ASSASSINATION OF A GRAND DUKE

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5558, 8 April 1905, Page 11

ASSASSINATION OF A GRAND DUKE

BLOWN TO ATOMS CRIMIN'AT, (-I .CR.VrNG IX TUB DEED. Russian correspondents have supplied the English and American papers with graphic details of the murder of the Grand Duke Sergius within the walls of the Kremlin Palace at Moscow at 3 p.m. on February 17. The deed was committed by a single terrorist, who tlircw beneath the carriage of the Grand Duke a bomb charged with tho same high power explosive which wrought Minister von Plohvo's death. Tho missil© was packed with nails and fragments of iron, and its explosion tore tho imperial victim's body to ghastly fragments, A’hich strewed the snow for yards around. Every window in tho great, lofty facade of the Palace of Justice was shattered, anti hits of iron wore embedded deeply in the walls of tho arsenal, a hundred yards away. Tho assassin (according to several accounts) belongs to tho noted “fighting group” of tho Socialist Revolutionary Party, which has removed other prominent officials, and after tho St. Petersburg (nassaoro of January 22 drew -up a list of high officials whom it had condemned to death. The name of the Grand Duke .Sergius was at tho head of the list. Tho Grand Duke knew that ho otood in the shadow of death; but ail tho resources of the gendarmerie, secret police, and soldiers proved unavailing iflgaiust an attempt almost exactly duolicabing tho procedure that caused the death, of the Minister of the Interior, M. von Plehvo, last July. THE IRONY OF FATE. it was the irony of fate that Sergius, ■lifter taking refuge in his country villa during tho strike troubles, and later seeking even more secure •sbelter in tho palace within the Kremlin walls, should bo killed while proceeding to the Governor-General's palace beyond the walls, and which ho had abandoned to enable the police to better protect him. Grand Duchess Elizabeth, who had been engaged daily in the task of preparing comforts for the sick and Wounded Russian soldiers in Manchuria, was about to drive to the palaco to join her husband. When she hoard what had befallen tho Grand Duke she was driven in haste to the scone of tho tragedy, and knelt, hat less and coat-less, on tho blood-stained snow and murmured prayers for tho welfare of the ■soul of her slain consort. SCENE OF THE CARNAGE. The scene of the crime was the great open triangle within the Kremlin, bounded by the arsenal, Treasury, and Courts of Justice, in one angle of which is the Nicholas or little palace, where the Grand Duke dwelt. Aft lie opposite corner is tho Nikolsky gate, the exit to the town beyond the ramparts. A few minutes before Die boll of the gate •sounded tho hour of three tho equipage of tho Grand Duke emerged from the gates of the palace, and proceeded, followed by sleighs containing secret police. Hie equipage swept at a smart, pace toward the gate, passing the Ohoudoff cloister, Ivan’s Tower, the Great Czar Bell, and long rows of cannon captured from Napoleon in the winter retreat of 1812. In a moment the carriage was in front of the Courts of Justice, where the walls of tho triangle approach, forming a narrow entrance to tho Nikolsky Gate. A sleigh was standing in a tunnel, Formed by the tower of tho Nicholas Gate, mid in it wore two men, tme of them dressed as a workman. As the royal carriage approached, tho sleigh shot out, and then drew back as if to allow the Grand Duke’s equipage to pass. Just as the carriage came alongside tho sleigh, one of tho men rose to his feet, took a bomb from beneath his rough fur coat, and hurled it beneath the wheels of the passing vehicle. An explosion followed. It was heard all oyer Moscow; it shattered all tho windows in tho Law Courts, 200 yards away, and was felt in every apartment of tho Kremlin. Hie carriage was blown to pieces, and the Grand Duke was killed instantaneously. Tho condition of the body was frightful. The remains could scarcely be recognised as those of f man, much less identified ns those of the Grand Doke. Hie explosion had nont tho carriage from the box, and the coachman was frightfully injured, but by some chance tho horses were not toadied. Thev dashed frantically across the square, the coachman screaming as ho lay on the ground. A policeman and a watdiman, who were the only eyewitnesses of the assassination, picked up tho coachman. He was at his last gasp, and died before ho could be taken to hospital. .The horses dashed in terror through tie gate, and- raced through the streets for a couple of miles, when they dashed into a wall, and were so badly hurt that they had to bo shot. Wien tie smoko Of the explosion of the bomb had drifted away, fragments of halt tho carriage could be seen on tie ground, with shreds of a military cloak. All that was left of the Grand, Duko were part of his trunk, a few fragments of his legs and arms, and part of his skull. Hie shell had cxlodod in or immediately under tho vehicle. Portions of wreckage, as. well as the Grand Duke’s ring and cigar case, were discovered 80 yards away. Before anything could bo demo toward collecting tho scattered fragments, Grand Duchess Elizabeth, whose married life is reported to have been anything but happy, drove up in an open marriage. She had lined her work «.f the headquarters of tho Red Cross and sped to the eceno of the crime without waiting to don her outer wraps. She broke down at the sight and dropped to her knees, sobbing. After a fen’ minutes she was led away. The 1 Duke’s remains were collected, placed on a stretcher, covered with an officer’s coat, and taken into the Nicholas Palaco by tho same gate whence a few moments before his carriage had emerged. Shortly afterwards the corpse ■was arranged, as custom requires, in military uniform for public disnlay, during the funeral service in the Ohundoff Monastery. This was a sad duty. As the oaken coffin lay open upon the bier it could not escape observation, mid tho military garments were half empty and the corpse headless. THE ASSASSIN INJURED. The assassin was thrown to tho ground and stunned by the force of the explosion, but immediately arose and ran toward tbo gate. His haste and the blood streaming from his face, where lie had been wounded by frag-

ments of the bomb, attracted the attention of a sergeant of police, who seized him before ho could draw a revolver. The man did not deny his crime, hut, on the contrary, gloried in its success. He expressed his satisfaction that ho had been able to kill the Grand Duke, without involving the Duchess. He avowed his membership in the Socialist Revolutionary organisation, hub refused to give his name, and at tho gaol his papers were found to he forged. Tho revolver with which ho was armed was an automatic magazine pistol of the same type as the weapon employed by Hohenthal, the murderer of Soinincn, Procurator-General of Finland. AN UNPOPULAR PRINCE. As Governor-General of Moscow he was intensely unpormlar. His advent as Governor-General of Moscow was followed by the expulsion of tho Jews from tho contra' provinces, and throughout his administration Ids rigorons ;uid harsh inca&iu’c.s aroused w.he greatest hostility, especially among the students. Two years ago, after tho student riots, in which many were killed or wounded, several hundred expulsions to Siberia followed under the orders of Grand Duke Sergius and General Trepoff. who was then Chief of Police of Moscow. As there were many thteats made against bis life, the Grand Duke was obliged to flee to his summer residence, 20 miles from the city. During tho recent strike disturbances the Grand Duke loft tho Diskoutohny Palaco, on the outskirts of tho city, where ho had been living, and took refuge inside tho ramparts of the Kremlin, where ho had lived in Avhat is known as tho little palace, opposite the famous statue of Alexander IT. The trip to tho Kremlin on that occlusion was made at night between solid Jincs of troops. Tho sentence of death on Grand Duko Sergius was contained in a proclamation issued by tho Socialist Revolutionists of Moscow after the demonstration on December 11 of last year at St, Petersburg was put down. Ib road: —“If our demonstration at Moscow (December 18 and 111) is crushed in us bloody a manner as that, of our brothers of St. Petersburg, then be guilt therefore upon the head of Grand Duke Sergius and General Trepoff, and we. tho committee, in that event havo foreordained their death.” At the time sentences of death were pronounced by the terrorists upon Grand Duke Sergius it was reported that Grand Duko Alexis. Procurator of tho Holy Synod, Pobiedenostzeff, and General Trepoff, then Chief of Police of Moscow, were also condemned to death, and, according to some reports, similar sentence was imposed upon the Dowager Empress, Mario Fedorovna.