January 1918 On January 1, 1918, the first unsuccessful attempt on
Lenin's life took place in
Petrograd, in which
Friedrich Platten was slightly hit by a bullet. According to one of the versions of the
All-Russian Extraordinary Commission (Cheka),
Dmitry Shakhovskoy was the organizer of the assassination attempt on January 1, 1918. A few years later, while in exile, Prince Dmitry Shakhovskoy announced that he was the organizer of the assassination attempt and allocated five hundred thousand rubles for this purpose. Researcher
Richard Pipes also pointed out that one of the former
ministers of the
Provisional Government, constitutional democrat
Nikolai Nekrasov, who, immediately after the assassination attempt, changed his last name to Golgofsky, left for
Ufa, and then to
Kazan, was involved in this attempt. In March 1921, he was arrested, sent to
Moscow, and in May, after a meeting with
Vladimir Lenin, was released. In mid–January, the second attempt on Lenin's life was thwarted in Petrograd: the soldier Spiridonov came to see
Mikhail Bonch–Bruevich, declaring that he was participating in the conspiracy of the "Union of Saint George's Cavaliers" and was ordered to eliminate Lenin. On the night of January 22, the
All–Russian Extraordinary Commission arrested the conspirators at 14 Zakharyevskaya Street, in the apartment of "citizen Salova", but then they are all sent to the front at their personal request. At least two of the conspirators, Zinkevich and Nekrasov, subsequently joined the "white" armies. Historian
Richard Pipes, in his work "Bolsheviks in the Struggle for Power", described this incident as follows: "The company was traveling on a special train, guarded by Latvian Riflemen. Early in the morning they came across a train filled with deserters, and since the intentions of the latter were unclear, Bonch–Bruevich ordered the train to stop and disarm everyone. Then the train moved on and arrived in Moscow late in the evening".
August 1918 On August 30, 1918, at the Michelson Plant in
Moscow, an attempt was made on Lenin, according to the official version, by the
half–blind Socialist Revolutionary
Fanny Kaplan. As a result of the assassination attempt, Lenin was seriously wounded (the question of the organizers and participants in the assassination attempt, as well as the involvement of Fanny Kaplan, remains unclear to this day). On the morning of August 30, 1918, the Chairman of the Petrograd Extraordinary Commission,
Moisey Uritsky, was killed in
Petrograd. Despite the news of this murder, no additional security measures were taken in Moscow. The speeches of the members of the
Council of People's Commissars at the factory rallies, scheduled for 18:00, were not canceled.
Lenin was supposed to speak at a rally in front of the workers of the Michelson Plant. He left for the plant without security. There was no security at the plant itself. In accordance with Semyonov's testimony, the
SR Combat Organization resumed its activities in early 1918 and in July liquidated
V. Volodarsky. The next main target was
Leon Trotsky, the military leader of Bolshevism. Trotsky was constantly moving between the capital and the front and "for technical reasons" (as Semyonov put it) it was decided to first eliminate Lenin. Semyonov discovered that Kaplan, whom he described as an "unshakable revolutionary terrorist", was independently conducting the same training as him and had her join his group. During interrogations at the Extraordinary Commission, Kaplan claimed that she acted independently without representing any party. The first assassination attempt was made by the Socialist Revolutionaries on August 16 at a meeting of the Moscow Party Committee, but the perpetrator lost his nerve at the last moment. The second and nearly successful attempt was made on August 30 where Semyonov appointed Novikov as the worker on duty and Kaplan as the executor. At the same time, the Socialist Revolutionaries tried to carry out an attempt on Trotsky's life by blowing up the front of his train. At the last moment, Trotsky eluded them by leaving on another train.
Poisoned bullet version For a long time there was an opinion that Lenin was wounded by a poisoned bullet. In particular, the historian
Richard Pipes cites such a statement in his work "Bolsheviks in the Struggle for Power", referring to the testimony of Semyonov. Semyonov himself claimed that the three bullets had a cruciform incision into which curare poison was injected. In addition, according to the medical report, the doctors actually found a cruciform incision on the bullet removed from Lenin's neck. Assuming that the poison was actually inflicted, its properties were destroyed by the heat generated in the pistol barrel upon firing.
Results of the assassination attempt As a result of the assassination attempts on Vladimir Lenin and
Moisey Uritsky, the supreme body of Soviet power – the
All–Russian Central Executive Committee, chaired by
Yakov Sverdlov, announced the beginning of the
Red Terror. The Council of People's Commissars – the Soviet government – on September 5, 1918, confirmed this decision by a special resolution. In September 1918, Trotsky rushed back from the far-eastern front of the civil war and reached Moscow after the second day of the shooting whereas Stalin remained in
Tsaritsyn. Although Lenin's wound seemed fatal, he recovered quickly. On September 25, 1918, he left for
Gorki and returned to Moscow on October 14, immediately resuming his political activities. Lenin's first public appearance after the assassination attempt was on October 22, 1918. ==Indirect assassination attempts==