Anna Yakimova
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Anna Vasilievna Yakimova (Russian: Анна Василиевна Якимова; 24 June [O.S. 12 June] 1856 – 12 June 1942) was a Russian revolutionary, one of the group who assassinated the Tsar Alexander II, and a long serving political prisoner.
Anna Yakimova was born in a village called Tumyumuchascha, in Vyatka province, the daughter of the village priest.[1] She was educated in the Vyatka diocesan school to the age of 16, then took a teacher training course, and in 1873, took up a post as a village teacher. Like dozens of other of her age, she was caught up in the ‘back to the people’ movement, and started spreading propaganda among the peasants. Arrested on 12 May 1875, she was a defendant in the Trial of the 193, but was acquitted. After her release, in January 1878, she joined Zemlya I Volya. When it split, she joined Narodnaya Volya, and was co-opted onto the party's executive committee.[1]
Terrorism
In spring 1880, Yakimova was sent to Odesa, where she and Grigori Isaev were delegated to construct a bomb, which was going to be detonated in a tunnel under Italyanska Street, on the route that the Tsar was expected to take as he travelled from Odessa station to the wharf where his steam boat was docked.[2] This plan was aborted when Isaev accidentally blew three fingers off his hand. Yakimova cleaned and bandaged the injury, took him to hospital, and stayed with him during the operation in case he said anything incriminating while under anesthetic.[3]
In February 1881, Narodnaya Volya used the same plan to attempt to assassinate Alexander II in St Petersburg. Yakimova and Yuri Bogdanovich, using false passports that identified them as a married couple named Kobozev, rented a shop at 56 Malaya Sadovaya, saying that they wanted to run a business selling cheese, while a team led by Andrei Zhelyabov dug a tunnel under the street, which they expected the Tsar to use. The ‘Kobozevs’ aroused suspicion because they were well educated but seemed to know very little about cheese, and were visited by police, who failed to spot the tunnel.[4] This plan was abandoned when the Tsar took a different route, and was killed by a team of bomb throwers led by Sophia Perovskaya.