Academic literature on the topic 'Assassination attempt, 1942'

(When a human being dies, his portraits change.)–Anna Akhmatova, 1940Nabokov’s The Gift opens with the mock specificity of a date: 1 April 192-, which immediately, we are informed, calls attention to the Russian novelistic practice of “honest fictionality.” The long metaliterary excursus draws attention away from the specificity of one particular date, which the author, as it were, refuses to complete: on 1 April 1922 Nabokov’s father, the respected statesman Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov, was buried in Berlin, three days after his heroic, though fortuitous death in a right-wing assassination attempt on a former Kadet ally, P.N. Miliukov.

This publication introduces into scientific use and analyses a document on the planning and realization of the assasination attempt on P.N. Milyukov and the murder of V.D. Nabokov on March 28, 1922. The criminals, far-right Russian monarchists P.N. Shabelsky-Bork and S.V. Taboritzky were arrested on the crime scene (the Berlin Philarmonic Hall, where P.N. Milyukov had a public lecture). On the next day, on March 29, 1922, they gave testimonies to the Berlin criminal police. The published document is the testimony of S.V. Taboritsky, who was accused of murder of V.D. Nabokov, one of the leaders of the Constitutional Democratic Party, which was in opposition to the right monarchists. Nabokov wasn't the target of this act of terrorism; his murder wasn't planed, it was unintentional. Trying to prove Taboritzky's innocence, Shabelsky and Taboritzky tried to justify their actions and kept changing their testimonies during the inquiry and trial. Taboritzky wasn’t to shoot Mliyukov or any others Kadets. He came, primarily, to give his moral support to Shabelsky. V.D. Nabokov was killed in struggle, when turmoil and panic spread. Thus, the most important questions facing the investigation was whether it was S. Taboritzky who shot Mliyukov and whether he had any weapon on himself that day. However, numerous witnesses confirmed Taboritzky's guilt. The published testimonies contain evidence unfavourable to Taboritzky and also some accurate data on the attempt preparation. Relying on information from the witnesses and these testimonies of Taboritzky (and disregarding his later testimonies) the court convicted him. He shot V. Nabokov, when he seized P.N. Shabelsky who attempted to kill Milyukov. His behavior during the investigation and trial caused much irritation in the Berlin penal court, and Taboritzky was sentenced to 14-years imprisonment. On other questions reviewed in court (motives of crime, accomplices, role P.N. Shabelsky, events of evening on March 28, 1922) S. Taboritzky repeated the earlier testimonies of Shabelsky.

On the morning of 22 June 1922 Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilson left his home in London to unveil a war memorial at Liverpool Street railway station. When he returned at 2.30 that afternoon, two young men, Reginald Dunne and Joseph O’Sullivan, were waiting for him. What happened next is best described in Reggie Dunne’s own words: Joe went in a straight line while I determined to intercept him [Wilson] from entering the door. Joe deliberately levelled his weapon at four yards range and fired twice. Wilson made for the door as best he could and actually reached the doorway when I encountered him at a range of seven or eight feet. I fired three shots rapidly, the last one from the hip, as I took a step forward. Wilson was now uttering short cries and in a doubled up position staggered towards the edge of the pavement. At this point Joe fired once again and the last I saw of him he [Wilson] had collapsed.Dunne and O’Sullivan subsequently shot three pursuers (two policemen and a civilian) in their attempt to escape, but, fatally slowed by Joe O’Sullivan’s wooden leg, they were caught shortly afterwards. They were tried, convicted and, on 10 August, hanged in Wandsworth Prison.