trace in the revolutionary movement of the second half of the 1880s was left by the circle of Ulyanov, Shevyrev, Lukashevich and others. Their program is an attempt to reconcile the theory and practice of Narodnaya Volya with social democracy and to give a "scientific explanation" of terror. The idea of ​​drawing up a program was born in the circle, according to A. Ulyanov, approximately in the second half of December 1886.

Then, having gathered his friends and his sister Anna at the apartment, young Alexander Ulyanov outlined to them his thoughts, which boiled down to the fact that “in the fight against revolutionaries, the government uses extreme measures of intimidation, therefore the intelligentsia was forced to resort to the form of struggle indicated by the government, that is terror.

Terror is thus a clash between the government and the intelligentsia, which is deprived of the possibility of a peaceful, cultural influence on public life. Terror must act systematically and, by disorganizing the government, it will have an enormous psychological effect: it will raise the revolutionary spirit of the people ...

The faction stands for the decentralization of the terrorist struggle: let the wave of red terror spread widely and throughout the province, where the system of intimidation is even more needed as a protest against administrative oppression.

In fact, it was a call for mass murder of everyone who did not like the brother and sister Ulyanov. The boys enthusiastically accepted the calls of their twenty-year-old leader and set about preparing the first terrorist attack. To some extent, one can understand these provincial romantics, who lived in an atmosphere of philistinism and despondency. But like this, go out into the streets and start killing people...

First of all, it was decided to kill the king (it was he who was a tasty morsel in the eyes of young people). The original plan to shoot at the king was rejected, they decided to throw bombs. Their preparation required a special room, dynamite, mercury and nitric acid, which at first were prepared in a "home" way. Gerasimov and Andreyushkin expressed their desire to throw bombs.

However, from the day of the first terrorist attacks by the Ishutins, the authorities began to pay close attention to “pale young men with burning eyes,” especially those who excelled at demonstrations. And, in particular, they did not hesitate to peruse their letters. So, once, having opened a letter addressed to a certain Nikitin, a Kharkov police officer almost fell off his chair after reading the following passage: “The most merciless terror is possible in our country, and I firmly believe that it will be, and even in a short time.”

Nikitin was shaken out of the name of a correspondent - a St. Petersburg friend of Andreyushkin, an active member of the faction. The police began a meticulous operation to identify all the actors in the impending terrorist attack. They established round-the-clock surveillance of the apartment of the bloodthirsty Andreyushkin and all its visitors. Meanwhile, the gendarmes also received alarming information about the impending assassination attempt, only on February 28, if we trust the most humble report of their chief. On March 1, the Minister of the Interior, Count D. Tolstoy, informed the Tsar: “Yesterday, the head of the St. Petersburg secret department received intelligence information that a circle of intruders intends to carry out a terrorist act in the near future and that for this purpose these persons have at their disposal projectiles brought to St. Petersburg ready to "come" from Kharkov.

Meanwhile, the terrorists decided to go hunting for the king precisely on March 1, and if the assassination attempt on that day fails and the king goes south, then follow him and kill him along the way. However, even the police remembered this date - March 1 - too memorable for both the government and the revolutionaries, so the head of the Secret Department, without waiting for the tsar's resolution, ordered the immediate arrest of the persons tracked down by the agents, hardly suggesting that these were the terrorists, about who had already been warned.

On March 1, 1887, three students, Osipanov, Andreyushkin and Generalov, were captured with explosive shells on Nevsky

avenue. The “frank testimony” of signalmen arrested at the same time (Kancher and Gorkun) allowed the gendarmes to quickly identify the participants in the terrorist organization and the leading role in it of students Ulyanov and Shevyrev. In total, 25 people were arrested in the very first days of March, and later 49 more people. 15 people were put on trial, and the rest of the cases were resolved in an administrative manner.

The police department immediately compiled a report on the arrest of terrorists and sent it to the tsar with a brief notice of the conspiracy and some biographical information about the arrested, signed by Tolstoy. “This time God saved us,” the tsar wrote at the report, “but for how long? Thanks to all the ranks of the police that do not sleep and act successfully - send everything that you learn more.

At first, the king did not attach much importance to the prank of the students. When “in order to avoid exaggerated rumors” Count Tolstoy on March 1 asked the sovereign for permission to print a special notice, the tsar wrote a resolution on the report: “I absolutely approve, and in general it is advisable not to attach too much importance to these arrests. In my opinion, it would be better, having learned everything that is possible from them, not to put them on trial, but simply send them to the Shlisselburg fortress without any noise - this is the most severe and unpleasant punishment. Alexander".

However, having become more familiar with the activities of the faction, the king changed his mind. So, he was presented with the “Program of the terrorist faction of the Narodnaya Volya party”, written personally by Alexander Ulyanov. And the first resolution that the tsar put on it was: "This is not even a madman's note, but a pure idiot."

The “final requirements” necessary “to ensure the political and economic independence of the people and their free development” were reduced by Ulyanov to 8 points:

1. A permanent people's government, freely chosen by direct and universal suffrage.

2. Broad local self-government.

3. Independence of the community as an economic and administrative unit.

4. Complete freedom of conscience, speech, press, meetings and movement.

5. Nationalization of land.6. Nationalization of factories, plants and instruments of production.

7. Replacing the standing army with a zemstvo militia.

8. Free initial training.

The main task of the faction was the elimination of Alexander III.

"The purest commune," Alexander III attributed.

When collecting materials, the gendarmes did not stop at any difficulties and were not embarrassed by any means.

As a result, they received detailed testimony from signalmen Kancher and Gorkun. This service was appreciated by the court and by the tsar himself, who, on the death sentence of 15 people presented to him, with a petition for mitigation of punishment for some of the convicts, made the inscription: “Absolutely right, I believe that Kancher and Gorkun could still reduce the punishment for their frank testimony and repentance.

Only ministers, their comrades, members of the State Council, senators and specially listed persons from the highest bureaucracy were allowed to enter the courtroom. In this respect, the trial of March 1, 1887, far outstripped the trial of March 1, 1881, which was attended by representatives of the press during the trial and kept verbatim records.

The relatives of the defendants were not allowed not only into the courtroom, but also to visit them. So, for example, on the request of Ulyanov's mother to allow her to meet with her son, the following resolution was imposed: "If Mrs. Ulyanov manages to cope, announce that visits are not allowed."

Characteristically, instead of responding to Ulyanova's petition, the director of the police department ordered to respond only in the event of her new appeal.

The Minister of the Interior received a report from the police department on each court session. The Minister of Justice submitted written reports to the Tsar about each meeting. Police Department reports confirm that Senator Dreyer has lived up to expectations. For example, he did not give Ulyanov the opportunity to talk about his attitude towards terror.

The report noted Ulyanov's attempts to defend the defendant Novorussky. He tried to prove that Novorussky could not guess about the manufacture of an explosive in his apartment.

With apparent pleasure, it was reported to the Minister of the Interior that "the speeches of the defenders were short and very decent." This gendarme praise does not do honor to the defenders, but at the same time characterizes the conditions in which the defense was placed.

Of the several dozens prosecuted in the case on March 1, 1887, 15 people were put on trial: Ulyanov Alexander, Osipanov, Andreyushkin, Generalov, Shevyrev, Lukashevich, Novorussky, Ananin, Pilsudsky Bronislav, Pashkovsky, Shmidova, Kancher, Gorkun, Volokhov and Serdyukova.

Of these defendants, 12 were students. All defendants were sentenced to death, but the Special Presence of the Senate petitioned for eight defendants to commute the death penalty to other punishments. Alexander III approved the death sentence for five convicts, namely: for Ulyanov, Shevyrev, Generalov, Osipanov and Andreyushkin.

An interesting detail: due to the absence of the executioner in St. Petersburg, an encrypted telegram was sent to the Warsaw chief of police with a request to send the executioner on demand, and on April 30 the demand followed: "Send the executioner immediately." Four days later, five sentenced to death and two to life imprisonment were taken from the Trubetskoy bastion to Shlisselburg. The execution took place on May 8th.

On the same day, Count Tolstoy reported in writing to the emperor: “Today in the Shlisselburg prison, according to the verdict of the Special Presence of the Governing Senate, which took place on April 15-19, state criminals were sentenced to death: Shevyrev, Ulyanov, Osipanov, Andreyushkin and Generalov.

According to information provided by Deputy Prosecutor of the St. Petersburg District Court Shcheglovitov, who carried out the sentence of the Senate, the convicted, in view of their transfer to the Shlisselburg prison, assumed that they had been granted a pardon. Nevertheless, when they announced to them half an hour before the execution, namely at 3 1/2 o'clock in the morning, about the upcoming execution of the sentence, they all remained completely calm and refused to confess and receive the holy mysteries.

Due to the fact that the location of the Shlisselburg prison did not provide an opportunity to execute all five at the same time, the scaffold was arranged for three people. The first to be executed were Generalov, Andreyushkin and Osipanov. After hearing the verdict, they said goodbye to each other, kissed the cross and cheerfully entered the scaffold, after which Generalov and Andreyushkin said in a loud voice: “Long live the People’s Will!” Osipanov intended to do the same, but did not have time, as a bag was thrown over him. After removing the corpses of the executed criminals, Shevyrev and Ulyanov were taken out, who also cheerfully and calmly entered the scaffold, and Ulyanov venerated the cross, and Shevyrev pushed the priest's hand away.

On the report, apart from the usual sign about the reading of it by the king, there is no other mark.

The execution of the death sentence and the imprisonment of convicts in hard labor prisons was not the end of extensive clerical work on the process of March 1, 1887, the administrative reprisal against many of the arrested continued, and it began even before the judicial reprisal.

Inspectorate of public schools of the Simbirsk province with director I. N. Ulyanov. 1881

The life story of this man is more than interesting. Alexander, like Volodya, were the sons of a "real state councilor" - a major government official Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov, who was in the service of Emperor Alexander III. (*Here it is in the photo, centered). After his death, the children automatically received the prestigious status of hereditary nobility, which meant a comfortable existence. And when their father unexpectedly died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 55, the right to hereditary nobility was officially secured for them - by decree of Emperor Alexander III. It is curious that on November 25, 1917, Volodya Ulyanov, the son of a real state councilor, would abolish this rank with his own hand "by a decree on the destruction of estates and civil ranks."

It is interesting what motivated the eldest son Alexander Ulyanov when, a year after the death of his father, he made an attempt on the assassination of Emperor Alexander III. There were no material needs in his life. Smart, talented, with a gold medal on graduation from the gymnasium, passionate about natural sciences, with great scientific abilities, promising, one step away from a scientific degree ... What happened to a person in just a year, which made him join a terrorist cell and actually become its leader ?

"Unknown Ulyanov" - how Lenin's older brother became a terrorist

Ulyanov family. From left to right: standing - Olga, Alexander, Anna; sitting - Maria Alexandrovna with her youngest daughter Maria, Dmitry, Ilya Nikolaevich, Vladimir. Simbirsk. 1879 Provided by M. Zolotarev

Version one. Revenge

Inessa Armand, beloved of Vladimir Ilyich, passed on to her acquaintances a secret told to her by someone from the Ulyanovs. The version was not confirmed by any documents, it was perceived only as a literary work, and not as an actual story. As follows from the story, Maria Alexandrovna, Lenin's mother, was taken to court in her youth, but did not stay there for long, having compromised herself with an affair with one of the Grand Dukes, for which she was sent to her father in Kokushkino and quickly passed off as Ulyanov, providing him regular promotion.

After the death of his father, in 1886, the eldest son Alexander, sorting through the papers of the deceased, came across a document relating to the stay at the imperial court of the maiden Maria Blank (his mother), either a material award for a newborn, or a letter revealing a secret. Alexander shared his discovery with his sister Anna, and both swore revenge. The version has been developed.

According to other sources, Lenin's mother turned out to be the maid of honor of the Empress, the wife of Alexander the Third.

The writer Larisa Vasilyeva cited in her book “Kremlin Wives” the legend she had heard about Lenin’s mother.

“In the spring of 1991, in one company, I heard a legend: as if Lenin’s mother, Maria Blank, had been almost a maid of honor at the royal court for some time before her marriage, had an affair with one of the grand dukes, almost with the future Alexander II or III, became pregnant and was sent to her parents, where she was urgently married to a modest teacher, Ilya Ulyanov, promising him a promotion, which he regularly received throughout his life. Maria gave birth to her first child, the son of Alexander, then many more children, already from her husband, and years later, Alexander Ulyanov learned the secret of his mother and vowed to take revenge on the king for her desecrated honor. As a student, he contacted the terrorists and was ready to encroach on the life of the king, his true father. The legend has been questioned."

In the 90s of the last century, one of the St. Petersburg newspapers (“New Petersburg”) published an interview with journalist Alexander Pavlovich Kutenev about the illegitimate children of Tsar Alexander III:

- Alexander Pavlovich, can you tell us more about the illegitimate children of Alexander III?

Alexander III, indeed, had many illegitimate children, since he was a man of unrestrained and passionate. Among the children were historical celebrities. In particular, Alexander Ulyanov, the elder brother of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. The fact is that Maria Alexandrovna, Lenin's mother, was a maid of honor at the court of Alexander II. When Alexander III was just a Grand Duke, he had an affair with Maria Alexandrovna, from him she gave birth to a son, Alexander, as a girl. History knows many similar examples: in Russia, bastards were treated humanely - they were given a princely title, attributed to the guards regiment. It is known that Lomonosov was the son of Peter I, Prince Bobrinsky - the son of Potemkin and Catherine II, Razumovsky - illegitimate son Elizabeth. All of them, as you know, have made excellent careers and have never felt like outcasts. The same fate was prepared for Alexander, Lenin's brother.

But Maria Alexandrovna ruined everything: after Alexander, she gave birth to another child - a girl, and this girl had nothing to do with Alexander III. Keeping a maid of honor with two children at court was indecent. To hush up the scandal, they decided to hand over the case to the Okhrana. The Okhrana found an unfortunate man in St. Petersburg - homosexual Ilya Ulyanov. Like a man with no traditional sexual orientation, he was on the hook at the secret police. He was given a title of nobility, a bread place in the province, as a dowry to Maria Alexandrovna, and the newlyweds went to Simbirsk.

And all this background would have been hushed up if not for the passionate disposition of Maria Alexandrovna. She did not differ in strict behavior even in Simbirsk, and although she could not have a sexual life with Ilya Nikolaevich, she gave birth to four more children, it is not known from what fathers.

You can imagine what it was like for the children of the Ulyanovs in the gymnasium. In a small town, everything immediately becomes famous, and the boys teased their peers Ulyanovs: they remembered both mommy, and the tsar, and Ilya Nikolaevich. Ultimately, all this had a negative effect on Alexander: he grew up very embittered with a desire to spank daddy at all costs. With these plans, he left for St. Petersburg to study. The rest was organized by the secret police. She helped Alexander Ulyanov to enter the Narodnaya Volya revolutionary organization and take part in the assassination attempt on the tsar.

As soon as Maria Alexandrovna found out that her son had been arrested for attempting to assassinate the tsar, she immediately went to St. Petersburg and appeared before Alexander III. An amazing thing: not a single source is amazed that an unknown poor Simbirsk noblewoman, without any delay, gets an appointment with the king! And Alexander III accepted his old passion immediately, and together they visited Sasha in the fortress. The tsar forgave the "regicide", promising to give him a princely title, enroll in the guard. But Sashenka turned out to be with character, he said everything he thinks about both of his parents. And he promised them that as soon as he was free, he would publicize their entire shameless story and be sure to throw a bomb at daddy! Therefore, Alexander Ulyanov was never released, but sent to a psychiatric hospital, where he died a natural death in 1901. Historians do not agree on the methods of execution, but there was no execution.

-Where did you get such amazing information from?

This is also special interesting story. Marietta Shahinyan stands at its origins. In the 70s, this writer wrote a book about Lenin and got access to the archives. Apparently, the keepers of the archives themselves did not know what was hidden in the papers behind seven seals. When Marietta Shaginyan got acquainted with the papers, she was shocked and wrote a memorandum to Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev personally. Brezhnev introduced this information to his circle. Suslov lay under pressure for three days and demanded that Shaginyan be shot for slander. But Brezhnev acted differently: he called Shaginyan to his place and, in exchange for silence, offered her a prize for a book about Lenin, an apartment, etc. etc.

- And Shaginyan really received some kind of award for a book about Lenin?

Yes, she received the Lenin Prize for the book Four Lessons from Lenin. And the note was classified, and it lay in the archives of the Central Committee of the Party. When I read this note in the archive, I wanted to see the archival materials themselves. And I asked for copies. Everything was just like that...

Version two. Mistress of a terrorist

The above-mentioned writer Larisa Vasilyeva, not quite sure of the version given to her that the son of Maria Blank - Alexander - was illegitimate from Tsarevich Alexander III, gave another version of the birth of Mary's son, in her opinion more reliable. She writes:

“Alexander Ulyanov was born in 1866 from the famous terrorist Dmitry Karakozov, a former student of Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov at the Penza gymnasium. Dmitry Karakozov was born in 1840 (he is 5 years younger than Maria Blank-Ulyanova) In 1866 Karakozov shot at Emperor Alexander II.

Petersburg newspaper "Northern Post" dated May 11, 1866, telling in detail about the personality of the person who attempted on the life of Alexander III, reported that Dmitry Karakozov graduated from the course at the Penza gymnasium (the Ulyanovs then lived in Penza, and Ilya Nikolaevich taught at the gymnasium), entered to Kazan University, then moved to Moscow.

“Karakozov’s romance with Maria Alexandrovna was not a secret for everyone who knew the Ulyanov family at that time,” says Natalia Nikolaevna Matveeva, a resident of St. Petersburg. She drew this information from the stories of her grandfather, the revolutionary Vasily Ivanovich Pavlinov, who knew the Ulyanovs well.

Alexander Ulyanov planned to kill Tsar Alexander III on the day of Dmitry Karakozov's assassination attempt on Alexander II - April 4th. In memory of my father. The attempt failed.

Alexander Ulyanov became a student at St. Petersburg University. He studied annelid worms and was not going to change them for a revolution. His father died in January 1886. Alexander did not go to the funeral - according to the recollections of his sister Anna, his mother did not want to injure him (?) and did not advise him to come, but Anna Ilyinichna herself came to her father's funeral. (Why could she be hurt?)

The summer of the same year, Alexander Ulyanov spent with his mother in the Alakaevka estate (the mother's estate is Kokushkino, the Alakaevka farm was bought only in 1889 - from the author). That summer, after the death of Ilya Nikolaevich, abrupt and for many completely inexplicable changes took place with Alexander. Anna Ulyanova writes in her memoirs,

“that from a calm young man her brother suddenly turned into a real neurotic, running from corner to corner. Returning from vacation to St. Petersburg, he, an exemplary student, who had previously been interested only in science, abandoned his studies and began to prepare an assassination attempt on the tsar.

The children of the Ulyanovs, as the writer Larisa Vasilyeva suggests, could find out the secret of their birth immediately after the death of Ilya Nikolayevich. “Most likely,” she writes, “from her mother. There is also an assumption that Sasha came across some documents at home, sorting through papers on his father's desk. Showed them to my sister Anna. From them, the children understood what was what. The young prosecutor Knyazev, who was present at the last meeting of Maria Alexandrovna with her son Alexander, wrote down the words of Alexander:

“Imagine, mom, two people are facing each other in a duel. One has already shot his opponent, the other has not yet, and the one who has already fired appeals to the enemy with a request not to use the weapon. No, I can't do that."

These words, in the context of new knowledge about the Ulyanov family, take on a new meaning: Alexander undoubtedly considers his act not an attempt, but a duel in which he has nothing to apologize to the enemy for. Both the son and the mother, apparently, both understand the subtext of the whole situation: the son takes revenge for his father, the son of the murdered man takes revenge on the son of the murderer.

L. Vasilyeva even found outwardly a great resemblance between Karakozov and Alexander Ulyanov from photographs. But the documents do not confirm this.

Literary processing of some facts is done by the writer in an attractive and sensational way, which is why this version has gained such popularity. They talked about her on the sidelines, some accepted her unconditionally. Nevertheless, this is literature, and there are no complaints about the writer. But this version has nothing to do with history.

In the version of Larisa Vasilyeva there are many "controversial issues". One of them is very curious: Alexander, the son of Maria, was born in 1866, which means that, according to Vasilyeva, Maria and Dmitry Karakozov should have met in 1865, when the Ulyanovs lived in Nizhny Novgorod, and at the same time, Dmitry, who was 5 years younger than Maria, just a student under police supervision, somehow had to attract Maria, the wife of a court adviser, granted the Order of St. Anne of the third degree, the mother of a one-year-old daughter and also a Jewess by her father, brought up in the strict rules of the laws of the Halakha, which were sacredly observed.

Attempts by L. Vasilyeva to substantiate her version by reasoning that Maria named her fourth son Dmitry, in honor of her beloved Dmitry, the absence of Alexander at the funeral of Ilya Nikolaevich, an unexpected change in Alexander's character and his purposeful preparation to take revenge after the death of his father, cannot be accepted by historians. . All these cases could have manifested or occurred for many other reasons. And the ambiguity of their origin for history is of decisive importance. But literature can accept such reasoning.

The reasons that influenced Alexander, who decided to take part in a terrorist organization, should be sought elsewhere.

From Frog Ripper to Terrorist

While still at the gymnasium, Alexander, showing an increased interest in natural science, received the nickname “the frog ripper” in the family. But his real passion was chemistry. At the age of 16, he independently equipped a chemical laboratory in the kitchen at the wing, where he often stayed overnight. In 1883, after graduating from the classical gymnasium with a gold medal, Alexander, together with his sister Anna, went to St. Petersburg, where he entered the natural department of the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the Imperial St. Petersburg University. Three years earlier, Pyotr Arkadyevich Stolypin, the future Prime Minister of Russia, was admitted to this faculty. Anna wrote in her memoirs:

“My brother arrived in St. Petersburg already with a serious scientific background, with a highly developed ability for independent work, and he really passionately attacked science.”

Among the students of those years there were three separate groups according to their property status. The first were called "white-lining", they included the children of dignitaries, generals, and high society who studied here. They wore jackets with white silk lining in the latest fashion. This student body was distinguished by extreme right-wing, monarchist convictions. Each of them knew that he was waiting for a brilliant career in the highest government institutions, the rank of general in his younger years, and in his mature years - the senatorship.

The "White linings" were opposed by the "radicals" - irreconcilable opponents of the system. They put on Little Russian shirts, boots, put on a modest plaid and always wore blue glasses. Narodnik revolutionaries, terrorists, Marxists came out of them.

The third group was represented by "culturists", who were located between the above two, were disposed most of all towards science. From this cohort came many people who glorified Russian science.

By the end of his second year, Alexander, in determining his specialization, settled on invertebrate zoology. They sent several abstracts for the competition to the university council. The jury of the competition decided on February 3, 1886: "The essay of the student of the VI semester Alexander Ulyanov on the topic: "On the organs of segmental and sexual freshwater Annulata" to award a gold medal." No one doubted that a talented student would be left at the university for scientific and teaching activities.

But in January 1886 news came to St. Petersburg about the sudden death of his father. Alexander had exams, he could not go to the funeral. Anna managed to go to Simbirsk.

On November 17, 1886, Alexander took part in a procession through St. Petersburg on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the death of the revolutionary writer Dobrolyubov. More than 1,500 people attended the procession. The city authorities took such a gathering of people as dangerous, and the procession was stopped. The mayor brought in troops to disperse the demonstrators. The next day, Alexander distributed a political propaganda leaflet composed by him, in which he expressed his indignation at the existing order ... His revolutionary views and moods were noticed by the People's Will faction, to whose gathering he was invited. They also invited Alexander's sister, Anna, who supported her beloved brother in every possible way. Alexander, having shown leadership qualities, easily drew up a further program of actions and requirements: “to ensure the political and economic independence of the people and its free development”

Such transformations in the country could begin only after the change of regime, the stronghold of which was the imperial family. Fighting the authorities, as the young revolutionaries believed, is possible only by terrorist methods, and first of all, all the actions of the organization should be aimed at eliminating the autocrat.

At the end of the program, Alexander indicated the path and methods of action that should lead to success:

“In the fight against the revolutionaries, the government uses extreme measures of intimidation, and therefore the intelligentsia was forced to resort to the form of struggle indicated by the government, that is, terror. Terror is thus a clash between the government and the intelligentsia, which is deprived of the possibility of a peaceful cultural influence on public life. Terror must act systematically and, disorganizing the government, will have a huge psychological impact: it will raise the revolutionary spirit of the people ... The faction stands for the decentralization of the terrorist struggle: let the wave of red terror spread widely and throughout the province, where the system of intimidation is even more needed as a protest against administrative oppression. .

After debate, it was recognized that the bomb is the most effective tool to deal with the emperor.

From the letter they opened from one of the members of the faction, the police managed to find out about the impending conspiracy. On March 1, the Minister of the Interior, Count D. Tolstoy, reported to the Tsar: “Yesterday, the head of the St. Petersburg secret department received intelligence through intelligence that a circle of intruders intends to carry out a terrorist act in the near future and that for this purpose these persons have at their disposal projectiles brought to St. Petersburg ready to "come" from Kharkov.

On March 1, 1887, three student performers, Osipanov, Andreyushkin and Generalov, were captured with bombs on Nevsky Prospekt. Frank testimonies of those arrested allowed the gendarmes to quickly identify the members of the terrorist organization and their leaders.

From the testimony of a member of the circle, E. I. Yakovenko, during interrogation: “Shevyrev was the initiator, inspirer and collector of the circle. Ulyanov - his iron bond and cement. Without Shevyrev, there would be no organization, without Ulyanov there would be no event on March 1, the organization would have disintegrated, the matter would not have been brought to an end.

In total, 25 people were arrested in the very first days of March, and later 49 more people. 15 people were put on trial, and the rest of the cases were resolved in an administrative manner. The police department immediately compiled a report on the arrest of terrorists and sent it to the tsar signed by Count D.A. Tolstoy.

“In order to avoid exaggerated rumors,” Count D.A. Tolstoy asked the sovereign for permission to print a special notice. On the report, the tsar wrote his resolution: “I absolutely approve and in general it is desirable not to attach too much importance to these arrests. In my opinion, it would be better, having learned everything that is possible from them, not to put them on trial, but simply send them to the Shlisselburg fortress without any noise - this is the most severe and unpleasant punishment. Alexander".

But when the tsar was presented with the “Program of the terrorist faction of the Narodnaya Volya party”, written by Alexander Ulyanov, the tsar reacted indignantly: “This is a note not even from a madman, but from a pure idiot.”

The Ulyanov family was shocked to learn about the misfortune that had befallen, but hoped for the emperor's mercy. Maria Alexandrovna hastily left for the capital and on March 27, 1887 filed a petition for pardon in the name of the sovereign, Alexander III.

E.V. : For attempted assassination in peacetime shouldn't be punished. ..

Alexander Ulyanov and his associates were hanged for attempted assassination of Alexander III in the Shlisselburg Fortress

May 20, 1887

Alexander Ulyanov - one of the organizers of the assassination attempt on Alexander III

The “terrorist faction” united mainly university students (P. Andreyushkin, V. Generalov, O. Govorukhin, Yu. Lukashevich, V. Osipanov, N. Rudevich, etc.) Vilnius and Kharkov, with revolutionary-minded students of the capital's military educational institutions, conducted propaganda among the workers.

Members of the faction acted both under the influence of the ideas of K. Marx, F. Engels, G. Plekhanov, and the program documents of the People's Will. The program of the "Terrorist Faction" recognized the need to organize a socialist party, the core of which should be the working class, the nationalization of land, factories, factories and, as the ultimate goal, the establishment of a socialist system.

Following the tradition of the People's Will, the authors of the program considered the struggle for political freedoms through the "disorganization" of the government to be the primary task of the organization, terror was recognized as the method of struggle. They were preparing an assassination attempt on Emperor Alexander III, appointing him for March 1, 1887, in honor of the day when Emperor Alexander II was also killed 6 years ago at the hands of the Narodnaya Volya.

But the attempt failed - the terrorists had long been followed by the police, they were all arrested. During a search, they found three bombs, a revolver and the program of the executive committee of the People's Will. The assassination attempt on the king ended in the defeat of the organization. Participants and organizers of the assassination attempt (15 people) were tried on April 15-19 in the Special Presence of the government Senate.

At first, the court sentenced everyone to death, but Alexander III approved the death penalty for only five. On May 20, 1887, Ulyanov, Andreyushkin, Generalov, Osipanov and Shevyrev were hanged in the Shlisselburg fortress, the rest were sentenced to various terms of hard labor and exile to Siberia.

revolutionary-Narodovolets, elder brother of V.I. Lenin

April 12, 1866 - May 20, 1887

Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov, elder brother V.I. Lenin, was born in the family of the famous teacher Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov, in Nizhny Novgorod. In 1883 he graduated from the Simbirsk gymnasium with a gold medal and entered the natural faculty of St. Petersburg University, where he studied brilliantly.

Alexander took part in illegal student meetings and demonstrations, conducted propaganda in the workers' circle. At the end of 1886, he became a member of the terrorist faction of the Narodnaya Volya party. He was one of the authors of the party program, which showed the influence of Marxism.

Along with the recognition of the working class as the center of the socialist party, the program stated that the revolutionary intelligentsia should take the initiative in the struggle against the autocracy, and terror was recognized as the method of struggle.

Ulyanov and his comrades prepared an attempt on Alexander III, but the attempt was prevented, and the organizers were arrested - only 15 people. In mid-April, a trial took place at which Ulyanov, Shevyrev, Andreyushkin, Generalov and Osipanov were sentenced to death, and the rest to various terms of hard labor and exile. At the trial, Alexander made a political speech.

It is known that Alexander's mother, Maria Alexandrovna, having written a letter to Emperor Alexander III, received permission to meet with her son. Alexander Ulyanov had the opportunity to ask the emperor for clemency, but he refused this opportunity.

Alexander Ulyanov. The terrorist was the emperor's son? A surprise in Lenin's genealogy: why was this a surprise even for researchers of his biography? Why, after the collapse of the USSR, rumors discrediting the honor of the main revolutionary so quickly took root? What would have happened if Alexander Ulyanov had not been executed? Read about it in the documentary investigation "Moscow Trust".

Student, excellent student, terrorist

Family portrait of the Ulyanovs, one of the few that ever existed. On the right is the future leader of the proletarian revolution, Vladimir Lenin. In the very center stands his elder brother Alexander. He will be hanged in the Shlisselburg fortress for an attempt on the life of the tsar, whom popular rumor will later write down as his father.

Early 1990s. The mass media unleash a stream of sensationalism on the citizens of the former Soviet republics almost daily. Polished to a shine, the biographies of communist leaders suddenly seem not so smooth at all.

“These are precisely attempts to delegitimize all Soviet myths as much as possible. There is a cliché: Lenin loved children. Everyone has read a book by Bonch-Bruevich since childhood. Therefore, Volkogonov wrote an article stating that Lenin hated children. There was a thing that they were smart people, we we prove that Lenin did not receive any education. If there was a book that Lenin was a good lawyer, we are trying to prove that he was a bad lawyer. It was just a reverse system, "says historian Yaroslav Listov.

Lenin gets the most. On October 27, 1995, an interview with journalist Alexander Kutenev appeared in the New Petersburg newspaper. We are talking about the illegitimate children of Emperor Alexander III. And one of them the journalist calls the older brother Ilyich Sasha. Like, his mother gave birth to him when she served as a maid of honor at court.

Moscow. The State Archive of Socio-Political History was created on the basis of the Central Party Archive of the Institute of Marxism and Leninism. Hundreds of documents from the Ulyanov family are stored here. These are the texts of petitions for pardon. They were written by Maria Ulyanova in 1887 to Emperor Alexander III. She asks for mercy from the one whom her eldest son Sasha had recently planned to kill. With the highest permission, Ulyanova could do a lot, even meet with a potential regicide.

"The terrorist faction "Narodnaya Volya" - under this loud name there was a student circle, ten-something people, young students, Alexander Ilyich himself is only 21 years old. And they decide to start a terrorist struggle immediately with the assassination of the tsar. Three bombs were prepared , Alexander Ilyich made two of them. He was well versed in chemistry, worked out the design, he made two out of three bombs, and there were bullets around the dynamite, which he also made himself. Alexander Ilyich made the bullets himself, and the bullets were poisoned with strychnine, it is one of the most terrible poisons.In addition, they had two pistols, - says historian Vladimir Lavrov.

Exactly six years have passed since the assassination of the previous Russian Emperor Alexander II. Almost all the Narodnaya Volya members who organized that terrible terrorist attack against the tsar were arrested. Sasha Ulyanov, an excellent student in St. Petersburg, studies at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of the University, and then suddenly becomes one of the founders of the new radical wing of the Narodnaya Volya party.

“He was a very capable, talented child, but in his own way an unhappy person, because as a child he received a very serious spinal injury. Alexander Ulyanov was small in stature, and it always seemed to him that his family did not like him. He graduated from school with a gold medal, arrived study in St. Petersburg. Already in the third year, not yet graduating from the university, he received a gold medal for research in the field of biology, "says journalist Andrey Binev.

The Lenin Museum is a forge of Soviet legends about the heroic life of Ilyich. Behind these walls, the biography of the leader of the proletariat was embellished in every possible way. The politically correct remained, the doubtful was hushed up. Galina Borodulina has been working at the Lenin Museum for many years, she is engaged in the genealogy of the Ulyanov family.

“There was a special approach to studying the life and work of Lenin and to creating his biography. Actually, this approach was defined. Back in the late 1920s, party historians were interested not so much in Lenin’s personality, not so much in his personal life, but in Lenin’s life in the party. Moreover, they did not see the contradiction between the fact that Lenin was the leader of the proletarian revolution and his noble origin, because among the leaders Communist Party there were quite a lot of people of noble origin," says historian Galina Borodulina.

Skeleton in the closet of the Ulyanov family

Journalist and writer Andrei Binev explored the story of the illegitimate origin of Alexander Ulyanov. In the late 90s, he worked on his own documentary.

"Maria Alexandrovna was born and raised in Kazan, she was a very educated and free woman, with an eye for free love, free relationships. Therefore, many who study her biography and family life assume that she gave birth to children from different husbands, because she followed And it turned out that Maria Alexandrovna and Ilya Nikolaevich slept in different rooms. There was a corridor between them. And the bedroom of the other children went into this corridor. They could not, remaining unnoticed, meet, say, in the same bedroom, it was difficult By the way, this was one of the reasons why such legends were born," says Binev.

Writer Larisa Vasilyeva, author of the book “Kremlin Wives”, is also involved in replicating the story about the too free behavior of Maria Ulyanova, nee Maria Blank. What was told in the kitchens as a spicy anecdote, Vasilyeva captured on paper. It was she who in 1993 reported that Alexander Ulyanov was the illegitimate son, however, not of the tsar, but of the terrorist Dmitry Karakozov.

"And it is quite possible that Maria Alexandrovna and Dmitry Karakozov did not just meet on the stairs, and her son Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov was born from Karakozov. And since Karakozov attempted on the emperor, somewhere before this attempt he disappeared somewhere from home, quite "perhaps he was near where she gave birth, and quite possibly he saw this child. But he disappeared, and then suddenly, like a bolt from the blue - Dmitry Karakozov encroaches on the emperor. And the persecution of all democratically minded people began, and I think that Maria Alexandrovna lived in fear. I wouldn’t say all this now if one day I didn’t write in The Kremlin Wives that Inessa Armand told Ivan Fedorovich Popov: “The Lenin family had its own secret,” Vasilyeva believes .

And that is why, according to Vasilyeva, Sasha Ulyanov suddenly became a terrorist. He learned the truth and wanted to avenge his father, who was executed for an unsuccessful attempt on Alexander II. Dmitry Karakozov accepted execution by hanging in St. Petersburg in 1866.

Although professional researchers are sure that the paternity of the terrorist Karakozov is just a fiction of a writer. The work of Galina Borodulina in the archives showed that Maria Blank and Dmitry Karakozov hardly knew each other.

"Karakozov was familiar with Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov, but he left Penza even before Maria Alexandrovna appeared there. He went to study in another city, so they simply could not meet anywhere with Maria Alexandrovna. In 1863, Maria Alexandrovna had already left married Ilya Nikolaevich, the eldest daughter Anna was born in 1964, Alexander was already born in 1966. By the way, those who write about the illegitimate origin of the Ulyanov children are very often confused, claiming that Alexander was the eldest, Anna was the youngest, this is already an indicator of how knowledgeable are the people who compose this kind of version," says Borodulina.

Emperor's illegitimate son

However, whether Blanc and the emperor had a relationship, that's the main mystery. Petersburg, 1887. After Sasha's arrest, Maria urgently travels to the capital from Simbirsk and easily gets an appointment with Alexander III. She is allowed a meeting with a terrorist without delay. Perhaps, indeed, it is not only formalities that bind her and the king?

“Allegedly, Maria Blank, the mother of Vladimir Ilyich, was a maid of honor at the imperial court. I think one example, one fact will suffice here, and there are, in general, a lot of them to prove that there was no such thing. that the imperial court was a kind of institution, and being a maid of honor of the imperial court meant performing certain official duties.Therefore, documents have been preserved that confirm that there was never a maid of honor Maria Blank at the imperial court.And documents on the composition of the maid of honor have been preserved, starting from 1712. Another such fact.Alexander III was ten years younger than Maria Alexandrovna, Lenin's mother.She was born in 1935, he - in 1945, Maria Alexandrovna lived with her family in St. Petersburg until 1841. Then the family left Petersburg, and Maria Alexandrovna did not return there until the arrest of her eldest son Alexander," says Galina Borodulina.

And here are the archival documents. An entry from the church book about the marriage between Ilya Ulyanov and Maria Blank - 1863. This is data on the birth of children, first Anna, then Alexander. The version of the journalist Kutenev, published in the newspaper "New Petersburg" in 1995, about the illegitimate son of the emperor is nothing more than a fiction.

Historian Vladimir Lavrov gives another proof of the implausibility of the version of the journalist Kutenev. The origin of Maria Blanc would never have allowed her to become a lady-in-waiting of the imperial court. Such were the realities of tsarist Russia.

"As for Maria Alexandrovna, the mother of Alexander Ilyich and Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. Her father was a doctor, quite wealthy, absolutely unremarkable, and only a noble noblewoman could become a maid of honor. I can say that the hereditary nobility was formalized by Maria Alexandrovna only after the death of her husband, so that receive a good pension. She received it from the tsarist government. During the time of Peter I, there were isolated cases when people of no nobility rose to the heights, but in the second half of the 19th century, it was already a different era, this was not the case, "says Lavrov.

Victim of freethinking

After the death of Alexander II, Alexander III takes the throne. Historians call 13 years of his reign controversial. As they will later write in textbooks, the economic well-being of the country is growing at a high pace. But corruption and humiliation of the working class flourishes. The situation in society also affected the Ulyanovs. Schools for the unprivileged classes, which had once been opened by the father of the family, Ilya Nikolaevich, began to close all over Russia.

“The fate of his father, Ilya Nikolaevich, who devoted his whole life to the cause of public education, is very indicative. He was an inspector of public schools in the Simbirsk province, thanks to him new schools were opened and teaching in them was put on the proper level. And the father’s example, the facts that spoke about the beginning of a new period in the history of Russia (even if the brutal crackdown on the student demonstration in 1886), I think, led Sasha to reflect. We know that Sasha was familiar with the works of Marx. I think, ultimately, this was the reason that he took an active part in revolutionary activities," says Galina Borodulina.

It is these facts, and not at all the desire to take revenge on the tsar for his supposedly illegitimate origin, that historians call decisive in the fate of Alexander Ulyanov. It took him only a few months to create a circle and start organizing the assassination.

"In principle, a provincial guy from the city of Simbirsk, from an educated family, who lived, I would not say that it was completely in greenhouse conditions, but a little distant from the reality of what is happening, suddenly finds himself in the capital. In the capital, this provincial information vacuum disappears, global information from all over the country falls upon him, newspaper correspondence, discussions, conversations flock here. The institute where he studies is one of the most popular, people from all over the country come to it. All this fell upon the young Alexander, he was a rather impressionable person "And like any young man, he wanted to solve all the problems at once. And with this one and only way that can be solved, it seemed to kill the figure that stood at the head and personified the entire system of the regime. This is how this terrorist attack against Alexander III ripened ", - says the historian Yaroslav Listov.

Another way of Vladimir Ulyanov

There is another secret that was hidden by Soviet propaganda. Before the opening of the archives, it was believed that Alexander Ulyanov did not ask for himself, but it turned out that there was a document. Here is a copy of it: "I ask Your Majesty to replace my death penalty with some other punishment." There is not a drop of remorse in the text, he simply asks not to hurt the mother.

“There are several memories. There is a memory of the lawyer Knyazev, who was present at the same time. There is a memory of Anna Ilyinichna, sister. Naturally, she was aware. Alexander Ilyich asked for forgiveness from his mother for the grief caused to her, the family. Sovereign with a request for pardon. He refused, according to Knyazev, citing the fact that he told his mother: “Just imagine a duel: I fired, my opponent has not fired yet, and I tell him:“ Do not shoot, please. "However, all the same, there was a petition, but there was no repentance in this petition. He did not repent. The meaning of the petition was this: I think that I did the right thing, that I wanted to kill you, sovereign, but I ask you to leave me life for the sake of my mother, my families," says historian Lavrov.

Researchers of the biography of Vladimir Lenin often write that the relationship between the brothers was difficult. But the execution of Alexander decided the fate of Ilyich and the Ulyanov family as a whole: they simply became outcasts in provincial Simbirsk, they were afraid to communicate with them.

“This made a decisive impression on my brother, let’s say. The fact is that he was only 17 years old, a person is just entering life, and an example is when this tragedy occurs in one’s own family, because it is a tragedy twice. The first tragedy is this is the fact that your family member committed or tried to commit some kind of atrocity that attracts the attention of the whole society, and, in fact, all family members become handshakes.On the other hand, this is a personal tragedy - the loss of a person with whom he lived, with whom he communicated Lenin drew a conclusion from this, and then he uttered his famous phrase: "We will go the other way" - about the creation of a revolutionary party and the overthrow of the system. Not individuals, but a change in the system. That is, Lenin came to the conclusion that individual terror is useless and meaningless. And we see that it is indeed from this historical period that all individual terror of the Russian Empire comes to naught. That is, the period when it seemed that let's kill the emperor , and everything will be fine, disappears," says Yaroslav Listov.

However, the historian Listov believes that the myth of kinship with the imperial crown was created by mass popular consciousness for a reason. The reason for the popularity of essentially gossip about an illegitimate son is simple. This is an attempt to bring the person of Lenin closer to the very anointed of God.

“There is a certain family to which it is given from God to be ruling. And this was especially important for the society of the period of transition from the Russian Empire to Soviet Union. After all, many myths about the ruling dynasties were born there. Imagine, after all, for almost 500 years people have been told: the ruling dynasties are God's anointed ones. These are people who not only ascended the throne, because the political situation developed this way, but because God brought them here, they are, as it were, the conductors of the divine will. And then suddenly - once - one emperor was killed, the second emperor was killed, then in general all the emperors were overthrown. And for them it is somehow incomprehensible, but where did the anointed of God go. And therefore, we will show: God turned away from these, and here we see that Alexander Ulyanov is the family of the emperor, ”says Listov.

The execution by hanging of the terrorists of the "Narodnaya Volya" faction took place on May 20, 1887 in the Shlisselburg fortress. In the verdict, the word “hang” is written by hand opposite five names, among them Alexander Ilyich Ulyanov. His mother, nee Maria Blanc, after these events became completely gray-haired.

30 years after this execution, the Romanovs ceased to rule Russia. On the night of July 16-17, 1918, Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra Fedorovna, their children, a doctor and servants were killed in the Ipatiev house in Yekaterinburg. On whether Vladimir Lenin personally made the decision to execute him royal family, is still unknown.

One of the most common myths about Alexander Ulyanov says that he was the illegitimate son of Alexander III!

Allegedly, in her youth, Maria Blank served as a maid of honor at the imperial court and attracted the attention of the Grand Duke. She named her eldest son in honor of her real father. When he grew up, Maria told who his own father was, and he was so offended by the parent for the scolded maternal honor that he decided to kill!

Meanwhile, Maria Alexandrovna hardly ever met the emperor, who, moreover, was ten years younger than her. And the first-born in the Ulyanov family was not Alexander, but daughter Anna, born in 1864.

According to another version, Alexander was the son of the terrorist Dmitry Karakozov, who made an unsuccessful attempt on Alexander II in 1866. But again, there is no evidence that Karakozov ever met Maria Ulyanova. All that was common between Karakozov and Ulyanov was an attempt at regicide and execution for it ...

Since the execution of Alexander, Vladimir Ulyanov saw only one way for himself - to complete the work of his brother. However, as legend has it, he uttered the words: "We will go the other way." If the Narodnaya Volya believed that the assassination of the emperor could change the situation in Russia for the better, then Lenin perfectly understood that one monarch would be replaced by another and that the existing system itself should be changed.

Who knows - if Alexander Ulyanov had not been carried away by the ideas of the revolution and had not been executed for them, then perhaps the October Revolution in 1917 would not have happened. And the execution of the royal family in July 1918 really looks like revenge ...