Stepan Valerianovich Balmashev

Born Apr. 3 (15), 1881, in Pinega, Arkhangel’sk Province; died May 3 (16), 1902, in St. Petersburg. A Socialist Revolutionary. Balmashev studied at the University of Kazan, then at Kiev. In January 1901 he was among 183 students at the University of Kiev arrested for participating in a student strike, and he was sent into the army. After returning in autumn 1901, he reentered the University of Kiev, where he became acquainted with the Socialist Revolutionaries and joined their militant organization. On Apr. 2, 1902, in protest against government repression, he shot the minister of the interior, D. S. Sipiagin, in the Mariinskii Palace. Balmashev was hanged in Shlissel’burg Fortress.