Anarchy and Anarchists / A History of the Red Terror and the Social Revolution in America and Europe; Communism, Socialism, and Nihilism in Doctrine and in Deed; The Chicago Haymarket Conspiracy and the Detection and Trial of the Conspirators

by Michael J. Schaack

Less than two hours after the arrest of Andreieffsky and Petroff their companion peasant fell into the hands of the police. His name was Generaloff, a native of Jaroslav, South Russia. He had been actively engaged in the Nihilist propaganda for some time past. He also carried bombs on his person.

These arrests were supplemented by numerous others. The lodgings of the prisoners in the suburbs of St. Petersburg known as the Peski (the Sands) were searched, and other explosives as well as documents incriminating other persons were found. As a result the procession of prisoners to the Peter and Paul’s Fortress for a time was almost unremitting, and no one felt safe against police intrusion. All three of the prisoners were subsequently executed.

England shortly afterward became the mark for the next development of the dynamite war. It is the fact that shortly after the assassination of the Czar an attack on the British Government was begun.

Prior to this there had been two outrages in 1881—one an attempt to blow up the barracks at Salford with dynamite, the other a gunpowder explosion at the Mansion House, London.

The record of the year, as compiled by Col. Majendie, the Inspector of Explosives, then runs on:

1881: 16 May. Attempt to blow up the police barracks at Liverpool with gunpowder in iron piping. Damage to the building was inconsiderable, and no one hurt.

10 June. Attempt to blow up the Town Hall, Liverpool, by an infernal machine probably filled with dynamite. A great number of windows broken, and some iron railings destroyed, but no one injured. The two perpetrators captured.

14 June. A piece of iron piping filled with gunpowder exploded against the police station at Loanhead, near Edinburgh. Some windows broken, but no other damage effected.

30 June. An importation of six infernal machines at Liverpool from America in the “Malta,” concealed in barrels of cement. They contained lignin dynamite, with a clock-work arrangement for firing it.

2 July. An importation of four similar machines at Liverpool in the “Bavaria.”