Ignacy Hryniewiecki

Ignacy Hryniewiecki
Bornc. 1856
DiedMarch 13, 1881 (aged c. 25)
Court Stables Infirmary, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire
Other namesKotik
Mikhail Ivanovich
Elnikov

Ignacy Hryniewiecki or Ignaty Ioakhimovich Grinevitsky[i] (Russian: Игнатий Гриневицкий, Polish: Ignacy Hryniewiecki, Belarusian: Ігнат Грынявіцкі; c. 1856 — March 13, 1881) was a Belarusian member of the Russian revolutionary society Narodnaya Volya. He gained notoriety for participating in the bombing attack to which Tsar Alexander II of Russia succumbed. Hryniewiecki threw the bomb that fatally wounded the Tsar and himself. Having outlived his victim by a few hours, he died the same day.

Hryniewiecki and his accomplices believed that the assassination of Alexander II could provoke a political or social revolution to overthrow the tsarist autocracy. Many historians consider the assassination a Pyrrhic victory, since instead of ushering in a revolution, it strengthened the resolve of the state to crush the revolutionary movement, leading to the movement's decline in the 1880s and setting Russia on a revitalized path of Tsarist autocracy which resulted in only incremental reforms after the Revolution of 1905 and, eventually, the Russian Revolution in 1917.

Hryniewiecki's role in the assassination has sometimes been cited as the earliest occurrence of suicide terrorism.


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