Zheliabov, Andrei

Zheliabov, Andrei [Желябов, Андрей; Željabov, Andrej], b 17 August 1851 in Mykolaivka, Teodosiia county, Tavriia gubernia, d 15 April 1881 in Saint Petersburg. Russian revolutionary populist of Ukrainian and Russian background. A graduate in law (1871) of Odesa University, Zheliabov is best known as a leading member of the populist terrorist organization Narodnaia Volia and as one of the driving forces behind the assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881. He coauthored some of the group’s programmatic proclamations, organized student, worker, and military circles of Narodnaia Volia, and edited its newspaper, Rabochaia gazeta. He maintained contacts with the Odesa Hromada and the Hromada of Kyiv and with Mykhailo Drahomanov. Zheliabov was arrested in February 1881, shortly before the assassination of the tsar; he was later tried and executed for his participation in the plot.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]