Yakutsk Tragedy of 1889

a bloody suppression of a demonstration by political exiles in Yakutsk.

Protesting the worsening conditions of transport to Viliuisk and Srednekolymsk, 33 exiles gathered on March 22 at the house of the Yakut Monastyrev and offered armed resistance to a detachment of soldiers. In the clash six exiles were killed (S. Ia. Gurevich, P. A. Mukhanov, Ia. Sh. Notkin, S. A. Pik, P. P. Podbel’skii, and G. E. Shur), and seven were wounded. On Aug. 7, 1889, the Yakutsk Military Tribunal sentenced A. L. Gausman, N. L. Zotov, and L. M. Kogan-Bernshtein to be hanged and condemned four exiles to lifelong hard labor and the rest to various terms of hard labor. The previous regulations for transporting exiles were restored. The Yakutsk tragedy aroused public indignation in Russia and Western Europe.