History proves countless times that any political leader who stays in power for a long time and promotes radical upheavals, revolutions and changes, sooner or later becomes the target for attempts on the part of opponents who disagree with the chosen course. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov - the world famous, legendary leader of the revolution, was no exception, like Hitler, Stalin, Pinochet and other odious historical figures. His life was repeatedly infringed by those who did not agree with the chosen political course and the method of its implementation.
What is Kaplan famous for?
The attempt on Lenin, which took place in 1918, although it was unsuccessful, was widely publicized. This incident is described in many history books, and as the main culprit there is a certain Mrs. Kaplan - a 28-year-old terrorist. Her unsuccessful attempt on Lenin led to the fact that the girl was caught and executed 3 days after the incident. But many historians doubt that Kaplan was able to invent and organize everything on her own. To date, the circle of those who probably could have been involved in the assassination attempt is very expanded. Moreover, the personality of Fani Kaplan is of great interest to both professional historians and ordinary people.
Lenin: a brief biography
A man who became the leader of the revolutionary movement and created by his political activity a powerful support, thanks to which the 1917 revolution in Russia was realized, was born in 1870. He was born in the city of Simbirsk. His older brother, Alexander, was opposed to the tsarist regime. In 1987, he participated in an unsuccessful attempt on Alexander the Third. This fact greatly influenced the future political position of Vladimir.
After graduating from a local school, Ulyanov-Lenin decided to enroll in law at Kazan University. It was there that his active social activities began. He strongly supports the Narodnaya Volya circle, which at that time was officially banned by the authorities. Student Volodya Lenin also becomes an active participant in any student unrest. A brief biography testifies: studies at the university end with the fact that he is expelled without restoration rights and assigned the status of an “unreliable person” that was widespread at that time.
Stage of formation of a political idea
After expulsion from the university, he returns to Kazan. In 1888, Ulyanov-Lenin became a member of one of the Marxist circles. His political consciousness is finally formed after studying the works of Engels, Plekhanov and Marx.
Impressed by the studied works, Lenin, whose revolution seemed the only possible way to end the tsarist regime, was gradually changing his political views. From clearly populist, they become social democratic.
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov begins to develop his own political model of the state, which will eventually become known as Leninism. Roughly during this period, he begins to actively prepare for the revolution and is looking for one-minds and assistants in the implementation of the coup. In the period from 1893 to 1895. he actively publishes his scientific works, in which he describes the need for a new, socialist order.
The young activist takes up powerful activities against the tsarist autocracy, for which 1897 he is sent into exile for a year. Despite all the prohibitions and restrictions, while serving his sentence, he continues his activities. Being in exile, Ulyanov officially signs with his common-law spouse - Krupskaya.
Revolutionary period
In 1898, the landmark first congress of the Social Democrats took place. This meeting was secret. It was headed by Lenin, and despite the fact that only 9 people took part in it, it is believed that it was it that laid the foundation for changes in the country. Thanks to this first congress, after almost 20 years, the 1917 revolution in Russia took place.
In the period 1905-1907, when the first mass attempt was made to overthrow the tsar from the throne, Ulyanov was in Switzerland, but from there he collaborated with the Russian revolutionaries. For a short time he even managed to return to Petersburg and led the revolutionaries. At the end of 1905, Vladimir Ilyich ended up in Finland, where he met with Stalin.
Rise to power
The next time Lenin returns to Russia only in the fateful 1917. He immediately becomes the leader of the next uprising that broke out. After the long-awaited coup d'etat, all the power of governing the country passes into the hands of Ulyanov and his party of the Bolsheviks.
Since the king was eliminated, the country needed a new government. It was the Council of People's Commissars, which Lenin successfully headed. Having come to power, he naturally begins to carry out reforms, which for some were very painful. Among them - the NEP, the replacement of Christianity with a new, single "faith" - communism. He created the Red Army, which participated in the Civil War until 1921.
The first steps of the new government were often tough and repressive. The civil war that broke out against this background lasted until almost 1922. She was scary and really bloody. Opponents and those who disagree with the advent of the Soviet regime realized that they simply could not get rid of such a leader as Vladimir Ilyich, and began to prepare an assassination attempt on Lenin.
A series of failed attempts
Attempts to eliminate Ulyanov from power by force have been made repeatedly. In the period from 1918 to 1919 and in subsequent years, V.I. Lenin was tried to be killed several times. The first attempt was realized shortly after the Bolsheviks gained power, namely 01.01.1918. On this day, at about half-past seven in the evening, the car in which Ulyanov was traveling was tried to be shot.
By chance on this trip, Lenin was not alone. He was accompanied by Maria Ulyanova, as well as the famous representative of the Swiss Social Democrats - Fritz Platten. This serious attempt on Lenin was unsuccessful, because after the first shot rang out, Platten bent his head to Vladimir Ilyich. At the same time, Fritz himself was wounded, and the leader of the Soviet revolution was not injured at all. Despite a long search for those responsible, the terrorists were never found. Only after many years did a certain I. Shakhovskaya admit that he acted as the organizer of this attempt. While in exile at that moment, he financed the attack and allocated a colossal amount for that time - almost half a million rubles.
Failed coup
After the approval of the power of the Soviets, it became clear to all opponents that the new regime could not be overthrown until its main ideologist, Lenin, was alive. The assassination attempt of 1918, organized by the Union of St. George Knights, failed, without even starting. On one of January days, a person named Spiridonov turned to the Council of People's Commissars, who introduced himself as one of the gentlemen of St. George. He said that his organization entrusted him with a special mission - to track down and kill Lenin. According to the soldier, for this he was promised 20 thousand rubles.
After conducting an interrogation of Spiridonov, the KGB found out the location of the central apartment of the Union of St. George Knights and visited her with a search. Revolvers and explosives were found there, and thanks to this fact, the truthfulness of Spiridonov’s words is beyond doubt.
Attempt to rob the leader
Speaking of the numerous attempts on the life of Ulyanov, it is necessary to recall one strange incident that happened to Vladimir Ilyich in 1919. The official details of this story were kept at Lubyanka in case No. 240266, and it was strictly forbidden to divulge its details. The people this event became known as the robbery of Lenin, and many of the facts in it are still not entirely understood. There are several versions of what exactly happened that evening. In the winter of 1919, Lenin, accompanied by his sister and driver, headed for Sokolniki. According to one version, there, in the hospital, was his wife, who suffered from an incurable disease at that time - autoimmune thyroiditis. Lenin was heading to her hospital on January 19th.
According to another version, he went to Sokolniki to a Christmas tree to congratulate the children on Christmas Eve. Moreover, it may seem strange that the main ideologist of Soviet communism and atheism decided to congratulate the children on Christmas, and also on January 19th. But many biographers explain this confusion by the fact that a year earlier Russia switched to the Gregorian calendar, and all dates were shifted by 13 days. Therefore, Lenin went to the Christmas tree in fact, not on the 19th, but on the 6th, on Christmas Eve.
The car with the leader was driving to Sokolniki, and when armed people of obviously gangster appearance tried to stop him, none of those present in the car had any doubts that there was another assassination attempt on Lenin. For this reason, the driver - S. Gil - tried not to stop and slip through the armed criminals. Ironically, Vladimir Ilyich, at that time absolutely confident in his authority and that ordinary bandits would not dare to touch him, having learned that Lenin himself was in front of them, ordered the driver to stop.
Ilyich was forcibly pulled out of the car, pointing two pistols at him, the robbers took his wallet, ID and Browning. Then they ordered the driver to leave the car, plunged into the car and drove off. Despite the fact that Lenin gave them his last name, because of the loudly working carburetor in the car, the bandits did not hear him. They thought that in front of them was some kind of businessman Levin. The robbers came to their senses only with time, when they began to consider the seized documents.
The gang of bandits was led by a certain thieves' authority, Jacob Wallet. That evening, the company planned to rob a large mansion and apartment on the Arbat. To carry out the planned gang, a car was needed, and they decided to just go outside, catch the first car they met and steal it. It so happened that the first on their way they met a car of Vladimir Ilyich.
Only after committing the robbery, having read carefully the stolen documents, they understood who they had robbed, and since there was not much time after the incident, they decided to return. There was a version that Koshelkov, realizing that Lenin was in front of him, wanted to return and kill him. According to another version, the bandit wanted to take the leader hostage, then to exchange him for his prisoner friends who were in Butyrka prison. But these plans were not destined to come true. In a short time, Lenin and the driver walked to the local Council, notified the Cheka of the incident, and in a matter of minutes security was brought to Vladimir Ilyich. Koshelkova was caught on June 21, 1919. During the detention, he was wounded from a carbine and soon died.
Legendary kaplan
The most famous assassination attempt on Lenin, whose date falls on 08/30/1918, occurred after his speech at the Michelson Moscow Plant. Three gunshots were fired, and this time the bullets hit Ilyich. According to the official version, well-aimed shots were made by Fani Kaplan, who is called nothing more than a “terrorist-Socialist Revolutionary.”
This attempt made many worried about Lenin's life, since the wounds received were really serious. History remembered Kaplan as a terrorist who shot at the leader. But today, when the biography of Lenin and his entourage has been thoroughly studied, many facts from the history of that attempt seem strange. The question arises as to whether Kaplan really shot.
Brief historical background
This girl was born in Ukraine in the Volyn region in 1890. Her father worked as a teacher in a Jewish school, and until the age of 16, her daughter bore his last name, Roydman. He was a deeply religious man, very tolerant of the authorities and could not think that one of his daughters would ever choose the path of terror.
Kaplan's parents emigrated to America after a certain time, and she changed her last name, and then began to use someone else's passport. Left unattended, the girl joins the anarchists and begins to participate in the revolutionary struggle. Most often, she was engaged in transportation of subject literature. In addition, young Kaplan had to carry more serious things, for example, bombs. During one of these trips, she was detained by the tsarist secret police, and since at that moment Fanny was a minor, instead of being shot she was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Considering Kaplan as the main person in the assassination attempt on Lenin, it is important to note the fact that the girl had very serious vision problems (which later will make many researchers doubt whether well-aimed shots could have been fired by the hand of a half-blind short-sighted woman). According to one of the existing versions, she began to lose her sight after she suffered from the explosion of a makeshift bomb, which she made with her common-law husband in an underground apartment. According to another version, Fanny began to go blind as a result of a head wound, which she received even before her arrest. The eye problem was so serious that Kaplan, while serving hard labor, even wanted to commit suicide.
After an unexpected amnesty in 1917, she received the long-awaited freedom and went to one of the sanatoriums of Crimea to improve her health, and then went to an operation in Kharkov. After that, her eyesight was allegedly restored.
Being in exile, Fanny became very close to the serving Social Revolutionaries. Gradually, her views changed to social democratic. She took the news of the October coup critically, and the subsequent actions of the Bolsheviks led her to disappointment. Later, giving testimony under investigation, Kaplan will say that the idea to kill Lenin as a traitor to the revolution visited her back in Crimea.
Returning to Moscow, she meets with the Social Revolutionaries and discusses with them the possibility of an assassination attempt.
Strange Attempt
On the fateful day of August 30, 1918, M. Uritsky, the chairman of the Cheka, was killed in Petrograd. One of the first to be informed of this, Lenin was urged to abandon his planned appearance at the Michelson factory. But he ignored this warning and went to the workers with a speech without any protection.
After completing his speech, Lenin was heading towards the car, when suddenly three shots rang out from the crowd. In the chaos that had begun, Kaplan was detained, as someone from the crowd shouted that she was shooting.
The woman was arrested, and at first she denied her involvement in the incident, and then, during the next interrogation at the Cheka, she suddenly confessed. During a short investigation, she did not turn in any of the possible accomplices and claimed that she had made an attempt on her own.
Great suspicion is caused by the fact that besides the recognition of Fanny herself, there is no longer a single witness who would see that it was she who shot. At the time of the detention of the weapon with her was also not. Only after 5 days the pistol was brought to the Cheka by one of the factory workers, who allegedly found it in the factory yard. Bullets were not immediately removed from Lenin’s body, but several years later. It was then that it turned out that their caliber did not quite coincide with the type of pistol accepted as evidence. The main witness in this case, the driver of Ilyich, at first said that he had seen a female hand shoot, but he changed his testimony during the investigation about 5 times. Kaplan herself admitted that she shot at about 20:00, but the newspaper Pravda published information that the attempt on the leader was carried out at 21:00. The driver said that the attempt occurred approximately at 23:00.
These and other inaccuracies make many people today think that in fact this legendary attempt was staged by the Bolsheviks themselves. The summer of 1918 was characterized by a notable crisis, and power was losing its shaky authority. Such an attempt on the leader made it possible to unleash bloody terror against the Socialist Revolutionaries, while at the same time starting the Civil War.
Kaplan was executed very quickly, she was shot on September 3, and Lenin lived safely until 1924.