Ignacy Hryniewiecki
Ignacy Hryniewiecki or Ignaty Ioakhimovich Grinevitsky (Russian: Игнатий Гриневицкий, Polish: Ignacy Hryniewiecki, Belarusian: Ігнат Грынявіцкі; c. 1856 — March 13, 1881) was a Polish 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.
Ignacy Hryniewiecki | |
|---|---|
| Born | c. 1856 Bobruysky Uyezd, Minsk Governorate, Russian Empire |
| Died | March 13, 1881 (aged c. 25) Court Stables Infirmary, St. Petersburg, Russian Empire |
| Other names | Kotik Mikhail Ivanovich Elnikov |
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.