How a jury in 1878 acquitted the terrorist Vera Zasulich, who tried to kill the St. Petersburg mayor.
Part I. Zasulich’s motives
On January 24 (February 5), 1878, a young woman came to an appointment with the mayor of the capital Fyodor Trepov. Having waited her turn, 29-year-old Vera Zasulich grabbed a revolver and shot at the general, after which she was arrested. Despite the fact that there was no doubt about her involvement in the assassination attempt, two months later Zasulich was acquitted by a jury.
The immediate motive for the terrorist attack was an incident that occurred in the summer of 1877. On July 13 (all dates below are given according to the Julian calendar) Trepov visited the prison where Alexey Bogolyubov (Emelyanov) was kept. The latter was awaiting sending to hard labor, to which he was sentenced for participating in a protest at the Kazan Cathedral in December 1876. Trepov noted that the prisoners enjoy a certain freedom, in particular, they can walk together. Then he turned to one of the prisoners:
“…Unsatisfactory, and perhaps not respectful enough, Bogolyubov’s response prompted an order from the prison visitor to immediately place the prisoner in a punishment cell. The person carrying out this order had to escort Bogolyubov again through the yard, where the person who gave the order was also located. Walking near the visitor standing with other people, Bogolyubov did not take off his cap; A representative of the administration knocked the cap off Bogolyubov’s head with a sweep of his hand, and as punishment for the disrespect shown to him, he ordered the prison authorities to subject Bogolyubov to corporal punishment as an example to other prisoners. The next day this order was carried out, and Bogolyubov was punished with canings in the corridor of the prison in the presence of all the prisoners of the department in which he was kept.”
(“Voice”, July 22, 1877)
It was after reading this note (it was reprinted by other newspapers, including Novoye Vremya) that Zasulich decided to take revenge on Trepov for his arbitrariness. The fact is that corporal punishment (with rare exceptions) was abolished in Russia in 1863 and Trepov did not have the right to give such an order.
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