Modern World
Civilization
Spring 2008
Legacy of the French Revolutionary
The Jacobins established organs
of state security that guaranteed compliance.
These included the Committee of
Public Safety, Committee of General Security, and the Revolutionary Tribunals.
These organizations forced the
French public either to comply or face the wrath of the state.
As well as hunting down threats
to the state either at home or abroad.
Charlotte Corday: The Real Deal
A strikingly attractive woman of
25 would not to appear a terrorist.
Who came from a minor Norman
family.
She was greatly influenced by
the Philosophes, particularly Rousseau.
She also supported the Republic,
but not the Jacobins.
Whom she believed drove the
Republic to the lowest point.
But She Became an Assassin of Marat
Because of . . .
Of the treatment her Parish
Priest received at the hands of the Jacobins.
Since he refused to swear
loyalty to the state, he lost his parish and had to go into hiding.
A hunting party finally found
him and he was executed.
She decided at some point that
she must strike a blow against the Jacobins.
The Death of Marat
Charlotte Corday arrived in
Paris on 12 July 1793.
Marat, her target, by this time
was at the height of his popularity.
But Marat was sick, and Corday
was disappointed since she planned on murdering him in the middle of the
convention.
Now she had to improvise.
She decided to go to his
residence and kill him there.
At 7:00 she arrived at Marats
residence armed with a letter and knife.
His maid did not what her to
enter, but Marat yelled to her to let her in.
Then she went to the his bath
and stabbed him to death.
The Use of Germ Warfare
Earlier, it was common for
medieval armies to catapult corpses of diseased bodies into walled cities.
But during Pontiacs Uprising,
Jeffery Amherst gave the Ottawa Indians blankets contaminated with smallpox.
This broke the back of the
Indians.
The first time Germ Warfare was
used in North America.
The Situation in Ireland
The
Troubles in Ireland have a long history.
Before the recent
unpleasantness, the opposition to the British was non-denominational.
This was obvious by first by
Whiteboys
and Rightboys.
Who attacked anyone the
membership believed took advantage of the Irish tenants.
Murder and other violent acts
were common.
The Legacy of 98
The Irish rose up against the
British under the banner of the
United Irishmen.
And invited the French to send
an army to help.
The leaders included
Wolfe Tone, Edward Fitzgerald,
Robert
and Thomas Emmet.
This rising, and others like it,
failed.
But there was considerable
violence and brutality on both sides.
Which only fanned the flames of
hatred for years.
Irish Nationalism and Terrorism at
Mid-Century
Ireland underwent, like other
European regions, a wave of youthful nationalism.
Much like Young Italy, Young
Russia, Young Ireland sought improvements for the Irish.
The question was how to
accomplish it.
The British from
Dublin Castle
kept a close watch on Irish nationalism.
Some Irishmen lost faith of
trying to work within the system.
They thought the only way to
bring about change was by revolutionary action.
Which included use of terrorism.
This became known as the
Fenian Movement.
The Fenian Movement
This was the work of
James Stephens
who sought to create a new, Irish revolutionary movement.
This was modeled after what he
saw in Europe.
He wanted to create a similar
organization in Ireland, with slightly better security than the
United Irishmen.
But likewise he wanted to link
up with the Irish of the Diaspora, especially in America.
Goals of the Fenians
The goal was to raise an Irish
Army in America and then invade the Old Sod.
They actually invaded Canada.
The British had informers
monitoring the Fenians now called the
Irish Republican Brotherhood.
Stephens barely avoided arrest
and was deposed.
The leaderships were arrested.
Following a series of skirmishes
in 1867.
Then terrorists commenced.
The Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB)
It was a small, secret,
revolutionary movement better known as the
Fenians
in the 1850s and 1860s.
They led an unsuccessful rising
in 1867
(much like all previous Irish Risings in 1798 and later).
They were hopelessly divided
over leadership.
The organization received a new
breath of life following the release from prison of
Jeremiah ODonovan
and Rosa and
John Devoy
in 1871.
With no hope of revolutionary
activity in the foreseeable future, the
IRB Supreme Council
agreed to work with the Irish Parliamentary Party led by
Charles Stewart Parnell.
IRB Actions in England
On Sept 18, 1867, the IRB broke
intercepted a Police van taking two IRB prisoners to a local prison near
Manchester.
Thirty men with revolvers freed
the prisoners.
A police sergeant were killed in
the attack.
The British then rounded-up
hundreds of Irish and found some suspects.
Who were actually members of the
IRB.
Three were tried and eventually
hanged.
Giving the nationalists their
heroes.
The Clerkenwell Prison Incident
This involved an attempt to free
Richard OSullivan Burke, who was the arms organizer for the IRB.
On Dec. 12, while Burke was
supposed to be exercising in the prison yard.
The authorities figured out that
an attempt was about to be made.
And altered his routine.
When the bomb went off, the wall
was crumpled and 12 Londoners and over 30 others were killed or seriously
injured.
The IRB Mobilizes for the Land Issue
With no prospect of
revolutionary action, the IRB leadership agreed to work with Parnell.
They wanted to mobilize tenant
farmers to press for land reform called the new departure between 1879-82.
It was hoped that this would
weaken the British position in Ireland and create the seeds for revolutionary
activity.
Meanwhile the IRB commenced
dynamite campaign in English cities.
Setting the stage for the
Phoenix Park murders.
The Phoenix Park Murders
The most violent terrorist acts
in Irish history in the 19th Century were the
Phoenix Park Murders.
Which took place on May 6, 1882
in Dublin.
The victims were
Lord Frederick Cavendish
and Thomas Henry Burke.
The murderers were part of the
Irish Republican Brotherhood called the
Invincibles.
Cavendish was the Secretary for
Ireland and Burke was his Under- secretary.
Links to Parnell and the Irish
Parliamentary Party?
Conservatives wanted to link
Parnell with the Invincibles in order to put
Home Rule to rest.
However, the Invincibles were
closely associated with the Land League to conduct terrorist actions, ie,
political assassinations.
They originally wanted to
assassinate the former Secretary for Ireland,
William Buckshot Forster.
Perhaps for his role in the
Great Famine.
The Perpetrators
The Invicibles were led by John
McCafferty, an Irish-American.
But James Carey, a Dublin Slum
Lord, was the leader of the death squad.
Others were Joseph Brady, Joseph
Smith, Michael Kavanaugh, James Fitzharris, and Thomas Kelly.
Using 12-inch surgical knives,
Thomas Kelly knifed Cavendish, while Brady cut Burkes throat.
Passers-by discovered the bodies
and sought the police.
The First Attempts
The Dublin squad went to Burkes
residence in Phoenix Park only to discover he had left for work.
Then they went to the Royal Oak
Tavern near Phoenix Park to wait for him to arrive.
This time they had 20 men with
them.
But Burke returned home by
another route.
The death squad was too
intoxicated to carry out the murder.
Later, a police informant notice
one of the leaders hanging around the park.
Public Reaction to the Murders
The Invincibles left black
calling cards at local newspapers taking credit for the murders.
The public was shocked.
The English public saw this as
an example of the barbarism of the Irish as
Punch
demonstrated.
The police broke the case by
using informants that fingered the ring leaders.
Two turned states evidence,
five were hanged, and three sentenced to penal servitude.
A parliamentary commission
exonerated Parnell.
Long-Term
Impact of the Murders
Only further divided Irish
Protestants and Irish Catholics.
Only leading to a further
separation between the North and South.
The terror in England only made
the Conservatives more resistant to Home Rule.
American Irish ultimately won
out by continuing their efforts for violent action.
Terrorism achieved its long-term
goals which continued until 1916.
The Coming of Alexander II (1855-81)
Alexander II ascended to the
throne at a time of considerable upheaval.
First he had to end the Crimean
War.
Then he had to deal with the
issue of serfdom.
Plus countless other issues that
Russia needed to address.
And it was up to him and no one
else.
First he ended the war, then
liberated the serfs in 1861.
But There Was Trouble in Russia
The reforms did not go far
enough for many younger Russians.
In 1861-63 emerged an amorphous
organization dedicated to reform called Land
and Liberty, or in Russian,
Zemlya i Volya.
Land and Liberty felt that
Russia had not gone far enough and violence could be used to achieve those end.
Then out of the blue in 1866, D.
V. Karakozov attempted to kill Alexander II in the Winter Garden.
Why would he try something like
this?
Alienated Youth
While Alexander II introduced
reforms concerning local government, the judicial proceedings, and in education.
It was not enough to satisfy
everyone.
Students, many from the
privilege classes, wanted more.
Turgenev discussed this
situation in his novel Fathers and Sons.
The young people that Turgenev
described were called Nihilists since they
rebelled against everything sponsored by the the previous generation.
It would be these people
attracted to the revival of
Land and Liberty in 1876
and decided that all they had to do was go to the people.
But who were the people?
The peasants but the peasants
didnt trust them.
Still, they though that they
knew what the people wanted.
The Spiritual Guru to Land and Liberty
This was Mikhail Bakunin.
Who not only was involved in most
of the revolutionary events of the 19th century.
Likewise he wrote a number of
works, often how-to-do books on revolutionary activity.
These included
Principles of Revolution
and The Revolutionary Catechism.
But he showed them how to
infiltrate existing institutions by disguise and deception.
He advocated that revolutionaries
ID their enemies and kill them.
Some in
Land and Liberty
favored terrorism and
Alexander Soloviev tried to kill Alexander
II in April 1879.
Alexander Soloviev: A Terrorist
The Tsar was the principal
target.
He was a former school teacher.
His attempt was made on April
14, 1879.
A month later he was executed.
In Oct. 1879 Land and Liberty
divided, those who advocated terrorism created the
Peoples Will.
Declaring War on the Tsar
The next attempt came on Feb.
17, 1880, after Stefan Khalturin found a job in the Winter Palace as a
carpenter.
He smuggled dynamite into the
Winter Palace.
And set the changes as a
mine
under the dinning room of the Winter Palace.
Unbeknownst to the
Peoples Will, the
dinner was delayed.
When the mine went off, 67
people where either killed or badly wounded, but the tsar was not harmed.
The Peoples Will contacted the
government and notified the authorities that they would call off the campaign
when a constitution was adopted, censorship was terminated, and censorship came
to an end.
Loris Melikov
was tasked with both devising a constitution and infiltrating the terrorist
organization since he was the Minister of Interior.
Frustrations Mount
The leadership of the Peoples
Will became more frustrated that the Government had not take them on their
offer.
They decided on another attempt
to kill Alexander II.
The plot included
Sophia Perovskaya, Andrei Zhelyabov,
Gesia Gefman, Nikolai Sablin, Ignatei Grinevitski, Nikolai Rysakov, and Timofei
Mikhailov.
The Okhrana Hot on the Trail
The Okhrana discovered the plot.
And arrested
Andrei Zhelyabov
in February 1881.
However, he refused to cooperate
with the secret police.
But he told them that nothing
they did would save the life of the tsar.
The date was set for 1 March
1881.
The Peoples Will knew the Tsars
route from the Mkhailovsky Palace to the Winter Palace and kept eyes on the Tsar
as he traveled back with a Cossack escort.
Sophia Perovskaya
gave the signal.
The Attack
All along the route the Peoples
Will kept eyes on the Tsar.
Bombs were thrown by
Nikolai Rysakov
and Timofei Mikhailov.
The first two bombs landed
behind Cossacks.
Alexander decided to get out and
check the wounded.
Then
Ignatei Grinevitski
threw a third bomb that exploded between the legs of Alexander.
Alexander died shortly after
being taken to the Winter Palace.
The Results of the Attack
Did the Peoples Will Achieve Their Aims?
A massive Secret Police crack
down.
The new Tsar Alexander III was
totally opposed to reform.
The Peoples Will was crushed.
The First Kansas Terrorist
Many would say that the first
terrorist from the state was Terry Nichols.
If you feel that way, you would
be wrong.
For the first Kansas original
was none other than John Brown.
Who committed a series of
atrocities at Pottawatomie Creek.
In retaliation for other events.
Were those acts considered
terrorist in scope and intent?
Background to the
Pottawatomie Creek Massacres
Earlier Border Ruffians from
Missouri had burned Lawrence, the center of anti-slavery activity in Kansas.
Then Senator Charles Sumner was
severely beaten by Senator Preston Brooks of South Carolina.
Brown and his sons then on the
night of May 24, 1856, and traveled to Pottawatomie Creek to administer justice
at three small farms.
The
Border Ruffians Raid Lawrence
The Massacres
Doyle Farm
James and his two sons, William and Drury, were murdered, but his wife,
daughter, and fourteen-year old son were spared.
Allen Wilkinson
Farm Allen Wilkinson was taken prisoner
and two saddles and a rifle were confiscated.
Harris Farm
Killed only one individual, William Sherman.
The victims were hacked to death
with short swords.
Browns two sons, John Jr and
Jason, were apprehended and nearly lynched not far from Lawrence.
Was
He a Fanatic? Was he a Terrorist?
The Fate of Brown
Brown and his family left
Kansas.
And becomes involved in a larger
conspiracy to cause a massive slave uprising in the South.
His co-conspirators were known
as the Secret Six.
But first weapons had to be
procured for the uprising.
Those weapons were at Harpers
Ferry, VA.
The rest is history.
Was he a model for Terry
Nichols?
The
Secret Six
Theodore Parker
Thomas Wentworth Higginson
Samuel Gridley Howe
Franklin Sanborn
George Luther Sterns
John Murray Forbes
The British Model Against the IRB
Dublin Castle managed to
infiltrate the IRB and other Irish terrorist/nationalist organizations.
Despite the level of internal
control the Irish employed murder to deal with informers and potential
informers.
The infiltration, particularly
of the Fenians, allowed the British to knew fairly soon what the Irish were up
too.
And may explain why the
Invincibles were arrested as quickly as possible.
Capital punishment was often
administered and worked well before the Irish public became aroused as they did
during the Easter Rising.
The Russians Following
the Assassination of Alexander II
Controlled education.
Gave additional powers of
control to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the
Okhrana.
Upgrade censorship.
Expanded infiltration of
subversive organizations.
Summary executions, including
the death of Lenins brother Alexander.
Use of internal exile.
New Threat to the Russian Regime
In 1901 the
Social Revolutionaries
formed by Victor Chernov and others
playing key roles.
The goal was to confiscate all
land.
The land would then be divided
among the peasantry.
The Party also advocated the
creation of a constituent assembly to write a constitution for Russia.
For the workers they advocated
an 8 hour day.
The SRs were also influenced by
the Peoples Will and organized a terrorist wing.
Called the
SR Combat Organization.
The
SR Combat Organization
Gregori Gershuni
was selected to head this branch.
Membership was secret from the
rest of the party.
But instead of targeting the
Tsar, they targeted the tsars agents.
First targets were the Minister
of Education, D. S. Sigyapin and later
the Gov. of Ufa N. M.
Bogdanovich.
To help Gershuni, he was
assigned a Deputy, Evno Azef.
The Okhrana Infiltration of the SRs and
Bolsheviks
Evno Azef was a double agent.
He arranged the arrest of
Gershuni.
While an Okhrana agent, he
arranged the assassinations of the Minister of Interior V.
Plehve
and Father Gregori Gapon.
He did this while being paid
1,000 rubles a month as an informant!
The Problem for Azef
Taming the Terrorists: Peter Stolypin
He made a name for himself by
suppressing the SRs around Saratov in 1906.
Nicholas II then appointed him
Prime Minister.
He then began a land reform
program to separate the people from the SRs.
He granted more freedom to the
local units of government.
Then he introduced summary
court-martial proceedings that over 3,000 SRs or SR suspects were tried and
executed.
Then in 1911, after the country
was pacified, he was assassinated by reactionary elements in the government.
How Effective Was the Okhranas
Infiltration
Successes of the Okhrana in Perspective
The Russian Revolution was not
the result of the lack of surveillance by the Okhrana.
But the failure of the regime
itself.
Even following the victory of
Lenin and the Bolsheviks, they still faced a problem with the SRs who remained
active.
As was the case of Fanya Kaplan,
who attempted to kill Lenin on August 30, 1918.
She fired three shots, two
entered his body and were too difficult to remove.
SR Campaign Against the Bolsheviks
Fanya Kaplan
was quickly captured and shot on Sept. 3.
Yakov Sverdlov ordered that her
remains be destroyed so that not a trace remains.
Moisei Uritsky,
head of the Petrograd CHEKA
was also assassinated.
The Bolsheviks responded by
complete suppression.
Mass executions.
The Bolsheviks were not to make
the same mistake made by the Okhrana.