Another YouTube channel about Belarusian history has appeared. They started with "Hunting the Tsar"

Portrait of Ignat Hrynіavicki, processed by artificial intelligence

Short in stature, a brunette with a curly head, he had a peculiarity – he slightly mispronounced the letter "l". For his gentle and reserved character, he earned the nickname Kotik (Kitty) back in gymnasium. He called himself a Litvin and became one of the founders of the Belarusian faction within the Russian revolutionary organization "Narodnaya Volya" (People's Will), historian Vasil Herasimchyk recounts.

Here is the full video of the episode; below, we will briefly summarize it.

The origin and formation of Ignat Hrynіavicki

Ignat was born in 1856 into a family of impoverished gentry. His father was forced to rent the Basіn estate in the Babruysk district of the Minsk province – it was there that the future revolutionary spent his childhood.

After the end of the 1863-1864 uprising, the family returned to their ancestral estate of Vyalіkiya Hrynіavіchy in Bielsk region, on the very west of ethnic Belarusian territory. The situation was paradoxical: owning his own land, Hrynіavicki's father was for a long time forced to work as a tenant for others to feed his family.

Ignat graduated from the Białystok Gymnasium as the best student. Excellent prospects opened up before him: he went to St. Petersburg and enrolled in the mechanical faculty of the Technological Institute. The profession of an engineer in those days was a key to the elite of the Russian Empire, but Hrynіavicki chose a different path.

Why Ignat Hrynіavicki became radicalized

In 1875, when Ignat began his studies, the "going to the people" movement was gaining strength among the capital's youth. Thousands of students, disillusioned with the Russian system, went to villages to work with peasants and explain to them the injustice of the existing order. They spoke about how the tsar deceived the people during the reform, forcing them to pay three times the value of the land. However, the peasants, who devoutly believed in the "Tsar-Father," did not listen to the agitators and often themselves handed over the "rebels" to the police.

The failure of the "going to the people" movement and the curtailment of state reforms led to the radicalization of those who sought more justice and freedom. In 1879, the "Zemlya i Volya" (Land and Liberty) organization split, and from it emerged "Narodnaya Volya" (People's Will), which Ignat Hrynіavicki joined. The Narodovoltsy believed that the country's transition to democracy could be achieved by raising the peasants in revolt, and they believed that the assassination of the tsar could be the impetus for this.

Several attempts were unsuccessful. On February 5, 1880, the worker Khalturin blew up the dining room in the Winter Palace, but the imperial family survived because they were late for dinner. Two weeks later, Ippolit Mladecki, a native of Slutsk, tried to kill Mikhail Loris-Melikov – a man whom Alexander II had effectively endowed with dictatorial powers to suppress the revolutionary aspirations of the Russian Empire's youth. Mladecki's assassination attempt failed, and he was executed.

In 1880, Hrynіavicki, together with his comrades, began publishing the illegal "Rabochaya Gazeta" (Workers' Newspaper). One of its issues was dedicated to the memory of the executed Alexander Kvyatkovsky, also a native of Belarus and one of the ideologists of the assassination attempt on the tsar. Hrynіavicki then wrote:

"Shall we remain silent before our tormentors? No, otherwise the blood of these martyrs for the people's happiness will fall upon our heads."

Павялічыць

Alexander II in the last years of his life.

The fatal plan

The preparation of the assassination attempt on the emperor was handled by Andrei Zhelyabov and Sophia Perovskaya. The plan envisioned several options. The first was to plant dynamite under the road the tsar was supposed to travel on. The second was to launch an attack using bombs, which a group of four people was to use. There was also a third scenario: in case of a failed explosion, Zhelyabov intended to kill the emperor, taking advantage of the panic and chaos.

When Zhelyabov was arrested a few days before the act, Perovskaya's group decided not to retreat.

On March 1, 1881, Alexander II was returning from the riding school to the Winter Palace. Terrorists awaited him on his route. Nikolai Rysakov threw the first bomb, but it only damaged the carriage and wounded the accompanying Cossacks. The Emperor made a fatal mistake: instead of immediately leaving the scene, he got out of the carriage to see what had happened.

When asked if he was alright, the tsar replied: "Thank God, I survived." Rysakov, however, venomously retorted: "Hardly thanks to God."

At that moment, Ignat Hrynіavicki approached the emperor to a distance of one and a half meters. A second explosion rang out, even more powerful than the first. Ignat Hrynіavicki, along with Alexander II, was thrown in different directions. Both sustained mortal wounds.

The tsar died within a few hours. Hrynіavicki survived him by seven hours. Before his death, he briefly regained consciousness, but when asked his name by the investigator, he only replied: "I don't know." These were his last words.

For a whole month, his identity remained a mystery. He was known as Yelnikov, and also by the nickname Kotik (Kitty). Five participants in the assassination attempt on Tsar Alexander II were sentenced to death and executed.

Павялічыць

The explosion of the second bomb. Drawing by Arnold Baldinger. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Ignat Hrynіavicki's head was cut off and displayed in the police commandant's office so that everyone could see what awaited regicides. But most of those who passed by, looking at Ignat Hrynіavicki's face, saw only one thing: even the ruler of a great empire can be killed – he is just a man.

Was there meaning in Ignat Hrynіavicki's self-sacrifice?

Ignat Hrynіavicki died, but his act inspired others to radical actions. For example, in 1887, on the same day, March 1, a group of young people led by Alexander Ulyanov (brother of the future well-known revolutionary Vladimir Lenin) carried out an unsuccessful assassination attempt on the next tsar, Alexander III. And for this, the members of the group were also sentenced to death.

But did Ignat Hrynіavicki achieve what he believed in and hoped for? As Vasil Herasimchyk notes, he did not.

The Russian Empire did not collapse. The death of Alexander II, on the contrary, led to an increase in reaction. The reforms that Loris-Melikov was preparing were curtailed.

Павялічыць

The site of Alexander II's assassination by Ignat Hrynіavicki, modern view. Photo by Mikola Nikolayev

Nevertheless, the figure of Ignat Hrynіavicki remains significant for three reasons.

Hrynіavicki showed that even a "small man" is capable of influencing the course of world history. The question remains open: how would the Russian Empire have developed if Alexander II had not died? Perhaps the reforms would have continued, and the empire would have entered the 20th century in a different form. It is also not excluded that in such a case, the Bolshevik revolution would not have occurred.

At the same time, this case also demonstrates the futility of even the most appealing ideas. The calculation that the assassination of a leader would lead to the collapse of the entire system did not materialize: instead of changes, there was an intensification of reaction.

Ignat Hrynіavicki's act also influenced subsequent generations. He became an example that forced many revolutionaries to seek other ways of action. It was precisely such searches that led, in particular, to the emergence of the Bolshevik strategy. This figure also had a certain influence on the Belarusian national movement, where Hrynіavicki is sometimes placed on par with Kastus Kalinouski and Frantsishak Bahushevich as symbolic figures who inspired subsequent generations to social and political activity.

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