Trial of the 14

a trial involving members of the People’s Will, held in the St. Petersburg Military District Court from Sept. 24 (Oct. 6) to Sept. 28 (Oct. 10), 1884. The central figure in the trial was V. N. Figner. She was the last member of the Executive Committee of the People’s Will in Russia. Among the others tried were six members of the military organization of the People’s Will—N. M. Rogachev, M. Iu. Ashenbrenner, A. P. Shtromberg, N. D. Pokhitonov, A. P. Tikhanovich, and I. P. Iuvachev—as well as L. A. Volkenshtein.

The main charge was complicity in the terrorist acts of the People’s Will. S. P. Degaev’s traitorous testimony served as the basis for the accusation. All the defendants conducted themselves courageously. Figner’s final speech, filled with revolutionary conviction, was published abroad and circulated illegally in Russia as a document of exceptional propagandistic significance.

N. M. Rogachev and A. P. Shtromberg were sentenced to death, five of the defendants to hard labor for life, six to 15 to 20 years’ hard labor, and one to exile in Siberia.