Sergei Kravchinski
Encyclopedia
Sergey Mikhaylovich Stepnyak-Kravchinsky , known in the 19th century London
revolution
ary circles as Stepniak or Sergius Stepniak, was the Russian
who killed the chief of that country's secret police
with a dagger in the streets of St. Petersburg
in 1878.
of the Russian empire, now part of Ukraine. He went on to attend Military academy and the artillery school before joining the Russian army. He was able to reach the rank of Second lieutenant
before resigning his commission in 1871.
among the peasants. His teaching did not long remain a secret, and in 1874 he was arrested.
In 1874 Stepniak went to the Balkans and joined the rising against the Turks
in Bosnia
in 1876, and used that experience to write a manual on guerrilla warfare
. He also joined the anarchist
Errico Malatesta
in his small rebellion in the Italian
province of Benevento in 1877. He returned to Russia four years later joining Zemlya i volya (Land and Liberty) were he along with Nikolai Morozov
and Olga Liubatovich
edited the party journal.
He succeeded in making his escape, possibly being permitted to escape on account of his youth, and immediately began a more vigorous campaign against autocracy
. His sympathetic nature was influenced by indignation against the brutal methods adopted towards prisoners, especially political prisoners, and by the stern measures which the government of the tsar
felt compelled to adopt in order to repress the revolutionary movement.
His indignation carried him into accord for a time with those who advocated the terrorist policy. In consequence he exposed himself to danger by remaining in Russia, and in 1880 he was obliged to leave the country. He settled for a short time in Switzerland
, then a favourite resort of revolutionary leaders, and after a few years came to London
. He was already known in England by his book, Underground Russia, which had been published in London in 1882.
He followed it up with a number of other works on the condition of the Russian peasantry, on Nihilism
, and on the conditions of life in Russia. His mind gradually turned from belief in the efficacy of violent measures to the acceptance of constitutional methods; and in his last book, King Stork and King Log, he spoke with approval of the efforts of politicians on the Liberal side to effect, by argument and peaceful agitation, a change in the attitude of the Russian government towards various reforms.
He was convinced that individual acts of political terrorism would convince Emperor Alexander II of Russia
to introduce democratic reforms. On August 4, 1878 O.S. he assassinated General Nikolai Mezentsov, the chief of Gendarme corps
, the head of the country's secret police
with a dagger in the streets of St Petersburg.
After the killing, he left Russia and lived in several countries including the United States
. Eventually settling in England
where he established the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom and the Russia Free Press, linking with Charlotte Wilson
and Karl Pearson
(see ISBN 0691114455, pp. 108–109). He was also an editor for the Society's house organ, Free Russia.
Stepniak constantly wrote and lectured, both in Britain
and the United States
, in support of his views, and his energy, added to the interest of his personality, won him many friends. He was chiefly identified with the Socialists in England
and the Social Democratic parties
on the Continent; but he was regarded by men of all opinions as an agitator whose motives had always been pure and disinterested. Stepniak was killed by a railway engine at a level crossing
at Bedford Park
, Chiswick
, where he resided, on 23 December 1895. He was cremated at Woking
on 28 December.
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
revolution
Revolution
A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
ary circles as Stepniak or Sergius Stepniak, was the Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
who killed the chief of that country's secret police
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
with a dagger in the streets of St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
in 1878.
Early life
Stepniak was the son of an army doctor and of a Ukrainian noblewoman, born July 1, 1851 O.S. in Novy Starodub, Alexandrovsky Uyzed, Kherson GovernorateKherson Governorate
The Kherson Governorate or Government of Kherson was a guberniya, or administrative territorial unit, in the Southern Ukrainian region, between the Dnieper and Dniester Rivers, of the Russian Empire. It was one of three governorates created in 1802 when the Novorossiya guberniya was abolished...
of the Russian empire, now part of Ukraine. He went on to attend Military academy and the artillery school before joining the Russian army. He was able to reach the rank of Second lieutenant
Second Lieutenant
Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces.- United Kingdom and Commonwealth :The rank second lieutenant was introduced throughout the British Army in 1871 to replace the rank of ensign , although it had long been used in the Royal Artillery, Royal...
before resigning his commission in 1871.
Revolutionary life
He received a liberal education, and, when he left school, became an officer in the artillery; but his sympathy with the peasants, among whom he had lived during his boyhood in the country, developed in him at first democratic and, later, revolutionary opinions. Together with a few other men of birth and education, he began secretly to sow the sentiments of democracyDemocracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
among the peasants. His teaching did not long remain a secret, and in 1874 he was arrested.
In 1874 Stepniak went to the Balkans and joined the rising against the Turks
Turkic peoples
The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...
in Bosnia
Bosnia Province, Ottoman Empire
The Bosnia Vilayet was an Ottoman vilayet, mostly based on the territory of the present-day state of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as most of Slavonia, Lika and Dalmatia in present-day Croatia. It bordered Kosovo Vilayet to the south. Before the administrative reform in 1864, it was called the...
in 1876, and used that experience to write a manual on guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
. He also joined the anarchist
Libertarian socialism
Libertarian socialism is a group of political philosophies that promote a non-hierarchical, non-bureaucratic, stateless society without private property in the means of production...
Errico Malatesta
Errico Malatesta
Errico Malatesta was an Italian anarcho-communist. He was an insurrectionary anarchist early in his life. He spent much of his life exiled from his homeland of Italy and in total spent more than ten years in prison. He wrote and edited a number of radical newspapers and was also a friend of...
in his small rebellion in the Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
province of Benevento in 1877. He returned to Russia four years later joining Zemlya i volya (Land and Liberty) were he along with Nikolai Morozov
Nikolai Alexandrovich Morozov
Nikolai Alexandrovich Morozov was a known Russian revolutionary who spent about 25 years in prison before turning his attention to various fields of science.- Revolutionary activities :...
and Olga Liubatovich
Olga Liubatovich
Olga Spiridonovna Lyubatovich was a Russian revolutionary and member of Narodnaya Volya.-Early life:Lyubatovich was the daughter of political a refugee from Montenegro, born 1854. She wanted to study medicine in order to become a doctor, which was impossible for a woman to do in Russia...
edited the party journal.
He succeeded in making his escape, possibly being permitted to escape on account of his youth, and immediately began a more vigorous campaign against autocracy
Autocracy
An autocracy is a form of government in which one person is the supreme power within the state. It is derived from the Greek : and , and may be translated as "one who rules by himself". It is distinct from oligarchy and democracy...
. His sympathetic nature was influenced by indignation against the brutal methods adopted towards prisoners, especially political prisoners, and by the stern measures which the government of the tsar
Tsar
Tsar is a title used to designate certain European Slavic monarchs or supreme rulers. As a system of government in the Tsardom of Russia and Russian Empire, it is known as Tsarist autocracy, or Tsarism...
felt compelled to adopt in order to repress the revolutionary movement.
His indignation carried him into accord for a time with those who advocated the terrorist policy. In consequence he exposed himself to danger by remaining in Russia, and in 1880 he was obliged to leave the country. He settled for a short time in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, then a favourite resort of revolutionary leaders, and after a few years came to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He was already known in England by his book, Underground Russia, which had been published in London in 1882.
He followed it up with a number of other works on the condition of the Russian peasantry, on Nihilism
Nihilist movement
The Nihilist movement was a Russian movement in the 1860s which rejected all authorities. It is derived from the Latin word "nihil", which means "nothing"...
, and on the conditions of life in Russia. His mind gradually turned from belief in the efficacy of violent measures to the acceptance of constitutional methods; and in his last book, King Stork and King Log, he spoke with approval of the efforts of politicians on the Liberal side to effect, by argument and peaceful agitation, a change in the attitude of the Russian government towards various reforms.
He was convinced that individual acts of political terrorism would convince Emperor Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II of Russia
Alexander II , also known as Alexander the Liberator was the Emperor of the Russian Empire from 3 March 1855 until his assassination in 1881...
to introduce democratic reforms. On August 4, 1878 O.S. he assassinated General Nikolai Mezentsov, the chief of Gendarme corps
Special Corps of Gendarmes
The Special Corps of Gendarmes was the uniformed security police of the Russian Empire in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Its main responsibilities were law enforcement and state security....
, the head of the country's secret police
Secret police
Secret police are a police agency which operates in secrecy and beyond the law to protect the political power of an individual dictator or an authoritarian political regime....
with a dagger in the streets of St Petersburg.
After the killing, he left Russia and lived in several countries including the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Eventually settling in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
where he established the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom and the Russia Free Press, linking with Charlotte Wilson
Charlotte Wilson
Charlotte M. Wilson was an English anarchist who co-founded Freedom newspaper in 1886 with Peter Kropotkin, and edited, published, and largely financed it during its first decade...
and Karl Pearson
Karl Pearson
Karl Pearson FRS was an influential English mathematician who has been credited for establishing the disciplineof mathematical statistics....
(see ISBN 0691114455, pp. 108–109). He was also an editor for the Society's house organ, Free Russia.
Stepniak constantly wrote and lectured, both in Britain
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, in support of his views, and his energy, added to the interest of his personality, won him many friends. He was chiefly identified with the Socialists in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and the Social Democratic parties
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
on the Continent; but he was regarded by men of all opinions as an agitator whose motives had always been pure and disinterested. Stepniak was killed by a railway engine at a level crossing
Level crossing
A level crossing occurs where a railway line is intersected by a road or path onone level, without recourse to a bridge or tunnel. It is a type of at-grade intersection. The term also applies when a light rail line with separate right-of-way or reserved track crosses a road in the same fashion...
at Bedford Park
Bedford Park, London
Bedford Park is a suburban development in west London, England. It forms a conservation area that is mostly within the London Borough of Ealing, with a small part to the east within the London Borough of Hounslow. The nearest underground station is Turnham Green .-History:It can be justly described...
, Chiswick
Chiswick
Chiswick is a large suburb of west London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It is located on a meander of the River Thames, west of Charing Cross and is one of 35 major centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, with...
, where he resided, on 23 December 1895. He was cremated at Woking
Woking
Woking is a large town and civil parish that shares its name with the surrounding local government district, located in the west of Surrey, UK. It is part of the Greater London Urban Area and the London commuter belt, with frequent trains and a journey time of 24 minutes to Waterloo station....
on 28 December.