Andrei Zhelyabov

Who was Andrei Zhelyabov?

Andrey Ivanovich Zhelyabov was a Russian revolutionary and member of the Executive Committee of Narodnaya Volya.

After graduating from a gymnasium in Kerch in 1869, Zhelyabov got into a Law School of the Novorossiysky University in Odessa. He was expelled from the university for his participation in student unrests in October 1871 and sent away from Odessa. In 1873, Zhelyabov lived in a town of Gorodische and maintained close ties with revolutionaries from Kiev and activists of the Ukrainian "Gromada". After his return to Odessa, Zhelyabov became a member of the revolutionary Felix Volkhovsky group and conducted propaganda among workers and intelligentsia. He was arrested in late 1874 and then released on bail. Nevertheless, he continued his illegal activities. Zhelyabov was one of the suspects in the "Trial of the 193". After his acquittal in 1878, he moved to Podolsk province for the purpose of spreading revolutionary propaganda among peasantry.

Zhelyabov gradually came to believe in the necessity of violent political struggle and terror. He participated in the Lipetsk Congress of political terrorists in June 1879.