The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1881-04-21
Execution Of the Assassins of the
Gar

dispatch from st. Petersburg dated April 18th,
states that all the nihists except the Hessy
Helfmann, condemned to death for connection with
the Cars assassination, namely, Russakof, Mich
ailof, Kibatschitisch, Jelabof and Sophie Pieoff-
| sky, were hanged at ten o'clock this morning
Michailotfs rope broke twice Order was not dis
turbed There was an immense concourse of spec
tatorS. Hesse Halfmann, who is encente, will not
be hanged until after her confinement. The appeals
for mercy of Russakof and Michailoff were submit
ted to the Czar but he replied that the sentence
| the court must be carried out. The condemned
men were escorted from the fortress the place
execution by coSSacks and infantry, with drums
and LIES, Detachments Of all the regiments OF the
guards stationed in st. Petersburg surrounded the
scatfod All the prisoners received administrations
OF the priests and kissed the and each other
They were very firm, except Russakof who tainted
at the last moment. Many thousand people passed
the night at the place of execution in order to OBJ
tain a good view. The executioner a reprieved
convict The prisoners were conveyed from the
fortress in two CARTS with their backs toward the
horses and their hands tied to boards on their
breasts bearing the word 'regcide in large letters
When the prisoners mounted the scafrold the head
OF each was covered with sack They were then
placed upon stools, which were drawn away, and
they were left to strangle. After hanging twenty
minutes the bodies cut down and taken to a
cemetery outside the city.
THE EXECUTED NIHILIsTs
Andray InvauOv1tch Jelaboff, peasants son.
studied law in the odessa University. In 1872 he
was expelled for the arrangement of inimical de-
he entered the ranks Of the nihilists, among whom
he was regarded of the leaders. Jeliaboff
married the daughter of a wealthy alderman Of
ODESSA. Twice he was tried for political ofenses
but managed to escape unpublished. In October
1879, in company with his two comrades sent to ST.
ber1a) and Mile IakimoM mot found he went to AL
exandrovisk, where he made mine under the rail-
road and on October 80 tried to blow up the i'm
perial train. The mine, however, did not explode
account of the bad quality Of the conductors
used. Jeliaboff not seen again until March H.
when he was arrested in ST. Petersburg In his nos
session was found large quantity of dynamite and
other explosives. The digging of the mine under
the Malaia sadovaia 0he Little Garden street, was
conducted under his supervision, which fact he
readily admitted, well as the entire arrangement
of the plot against the Gar But he has undoubted
Nv 6iviI tho fop
deed with girl.
Mile. Sophie Pieoffsky the daughter of a state
councillor, and granddaughter of a former minis
of the interior in the time of the Gar Nicholas
She received the best possible education. She was
OF small stature, modest In appearance and neat in
dress. Twice in her life she waved her dainty
handkerchief for the destruction of the Gar. On
up, having been mistaken for the imperial one
That was the work of Hartman and Sophfr Peoffsky.
Mile. Sophie has been the soul of the Hartman
party. Her tact and wonderful self-posSeSSion
peatedly averted the discovery of the Moscow mine
while 1t was in process of construction. The neigh
boring women many times called on Nine. Sukhor 4
ukoH (the assumed name of Hartman) and inquired |
all about Hartman's business. But Sophie proved |
herself equal to the situation. Day by day she stood
watching the approach of every stranger to the |
place where the mine under way, and pulling |
the underground bell thus warning the nihilist |
miners to stop work. She had kept under her bed |
over 100 pounds Of dynamite, and it agreed
upon by krujok that she should fire at the Own
amtte in case OF the house being invaded by the |
police. When the Moscow mine ready Sophie |
was sent to signal the approach of the supposed |
imperial train. She made the sign and the train |
was blown up Sophie and Hartman escaped Now |
1t appears that it was Sophie who, March 49, |
made the sign to Russakoff and his comrade to |
throw the bombs that proved fatal to the late Gar
She was known to be gravely implicated, and be- |
1eyed to be in ST. Petersburg for days before
her arrest. Every hotel and lodging house was |
searched by the police agents in company with |
female who was able to identify her. She at |
last recognized riding in sleigh, and arrested on
the spot When taken to the prefecture first |
refused to make any deposition, but being confront
ed with the disclosures made by Jeliabo she fully
acknowledged her participation in the criminal |
entl to-aay no woman, IL Is sa1d has
been executed for n1h1lism in the Cars dominions
and the sentence in Pfeofsky's was submitted
to the Car for con rmation because alleged, of
her noble BIRTH The authorities it seems, were !
unwilling to assume the responsibility of hanging
her. The real reason probably is that they feared |
10 excite the od1um OF the titled and more influential
classes by putting her to death. They know that !
many men and women of high birth and social po- [
sition are among the conspiraors, but this unpeas
ant formidable fact they wish, far possible to
hide from the Russian public and the world at
legal or imperial clemency; she rejected and des-
pissed it. She emphatically declared that she did
account of her sex; that she wished to be regard
ed exactly as II she were man and of the common |
people. She was audaciously candid: she did not
try to hide her opinions or her conduct she aVowed
herself n1hilist of the extreme order and gloried
in It, Such a woman was far more dangerous to I
the imperial authority than any man of her rank
calibre can be. Comparatively few Russian women |
are carefully educated or dstinctively individual
but when they are SO they have, from their very
rarity many admirers and followers. The Pieofsky
was a conspicuous example of this sort he is
!
Michel, the renowned Partisan communist, and she
perhaps unconsciousy, initiated her in asking that
she should not be treated with any lenieny because
of her PeoffSky enlisted in the nihilist cause
body and soul, and, like many of her fellowcon-
spirators, appeared to attach no importance to her
life in comparison with the furtherance of her
cause
Nicholas Ivanovitch Russakoff was 30 years old.
He studied in the st. Petersburg School OF Mines
where he was admitted on the special recommended
ton of Count V1azemsky, the late chief of the St.
Petersburg educational district Russakoff received
w n
wealthy lumber merchant. Russakoff of
dozen nihilists detailed with bombs to meet the
Gar and it was his chance to throw the first bomb.
k1baltschitisch, priests son, the manufacturer
of the bombs, was one of the most prominent ter
rorists. Under different aliases he is known to
have taken part in the most daring plots.
Mikhaeloff, who was arrested in the rooms occu-
pied by NavrotSky and Mile. HeSSe, but not before
he wounded three policemen, was another member
of the terrorist faction.
HeSse Helfmann, who has had a short reprieve
is the woman found in the house on the arrival of
the police where Navrotsky shot and killed him
self, March ID. She is an educated girl of Hebrew
descent 1t is supposed that it was she and her
Navrotsky, who, In 1879, laid the mine
for the Gar the Odessa Railroad. Navrotsky at
that time was employed as a switohman. She was
once tried for political crime and sentenced to be
transported, but she managed to escape.
THE RUSSIAN HANGMAN.
There is but State executoner In the vast Rus
sian realm, and he is a pardoned malefactor named
Frolof, who, In the pre-nih1listic days, when the
abolition of capital punishment still maintain
ed in Muscovy, committed three successive muir
ders and was condemned to penal servitude for
life. When, however, revolutionary successes rem
dered the services of an imperial hangman indis-
pensable to the ministry of justice, Flolof voun-
teered for the office on condition that an amnesty
for his past misdeeds should be granted to him. His
offer was accepted, and for some time past he has
been a busy man. For every function he receives
40 silver roubles-about $30-from the Russian
chequer; but that official fee by no means repre-
sents the total emolument he derives from the
practice of his handicraft for he Is permitted to
trade upon the superstition still current in Russian
society respecting the luck conferred upon game
sters by the possession OF morset Of the rope with
which human being has been strangled, either by
the hand of justice or his own. Immediately after
young Mladetzky had been hanged, Froloff was
by members of the Russian jeunesse
doree to purchase scraps of the fatal moose,
and he disposed of several dozen such talismans at
from 50 to So apiece, observing, with cynical COM
pacency, when he had sold off his last remnant,
that Che hoped the nih1l1sts would yet bring him
In plenty of money! There is, indeed. every pros
pect If the Melikoff regime only last long enough,
that Frolof will speedily become a wealthy man.
The President sent to the Senate to-day, the
name of Gen. Longstreet as United States
Marshal of &c 1rUia !