3-052-449 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The attempt on the Czar's life: the Soltykoff Doorway of the Winter Palace, within which the explosion occurred, 1880. 'The murderous conspiracy of the Russian Nihilists against the life of the Emperor Alexander II. by the explosion of a charge of dynamite beneath the dining-saloon in the Winter Palace at St. Petersburg, continues to be a subject of painful interest...It is believed that...the dynamite was placed in or on the stove of the room in the basement...General Todleben calculates that 144 lb. was used, and that 10 lb. more would have destroyed the dining-room...The effect of the explosion was to destroy the guard-room, kill and wound fifty-three soldiers remaining there off guard, break through the sides of the vaulted roof, and lift and dislocate the floor of the dining-room in two places...The force of the explosion is also shown by the large number of windows shattered in the Imperial palace and adjacent houses on the quay of the Neva...At the moment of the explosion the Emperor, in an anteroom, surrounded by his guests, was about to enter the dining-room. But for the delay,...the Imperial party would have been seated at table when the explosion occurred. Their marvellous escape is thus clearly seen'. From "Illustrated London News", 1880.