The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-08-31 00:00:00

THE ASSASSINATION OF GENERAL
MESENTSOFF.

Letters from St. Petersburg, published in the Berlin
journals, give the following particulars of the assassination
of General Nicholas Mesentsoff, the Chief of the Secret Police
and Gendarmerie of the Russian Empire :

General Mesentsoff was accustomed to rise early and
always took a morning walk, during which he used to
visit the chapel in the Newski Prospect. He did so also
on the morning of the 16th of August, and about
9 a.m. was returning home after his devotions, accom-
panied by a former comrade in arms, the retired
Lieutenant-Colonel Makaroff. The General had just
come out of St. Michael's-place and had scarcely
stepped on to the pathway of the Great Italian-
akaja, when, just in front of a confectioner's shop,
he was met by two young men, elegantly dressed,
one of whom seemed to be about thirty and the
other about twenty-five years of age. One of them
struck him with a dagger in the left side, just below
the heart. Colonel Makaroff flung himself on the
assassin; but his companion fired a revolver at his
head, and although he was not wounded he was stunned
by the shot. The two then hastened to a splendidly-
appointed equipage standing close by. There was not
a policeman in the street, and only a solitary spectator,
so they were able to get off without hindrance. They
drove along the Quay and the Garden-street, the
Newski Prospect, by the Monument to Catherine 11.,
and so on to the Theatre-street, where all trace of
them was lost. A discharged soldier, the only person
who saw the outrage, ran after them and followed
them as far as the Monument, but there his strength
failed him. According to his description, the carriage
was plainly a private one; the horse was a handsome,
thoroughbred black horse, and the harness was mounted
with silver—all indications that the assassins were
persons of means and belonging to a good station in
life. One of them wore a gray overcoat.
General Mesentsoff did not lose consciousness. Per-
sons ran out from the confectioner's shop when they
heard the shot, and asked whether anyone was wounded
The General replied by pointing to his bloody shirt.
Assisted by Colonel Makaroff he walked some distance
to a droschky, which conveyed him to his residence at
the suspeneion-bridge. Here in a few minutes, Major-
General Surotf (Trepoff's eucceesor) arrived, followed
closely by General Miljutin, Minister of War, the
Minister of Justice, the Procurator General, and the
Assistant Chief of Gendarmerie, Lieutenant General
Seliverstoff. A crowd who assembled at the scene of
the outrage was dispersed by the police, who drew a
cordon around the spot and covered with boxes two
pools of blood on the pathway. Some revolver bullets
were found around the place.
Meantime, fully ten surgeons and physicians had
gathered around the wounded man. Professor Bog-
danowski and Dr. Mammonoff, after a careful ex-
amination, declared that the dagger had penetrated
into the cavity of the chest and that the stomach was
slightly injured. They Aromunced the wound to be
not positively mortal, but extremely dangerous. Minute
doses of morphia were administered, which at length
induced sle ,p. But alarming symptoms set in much
more rapidly than was anticipated. At four p.m.
General Meseetsoff began to suffer acute pain' and at
5.15 p.m. he died in the most dreadful agony. He was
little over 5.1 years of age. He distinguished hina.elf
greatly at the battle of the Tchernaya' August 16, 1855
exactly 23 years before his death. He was very Parch
liked by all who knew him. The Post regards tills
assassination as the rejoinder of the NihidAs to the
execution of Kovalsky, who was shot at Odessa two
days before. At the time of the trial of Vera Zasu-
litch, General Mesentsoff, as well as the Chief of his
Chancellerie and other high officials, received threaten-
ing letters. All the circumstances exclude the idea
that this outrage can have been dictated by private
revenge and point to political motives as its true
cause.