The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1905-02-10
ASSASSINATION IS
GEARS HERITAGE
Hangs an Ever Present Terror
Over Rulers OF the Ro-
manoft House
THEIR BLOODY HISTORY
From Michael Down the Dynasty Has
Lived 800 Years in the Shadow of
the Terror-Mo Deaths and
Still More Attempts.
THEIR q o HISTORY

st. Petersburg special: The car
knows that any moment may chronicle
his assassination. sudden death by
dagger, bomb and poison stalks beside
the ruler of all the Russias, and has
done since 1913. when Micnacl. the first
of the Romanoffs, was Eco
dol L., the last of the race OF Ruric.
had been murdered only a few years be-
fore, and with Michael comes in the
long story of murder and sudden death.
Peter the Great, at he 6 Of IL
years. barely escaped assassination ana
was only saved by the devotion of his
mother. When he came to power he
remembered that his sister Sophia had
tried to have him killed. SO he shaved
off her beautiful hair, put her in a con-
vent and by extreme cruelty caused her
SLOW death.
Lured and Poisoned.
Then hts hate concentrated on his
own son Alexis. The son fled. but was
lured back to the palace on promises.
and poisoned. When Peter died anoth-
or son, Ivan A~ntonovitch, then only 3
years old, became his successor. The
ohild's elder sister. Elizabeth. thrust
the boy in a cell. and later. when Pc
ter III, the nsurper. had succeeded
Elizabeth. Ivan was killed. his body be-
ing pierced twenty-five times by
swords.
The wife of Peter III. then entered
the lists of an assassin. She dethroned
Peter and sent her admirer, Alexis Or
!iff, to poison him. Peter refused the
wine, but on July II. 1762. Orloff
%strangled him..
In 1850 Paul was declared mentally
deranged, and the following year he
was quietly murdered so that no fur
ther trouble NJ! be had with him.
Long Series of Attempts.
The long reigns of Alexander l. and
~ - 49,. 49,. ,.,1,.l nv ~ cnrinS If
attempts at assassination that are re-
markable in that they did not succeed.
The intrigues looking to the death OF
the Russian sovereign were discovered
in the army. and in court and among
the people. But the two monarchs
escaped violent death many times by
narrow margin. and finally died In
their beds.
Alexander II. succeeded to the throne
of Russia in 1855. and his history is one
long fight to preserve his life from the
murderers tina tracked hrm. The dag
gen and the pistol having failed. they
resorted to the use of bombs.
Despite precautions. Alexander IL
was killed by a bomb thrown by a mar
who was killed himself by the same
explosion in St. Petersburg on March
'l3, 1881.
Plots, Mines, Bombs.
The reign of Alexander Ill, the IA
Their of the present ozar, reads like a
page from the notebook of a nihilist
Conspiracies, mines, bombs. officials
assassinated, the immediate encourage
of the ear under suspicion-these arc
hut a few of the things that the ruler
of the Russias had to face. But ht
died in his bed at Livadia in 1894, ant
Nicholas III. succeeded to the heritage
of woe and sudden death.
Since his accession several deeply
rooted conspiracies have been discov-
cred. and the recent event at the bless
ing of the Neva is but part and parce
of what the Russian ruler is compelled
to face.