Ignacy Hryniewiecki
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Ignacy Hryniewiecki (Ігнат Грынявіцкі in Belarusian or Ihnat Hryniavicki, Игнатий Гриневицкий in Russian, or Ignatiy Grinevitskiy) (August of 1855, or fall of 1856 - 1881), Belarus-born Russian revolutionary, murderer of Tsar Alexander II of Russia.
He was born in Basin estate near Babrujsk, Belarus, then Russian empire.
In 1875-1880, Hryniewiecki was a student at St.Petersburg Institute of Technology. He participated in Polish and Russian revolutionary meetings and in 1879 joined Narodnaya Volya. He was the founder of the Belarusian faction in Narodnaya Volya.
In 1880, Hryniewiecki, Andrei Zhelyabov, Sophia Perovskaya and others were in charge of revolutionary propaganda among students and workers. He was one of the organizers of the "Worker's Gazette" and a type-setter for a clandestine printing-house.
On March 13, 1881 (Julian date: March 1), Hryniewiecki threw a bomb at the Tsar Alexander II, who was passing through Nevsky Prospekt near the Winter Palace. The Tsar was fatally wounded in the explosion and died a few hours afterwards. Hryniewiecki died at the scene, as well. The attack may well have been a suicide bombing.
The assassination, carried out by the radical revolutionary group People's Will (Narodnaya Volya), was aimed at igniting a social revolution. Its members - Nikolai Kibalchich, Sophia Perovskaya, Nikolai Rysakov, Timofei Mikhailov, Andrei Zhelyabov - were arrested and sentenced to death. Gesya Gelfman was sent to Siberia.
Hryniewiecki was of a minor szlachta family from Babrujsk, now Belarus, where suppression of Poles and Belarusians and persecutions were the harshest. It included complete ban on the use of the Polish language and Belarusian language in public places, schools and offices.
The Church of the Savior on Blood was erected on the site of the assassination.
Also see Pervomartovtsi, Aleksandr Ulyanovbe:Ігнат Грынявіцкі