Before writing the articles on political trials in the Russian Empire and use of administrative orders and extraordinary laws to crush opposition, I must explain my methodology—how I research and write about different subjects in history. Most important is how I define terrorism. In this series we are looking at the how the Russian Empire […]

Sergey Stankevich03.12.2023

Henry Kissinger died at the enviable age of 100 at his home in Kent, Connecticut. Until his last breath he was active, wise and significant. Back in July, Xi Jinping himself received him as a guest of honor in Beijing. He met regularly with Joe Biden, as well as with 11 previous US presidents. None […]

Tony Rocchi03.12.2023

Tsar-Nicholas-IIs-opening-speech-before-the-first-elected-State-Duma-on-27-April-1906l.jpg

Political trials in the Russian Empire turned into battlegrounds between the government and educated society as represented by the political parties and movements. Socialist defendants and their liberal defense lawyers joined combat with prosecutors determined to present the revolutionaries as monsters seeking to destroy Russia. Defendants accused the government of committing crimes against the people […]

Tony Rocchi01.12.2023

Although the Russian government had severe policies against its real and imagined political opponents, it was not a police state. The government did not have the resources or the political will to become a police state. The image of the Russian Empire as a police state was built up from the 1800s by socialists and […]

Tony Rocchi29.11.2023

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Part 5 see here. Any discussion about the Russian government’s police and repressive policies toward its real and imagined political opponents must look at these policies in a broad context. Simply describing the government structure in the Russian Empire as a police state does not give us the full picture of how the government faced […]

Tony Rocchi28.11.2023

Part 4 see here. Tsar Nicholas II has received many contradictory interpretations. Popular publications in Russia today often idealize him and regard him as a martyr betrayed and killed by his own people. Tsar Nicholas II and his family are considered saints by the Russian Orthodox Church. However, the last tsar of the Russian Empire […]

Tony Rocchi15.11.2023

Part 3 see here. Terrorism was only one of several types of mass violence in the Revolution of 1905-1907. The other types included: the violence of mass protest movements, criminal violence, and government violence in suppressing the revolution. The massiveness and varieties of violence in mass protest movements in the Russian Empire reached proportions not […]

Tony Rocchi12.11.2023

Part 2 see here. Support from liberals and moderate socialists and ambivalent attitudes by conservatives enabled the massiveness and continuity of left-wing terrorism in Russia between 1901-1911. In its fight against terrorism and revolutionary violence, the government found few supporters. What happened was the mass criminalization of Russian educated society. The relevance of the liberal […]

Tony Rocchi11.11.2023

Secret-meeting-of-Russian-revolutionary-terrorists-at-the-beginning-of-the-20th-century.jpg

Part 1 see here. Terrorism became a regular feature of political life in the Russian Empire between 1901-1911. The first outbreak of terrorism in the 20th century began on February 27, 1901 (old calendar) with the assassination of Education Minister N. P. Bogolepov by the revolutionary P. V. Karpovich and ended on September 1, 1911 […]

Tony Rocchi10.11.2023

The Russian Revolution of 1905-1907 was the first major European revolution with a terrorist component. Politically-motivated killings happened on a large scale in previous European revolutions, especially in the French Revolution of 1789-1804 and the European revolutions of 1848-1849. However, in the Revolution of 1905-1907, we are talking about terrorist acts conducted by organized groups. […]

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