The World That Never Was (3 page)

Novikoff, Olga
,
née
Kireev
. Russian propagandist deployed in London where her salon boasted Prime Minister Gladstone and editor W. T. Stead among its members, and where she became jokingly known as the ‘MP for Russia’. Later operated in Paris, where she was friends with Juliette Adam.

Papus – see Encausse

Parsons, Albert
. Born 1848. Having led a militia in Texas against the Ku Klux Klan, moved to Chicago and founded the International Working People’s Association, incurring the hostility of local industrialists. An anarchist, he addressed the Haymarket Square on 4 May 1886, was sentenced to death for the bombing, though absent, and hanged in November 1887. His wife, Lucy, subsequently became a powerful speaker in the socialist cause.

Pell – see Degaev

Pinkerton, Allan
. Born Glasgow, 1819. A militant Chartist in the late 1830s, he fled Britain for America, becoming Chicago’s first detective. Formed the Pinkerton Agency before the Civil War, then served as head of the Union’s intelligence service before returning to private detective business. Organised strike breaking, and acted against the Molly Maguires in the 1870s, and wrote about his exploits. After his death in the 1884, his sons continued the business, which assumed an increasingly paramilitary character.

Plekhanov, Georgi
. Born 1857. An outspoken participant in the revolutionary movement in Russia from 1876, twice arrested, he attended the Voronezh Congress but remained a member of the more moderate Land and Liberty faction, opposed to terrorist tactics. Emigrated 1880 and became a leader with Zasulich of the Marxist ‘Emancipation of Labour’ group, aligned with western Social Democrats. A colleague of Lenin, he subsequently sided with the Mensheviks and left Russia in the wake of the October Revolution.

Pain, Olivier
.
La Marseillaise
journalist, he became Grousset’s chief of cabinet in the Commune’s department of foreign affairs. Escaped New Caledonia penal colony with Rochefort, for whom he subsequently worked as secretary. As Sudan War correspondent for
Figaro
, was killed in 1885, allegedly as a spy on the orders of General Gordon.

Parmeggiani, Luigi
. Individualist anarchist, prominent expropriator and founder of L’Anonymat group in Paris in the late 1880s, he subsequently operated out of London, where his activities roused much suspicion. Later opened an apparently respectable antiquities shop close to the British Museum and sued ex-Inspector Sweeney for libel in 1905.

Perovskaya, Sofia
. Born 1854. Despised her father, the Governor General of St Petersburg, taking an early role in revolutionary agitation from 1872
as a member of the Chaikovsky Circle. Arrested in 1874, then released, she was acquitted at the Trial of the 193 and joined the executive committee of the People’s Will. Romantically involved with Zhelyabov, she took leading role in planning tsar’s assassination in 1880 and 1881, for which she went to the gallows with her lover.

Plehve, Vyacheslav von
. Born 1846. Director of the police department in aftermath of Alexander II’s assassination, a hard-line conservative and anti-Semite, he rose through government to become minister of interior in 1902 and was assassinated by socialist revolutionaries two years later.

Pobedonostsev, Constantine
. Born 1827. Professor of civil law until he became personal tutor to the children of Tsar Nicholas II, acquiring growing influence during the 1870s as a state councillor and general procurator of the Holy Synod. A reactionary conservative, confirmed anti-Semite and friend of Dostoevsky, as
éminence grise
of Alexander III’s reign he quashed mooted reforms, but lost influence under Nicholas II and died in 1907, having survived an attempted assassination six years earlier.

Pouget, Jean-Joseph-Emile
. Born 1860. A delegate to the 1881 anarchist London Congress, he was arrested with Louise Michel for his role in the Invalides riot, imprisoned for eight years but released in 1886. Founded
Père Peinard
in 1889, was tried
in absentia
at the Trial of the Thirty in 1894. An early and prominent advocate of syndicalism, with Pelloutier, in 1900 he became editor of
La Voix du Peuple
, the organ of the CGT.

Rachkovsky, Peter
. Born 1853. Third Section infiltration agent, member of Holy Brotherhood and later head of the Foreign Okhrana, based in Paris. The foremost intelligencer of his era, he was finally dismissed in 1902 on the instigation of the tsarina. Briefly restored to prominence in Russia following 1905 revolution. Died 1910.

Ravachol, born Francois-Claude Koenigstein
. Born 1859. Criminal turned anarchist expropriator, after perpetrating several macabre crimes was impelled to terrorism and carried out bomb attack on the Café Véry in Paris, for which he was executed the following year.

Reclus, Elie
. Born 1827. Older brother of Elisée, whom he accompanied on their early travels. Director of Bibliothèque Nationale during the Commune. Father of Paul, he was briefly arrested in 1890s on suspicion
of concealing him, but joined Elisée at New University to teach comparative mythology. Died 1904.

Reclus, Elisée
. Born 1830. Prominent theorist of anarchism, highly esteemed geographer and author of many books and articles in both areas, of which the greatest achievement was the nineteen-volume
Universal Geography
. He remained active in the cause as speaker and journalist until his death in 1905.

Reuss, Theodore
. Wagnerian singer, opera impresario and supposed re-founder of the Illuminati. Disruptive influence in Socialist League as German police agent who betrayed Johann Neve. Later a colleague of Encausse as Gnostic bishop.

Rigault, Raoul
. A teenage radical during the last years of the Second Empire, became the Commune’s chief of police. A ruthless Jacobin, it was his decision to take hostage the Archbishop of Paris and others; later installed as procurator of the Revolutionary Tribunal. Killed during Bloody Week, though rumours of his survival persisted.

Rochefort, Victor-Henri, Marquis de Rochefort-Luçay
. A civil servant and art dealer in his youth, his polemical journalism and founding of
La Lanterne
and
La Marseillaise
placed him among the foremost critics of the Second Empire. Became the most radical figure in the Government of National Defence, but resigned from the National Assembly for its defeatism. Escaped New Caledonia and lived in Swiss exile until 1880, founding and directing
L’Intransigeant
. Increasingly nationalistic and anti-Semitic in his politics, was among Boulanger’s closest supporters and later a virulent anti-Dreyfusard. Died 1913.

Samuels, Henry B
. Incendiary member of Socialist League and later coeditor of
Commonweal
, widely suspected as an agent provocateur following the death of his brother-in-law Martial Bourdin in Greenwich Park bomb explosion.

Savinkov, Boris
. Born 1879. Expelled from his law studies in 1899 as a radical, he toyed with Marxism while abroad before joining the Socialist Revolutionary Party and playing an important part in its Fighting Unit alongside Azef, leading the assassination of Plehve and Grand Duke Sergei. Fled death sentence in 1906 to Paris, writing fiction based on his experiences,
before returning shortly after the February Revolution of 1917 to become deputy war minister in the Provisional Government. Took prominent role in resistance to Bolshevik rule, was arrested and died in the Lubyanka in 1925.

Seliverstoff, General
. Ex-chief of police in St Petersburg, assassinated in Paris in November 1890.

Sergeyev – see Evalenko
.

Simon, Charles, known as ‘Biscuit’
. Born 1873. Ravachol’s accomplice in theft of explosives and a series of bombings in Paris during early 1892. Fled to England but was identified and arrested on his return to France, and deported to Devil’s Island in Guyana, where he was hunted down and shot dead after taking part in a rising of prisoners in late 1894.

Stepniak – see Kravchinsky
.

Stieber, Wilhelm
. Born 1818. Began his career as a radical lawyer, then joined Prussian police. Innovated many detective techniques, repeatedly schemed against Marx and headed military intelligence during the Franco-Prussian War, whilst continuing to advise the Russian Third Section almost until his death in 1882.

Taxil – see Jogand-Pages
.

Thiers, Louis-Adolphe
. Born 1797. As a liberal journalist and historian, he helped elevate Louis-Philippe to the throne in 1830, served in his thirties as interior minister, foreign minister and effectively prime minister, but
persona non grata
under the Second Empire. Re-emerged in 1870 to lead a failed mission to persuade Britain and Russia to intervene to end Germany’s occupation of France. Elected head of the provisional government to implement the Armistice, he evacuated to Versailles in the face of radical resistance in Paris, precipitating the Commune, which he subsequently crushed, only to be ousted as provisional president of the Republic in 1873. Died 1877.

Tikhomirov, Lev
. Born 1850. A member of the Land and Freedom Movement, he attended the Lipetsk conference and joined the executive committee of the People’s Will after the conference at Voronezh. Despite
weak nerves, took a prominent propagandist and organisational role in the movement, continuing after his emigration in 1882. Persuaded to recant his beliefs by Rachkovsky in 1888, he returned to Russia to become a virulently reactionary journalist. Died 1922.

Ungern-Sternberg – see Jagolkovsky
.

Uzès, Duchess Marie Adrienne Anne Clémentine de Rochechouart de Mortemart d’
. Militant royalist and Boulangist, she was a novelist and sculptor. She funded both the Boulangists and anarchists, supplying money to Louise Michel, whose friendship she secured over their common charitable interest in the cause of women’s rights.

Vaillant, Auguste
. Born 1861. Namesake but no relation to Commune minister of education. Experience as ‘peon’ labourer in Argentina confirmed anarchist inclinations. Having escaped back to Europe, in November 1893 flung bomb into Chamber of Deputies. Executed February 1894.

Vauvelle, Charlotte
. Born 1872. Thirty-five years Louise Michel’s junior, she lived with her as her devoted companion for more than a decade until Michel’s death. Brought up with anarchists, but grew to dislike them. Said to be both an Orléanist agent, who helped bring Michel into the orbit of the Duchess d’Uzes, and an informant for Special Branch.

Williamson, Adolphus, known as ‘Dolly’
. Born 1830. First head of Scotland Yard’s Detective Branch and its successor, the Criminal Investigation Department. Died 1889.

Witte, Count Sergei
. Born 1849. Worked in management of Russian railways during vast expansion, and may have contributed to formation of Holy Brotherhood in 1881. Finance minister for a decade from 1893, pursued progressive policies; Rachkovsky an ally. Chairman of committee of ministers 1903–5 and council of ministers until 1906. Died 1915.

Zasulich, Vera
. Born 1852. When only sixteen was duped into assisting Nechaev and imprisoned for two years and then exiled for a further two years. Returned to Russia to join the revolutionary underground in Kiev. Reacted to Bogoliubov beating and tried to shoot General Trepov but was acquitted by a jury trial and spirited out of the country. In Switzerland,
she lodged for a while with Kravchinsky but joined Plekhanov and Lenin in the Social Democratic Party, splitting with the latter in 1903. Died 1919.

Zhelyabov, Andrei
. Born 1850 into a serf family, he joined the Volkhovsky Circle in Odessa following his expulsion from university, and was further radicalised by repeated arrests. Attended Lipetsk and Voronezh conferences, joined the executive committee of the People’s Will and took a lead role in various attempts on the tsar’s life, up to success of March 1881, though arrested three days earlier. Executed April 1881.

Zo d’Axa, Alphonse Gallaud de la Pérouse
. Born 1864. Deserter from cavalry. Political and journalistic career was marked by its flamboyance and extremism, first as an ultra-Catholic in Italy, then as an anarchist of nihilistic inclinations in France. Founder of
L’En Dehors
, and friend of individualist anarchists whose terrorism he extolled as tantamount to artistic gestures. Committed suicide in 1930.

Timeline