Ishutin, Nikolai

Born Apr. 3 (15), 1840, in Serdobsk, in present-day Penza Oblast; died Jan. 5 (17), 1879, in Kara. One of the first Russian professional revolutionaries and Utopian socialists to combine the idea of propagandizing socialism among the people with conspiratorial and terrorist tactics. He was “a hereditarily honored citizen” of the city of Serdobsk.

Ishutin was brought up in Penza by the family of a cousin, D. V. Karakozov. In 1863 he became an auditor at MoscowUniversity, where he carried on propaganda among the students.In Moscow he created the secret revolutionary organizationknown as the Ishutin Circle, which functioned from 1863 to1866. On Apr. 8, 1866, he was arrested in connection withKarakozov’s attempt on the life of Tsar Alexander II. He wascondemned to death by the Supreme Criminal Court, a sentencewhich at the last moment was commuted to forced labor for life.Until May 1868, he was in solitary confinement at the Shlis-sel’burg Fortress; from here, mentally ill, he was taken to East-ern Siberia (Algach) and then to Aleksandrovskii Zavod (Ner-chinsk Mines) in 1871 and to the forced-labor prison atNizhniaia Kara in 1875.