This article recounts the story of Sophia Perovskaya – a Russian noblewoman turned revolutionary who played a key role in the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881 – along with her trial and public execution. The content is for educational and historical documentation only, based on court records, archival materials, and historical accounts. It does not aim to glorify violence or advocate for any political ideology.
The Execution of the Woman Who Assassinated the Russian Tsar: Sophia Perovskaya and the Death of Alexander II
Throughout history, there have been many assassins who killed kings, queens, and rulers. Fanny Kaplan, a nearly blind woman, became notorious for her attack on Vladimir Lenin in 1918. However, many decades earlier, another woman played a pivotal role in the death of Russian Tsar Alexander II.
Sophia Perovskaya was an aristocratic woman who became swept up in revolutionary ideas. She was a member of a group that conspired to assassinate the Russian Emperor. They wanted to change the country, and they built bombs. Perovskaya herself helped assemble the bombs the night before the attack .
They threw two bombs at the Tsar’s carriage, resulting in a brutal death for Alexander II. Perovskaya was arrested for her involvement and sentenced to death. Along with several other conspirators, she was executed on the gallows before a massive crowd of tens of thousands of spectators .
Let us explore the story of “The Execution of the Woman Who Assassinated the Russian Tsar.”
1. Who Was Sophia Perovskaya? From Aristocratic Heiress to Revolutionary
Sophia Lvovna Perovskaya was born on September 13, 1853 [O.S. September 1] in St. Petersburg, into a highly distinguished aristocratic family . Her father, Lev Nikolaevich Perovsky, served as the military governor of St. Petersburg . Her grandfather had been governor of the Crimea under Tsar Alexander I . By birthright, she was part of the Russian elite.
Despite her privileged upbringing, Perovskaya rebelled against her authoritarian father, whom she reportedly despised for his arrogance and harsh treatment of her mother . In 1869, she enrolled in the Alarchin Women’s College in St. Petersburg, where she became exposed to radical political ideas . She soon joined the “Circle of Tchaikovsky” and became a fervent believer in populist revolution.
In 1872, she left home permanently, cutting ties with her father to work as a teacher in Tver Province, living among the peasants she hoped to liberate . By 1878, she had joined the secret revolutionary society “Land and Liberty” (Zemlya i Volya). When that organization split in 1879, Perovskaya joined the more radical faction: “People’s Will” (Narodnaya Volya) .
Perovskaya believed that only the assassination of the Tsar could trigger a popular uprising against the autocracy. She became a member of the Executive Committee of People’s Will, one of the key planners of multiple assassination attempts against Alexander II .
2. The Relationship with Andrei Zhelyabov: Love and Revolution
During her revolutionary activities, Perovskaya met Andrei Zhelyabov, who became both her common-law husband and her partner in conspiracy . Zhelyabov was the chief organizer and leader of the plot to assassinate the Tsar. They made no secret of their relationship, working closely together to recruit members and develop the workers’ section of the party . Fellow revolutionary Vera Figner noted that Perovskaya possessed “extraordinary energy” and that without her “calmness and remarkable thoroughness and efficiency, the assassination might have been delayed” .
3. The Assassination of Tsar Alexander II: March 13, 1881
The assassination of Alexander II was not a spontaneous act. It was the culmination of nearly two years of planning, involving multiple failed attempts, including bombings of the imperial train and a mine planted in the Winter Palace.
By early 1881, the conspirators had settled on a final plan. They would attack the Tsar’s carriage as he returned to the Winter Palace from his usual Sunday military roll call . A team of four bomb-throwers—Nikolai Rysakov, Ignacy Hryniewiecki, Timofey Mikhailov, and Ivan Yemelyanov—was assembled .
On the night of March 12, 1881 (the night before the attack), Perovskaya personally helped assemble the bombs, which were designed by fellow revolutionary Nikolai Kibalchich .
On March 13, 1881 (O.S. March 1), the Tsar’s carriage left the Mikhailovsky Manege. Zhelyabov, the designated leader of the operation, had been arrested two days earlier . Perovskaya immediately took command.
When the Tsar’s carriage changed its route unexpectedly, avoiding a pre-planted mine on Malaya Sadovaya Street, Perovskaya improvised. Using a handkerchief to blow her nose as a pre-arranged signal, she dispatched the bomb-throwers to the Catherine Canal . Rysakov threw the first bomb. It damaged the carriage and injured several guards, but the Tsar emerged unharmed.
As Alexander II stepped down to check on the wounded, Hryniewiecki rushed forward and threw a second bomb directly at his feet . The explosion mortally wounded both the Tsar and the bomber. Alexander II’s legs were shattered below the knee, his abdomen was torn open, and his face was mutilated . He was carried to the Winter Palace, where he died hours later.
Perovskaya, standing calmly across the canal, watched the entire scene. She immediately went to a café to inform another comrade of the success, then attended an emergency meeting of the Executive Committee .
4. The Arrest: A Noblewoman Who Refused to Flee
After the assassination, Perovskaya could have escaped. She had the connections and the time. But she refused to leave St. Petersburg, hoping to find a way to free Zhelyabov from prison . She was arrested on March 22 (O.S. March 10), 1881, on Nevsky Prospect .
5. The Trial: Before the Special Tribunal of the Ruling Senate
Perovskaya was tried before the Special Tribunal of the Ruling Senate (Особое присутствие Правительствующего Сената) from March 26 to March 29, 1881 . The trial was a public spectacle, packed with journalists and officials. The prosecutor was Nikolai Muravyov, a childhood friend of Perovskaya’s from her time in Pskov . Where they had once played together as children, they now stood as accuser and accused.
She refused to show remorse. In a letter to her mother written just before her trial, she declared:
“My darling, I implore you to be calm, and not to grieve for me; for my fate does not afflict me in the least, and I shall meet it with complete tranquility, for I have long expected it, and known that sooner or later it must come. […] I have lived as my convictions dictated, and it would have been impossible for me to have acted otherwise” .
All five defendants—Andrei Zhelyabov, Sophia Perovskaya, Nikolai Kibalchich, Timofey Mikhailov, and the turncoat Nikolai Rysakov—were found guilty of regicide and sentenced to death by hanging
6. The Public Execution: April 15, 1881
The execution took place on the parade grounds of the Semenovsky Regiment in St. Petersburg on April 15, 1881 (O.S. April 3) . It was a massive public spectacle. The correspondent for the London Times estimated that nearly 100,000 spectators had gathered to witness the hanging .
The five condemned prisoners were dressed in black prison uniforms. Around their necks hung placards inscribed with the word: “Regicide” (Цареубийца) .
Perovskaya was transported to the scaffold on a cart, seated alongside Kibalchich and Mikhailov . According to eyewitness accounts, she displayed astonishing courage.
When priests ascended the gallows to offer last rites, the convicts approached them and kissed the crucifix. Zhelyabov and Mikhailov then approached Perovskaya, and they kissed each other goodbye . When the traitor Rysakov approached her, Perovskaya turned away in disgust—refusing to acknowledge the man whose testimony had helped convict them .
7. “The First Woman Executed in Russia for a Political Crime”
The hangman placed the noose around her neck. The trapdoor opened. Sophia Perovskaya was 27 years old.
She became the first woman in Russian history to be executed for a political crime . Her father, the powerful governor, could not save her. The new Tsar, Alexander III (father of Nicholas II), personally ensured that no clemency would be granted. “If they had attempted to assassinate me, I might perhaps forgive them,” he said. “But for the murder of my father, I will not” .
The bodies of the executed were placed in cheap black coffins and transported to a secret burial site, unmarked and unknown.
Perovskaya’s legacy, however, did not die. For later generations of Russian revolutionaries, she became a martyr—a symbol of total dedication to the cause.
Sophia Perovskaya was not a madwoman or a fanatic. She was a highly educated noblewoman who could have lived a life of comfort and privilege. Instead, she chose to dedicate—and sacrifice—her life to the belief that the Russian autocracy had to be destroyed.
She gave the signal that killed a Tsar. And she met her own death on the gallows with a courage that stunned even her enemies. For that, she remains one of the most controversial and fascinating figures in Russian history: a woman who, from the scaffold, refused to bow to the very empire she was born to rule.
Primary Sources:
Wikipedia – Assassination of Alexander II of Russia / Sophia Perovskaya
Brooklyn Museum – Dinner Party Heritage Floor: Sofia Perovskaya
Virginia Tech Digital History Reader – Evidence on Perovskaya’s execution
Spartacus Educational – Sophia Perovskaya
St. Petersburg Encyclopedia – Perovskaya S.L.
MK Pskov – Execution of Perovskaya (April 15, 2024)
Russian Criminal History Archive – April 3, 1881 (O.S.) execution records