Posted on 03/05/08
When nihilists threatened the world
ANGEL OF VENGEANCE The "Girl Assassin," the Governor of St. Petersburg, and Russia's Revolutionary WorldBy Ana SiljakSt. Martin's, 370 pages, $28.95Ana Siljak's Angel of Vengeance is the story of an unlikely would-be assassin. On Jan. 24, 1878, Vera Zasulich, then just 29, unmarried, gaunt, shy, the youngest child of an impoverished aristocratic mother, pulled an English Bulldog revolver from her shawl and fired two shots at General Fedor Trepov, governor of St. Petersburg. It was Trepov's misfortune - and Zasulich's stroke of luck - that he lived. For in place of his client, Zasulich's lawyer put Trepov and Russia's prison system on trial. In a sensational verdict, the jury, out for half an hour, acquitted Zasulich.
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