The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1922-05-20
Attempts to Assassinate
Lenine and Trotzky
Revealed

Moscow, May 12.-Particulars of the
attempts to assassinate Premier Le-
nine and Leon Trotzky in 1918 have!
just been revealed in pamphlet
which has been published here by M.
Semenoff- -Vasilieff, formerly head Of
the fighting detachment of the Social
Revolutionary Party, organizer of
the attempted assassination and now
an agent, of the Cheka, or secret po-
lice
1t was owing to Semenoff's revela-
tions and charges that a number of
members of; the Social Revolutionary
Party and other suspects were ar
rested and. imprisoned by the State
Political Department and also that
members of the Central Executive
Committee of the Social Revolution
airy Party are are now about to be
tried before Bolshevist tribunal.
The announcement that these
trials were about to be held has
evoked numerous protests from the
Socialist Party of Sweden, of which
Premier Branting is the head, and al
SO from the Amsterdam and Vienna
Internationales and Arthur Hender-
son, head of the British Labor Party.
The attempts to assassinate Lennie
and Trotzky were the siznals for the
so-called Bolshevist "Red terror"
E which cost Russia thousands of lives.
Lenine and Trotzky escaped but
= two other Bolshevik officials, M. Volo-
darsky, Commissar of the Press af-
3 fairs, and M. Ouritzky, Commissar
of Elections were murdered.
Semenoff, who is now supposed to
q be in the service of the Cheka, tells
in his pamphlet of the military and
fighting, activities of the Social Rev.
olutionary Party in Russia in 1917
and 1918, and denounces well-known
:, persons of the opposing parties,
a many of whom have been in the
a Cheka prisons for nearly two or
three years.
n Semenoff says that in the Begin
e ming of 1918 it was decided to ere
n move" Lenine and. Trotzky in Mos
Y cow and G. E. Zinovieff, president of
= the Third Internationale, Volodar-
n sky and Ouritzky in Petrograd. 1t
s was first resolved to kill Lenine and
Trotzky by administering poison in
e their food or by sending up ply
= sician who should innoculate them
e with an infectious disease.
: This plan, however, was abandoned
| Of h
n nical character.
A new plan to kill them by shoot
ing was arrived at after prolonged
c discussion and full arrangements
y were made. Both Lenine and Trotzky
t were watched for long time as to
: their movements and habits. Lenine
t was overtaken when he left work
y mems meeting at a factory outside
the town and shot at with poisoned
: bullets by a revolutionary named
e Fanny K3pl"n.
The stt' .-ts.Han TrOtzky failed.
l He was Several times ambushed at
e the Moscow railway terminus at the
n time of the departure of his train
put at the very last minute he always
S changed his mind and went from a
= different station than the one fixed
d beforehand. One attempt on his life
n ended by derailing one. of his trains
e to Kazan in which he, however, was
: not present.
Appropriations of money from
D private persons, as we'll as Soviet in
stitutions, were organized. by the
= fighting detachments as means to
: carry on their work.
Their chief aim, however, was to
prevent the Germans from carrying
off the gold paid them by the Bolshe-
visits. under. the Brest-Litovsk treaty,
was not carried through. The plan
was to derail, the train which carried
the gold to- the border. The plot
railwaymm, made all necessary ar
rangements. For the purpose of de-
railing they selected hilly spot
several miles from Moscow. But the
: engine driver failed to slow down
. the train to allow the attempt to take
place as IL was arranged.
In the summer of 1920, at the time
of the war with Poland, Semenoff
the informer, who at that time was
member of the minority section of
the Social Revolutionary party, offer
ed the services Of his little group
for disorganization work at the rear
= = of the Polish army. The Cheka help
ed him to get through the front but
= he was soon arrested and under the
= threat of capital punishment was
> sent to the Varsow fortress.
Semenoff then wrote to General
> Boris SaWinkoff, formerly Russian
= Minister Of War and a member of
. the Central Executive Committee of
the Social Revolutionary Party, and
thanks to- Savinkoff's influence Sc
menoff was set free, this time for
disorganization work in Soviet Rus
= sia. In December of 1920. Semenoff