- Andrei Zhelyabov
Infobox Person
name=Andrei Zhelyabov
caption=
birth_date=August 17 (29), 1851
birth_place=
death_date=April 3 (15), 1881
death_place=Russia Zhelyabov, Andrey Ivanovich ("Желябов, Андрей Иванович" in Russian) (
August 17 (29), 1851 –April 3 (15), 1881), Russianrevolutionary , member of the Executive Committee ofNarodnaya Volya .After graduating from a gymnasium in
Kerch in 1869, Zhelyabov got into aLaw School of the Novorossiysky University inOdessa . He was expelled from the university for his participation in student unrests in October 1871 and sent away from Odessa. In 1873, Zhelyabov lived in a town ofGorodische (nowCherkas'ka oblast' ofUkraine ) and maintained close ties with revolutionaries fromKiev and activists of the Ukrainian “Gromada ”. After his return to Odessa, Zhelyabov became a member of the revolutionaryFelix Volkhovsky group (the Odessa affiliate of “Chaikovtsi ”) and conductedpropaganda among workers andintelligentsia . He was arrested in late 1874 and then released onbail . Nevertheless, he continued his illegal activities. Zhelyabov was one of the suspects in the “Trial of 193 ”. After hisacquittal in 1878, he moved toPodolsk province for the purpose of spreading revolutionary propaganda amongpeasantry .Zhelyabov gradually came to believe in the necessity of political struggle and terror. He participated in the
Lipetsk Congress of political terrorists in June 1879. Zhelyabov was accepted in “Zemlya i volya ” at theVoronezh Congress of its members and came forward as one of the chief defenders of terrorism. After the split of “Zemlya i volya”, he was one of the main organizers of “Narodnaya volya” and its newspaper “Worker’s Gazette” (fall of 1880). Zhelyabov took active part in devising a few of the most important documents of the party’s Program. Also, he was one of the chief organizers of theassassination ofAlexander II of Russia onMarch 1 1881 . However, he had been arrested a few days before it actually happened. Zhelyabov demanded that his case be considered together with the case of thePervomartovtsi . He was executed on April 3, 1881 with the rest of his comrades. In admiration of Zhelyabov’s dedication to his revolutionary cause,Vladimir Lenin went as far as to compare him with other great revolutionaries, such asMaximilien Robespierre andGiuseppe Garibaldi .
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