How were politicians killed? XNUMXth century
USA
On April 14, 1865, the actor assassinated his president, launching a century of assassinations and assassination attempts in the United States. The official version is that the actor Booth and eight of his associates agreed to kill the leadership of the USA and partially fulfilled their plan. Bout himself hid on the farm after the assassination attempt and was killed during the arrest. The motive is revenge for the defeat of the South. Four conspirators were hanged, including one woman.
There are versions and conspiracy theories: about an intra-elite conspiracy of the northerners themselves, led by Edwin Stenton. There are also absurdities, but, as for me, we attribute a lot based on the understanding of the 2st century. So, the protection of senior officials was then near zero, the president in the theater was supposed to have one guard. And he turned out to be a drunkard and a slob. As a result, the first assassinated US president and a shock in society. Quite expected in such circumstances. However, the first did not become the last, and less than twenty years later, on July 1881, 9, at 30:XNUMX in the morning, President James Garfield was assassinated at the Washington-Pennsylvania station.
The killer is lawyer Charles Guiteau, a supporter of Garfield and his agitator in the elections. He killed when he did not get the post of ambassador he hoped for. There are inconsistencies in this murder: how easily the killer approached the victim, and the fact that the slightly wounded president died 17 days later from blood poisoning, and the fact that no one really investigated, the killer was quickly hanged. Meanwhile, Garfield, like Lincoln, strengthened the power of the president and tried to smooth out the contradictions between North and South, between whites and blacks.
Russia
In Russia in the XNUMXth century, two emperors were killed, and another was tried. Considering that there are only six emperors in this century, the figure is impressive.
And with the first assassination of Paul I, everything is more or less clear: a group of conspirators, which included his son, the future Emperor Alexander I, strangled their emperor with a silk guards scarf, having previously stunned him with a blow from a snuffbox. Disputes, in fact, are only about: is it they themselves or with English money? And, I think, they themselves are much more likely. Pavel Petrovich set about restoring order too abruptly, and he pressed too hard on the nobles, who were accustomed to complete freedom and impunity during Catherine's golden age.
But Alexander II - the conversation is different: the emperor, who gave Russia freedom, carried out deep reforms, created the beginnings of a civil society in Russia, was killed by this very society. Moreover, he was killed on the sixth attempt, which turned his reign into a period of terror. An attempt was made on the emperor:
- nobleman Karakozov, who justified himself with this:
- Polish rebel Anton Berezovsky, everything is clear here.
- The son of an official Solovyov, who works as a teacher and is a member of the "Earth and Freedom".
- The terrorist Zhelyabov (the explosion of the train by the People's Will), for example, thanks to the reforms of the same emperor, went from peasant to student, but preferred terror to a career.
- Terrorist Khalturin (explosion in Zimny), a native of wealthy peasants, who killed 11 ordinary soldiers, for whom he stood up.
- And finally, the murder by all the same Narodnaya Volya and all of the same raznochintsy on March 1, 1881.
The reforms were interrupted, and Alexander III began the reaction. Russia missed its chance for development, but received the beginnings of a revolution.
Europe
One should not think that shots and explosions rang out in Russia and the USA, and everything was quiet in old Europe. Killed in Europe.
Here is France, President Carno Sadi is assassinated in 1894 by an Italian anarchist. The best thing about motives is said:
Anarchism tormented Europe no less than the people of Russia, explosions and shots thundered in France regularly.
Or Italy - another anarchist kills King Umberto the First, officially - as revenge for the shooting of a peaceful demonstration. At the trial, the killer spoke pretentious nonsense, and then suddenly hanged himself in prison. Security, as always, did not work.
In Austria-Hungary, death came to the empress: Elisabeth of Bavaria was killed in Geneva by another Italian anarchist, Luigi Lukeni, who also traditionally hanged himself in prison. As a pretext for murder, he declared that he hated rich parasites... At the same time, Elizabeth herself was an enlightened and liberal woman who actively helped those in need.
In Spain, only the prime minister of the kingdom was killed. The killer is again the Italian anarchist Michele Angiolilo, who, as it were, took revenge for the arrests of his comrades-in-arms. This one was officially hanged for a change.
The list is impressive and, perhaps, inevitable in those conditions: a sharp break in the structure of society since the middle of the century gave rise to a layer of educated people, but poor and desperate, and they fought. Against the whole world. When they themselves, when they were used for these purposes, which can only be guessed now, for example, Elizabeth of Bavaria persuaded her husband to abdicate the throne, which leads to different thoughts. An explosive mixture was hidden behind the outer facade of Europe. And it's not about the ideas of Ravachol - in many ways he became the initiator of terror with his propaganda action:
But the matter is in the general state of society, when, in addition to politicians, they blew up the barracks, threw bombs on the boulevards and tried to blow up trains ...
And ahead was a terrible XNUMXth century, when they did not kill less. But more on that next time. And is it any wonder that this wave of hatred and controversy led to a world war? Society by the end of the century, drunk on blood, was ready for it.
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