Chapter 21: Resolute to the End

It was now midnight on Saturday. The “Senate” went into session to consider its verdict, and the defendants were taken back to their cells. At 3 a.m. they were brought back in to hear the decision. It was no surprise. They were found guilty, on all charges, except that Rysakov, Mikhailov, and Helfman were found not guilty of participating in the Malaya Sadovaya tunnel plot. The prosecutor requested the death penalty for all defendants, and the “senators” again retired to consider the sentence. Dawn had broken by the time they returned at 6:30 a.m. Regarding Rysakov, they decided that while the penalty for minors from 14 to 21 years old was mitigated with respect to the length of penal servitude and some other types of punishments, this did not apply to the death penalty, which was to be applied the same as for adults to minors from 14 to 21. All six prisoners were condemned to be hanged. The sentence would be carried out on Friday, April 3.546

The terrorists had thus been afforded a lengthy legal process. Now it was time for them to be utterly crushed, equally by due process of law. Out of all the defendants, Perovskaya alone, as a member of the high nobility, was afforded the right to have her sentence confirmed by the Tsar personally. She disdained any appeal to him. Varvara Stepanovna requested permission to visit Sonia for one last time. This was denied, on the ground that all of the defendants including Perovskaya were considered by law to be already “dead.” They were not allowed to meet with anyone other than an Orthodox priest.

During the last day of trial, Gessia Helfman whispered a secret to her neighboring defendant, Kibalchich. She told him she was sure that she was pregnant by her Narodnaya Volya lover Nikolai Kolodkevitch, the “Purring Cat.” Although Helfman also whispered to Kibalcich to keep this information secret, he promptly passed along the news to his court appointed attorney, Vladimir Gerard. Gerard, in turn, informed Helfman’s court appointed attorney, who arranged to have a petition for the physical examination of Helfman drawn up and submitted on Monday morning. In response, doctors came to the prison to check her, and confirmed that she appeared to be four months pregnant. The execution of her death sentence was immediately suspended, and soon was deferred until after she could give birth.547

Did Perovskaya also have a secret similar to Helfman’s? We have no direct evidence on the subject. The question needs to be asked, if only due to the absence of any clear explanation for Sonia’s mystery illness, one that required her to buy “medicine,” and for her mystery weakness, one that made it “difficult to walk.” These symptoms, which can occur during early pregnancy, she exhibited to multiple friends and fellow conspirators in March 1881. For six months, from September of 1880 through February of 1881, Perovskaya enjoyed a live-in relationship with the tall, handsome Andrei Zhelyabov. By the accounts we have, their affair was every bit as impassioned as the relationship between Helfman and the “Purring Cat.” And while the details of Perovskaya’s love life with Zhelyabov remain a private matter which she guarded carefully and carried with her into the grave, we know of numerous instances where the sexual relations of couples involved with Narodnaya Volya in the 1879-81 period resulted in pregnancy.548 Judging from Helfman, it appears women detainees of Narodnaya Volya were not routinely subjected to a medical examination while in custody. Thus, if Sonia decided to die while carrying a secret pregnancy, there was no real impediment to her doing so. It appears she felt a sense of peace and even fulfillment at the thought of dying a public martyr’s death alongside her comrades. For this reason, she refused to appeal to the Tsar, or to anyone else, to try to delay her death. Had she revealed herself to be pregnant, very likely she would have died alone.⁵⁴⁹

Rysakov, Mikhailov, and Kibalchich all submitted petitions for clemency of one kind or another that went to the Tsar. Perovskaya and Zhelyabov did not. Rysakov’s petition pointed out the help he had given at trial and asked for his execution to be postponed for one year so that he could assist in tracking down more Narodnaya Volya members. Kibalchich said in his petition that he did not protest his execution, but wished to avoid the further reprisals that were likely to follow from his execution and that of the other defendants and therefore urged the Emperor to set the death sentences aside. All of the petitions were denied. The new Tsar wrote on the petition of Kibalchich: “Nothing new here – the fantasy of a sick imagination.”⁵⁵⁰

At 8 p.m. on Thursday, April 2, five Orthodox priests entered the House of Detention, one for each of the five remaining condemned. As with earlier assassins and terrorists who had been hanged, starting with Karakozov, the authorities appear to have been concerned with providing them the opportunity to acquiesce, in the end, to sanity. Hence five priests were sent on a mission to urge the “March 1” condemned to prepare for their journey into the abyss by humbly confessing their sins. Rysakov and Mikhailov did so. Kibalchich met and debated with his priest for a good hour, but he did not make any confession, nor did he engage in any part of the ritual of communion. Perovskaya and Zhelyabov declined to see “their” priests. Sonia lay down to go to sleep for the last time at around 11 p.m. 551

At 6 a.m., the condemned were awakened and given morning tea. They were then escorted one by one into a room in the House of Detention where they were told to change into their execution costumes: state issued clothes consisting of underwear, gray pants, and gray coats, over which was placed a black convict’s coat. They wore state issued boots and brimless hats with ear flaps. Perovskaya’s clothes were only slightly different from the men’s. Instead of gray pants she was issued a black skirt with thin teak-brown stripes sewn on it. Over the skirt she also wore a thin black prison coat. Instead of a hat, her head was wrapped in strips of black cloth that served as a makeshift bonnet. After their hands were pinned to their sides, all of the five prisoners including Perovskaya were draped with special necklaces, large boards to be worn on their chests with black painted lettering that read, “Tsarkiller.” ⁵⁵²

After being dressed and tied in this fashion, the convicts were led out to the prison yard in order to mount chariots that were waiting to take them to the place of execution at Semyonovskaya Square. The journey would cover 18 long blocks, about one mile, along city streets. To better display the prisoners, these large wagons had been fitted with elevated benches for the passengers that were positioned some four meters off the ground. Ivan Frolov, the executioner, had spent the night in the House of Detention so that he could get up in the morning with the condemned. Aided by one of his assistants who was himself a convict, Frolov now supervised and helped the prisoners one by one as they climbed up to their high perches atop the wagons. There each was tied tightly to the vehicle, positioned to ride facing backwards so that the condemned could better see and be seen, with separate straps fastening their arms, legs, and torsos.553

On the first wagon were seated Zhelyabov and Rysakov. The positioning of these two next to each other was probably calculated to serve as a reminder of that first terrible day after the assassination, when Zhelyabov had written in a note, “If the new Emperor . . . intends to execute Rysakov, then it would be a grave injustice to spare my life.” Rysakov seemed to observers to be very upset. His body was limp and his head hung down. Zhelyabov made a sustained effort to look away from his young protégé, who had talked under interrogation and betrayed his fellow terrorists. Pulled by two horses, the first cart left the gate of the House of Detention at 7:50 a.m.⁵⁵⁴

Right behind the first tumbril followed the second. Riding backwards atop the high bench on this one, Sonia was tied in the middle between Kibalchich and Mikhailov. All three appeared to onlookers to be in good spirits, although Mikhailov was said to be “pale.” They lurched each time the springless cart encountered a pothole or an uneven spot on the cobbled street. Several times Mikhailov shouted something at the watchers. Whatever he tried to say was drowned out by the unceasing roll of drums beaten by marching troops who walked alongside the grim cortege. Behind the two wagons carrying the condemned came three more vehicles. In these rode the five priests, who would again attend the prisoners at their execution.⁵⁵⁵

It was a gorgeous spring day, with a bright sun melting patches of ice which still coated the streets of St. Petersburg. All public places in the city had been ordered to remain closed until noon on this Friday. Through streets lined with a solid mass of people, it took the solemn cortege a full hour to travel from the House of Detention to the execution site. Waiting for them there was an enormous crowd that had turned out to see the spectacle of the public execution of the Tsar’s assassins.

Thousands of troops and onlookers surrounded the black painted scaffold in Semyonovsky Square. This plaza was then much larger than it is today, being used at that time as a track for winter horse races. The platform, a rectangle ten meters across and eight meters from front to back, had been built about two meters above ground level surrounding a simple gallows structure, two vertical wooden posts planted in the ground with a single wooden crossbar connecting them. To the crossbar were attached six iron rings. Frolov and four convict assistants arrived a half hour before the procession to fit five of these rings with nooses (the last ring to the left, which had been intended for Helfman, was not used). The other end of each noosed rope was to be tied to another ring mounted in the nearest vertical post. Behind the scaffold, in two wagons, were five crudely painted black coffins, each filled with wood shavings. There was also a separate raised dais, about three meters in front of the scaffold, for government dignitaries and foreign diplomats who had been selected to receive front row seats for the ceremony.556

At ten minutes to nine, an electric murmur ran through the assembled crowd at Semyonovsky Square as the sound of approaching drums and fifes made themselves heard, faint at first and gradually increasing. Then came into view the sparkle of the sun reflecting off metal tipped spears carried by the Cossack advance guard of the cortege of the condemned. As the wagons slowly rolled their way through the onlookers and approached the scaffold, all eyes strained to catch a glimpse of the face of Perovskaya, this child of nobility who had transformed herself into a hardened leader of terrorists. What they saw impressed them with the lack of any sign of distress. Sonia’s cheeks even displayed a faint reddish blush. Her hair, slightly dislodged and tousled from the wind during the ride, tumbled over her forehead. Her arms were pinned alongside her black-clad body; her hands were covered in mittens without fingers. Her eyes glanced about the crowd. Zhelyabov and Rysakov were dismounted first from their tumbril and led up the steps to the scaffold. Then came the turn of the other three. Perovskaya was helped down from the high bench. She seemed to be the most resolute of the five. Vera Figner would later sum it up: “On the scaffold Perovskaya was firm, with all her steel-hard firmness.”557

At the back of the platform there were three iron posts that on other occasions served as pillories for the display of convicts who were about to be deported to Siberia. Today, Frolov arrayed the condemned on the back of the platform in the order in which they were to be hanged. Kibalchich was placed on the far right, loosely chained to the railing rather than a post. Mikhailov, Perovskaya, and Zhelyabov, in that order, right to left, were attached to the pillory posts. Rysakov was placed on the far left, also chained to the railing rather than a post. At last the drumming ceased. A hush fell over the crowd and the platform. A military call rang out, “On guard!” From the podium the court secretary, Popov, began reciting the verdicts and death sentences. This took a few minutes. While this was happening, Zhelyabov could be seen leaning in Perovskaya’s direction and saying something to her. Sonia, however, stood straight and looked straight ahead.⁵⁵⁸

When Popov finished reading, the dramatic drum rolls resumed. Now the drummers had moved up into a position in front of the dais, between the dais and the scaffold. The priests, dressed in full vestments, strode up onto the platform. Each one carried a large cross, which he held out to his assigned convict to kiss. Kibalchich, Mikhailov and Perovskaya shook their heads and declined. But then Zhelyabov, as a rather surprising gesture, kissed his cross passionately. He did not want the crowd to think the terrorists were opposed to religion. After the priests gave the sign of the cross and left the platform, the prisoners were unchained from their pillories long enough to exchange a final farewell. Zhelyabov, Mikhailov, and Kibalchich each went to Perovskaya and gave her a kiss.

Rysakov also moved toward her, but as he approached Sonia she turned away.559

Frolov came to all of the five condemned and led them to their assigned places next to the dangling nooses. He covered Kibalchich first with a grayish death shroud, a sleeveless canvas garment that was pulled over his shoulders, completely covering his head with a hood while leaving a horizontal slit across the throat through which the noose could be inserted. Frolov’s assistants quickly shrouded the other four, including Perovskaya. Zhelyabov and Perovskaya, while waiting in their shrouds, shook their heads repeatedly. Rysakov, the last to be hooded, trembled visibly. His knees buckled as the assistants rather forcefully pulled the shroud over his head. Forsaken by the terrorists due to his betrayal, and forsaken by the authorities due to his explosion of the bomb against the beloved Emperor, Rysakov was the most pitiful of the condemned. When his turn came, he would grasp with his feet in a desperate attempt to clutch at the stool, forcing the executioners to yank on his rope while at the same time pushing him from behind to dislodge him.

After all were shrouded, Frolov placed in front of Kibalchich a three-step stool. He then helped him climb to the top, stepped up beside him, and checked to be sure the rope was tight enough and that the noose was sliding freely. Then he got down and, with a flourish, pulled the stool out from underneath. The rope pulled taut. His feet turned just a few small circles in the air before gradually stilling.⁵⁶⁰

With Mikhailov, the executioners had embarrassing difficulties. Under his weight the rope stretched and broke, causing him to fall to the platform. The rope was retied, and the hanging repeated. But the rope broke again. By this time Mikhailov was already only semi-conscious. The executioners had to drag his body up onto the stool while a second noosed rope was rigged to the crossbeam to finish off the hanging. ⁵⁶¹ Perovskaya was the third to be hanged, after Mikhailov and before Zhelyabov. It seemed to some of the observers that as soon as she mounted the stool and her noose was in place, she collapsed into it in a welcoming manner.562 . . . Perchance to dream . . .

The Lady in Black awakens from her nap and rejoins the party in the salon. Now she tells something of herself. She was born of noble rank, in St. Petersburg. After weighing it well, she made the choice to give up her rank and race for the glory of a cause. Her love was a poor man born for strife, an outlaw. He died a soldier. She must not be sorry. “I was told what to expect.” ⁵⁶³

THE END