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"Kaplan was a left wing whacko in her own right, who had previously tried to assassinate a Czarist official.

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.

Yeah, but the Socialist Revolutionaries were ALLIED with the Bolsheviks until the Bolsheviks didn't need them. I'm sorry, but I don't see them as some Fabian debating club. They partnered up with Lenin and the boys, and Lenin hadn't exactly kept his political ideas hidden in his earlier writings. Whether or not the Socialist Revolutionaries could "walk the walk" [and their history of political murder indicates they could], they "talked the talk.

Fanny Kaplan didn't shoot Lenin because of what he did to the Centrist parties, for murdering the Romanovs, or for suppressing pluralistic democracy. She shot him for marginalizing her party from power.

So while I can laud her attempt, and regret her aim, her motive is something else, and I can't, and won't, consider her a hero.

"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.