Emperor Alexander II

Alexander II, the Tsar-Liberator, met a tragic end on the 1st of March 1881, assassinated by a Jewish band of revolutionary terrorists.

This heinous act was the work of members of Narodnaya Volya, also known as The Will of the People. This shocking event, the Tsar’s murder, was intended by the Narodovol’tsi to destabilise the nation and ignite a mass revolution.

The individuals responsible for this grave crime included figures such as Aron Gobst, Solomon Wittenberg, Aizik Aronchik, Gregory Goldenberg, A. Zundelevich, Mlodetsky, Rosa Grossman, Krystyna Grinberg, Leo and Saveli Zlatopolsky, and Gesya Gelfman, who was part of the core group on the day of the assassination. Fanny Moreinis also participated in the preparations for attacks against the Emperor.

The revolutionaries' primary motivation was the overthrow of the autocratic regime. They desperately sought to provoke a widespread revolution which they believed would follow the Tsar’s death. In the aftermath of the assassination, amidst the general bewilderment across the land, the Narodovol’tsi cunningly exploited existing societal tensions, even capitalising on anti-Jewish sentiment by spreading deceitful rumours of a Tsar’s decree to harm Jews for the murder of his father. This was all done to further their seditious aims.