It is believed that in recent years the number of terrorist attacks has increased significantly. Compared to the relatively quiet times of the USSR, this is true, but the average number of victims and terrorist attacks (especially considering the whole world) still remains at the same level.
Revolutionary terrorism: terrorist attacks in the Russian Empire
The first terrorist attacks in St. Petersburg occurred during the time of Tsarist Russia. In the Russian Empire, terrorism was primarily individual in nature and was directed against government officials and senior officials. Often, ordinary people, casual passers-by, who were not lucky to be near the place of the planned or committed murder, suffered.
At the end of January 1878, Vera Zasulich carried out an attempt on the life of the St. Petersburg mayor, the offender was acquitted by a jury. Two years later, in the Winter Palace, a Narodovolets detonated a bomb, encroaching on the life of Emperor Alexander II. Then 11 officers carrying the guard perished. The next attempt on Alexander II was successful for terrorists: the emperor died from a bomb in 1881.
The terrorist attacks in St. Petersburg did not stop: the victims of the Socialist Revolutionaries, Narodnik-Revolutionaries and People’s Volunteers were the inspector of the St. Petersburg Security Department (1883), the Minister of the Interior (1904), the head of the prison (1907), the head of the security department (1909). In St. Petersburg in 1907, an attempt was made on Peter Stolypin, twenty-seven people were killed in an explosion, more than a hundred random witnesses and officers were injured.
Have there been terrorist attacks in the Soviet Union?
The attacks in St. Petersburg, as well as in the republics under the Soviet regime as a whole, were a relatively rare occurrence. Most of the attacks were carried out by supporters of separatist movements in order to escape from the USSR. Several terrorist acts were recorded during the years when the Bolsheviks came to power, since the 1970s, activity has increased significantly.
Separately distinguished in the chronology of terrorist attacks committed in Russia (RSFSR), the events of June 1970, which were called "Leningrad aircraft business." Then an attempt was made to capture the aircraft by a group of citizens who wanted to emigrate from the USSR. Several members of the underground Leningrad Zionist group hoped by their actions to induce the world authorities to exert pressure on the Soviet Union and obtain permission for Jews to freely travel to Israel.
All participants in the alleged terrorist attack were arrested before the ramp. They were charged with anti-Soviet agitation, treason (group activity and illegal migration) and attempted theft on an especially large scale (meaning a passenger plane).
The organizers were first sentenced to capital punishment; other participants in the hijacking received from 4 to 15 years in prison. Relatives of members of the group who, to some extent, contributed to the commission of the crime, were not prosecuted. The intervention of major politicians in many countries and numerous protests around the world forced the death penalty, which was earlier passed to the organizers, to be replaced by fifteen years in prison. Reduced deadlines for other participants.
Terrorism in Russia: the Chechen war and gangs from the North Caucasus
Acts of terrorism in Russia are largely related to internal conflicts. Terrorist attacks in St. Petersburg were relatively rare: the frequent targets of terrorists and gangs were Moscow, Dagestan, the Stavropol Territory, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia, Ingushetia.
