Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-03
Example of Assassination Set
by the Cars.
THE RECORD OF MURDER
RUSSIAN THRONE REEKS WITH
IMPERIAL BLOOD.
Only Two Members of the Reigning
Family Have Been Slain
by Plebeians.

In assassinating members of the imperial
family of Russia the people merely are
following the dreadful precedent estab-
lished by their rulers.
The history of the cars is drenched with
blood, the greater part of which stains i'm
perial hands.
In the Tretyakof gallery at Moscow is a
picture representing the first of these reA
voting murders-the Inauguration of the
shocking system of killing members of the
imperial family. And this crime was COM
mtted by czar-Ivan the Terrible The
picture, lurid in colorS, shows Ivan holding
in his arms the son he has just stricken
to death with his heavy staff The instant
the deed is done this imperial madman. the
autocrat of Il nation of slaves, is horror
stricken. He crouches on the ground with
the body of his dying son in his arms. He
seeks to stop the blood streaming from the
gaping wound and dyeing the carpet. He
kisses the hair where his death-dealing club
struck.
There are tears and terror in his eyes
he has killed his son; he the car, the ar
bitter of a million lives, can do nothing to
save the boy. His fierce, unchecked anger
that ruled the nation in fear is now gone,
and in its place are sorrow and remOrSe.
Ivan died of broken heart soon after
ward. in 1854.
Not far from this picture, in the same
gallery, is another CHASTITY scene of imper-
ial life in Russia. Sophie, sister of Peter
the Great. is shown in her prison cell,
forced to witness the hanging of her faith
full bodyguards on scaffold just outside
her window. 1t is a fair example of the
brotherly attentions bestowed by these for
mer rulers of Russia, and history hints that
this same Peter caused his own son to be
put 20 death.
faint of Barbarian Blood.
Modern Russian history begins with Peter
the Great, or, as some writer's say, it ended
with him. because he was the last of the
real Russian ears. After him came sue
ceedng generations of German intermar-
riages, until scarcely a drop of Muscovite
blood remains in their veins. But time and
again there cropped out the madness and
the boodt hirstineSs of the barbarians that
ruled for centuries at Moscow.
More than century and half ago,
when expresses ruled Russia because the
men were killed off, poor little chap came
to the throne and assumed the title of Ivan
l. His predecessor had been the Empress
Anna, and her lover, Biron, set himself up
as the regent over this youth.
But such things could not last. 1t was
merely question of how soon conspiracy
could be formed stronger than the regent.
The time was short Swords and daggers
did their work, but poor little ivan was
thrust into prison and there forgotten dur
ing the entire reign of a diSsolute woman,
who took the name of Empress Elizabeth
and who made adventures and lovers min
listers of state.
Yet Elizabeth was nothing compared
with the woman who next assembled the
throne. Sophie Augusta, Princess of An
halt-Zerbst, who took the title of Catharlne
IL 1t is strange that these dissolute, i'm
moral murderesses who ruled Russia all
died natural deaths, while cars and grand
dukes were assassinated right and left
Catharine was not empress in her own
had husband Peter |,
came to the throne January D, 1i62 SIX
months later he was dead man, murdered
by the order of his own wife
Crimes of Catharine II.
This crime is one of the most shocking
and tragic in Russian history. AS between
the morals of husband and wife there is no
choice Eacl. was conspirinS to put the
other out of the way, in which little game
Catharine won out by appearing in dashlng
costume before the guards and getting them
on her side.
Peter tried to run away but was caught
and put in prison. Thither went Count Or
loft chief of Catharine's lovers, and tried TO
poison the car. But Peter detected the
poison in the glass of wine and refused 10
drink Then the powerful orion selZed 'he
car and strangled him, for which crime ne
received the thanks and continued favor of
the empress.
Having got rid of her husband, Catharine
Topped
the throne She found poor little Ivan IN
his forgotten prison. a deluded lieutenant
of the army had attempted to set MN free,
so that he might take the throne as lawful
car The governor of the prison had ms
orders what to do in such an event. He
shot poor little Ivan, VINO mad been
prisoner twelve years, and that was the
end Of another car.
These two crimes of Catharlne are but
fraction of those she committed There
was an illegitimate daughter Of Elizabeth
living quietly at Pisa, Italy. Catharne had
her abducted and taken to Cronstadt. I1lat
was the last seen of this imperial princess.
The sins of enc generation often are
visited onwthe next The bloody Catharine
had a son who, after his mothers long
reign, came to the throne in 1894. The sim
plest exclamation of this cars life and end
is that he was maniac.
He knouted his subjects into obeying his
slightest caprice. Once he wrote a para
graph for the official gazette declaring that
quarrels between states should be settled
bv personal encounters between their SOW
ereigns, with prime ministers as seconds
Barred Very Terms of Freedom.
He hated the spirit of freedom so much
he forbade the of the word liberty
and ordered the Academy of Science to omit
the word revolution when speaking of
the courses of the heavenly bodies in as
tronomy.
He began treating his wife and son with
worse severity than was lnflcted by That
mad King of Prussia ON his son, Frederick
the Great.
For five years the courters in the palace
and the officers of the army endured this
car Then they plotted his removal" The
reigning family of Russia has endeavored
to deny the stain of completely in this
nineteenth-century assassination, but his
tory records the cold facts of the part Alex
ander, son of Paul, played in this crime
No one accuses Alexander of direct par
tcipation in the murder. but he was privy
TO the plot to dethrone his father. -
A group of officers of the guards went to
the palace in st. Petersburg the night of
March %, 1901 determined to force Paul to
abdicate. and kill him If necessary. He
fought desperately, was overpowered and
slowly strangled in his own room.
This crime ends the list of family assas-
sinations. Henchforth the murders are
committed by the people struggling to
throw off the yoke of despotism. Obnox-
ous governors hated ministers and cruel
minor officials have been put to death by
the score in recent years. but only one
car, Alexander II. has fallen under the
anarchists hand, although many attempts
have been made to kill each ruler during
the past century.
Nor has any grand duke been killed until
SergiuS aSSaSSinated.