Fanny (Fanya) Kaplan in 1907.
Posted on 06/20/2006 11:43:01 AM PDT by sergey1973
Faina Yefimovna Kaplan (1883–September 3, 1918), a.k.a. Fanny Kaplan (born Dora Kaplan), was a political revolutionary and an attempted assassin of Vladimir Lenin.
Kaplan was born into a Jewish peasant family, one of seven children. She became a political revolutionary at an early age and joined a socialist group, the Socialist Revolutionaries. In 1906, Kaplan participated in an attempted assassination of a government official. The plot failed and Kaplan was arrested and sentenced to life of katorga works in Akatui, Siberia. She was released when the February Revolution overthrew the imperial government. As a result of her imprisonment, Kaplan suffered from continuous headaches and periods of blindness.
Kaplan became disillusioned with Lenin as a result of the conflict between the Socialist Revolutionaries and the Bolshevik party. The Bolsheviks had strong support in the soviets, which Lenin had argued in his 1917 tract "The State and Revolution" were the only legitimate avenue of post-revolutionary government; however, in elections to a competing body, the Constituent Assembly, the Bolsheviks failed to win a majority in the November 1917 elections and a Socialist Revolutionary was elected President in January 1918. The Bolsheviks, favoring soviets, ordered the Constituent Assembly to be dissolved. Over the next few months conflicts between the Bolsheviks and their political opponents led to the banning of all parties except the Bolsheviks. Kaplan decided to assassinate Lenin.
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Fanny (Fanya) Kaplan in 1907.
PING ! Russian History/Communism ping. Joe--I think you'll be interested in this.
Alouette. Maybe it's also a good article Russian Jewry ping list. I believe that Fanny Kaplan, for her attempt to assassinate the monster, the founder of Soviet Communism, and mass murderer named Vladimir Lenin without hurting any innocent bystanders, deserves to be in the Hall of Fame of the great Jews of the Russian Empire/Soviet Union
This plot to kill Lenin is depicted in the series Reilly, Ace of Spies, as Sidney Reilly (one of his many names) of British Intelligence was providing assistance. Reilly disappeared in Russia in 1925, probably killed by the OGPU, though there are rumors he was a Soviet double agent.
The Ballad of Lenin's Tomb
This is the yarn he told me
As we sat in Casey's Bar,
That Rooshun mug who scammed from the jug
In the Land of the Crimson Star;
That Soviet guy with the single eye,
And the face like a flaming scar.
Where Lenin lies the red flag flies, and the rat-grey workers wait
To tread the gloom of Lenin's Tomb, where the Comrade lies in state.
With lagging pace they scan his face, so weary yet so firm;
For years a score they've laboured sore to save him from the worm.
The Kremlin walls are grimly grey, but Lenin's Tomb is red,
And pilgrims from the Sour Lands say: "He sleeps and is not dead."
Before their eyes in peace he lies, a symbol and a sign,
And as they pass that dome of glass they see - a God Divine.
So Doctors plug him full of dope, for if he drops to dust,
So will collapse their faith and hope, the whole combine will bust.
But say, Tovarich; hark to me . . . a secret I'll disclose,
For I did see what none did see; I know what no one knows.
I was a Cheko terrorist - Oh I served the Soviets well,
Till they put me down on the bone-yard list, for the fear that I might tell;
That I might tell the thing I saw, and that only I did see,
They held me in quod with a firing squad to make a corpse of me.
But I got away, and here today I'm telling my tale to you;
Though it may sound weird, by Lenin's beard, so help me God it's true.
I slouched across that great Red Square, and watched the waiting line.
The mongrel sons of Marx were there, convened to Lenin's shrine;
Ten thousand men of Muscovy, Mongol and Turkoman,
Black-bonnets of the Aral Sea and Tatars of Kazan.
Kalmuck and Bashkir, Lett and Finn, Georgian, Jew and Lapp,
Kirghiz and Kazakh, crowding in to gaze at Lenin's map.
Aye, though a score of years had run I saw them pause and pray,
As mourners at the Tomb of one who died but yesterday.
I watched them in a bleary daze of bitterness and pain,
For oh, I missed the cheery blaze of vodka in my brain.
I stared, my eyes were hypnotized by that saturnine host,
When with a start that shook my heart I saw - I saw a ghost.
As in foggèd glass I saw him pass, and peer at me and grin -
A man I knew, a man I slew, Prince Boris Mazarin.
Now do not think because I drink I love the flowing bowl;
But liquor kills remorse and stills the anguish of the soul.
And there's so much I would forget, stark horrors I have seen,
Faces and forms that haunt me yet, like shadows on a screen.
And of these sights that mar my nights the ghastliest by far
Is the death of Boris Mazarin, that soldier of the Czar.
A mighty nobleman was he; we took him by surprise;
His mother, son and daughters three we slew before his eyes.
We tortured him, with jibes and threats; then mad for glut of gore,
Upon our reeking bayonets we nailed him to the door.
But he defied us to the last, crying: "O carrion crew!
I'd die with joy could I destroy a hundred dogs like you."
I thrust my sword into his throat; the blade was gay with blood;
We flung him to his castle moat, and stamped him in its mud.
That mighty Cossack of the Don was dead with all his race....
And now I saw him coming on, dire vengeance in his face.
(Or was it some fantastic dream of my besotted brain?)
He looked at me with eyes a-gleam, the man whom I had slain.
He looked and bade me follow him; I could not help but go;
I joined the throng that passed along, so sorrowful and slow.
I followed with a sense of doom that shadow gaunt and grim;
Into the bowels of the Tomb I followed, followed him.
The light within was weird and dim, and icy cold the air;
My brow was wet with bitter sweat, I stumbled on the stair.
I tried to cry; my throat was dry; I sought to grip his arm;
For well I knew this man I slew was there to do us harm.
Lo! he was walking by my side, his fingers clutched my own,
This man I knew so well had died, his hand was naked bone.
His face was like a skull, his eyes were caverns of decay . . .
And so we came to the crystal frame where lonely Lenin lay.
Without a sound we shuffled round> I sought to make a sign,
But like a vice his hand of ice was biting into mine.
With leaden pace around the place where Lenin lies at rest,
We slouched, I saw his bony claw go fumbling to his breast.
With ghastly grin he groped within, and tore his robe apart,
And from the hollow of his ribs he drew his blackened heart. . . .
Ah no! Oh God! A bomb, a BOMB! And as I shrieked with dread,
With fiendish cry he raised it high, and . . . swung at Lenin's head.
Oh I was blinded by the flash and deafened by the roar,
And in a mess of bloody mash I wallowed on the floor.
Then Alps of darkness on me fell, and when I saw again
The leprous light 'twas in a cell, and I was racked with pain;
And ringèd around by shapes of gloom, who hoped that I would die;
For of the crowd that crammed the Tomb the sole to live was I.
They told me I had dreamed a dream that must not be revealed,
But by their eyes of evil gleam I knew my doom was sealed.
I need not tell how from my cell in Lubianka gaol,
I broke away, but listen, here's the point of all my tale. . . .
Outside the "Gay Pay Oo" none knew of that grim scene of gore;
They closed the Tomb, and then they threw it open as before.
And there was Lenin, stiff and still, a symbol and a sign,
And rancid races come to thrill and wonder at his Shrine;
And hold the thought: if Lenin rot the Soviets will decay;
And there he sleeps and calm he keeps his watch and ward for aye.
Yet if you pass that frame of glass, peer closely at his phiz,
So stern and firm it mocks the worm, it looks like wax . . . and is.
They tell you he's a mummy - don't you make that bright mistake:
I tell you - he's a dummy; aye, a fiction and a fake.
This eye beheld the bloody bomb that bashed him on the bean.
I heard the crash, I saw the flash, yet . . . there he lies serene.
And by the roar that rocked the Tomb I ask: how could that be?
But if you doubt that deed of doom, just go yourself and see.
You think I'm mad, or drunk, or both . . . Well, I don't care a damn:
I tell you this: their Lenin is a waxen, show-case SHAM.
Such was the yarn he handed me,
Down there in Casey's Bar,
That Rooshun bug with the scrambled mug
From the land of the Commissar.
It may be true, I leave it you
To figger out how far.
--- Robert Service
"...her assassination sparked the first wave of Mass Repression in Soviet Russia called "Red Terror"..."
___________________________________________________
You give this b*tch too much credit.
Her assassination attempt of Lenin along with this monster...a pox on all their houses.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moisei_Uritsky
According to the series, Reilly wanted to grab power from Lenin. Howevever, can you imagine Russia being ruled by a guy named Sidney Reilly?
V.I. Lenin's assessment of the terror
"It is now and only now, when in the regions afflicted by the famine there is cannibalism and the roads are littered with thousands of corpses, that we can (and therefore must) pursue the acquisition of [church] valuables with the most ferocious and merciless energy, stopping at nothing in suppressing all resistance."
He sounds quite islamic.
Nah, he just would have used another name...maybe his birth name of Georgi Rosenblum or the Sigmund or Sidney Rosenblum he used in England before he settled on Reilly.
Commies were all terrorists, they were just competing for power, like Mafia kingpins. Trotsky wasn't any less of a monster, just because Stalin didn't like him.
Fanny Kaplan wanted to kill Lenin because he politically outmaneuvered HER little group of psychos. And if they had come to power, they would have been no better than the Bolshies [note that she was still a member after her FIRST attempted assassination in 1907]. Since murder seemed to be her political choice of first resort, I can't call her a hero. Sadly, her actions became a pretext for "Iron Feliks" and the Cheka to undertake the first "Red Terror", a practice the Bolshies returned to again and again in their 70 odd years in power."
I would agree with you on some points but not all.
Yes, initially Fanya Kaplan was a socialist-revolutionary terrorist. But I think she deserves commendation for trying to destroy the head of the state-sponsoring terror. Also we never really know whether Socialist-Revolutionaries would have been equal to Bolsheviks if they had prevailed in their struggle with Bolsheviks in 1917-1918. At least they tried to work through democratic institutions. I am definitely not trying to whitewash Socialist-Revolutionaries of Russia for their utopian idealism and the slew of terrorist assassinations (incl. Russian Prime Minister and Great Agrarian Reformer Stolypin). Nevertheless, Fanny deserves the respect for trying to end the life of the monster and the mass murderer.
Hallelujah! Reilly is on DVD:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000742FZW/qid=1150832704/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-0568209-0751915?n=507846&s=dvd&v=glance
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/SSreilly.htm
Georgi Rosenblum was born in Russia on 24th March 1874. An intelligent who could speak seven languages, Rosenblum was recruited by MI6 and given the name Sidney Reilly. Before the First World War Reilly spied on Germany and was considered to be Britain's most important secret agent.
With the outbreak of the First World War Reilly was sent to Russia where he had the responsibility of procuring arms for Britain's allies. After spending a short time in London in 1917, Reilly was smuggled into Germany and was given the task of discovering how close the country was to defeat.
In 1918 MI6 sent to Russia to assassinate Lenin. However, Dora Kaplan got to him first and although Lenin survived the attempt, Reilly returned to England. In their absence, both Reilly and Robert Bruce Lockhart, Head of Special Mission, were found guilty of espionage and sabotage and were sentenced to be shot if apprehended.
In 1924 Reilly and a British agent, Arthur Maundy Gregory, were involved in forging the Zinoviev letter and getting it published in the Daily Mail. This event contributed to the defeat of the Labour Party in the 1924 General Election.
The following year Reilly was sent to spy on the communist government in Russia. This time Sidney Reilly was captured and it was reported that he was executed in November 1925.
No I don't -:))) Assassination attempt of Lenin and Uritsky were used by Bolsheviks as pretexts for the Red Terror, but this Terror was already going on anyway and it would have been escalated with or without assassination attempts. Who knows, had Kaplan succeeded, the Bolshevik regime might have a better chance of being destroyed from within with assistance of Entente (Britain, France, US). We never know.
"I am definitely not trying to whitewash Socialist-Revolutionaries of Russia for their utopian idealism and the slew of terrorist assassinations (incl. Russian Prime Minister and Great Agrarian Reformer Stolypin)."
Sergey, you've stumbled upon the crime that had the biggest impact on the future of Russia - the assassination of Petr Stolypin. Had his reforms been allowed to work Russia would have never embraced communism, and would have climbed its way into the ranks of successful agro-industrial nations. Of course, the leftist radicals (S-Rs, Mensheviks, Bolsheviks, etc) knew he stold their thunder and knew that by killing him the Tsar would crack down on dissent (which they would benefit from). So, learning the lesson from those who killed the Tsar-Liberator, they killed Stolypin. Russia was doomed from that point on.
There are good points in your posts. Definitely. Socialist-Revolutionaries (SR) where Bolshevik Allies till Bolsheviks decided they don't need any allies anymore. However, who knows how things could have went if Fanny Kaplan had succeeded in ending earlier the life of Lenin. Again, we never know, but I think regardless of her motives, she deserves a big credit for trying to end the life of this bastard.
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