Part II. Assassination attempt.
On January 25, 1878, the main topic for the capital’s newspapers was the assassination attempt on the mayor:
“Today, all of St. Petersburg was excited by an extraordinary and terrible event: a young girl, who called herself a home teacher, the daughter of a second lieutenant, Elizaveta Ivanovna Kozlova, entered the mayor’s reception room at the appointed time for an appointment. When he, following his custom of accepting petitions personally, accepted the petition from her and went to another petitioner, she took out a revolver and with her left hand, almost point-blank, met the mayor. A well-aimed and evil bullet struck down a man venerable in years and activity.”
(“St. Petersburg Gazette”, January 25, 1878)
A few days later, the press published the real name of the terrorist and information about her connection with the populists:
“Her name is Vera Zasulich, she is the daughter of a major, she took part in the Nechaev story with her mother, then she was 15 years old (approx. in 1869, student Ivan Ivanov was killed by members of the “People’s Retribution” circle under the leadership of Sergei Nechaev. This story inspired Fedor Dostoevsky for the creation of the novel “Demons”). We learned her name completely by accident. Looking through the Nechaev case, we noticed Mrs. Zasulich, who lives on the St. Petersburg side. He was immediately brought in and recognized the criminal as his daughter Vera…
The revolver from which Zasulich shot was a six-barreled, so-called bulldog, all six barrels were loaded with large bullets… This woman shows such imperturbable calm, as if nothing unusual had happened. When, for example, a police officer entered the room, she, believing that the moment had come for her to be sent to the place of detention, turned to him in the calmest tone with the words: “Can I get my hat and put it on?” Her self-control failed one day when a photographic device was installed against her. She tried hard to distort her face with grimaces.”
(“Petersburg newspaper”, January 27, 1878)
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