Khalturin, Stepan Nikolaevich

Born Dec. 21, 1856 (Jan. 2, 1857), in the village of Khalevinskaia (later Verkhnie Zhuravli), Orlov District, Viatka Province (now Khalturinskii Raion, Kirov Oblast); died Mar. 22 (Apr. 3), 1882, in Odessa. Russian worker and revolutionary.

Khalturin was of peasant origin. In 1871 he graduated from the Orlov District School. In 1874–75 he attended the Viatka Technical School and became a qualified joiner and carpenter. In the fall of 1875 he moved to St. Petersburg, where he worked at various industrial enterprises and made contacts with G. V. Plekhanov and other revolutionary Narodniki (Populists); he carried on propaganda work in various workingmen’s circles, supervised a citywide underground workers’ library, and helped prepare for the Kazan Demonstration of 1876 and the demonstration at the funeral of victims of the St. Petersburg ammunition factory explosion of Dec. 9, 1877. He went underground in October 1877. With V. P. Obnorskii, Khalturin organized and headed the Northern Union of Russian Workers and worked out its program. He helped plan and carry out factory strikes in St. Petersburg in 1878–79. In the fall of 1879 he joined the People’s Will. Under the assumed name of Stepan Batyshkov he went to work as a carpenter in the Winter Palace with the intention of making an attempt on the life of Alexander II. On Feb. 5, 1880, he caused an explosion in the palace, but the tsar escaped with his life.

After the assassination of Alexander II by members of the People’s Will on Mar. 1, 1881, Khalturin became a member of the organization’s executive committee and carried on propaganda work among the workers of Moscow. On Mar. 18, 1882, in Odessa, under instruction from the executive committee, Khalturin and N. A. Zhelvakov killed the military procurator, General V. S. Strel’nikov. When arrested, Khalturin gave the name “Stepanov,” and it was as Stepanov that he was sentenced to death by the Odessa military district court and hanged.