Also by Alex Butterworth
Pompeii: The Living City
FOR MATILDA AND THOMAS
Contents
Dramatis Personae
Timeline
Introduction
Prologue: This Thing of Darkness
1 A Distant Horizon
2 Communards
3 From Prince to Anarchist
4 Around the World in 280 Days
5 To the People
6 Forward!
7 Propaganda by Deed
8 Spies and Tsaricides
9 Inconvenient Guests
10 Voices in the Fog
11 The Holy Brotherhood
12 A Great New Tide
13 The Making of the Martyrs
14 Decadence and Degeneration
15 The Revolution is Postponed
16 Deep Cover
17 The Russian Memorandum
18 Dynamite in the City of Light
19 Wicked Laws
20 The Mysteries of Bourdin and the Baron
21 A Time of Harmony
22 Conspiracy Theories
23 Agents Unmasked
24 War and Revolution
25 Coda
Photo Inserts
List of Illustrations
Notes on Sources
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Dramatis Personae
Anderson, Sir Robert. Born 1841 in Dublin, son of Crown Solicitor, became leading anti-Fenian in Ireland then at Scotland Yard, before being displaced to Home Office. Recalled as assistant commissioner. Published apocalyptic interpretations of Bible. Died 1918.
Andrieux, Louis. Born 1840. Republican lawyer involved in suppression of Lyons commune, then Opportunist deputy. Appointed prefect of police in 1880, he served less than two years, later flirting with Boulangism. Senator from 1903, died 1931. Louis Aragon, Dadaist, communist and founding exponent of surrealism, was his illegitimate son.
Aveling, Eleanor Marx, known as ‘Tussy’. Born 1855. Youngest daughter of Karl Marx, secretary to father, and socialist activist in her own right. With SDF, Socialist League and Independent Labour Party, she galvanised support for the Haymarket Martyrs. Died by suicide 1898, using Prussic acid supplied by partner Edward Aveling.
Azef, Evno. Born 1869. Recruited by Okhrana while an impoverished student in 1893, made a career as agent and double agent, rising in Socialist Revolutionary Party to effective leadership of its Fighting Organisation, with role in provoking assassinations. Exposed by Burtsev in 1908. Died Berlin, 1918.
Bakunin, Michael. Born 1814. Russian revolutionary. Involved in 1848 uprising in Paris and 1849 insurrection in Dresden. Escaped from Siberian exile in 1861, established commune in Lyons in 1870, challenged Marx’s dominance of the International, becoming an inspiration to a younger generation of anarchists until his death in 1876.
Berkman, Alexander. Born 1870 in Lithuania, emigrated to US in 1888 where worked as typesetter for Most and became lover of Emma Goldman, before fourteen years’ imprisonment for attempted assassination of industrialist Frick. Deported to Russia in 1917, left for Germany in 1921, then France, where he died in 1936.
Bint, Henri. Ex-officer of the Sûreté hired as a French agent of the Holy Brotherhood in 1882, then employed by the Paris Okhrana office throughout Rachkovsky’s tenure as its director. A participant in the celebrated raid on the People’s Will Swiss printing works, Charlotte Bullier, honeypot bait, may have been cousin. Would later claim to have hired Golovinsky to forge Protocols. After Bolshevik Revolution, worked for Cheka.
Bourdin, Martial. Born 1868. French anarchist, lived in America before London Charlotte Street colony, where his sister had married incendiary English anarchist H. B. Samuels. Close to Emile Henry, he died from wounds in Greenwich Park on 15 February 1894, when a bomb he was carrying accidentally exploded.
Brocher, Gustave. Born 1850. Raised as Fourierist, became priest but after Commune went to teach in Russia. In London from 1875 involved with Lavrov’s Forward! and Most’s Freiheit, he organised the 1881 anarchist London Congress, joined Socialist League as anarchist and adopted five orphans of the Commune. Died 1930.
Burtsev, Vladimir. Born 1862. Joined People’s Will following tsar’s assassination, imprisoned in Peter and Paul Fortress, then active abroad as increasingly prominent militant anti-tsarist and in counter-intelligence. After imprisonment in Britain, exposed leading Okhrana agents, but opposed Bolsheviks after 1917 revolution. Died 1942.
Cafiero, Carlo. Born 1846 into aristocratic Italian family and known as ‘Count’, recruited by Marx to convert Italy to the cause but was won over to Bakunin’s vision of anarchistic socialism. Funded Bakunin’s folly of the villa La Baronata as a revolutionary base. Mentally ill from 1882, he lived until 1892 in and out of lunatic asylums.
Carpenter, Edward. Born 1844. Studied theology at Cambridge, discovered his homosexuality, gave up the cloth, taught in working communities, settling on smallholding at Millthorpe near Sheffield. Leading socialist figure and campaigner against discrimination for sexual orientation. Died 1929.
Caserio, Sante Geronimo. Born 1873 in Italy, lived southern France. Executed 1894 for assassination of President Sadi Carnot.
Chaikovksy, Nicholas. Born 1851. Studied as a mathematician in St Petersburg, where he galvanised circle of radical propagandists in early 1870s. After crisis of faith, returned to England from America to continue propaganda campaign. Involved in gunrunning to Russia but later opposed Bolsheviks. Died 1926.
Charles, Fred. Born Fred Charles Slaughter. Member of Socialist League, travelled to Zurich in attempt to secure Neve’s release, attended 1889 Paris Congress, then resident in Sheffield and Walsall, where involved in bomb plot. Sentenced to ten years in prison. Later worked at Ruskin College, Oxford, and joined Whiteway Colony in Cotswolds.
Clemenceau, Georges. Born 1841. Moderate mayor of Montmartre in 1871. Held ministerial posts in 1880s, was compromised in the Panama scandal but pro-Dreyfus as newspaper editor. As minister of interior and president of the Council in 1906 repressed strikes; returned to latter position in 1917 after eight years out of government. Died 1929.
Coulon, Auguste. Member of Dublin Socialist League in 1886, moved to London where recruited as informant for Special Branch and possibly other police services. Involved in provoking the Walsall bomb affair, and would later claim to be working for the ‘International Police’.
Creaghe, Dr John O’Dwyer. Born 1841, medical education in Boston, emigrated to Buenos Aires in 1874, where a leading anarchist. Returned to Sheffield in 1890 for a year where spread incendiary ideas before returning to Argentina.
Cyon, Elie de. Born 1842. Leading Russian physiologist in St Petersburg, his virulent conservatism outraged students and forced his move to Paris where he was refused position at Sorbonne but naturalised. Broker of international deals for Russia, his French citizenship was revoked for double-dealing with Germany. Died 1912.
Czolgosz, Leon. Born 1873. Son of Polish immigrants, worked as rabbit trapper and wire-winder until inspired by Bresci to assassinate President McKinley. Executed 1901.
Dave, Victor. Belgian anarchist active in Socialist League and involved in long-standing dispute with Peukert, each holding the other to be a police informant.
Degaev, Sergei. Born 1857. Army captain expelled for his radicalism, whose brother had been involved in attempt on tsar’s life, he betrayed Vera Figner to Colonel Sudeikin, whom he subsequently murdered. Lived out his life in
America as Alexander Pell, academic mathematician.
Durnovo, Peter. Born 1845. Russian director of police from 1884 to 1893, then briefly interior minister from 1905, having served as assistant minister for five years previously. Died 1915.
Encausse, Gérard, latterly known as ‘Papus’. Born 1865. Assisted Charcot with hypnosis experiments at La Salpêtrière while involved in esoteric research, becoming Gnostic bishop and mystic. Wrote against Witte and Rachkovsky in 1901 as ‘Niet’ and influenced Imperial Russian family against them. Died 1916.
Evalenko, Aleksandr. Volunteered services to Okhrana in Russia and emigrated to New York, where infiltrated Society of Friends of Russian Freedom as ‘Sergeyev’, destroying the movement from within. Returned to London to continue work there.
Fénéon, Félix. Born 1861. Art critic, impresario and anarchist with day job at French War Ministry, he championed work of Seurat and Signac, among others, coining term Neo-Impressionism. Friend of Emile Henry, charged with concealing explosive material, acquitted at Trial of Thirty. Editor of Revue Blanche.
Ferré, Théophile. Born 1846. A militant Blanquist and member of the Montmartre Vigilance Committee during Paris siege, he was elected to a seat on the Commune council, assisted Rigault with the police and security of the Commune, and signed the orders for the execution of hostages. Executed by firing squad at Satory, November 1871.
Figner, Vera. Born 1852. Returned to Russia in 1875 from medical studies in Zurich, becoming a committed revolutionary and member of the executive committee of the People’s Will, involved in plots against tsar. Attempted to revive the organisation after assassination of tsar, but betrayed by Degaev and imprisoned in the Schlüsselburg Fortress until 1905. Participated in the Jury of Honour in 1908 and was celebrated in St Petersburg in 1917. Died Moscow during Second World War.
Flourens, Emile. Born 1841. Younger brother of Gustave, served as minister for foreign affairs 1886–88.
Flourens, Gustave. Born 1838. Radical journalist and revolutionary adventurer during the Second Empire, active in Cretan rising, led insurrections against Government of National Defence in winter of 1870 and was killed while leading the great sortie towards Versailles in early days of the Commune.
Frey, William. Born 1839. Mathematical prodigy, in 1867 renounced successful career as geodetic surveyor for communal life in America. Following collapse of colony in Kansas, returned to London to establish a positivist cult. His arguments with Lavrov fascinated émigré nihilists in 1887.
Freycinet, Charles de. Born 1828. Served as chief of Gambetta’s military cabinet in Tours in 1870. Opportunist republican, he led three ministries in 1880s and early 1890s.
Gallifet, Marquis de. Born 1830. Made his military reputation during 1867 French intervention in Mexico, confirmed by heroism at Sedan. Ruthless Versaillais commander during Bloody Week. Briefly minister of war 1899. Died 1909.
Gambetta, Léon. Born 1838. Son of a grocer from Cahors, he was an eloquent republican lawyer in opposition to the Second Empire in the late 1860s. Chosen while minister of interior for the Government of National Defence to escape Paris by balloon and organise Tours relief force. Disenchanted by the National Defence but took no part in the Commune and became powerful voice of opposition to MacMahon’s presidency. His long-awaited premiership began in late 1881 but lasted barely two months. Died 1882 following an accident with a revolver.
Goldman, Emma. Born Lithuania, 1869. Emigrated to America 1885 where drawn to anarchism under influence of Johann Most, who encouraged her public speaking. Following imprisonment of lover Alexander Berkman, she became the leading figure of the anarchist movement in America, frequently courting internment. Deported to Russia with Berkman in 1919, she abhorred the Bolshevik Terror, and returned to the West to live out her days in England and Canada.
Golovinsky, Matvei. A family friend of Dostoevsky, he joined the Holy Brotherhood in the early 1880s and subsequently the Okhrana, but following exposure by Gorky as an informant he moved to Paris to work as a forger for Rachkovsky, allegedly creating The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Joined Bolsheviks in 1917, playing an important role in the St Petersburg soviet.
Grave, Jean. Born 1854. Cobbler by trade, became acting editor of Le Révolté at the invitation of Reclus and made the role his own for thirty years, going on to edit the renamed La Révolte and Temps Nouveaux, and becoming known as the ‘Pope of the rue Mouffetard’ for his opinionated influence. Intermittently imprisoned for his views such as those in The Dying Society and Anarchy, he was acquitted at the Trial of the Thirty. Signed the Manifesto of the Sixteen in support of war with Germany. Died 1938.
Grousset, Paschal. Born 1844. Editor-in-chief of La Marseillaise, became representative for foreign affairs under the Commune, was imprisoned on New Caledonia but escaped with Henri Rochefort. Collaborated with Jules Verne on various novels as ‘André Laurie’, he was elected as a socialist deputy in 1893, having made educational reform the focus of his study and writing. Died 1909.
Guillaume, James. Born 1844. Teacher by profession and follower of Bakunin, prominent in establishing Jura Federation and St Imier Congress, and Kropotkin’s first point of contact with federalist ideas, though the two later disagreed. Biographer of Bakunin and anarchist historian of the First International. Died 1916.
Hansen, Jules. Born 1829. Well-connected Danish journalist known as ‘Shrew’ or ‘President’ recruited by Rachkovsky to coordinate propaganda campaign in Paris. Took French citizenship and appointed counsellor of embassy for French diplomatic service, he operated as high-level conduit and fixer.
Harting, Baron Arkady. Born Abraham Hekkelman. Recruited to the Okhrana while a student in St Petersburg, was adopted by Rachkovsky and sent among émigrés under cover name of Landesen. Contrived 1890 nihilist bomb plot in France, escaping five-year sentence in absentia to re-establish himself as respectable Arkady Harting in Belgium. Later appointed head of the Foreign Okhrana, but past life exposed in 1909. Disappeared to Belgium under official protection.
Hartmann, Lev. Born Archangel, 1850. Arrested 1876 and released a year later, he became member of the executive committee of the People’s Will. Fled to France following involvement in bomb attack aimed at tsar’s train in 1879, arrested in Paris but surreptitiously deported to England. Active abroad as propagandist until death in 1913.
Hekkelman – see Harting.
Henry, Emile. Born 1872. Raised in exiled Communard family, frustrated by lack of academic and career opportunities, was drawn by brother Fortune into anarchist circles. His intended bombing of Carmaux mine offices in Paris killed five in rue des Bons Enfants police station in late 1892; arrested after attack on Café Terminus in early 1894, eloquent at trial, he was executed that May.
Jagolkovsky, Cyprien. Deep-cover agent of the Paris Okhrana, active in Switzerland, France and Belgium. Would later admit to role in assassination of General Seliverstoff, and played key role in Liège bombings as Baron Ungern-Sternberg.
Jenkinson, Edward. Anti-Fenian policeman, ousted Anderson from post to run autonomous unit in Scotland Yard, contriving Jubilee Plot against Queen Victoria. Subsequently sidelined.
Jogand-Pages, Gabriel, used pseudonym Léo Taxil. Born 1854. Ferocious anti-Catholic journalist and hoaxer, expelled from Masons for scurrilous attacks on the Pope, he professed to be reconciled with the Church in 1885, turning his fire instead on Freemasonry which he exposed with supporting forged testimony as a satanic cult.
Kibalchich, Nicholas. Born 1853, the son of a local priest. Educated in engineering and medicine, he attended lectures by de Cyon. Arrested 1875 for lending a banned book to a peasant and sentenced to two months in prison at the Trial of the 193. Became technical explosives expert of the People’s Will, setting aside his groundbreaking interest in jet propulsion. Arrested in March 1881 for his part in the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, he was hanged the following month.
Kletochnikov, Nicholas. Born 1848, he infilitrated the Third Section on behalf of the People’s Will. Arr
ested I January 1881 having betrayed Rachkovsky, he was tried in the Trial of the Twenty in 1882 and died in the Peter and Paul Fortress the following year.
Kravchinsky, Sergei. Born 1851. Already a radical while in artillery school, resigned his commission in 1871, joining the Chaikovsky Circle the following year. Fought in the Balkans against the Turks in 1875–6, then involved in planning of Matese revolt near Naples before arrest. Amnestied in Italy, he returned to Russia where he assassinated General Mezentsev in August 1878 but escaped capture, from 1883 resident in London where active in propaganda, founding the Society of Friends of Russian Freedom and the Russian Free Press, and native socialist movement. Killed by a train in 1895.
Kropotkin, Alexander. The closest of Peter Kropotkin’s siblings to him in age, their early correspondence traces development of their political thought, Alexander adhering more closely to the moderate Lavrov. Arrested soon after Peter’s imprisonment in 1875, after decade in Siberian exile committed suicide shortly before his planned release.
Kropotkin, Prince Peter. Born 1842. Descendant of the royal Rurik dynasty, led geographical expeditions in Siberia and Arctic, but prioritised political activities over his scientific interests. Escaping imprisonment as a propagandist of the Chaikovsky Circle, he fled to western Europe where he took a leading role in development and promulgation of anarchist ideas from Switzerland, France and England, despite expulsions and further spells in prison. Developed theories of Mutual Aid and anarchist communism. Opposed Bolshevism following return to Russia in 1917, where he died four years later.
Landesen – see Harting.
Lingg, Louis. Born Germany, 1864. Experience of economic oppression made him an anarchist, known to Reinsdorf. Arrived Chicago, 1885, arrested the following year on suspicion of involvement with the Haymarket bombing and sentenced to death. Beat the gallows by biting down on explosive cartridge.
Littlechild, John. Born 1848. Dolly Williamson’s assistant from 1883, with responsibility for Irish Special Branch, became first head of Special Branch in 1888; promoted to chief inspector two years later but resigned in 1893 to pursue career as private investigator.
The World That Never Was: A True Story of Dreamers, Schemers, Anarchists and Secret Agents Page 1
