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{{Short description|Woman who tried to kill Vladimir Lenin (1890–1918)}}
{{weasel|date=September 2017}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2020}}

{{Infobox person
{{Infobox person
|name=Fanya Kaplan
| name = Fanny Kaplan
| native_name = {{nobold|Фанни Каплан}}
|image=FannyKaplan.jpg
| image = File:Фанни Ефимовна Каплан.jpg
|caption=
| caption =
|birth_name=Feiga Haimovna Roytblat
| birth_name = Feiga Haimovna Roytblat
|birth_date={{birth date|1890|2|10|mf=y}}
| birth_date = {{birth date|1890|2|10|mf=y}}
|birth_place=[[Volhynian Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]] (now [[Ukraine]])
| birth_place = [[Volhynian Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]]
|death_date={{death date and age|1918|9|3|1890|2|10|mf=y}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|1918|9|3|1890|2|10|mf=y}}
|death_place=[[Moscow]], [[Russian SFSR]]
| death_place = [[Moscow]], [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Russian SFSR]]
| death_cause = [[Execution by shooting]]
}}
}}
'''Fanya Yefimovna Kaplan''' ({{lang-ru|Фа́нни Ефи́мовна Капла́н|links=no}}; real name '''Feiga Haimovna Roytblat''', {{lang|ru|Фейга Хаимовна Ройтблат}}; February 10, 1890 – September 3, 1918) was a member of the [[Socialist Revolutionary Party]] who allegedly tried to assassinate [[Vladimir Lenin]].
'''Fanny Efimovna Kaplan''' ({{langx|ru|Фанни Ефимовна Каплан}}; real name '''Feiga Haimovna Roytblat'''; {{lang|ru|Фейга Хаимовна Ройтблат}}; February 10, 1890 – September 3, 1918) was a Russian [[Socialist Revolutionary Party|Socialist-Revolutionary]] who attempted to assassinate [[Vladimir Lenin]]. She was arrested and executed by the [[Cheka]] in 1918.


As a member of the [[Socialist Revolutionary Party|Socialist Revolutionaries]] (SRs), Kaplan viewed Lenin as a ‘traitor to the revolution’, when his [[Bolsheviks]] banned her party. On 30 August 1918, she approached Lenin as he was leaving a Moscow factory, and fired three shots, badly injuring him. Interrogated by the [[Cheka]], she refused to name any accomplices, and was shot on 3 September. The Kaplan attempt and the [[Moisei Uritsky]] assassination provoked the Soviet government to reinstitute the [[Capital_punishment_in_Russia|death penalty]] after its [[Capital_punishment_in_Russia| abolition on October 28th, 1917]].
Born into a Jewish family, Kaplan served a sentence of hard labor during the tsarist years for her revolutionary activities.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shrayer |first1=Maxim D. |title=An Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature: Two Centuries of Dual Identity in Prose and Poetry |date= 2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-47696-2 |page=210 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QYGsBwAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Engelstein |first1=Laura |title=Russia in Flames: War, Revolution, Civil War, 1914–1921 |date=2018 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-979421-8 |page=273 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zlsvDwAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref> As a member of the [[Socialist Revolutionary Party]], Kaplan viewed Lenin as a "traitor to the revolution" when the [[Bolsheviks]] enacted [[single-party state|one-party rule]] and banned her party. On August 30, 1918, she approached Lenin, who was leaving a Moscow factory, and fired three shots, which badly injured him. Interrogated by the Cheka, she refused to name any accomplices and was executed. The Kaplan attempt and the [[Moisei Uritsky]] assassination were used by the government of [[Soviet Russia]] for the reinstatement of [[capital punishment in Russia|capital punishment]], which had been abolished by the [[Russian Provisional Government]] in March 1917.


==Biography==
==Early life==
There is some confusion as to Kaplan's birth name. [[Vera Figner]], in her memoirs, ''At Women's [[Katorga]]'', gives the name Feiga Khaimovna Roytblat-Kaplan (Фейга Хаимовна Ройтблат-Каплан). Other sources give her original family name as Ройтман (transliterated from Russian as Roytman, which corresponds to the common German/Yiddish name Reutemann). She is also sometimes called "Dora."<ref name="how">''How Did They Die?'' by Norman and Betty Donaldson, p. 221.</ref>
Relatively little is known for certain about Kaplan's background. She was born into a [[Jewish]] family. Her father was a teacher, and she had seven siblings.<ref name="Lyandres" /> There has been confusion about her full name. [[Vera Figner]] (in her memoirs, ''At Women's [[Katorga]]''), stated that Kaplan's original name was Feiga Khaimovna Roytblat-Kaplan (Фейга Хаимовна Ройтблат-Каплан). However, other sources have stated that her original [[family name]] was Roytman (Ройтман), corresponding to the common [[German language|German]] and [[Yiddish]] surname Reutemann ({{Script/Hebrew|רויטמאן}}). She was also sometimes known by the [[given name]] Dora.<ref name="how">{{cite book |title=How Did They Die? |first1=Norman |last1=Donaldson |first2=Betty |last2=Donaldson |isbn=9780517403020 |page=221 |publisher=Greenwich House |date= 1983}}</ref>


Kaplan was born into a Jewish family, as one of seven children. She became a political revolutionary at an early age and joined a [[socialist]] group, the [[Socialist Revolutionary Party|Socialist Revolutionaries]]. In 1906, when she was 16 years old, Kaplan was arrested in Kiev over her involvement in a [[terrorist]] bomb plot, and committed for life to the [[katorga]] (a hard-labor prison camp). She served in the [[Maltsev katorga|Maltsev]] and [[Akatuy katorga|Akatuy prison]]s of [[Nerchinsk katorga]], [[Siberia]], where she lost her sight (partially restored later). She was kept in the Maltzevskaya prison, where she was severely [[Caning|caned]] on her bare body as disciplinary corporal punishment.<ref>[http://www.memo.ru/Nerczinsk/szkol6.htm Школьник, Мария ''ЖИЗНЬ БЫВШЕЙ ТЕРРОРИСТКИ'', ГЛАВА VI] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090116003440/http://www.memo.ru/Nerczinsk/szkol6.htm |date=2009-01-16 }}</ref> Fully undressed corporal punishment was not usual for political prisoners at that time. She was released on March 3, 1917, after the [[February Revolution]] overthrew the imperial government. As a result of her imprisonment, Kaplan suffered from continuous headaches and periods of blindness.
Kaplan was home educated and soon left home to work as a milliner in [[Odessa]].<ref name="Lyandres" /> She became a political revolutionary at an early age and joined a [[socialist]] group, the [[Socialist Revolutionary Party|Socialist Revolutionaries]] (SRs). In 1906, when she was 16 years old, Kaplan was arrested in Kiev over her involvement in a [[terrorist]] bomb plot to blow up the city's governor, [[Vladimir Sukhomlinov]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Brenton |first1=Tony |title=Was Revolution Inevitable?: Turning Points of the Russian Revolution |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-065891-5 |page=181 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-L_XDQAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref> She was captured after a bomb she and her romantic partner were working on accidentally exploded.<ref name="Sixsmith" /> She was committed for life to the [[katorga]], a hard labour prison camp. She served in the Maltsev and [[Akatuy katorga|Akatuy prisons]] of [[Nerchinsk katorga]], [[Siberia]], where she lost her sight, which was partially restored later. She was released on March 3, 1917, after the [[February Revolution]] overthrew the imperial government. As a result of her imprisonment, Kaplan suffered from continuous headaches and periods of blindness.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schneer |first=Jonathan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q2jxDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT208 |title=The Lockhart Plot: Love, Betrayal, Assassination and Counter-Revolution in Lenin's Russia |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-259444-0 |page=208 |language=en}}</ref>


Kaplan became disillusioned with Lenin as a result of the conflict between the Socialist Revolutionaries and the [[Bolshevik]] party.<ref>{{cite book |first=Ludwik |last=Kowalski| title=Hell on Earth – Brutality and Violence Under the Stalinist Regime |page= Glossary |year=2008 |publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences |isbn=978-1-60047232-9}}</ref> The Bolsheviks had strong support in the [[Soviet (council)|soviets]]; however, in elections to a competing body, the [[Russian Constituent Assembly|Constituent Assembly]], the Bolsheviks failed to win a majority in the November 1917 elections and a Socialist Revolutionary was elected president in January 1918. The Bolsheviks, favoring soviets, ordered the Constituent Assembly to be dissolved. By August 1918 conflicts between the Bolsheviks and their political opponents had led to the banning of most other influential parties - most recently, of the [[Left Socialist Revolutionaries]], who had been the Bolsheviks' principal coalition partner for some time, but had organized the [[Left SR uprising]] in July because of their opposition to the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]]. Kaplan decided to assassinate Lenin because she considered him "a traitor to the Revolution".<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.executedtoday.com/2009/09/03/1918-fanya-kaplan-lenins-would-be-assassin/| title=1918: Fanya Kaplan, Lenin’s would-be assassin| website=ExecutedToday.com| date=September 3, 2009}}</ref>
Kaplan became disillusioned with Lenin in 1917–1918, due to conflict between the SRs and the [[Bolsheviks]].<ref>{{cite book |first=Ludwik |last=Kowalski| title=Hell on Earth – Brutality and Violence Under the Stalinist Regime |page=Glossary |year=2008 |publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences |isbn=978-1-60047232-9}}</ref> The latter had strong support in the [[soviet (council)|soviets]], but in the November 1917 elections to the [[Russian Constituent Assembly|Constituent Assembly]], non-Bolsheviks were the majority. When the Assembly met in January 1918, a Socialist Revolutionary was elected president. The Bolsheviks responded by dissolving the Constituent Assembly. By August 1918, the Bolsheviks had banned most other parties. Most recently, they had banned the [[Left Socialist Revolutionaries]] (Left SRs), formerly the Bolsheviks' main coalition partners, who had [[Left SR uprising|rebelled against them in July]] in opposition to the [[Treaty of Brest-Litovsk]]. Kaplan decided to assassinate Lenin because she considered him "a traitor to the Revolution".<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.executedtoday.com/2009/09/03/1918-fanya-kaplan-lenins-would-be-assassin/| title=1918: Fanya Kaplan, Lenin's would-be assassin| website=www.executedtoday.com| date=September 3, 2009}}</ref><ref name="spartacus"/>


===Assassination attempt===
==Assassination attempt==
[[File:Lenin attempt.jpg|upright=1.14|thumb|right|[[Vladimir Pchelin]]'s depiction of the assassination attempt]]
[[File:Lenin attempt.jpg|upright=1.14|thumb|right|Vladimir Pchelin's depiction of the assassination attempt]]
On 30 August 1918, Lenin spoke at the Hammer and Sickle, a Michelson arms factory in south [[Moscow]]<ref>''Moscow: A Cultural History'' by Caroline Brooke, Oxford University Press, p. 74</ref>. As Lenin left the building and before he entered his car, Kaplan called out to him. When Lenin turned towards her, she fired three shots with a Browning pistol.<ref name="how" /> One bullet passed through Lenin's coat, the other two struck him: one passing through his neck, puncturing part of his left lung, and stopping near his right collarbone; the other lodging in his left shoulder.<ref name="how" /><ref>Partly confirmed in [http://www.military-history.org/articles/top-five-assassination-attempts.htm Top Five Assassination Attempts - Number Four, Lenin 1918 (link)], Military History Monthly magazine, published 18 November 2014, accessed 20 November 2014.</ref>
On August 30, 1918, Lenin spoke at the Hammer and Sickle, an arms factory in southern [[Moscow]].<ref>''Moscow: A Cultural History'' by Caroline Brooke, Oxford University Press, p. 74</ref> As Lenin left the building and before he had entered his car, Kaplan called out to him. When Lenin turned towards her, she fired three shots with a [[FN M1900]] pistol. One bullet passed through Lenin's coat, and the other two struck him. One passed through his neck, punctured part of his left lung, and stopped near his right collarbone; the other lodged in his left shoulder.<ref name="how" /><ref>Partly confirmed in [http://www.military-history.org/articles/top-five-assassination-attempts.htm Top Five Assassination Attempts – Number Four, Lenin 1918 (link)], ''Military History Monthly'' magazine, published November 18, 2014, accessed November 20, 2014.</ref>


[[File:Fanny Kaplan's FN 1900 pistol, used in the attempted assassination of Lenin.png|thumb|Fanny Kaplan's FN 1900 pistol, used in the attempted assassination of Lenin.]]
⚫
Lenin was taken back to his living quarters at [[the Kremlin]]. He feared there might be other plotters planning to kill him and refused to leave the security of the Kremlin to seek medical attention. Doctors were brought in to treat him but were unable to remove the bullets outside of a hospital. Despite the severity of his injuries, Lenin survived. However, Lenin's health never fully recovered from the attack and it is believed<ref>https://www.rt.com/russia/449352-lenin-mausoleum-body-burial/</ref> the shooting contributed to the strokes that incapacitated and eventually killed him in 1924.


⚫
Lenin was taken back to his living quarters at the [[Moscow Kremlin|Kremlin]]. He feared that others might be planning to kill him and refused to leave the security of the Kremlin to seek medical attention. Doctors were brought in to treat him but could not remove the bullets outside a hospital. Despite the severity of his injuries, Lenin survived, but his health never fully recovered from the attack. It has been speculated that the shooting contributed to the strokes that incapacitated and eventually killed him in 1924.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-08-30 |title="Это были времена крайней жестокости" |url=https://iz.ru/781019/elena-loriia/eto-byli-vremena-krainei-zhestokosti |access-date=2023-08-11 |website=Известия |language=ru}}</ref>
===Execution===
Kaplan was taken into custody and interrogated by the [[Cheka]]. She made the following statement:


==Capture and execution==
⚫
{{Quote|My name is Fanya Kaplan. Today I shot Lenin. I did it on my own. I will not say from whom I obtained my revolver. I will give no details. I had resolved to kill Lenin long ago. I consider him a traitor to the Revolution. I was exiled to Akatui for participating in an assassination attempt against a Tsarist official in Kiev. I spent 11 years at hard labour. After the Revolution, I was freed. I favoured the Constituent Assembly and am still for it.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://spartacus-educational.com/RUSkaplan.htm|title=Fanya Kaplan|work=Spartacus Educational}}</ref>}}
There are contradictory stories of her capture. According to the testimony of Deputy Commissar S. N. Batulin, he was within 20 steps of Lenin when he heard three shots and saw Lenin face down on the ground. Afterwards, he identified a woman who he felt looked suspicious and detained her. That turned out to be Kaplan.<ref name="prlib">{{Cite web |date=30 August 2018 |title=Presidential Library declassified materials, which cast light on assassination attempt on Lenin's life |url=https://www.prlib.ru/en/news/1163306 |access-date=2020-08-31 |website=Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library |language=en}}</ref> However, the factory commissar N. I. Ivanov claimed to have arrested her after she had been identified by several children, who had followed her down the street.<ref name="Lyandres" />{{rp|439}} During interrogation by the [[Cheka]], she made the following statement:


⚫
{{Blockquote|My name is Fanya Kaplan. Today I shot Lenin. I did it on my own. I will not say from whom I obtained my revolver. I will give no details. I had resolved to kill Lenin long ago. I consider him a traitor to the Revolution. I was exiled to Akatuy for participating in an assassination attempt against a Tsarist official in Kiev. I spent 11 years at hard labour. After the Revolution, I was freed. I favoured the [[Russian Constituent Assembly|Constituent Assembly]] and am still for it.<ref name="spartacus">{{cite web|url=http://spartacus-educational.com/RUSkaplan.htm|title=Fanya Kaplan|work=Spartacus Educational}}</ref>}}
When it became clear that Kaplan would not implicate any accomplices, she was executed in [[Alexander Garden]], on September 3, 1918 with a bullet to the back of the head.<ref name=how/> Her corpse was bundled into a barrel, and set alight. The order came from [[Yakov Sverdlov]] who, just six weeks before, had ordered the execution of the tsar and his family.{{cn|date=April 2016}}


Kaplan referenced the Bolsheviks' growing authoritarianism, citing their forcible shutdown of the Constituent Assembly in January 1918, the [[1917 Russian Constituent Assembly election|elections]] to which they had lost. When it became clear that Kaplan would not implicate any accomplices, she was executed in [[Alexander Garden]]. The order was carried out by the commander of the Kremlin, the former Baltic sailor P. D. Malkov and a group of Latvian Bolsheviks<ref>{{Cite book|last=|first=|title=Malkov P. Notes of the Kremlin commandant. – M.: Molodaya gvardiya, 1968.S. 148–9149.|publisher=|year=|isbn=|location=|pages=}}</ref>{{page needed|date=August 2021}}{{primary source inline|date=August 2021}} on September 3, 1918, with a bullet to the back of the head.<ref name=how/> Her corpse was bundled into a barrel and set alight. The order came from [[Yakov Sverdlov]], who only six weeks earlier had ordered the [[Murder of the Romanov family|murder]] of the Tsar and his family.<ref>{{Citation|last=Slezkine |first=Yuri |title=The house of government : a saga of the Russian Revolution |isbn=978-1-5384-7835-6|oclc=1003859221 |page=158}}</ref><ref name="Lyandres" />{{rp|442}}
====Culpability====
Some historians such as [[Arkady Vaksberg]] and [[Donald Rayfield]] have questioned the actual role of Kaplan in the assassination attempt.<ref>
''Stalin and His Hangmen: The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him'' by Donald Rayfield, p. 78.</ref> Vaksberg states that Lidia Konopleva, another SR, was the culprit, believing it would be all too comforting that Lenin narrowly avoided being assassinated by a woman whose personality is so far from the stereotype of a national hero.<ref>
''Stalin and His Hangmen: The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him'' by Donald Rayfield, p. 79.
</ref> In particular, it is suggested that she was working on behalf of others and after her arrest assumed sole responsibility. The main argument put forth in this and other versions is her near-blindness. Another argument points to the contradiction between the official Soviet account (which states that angry workers who witnessed the event immediately seized Kaplan) and official documents, in particular a radiogram by [[Yakov Peters]], which mentions the arrest of several suspects.


===Legacy===
===Guilt===
[[File:Kaplan fanny 1918.jpg|thumb|Kaplan in 1918]]
Grigory Semyonov, a military commander in the SR who later [[turned state's evidence]] against the group, testified in 1922 that Kaplan had been a member of his organization and that he regarded her as the "best person to carry out the attack on Lenin".<ref name="Sixsmith">{{Cite book |last=Sixsmith |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Sixsmith |chapter=Fanny Kaplan's Attempt to Kill Lenin, August 1918 |editor-last=Brenton |editor-first=Tony |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mKj_DQAAQBAJ&pg=PT175 |title=Was Revolution Inevitable?: Turning Points of the Russian Revolution |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-065893-9 |pages=175–180 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Radzinsky |first=Edvard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3DtwdU7921YC&pg=PA187 |title=Stalin |date=2011 |publisher=Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group |isbn=978-0-307-75468-4 |page=187 |language=en}}</ref>

Some historians such as [[Dmitri Volkogonov]], [[Arkady Vaksberg]] and [[Donald Rayfield]] have questioned the actual role of Kaplan in the assassination attempt. Volkogonov suggested that "it is more likely" that Kaplan was actually not the culprit and described her assassination attempt as "another of the many mystifications of Bolshevik history".<ref name="Volkogonov">{{Cite book |last=Volkogonov |first=Dmitri |title=Lenin |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-684-84716-0 |pages=242–244 |language=en}}</ref> Vaksberg stated that Lidia Konopleva, another SR, was the culprit and believed that it would be all too comforting that Lenin narrowly avoided being assassinated by a woman whose personality is so far from the stereotype of a national hero.<ref>{{cite book |title=Stalin and His Hangmen: The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him |first=Donald |last=Rayfield |isbn=978-0375506321 |pages=78–79 |publisher=Random House |year=2004}}</ref> In particular, it had been suggested that she was working on behalf of others and, after her arrest, assumed sole responsibility. The main arguments put forth in that and other versions is that she was nearly blind, and none of the witnesses actually saw her fire the gun.<ref name="Volkogonov"/><ref name="YIVO">{{Cite web |last=Tumarkin |first=Nina |title=Kaplan, Fannie Efimovna |url=https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Kaplan_Fannie_Efimovna |access-date=August 28, 2020 |website=The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe}}</ref> Another argument points to the contradiction between the official Soviet account and official documents, particularly a radiogram by [[Yakov Peters]] that mentions the arrest of several suspects, instead of only one.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} Furthermore, the bullet removed from Lenin's neck after his death was found to have been fired from a weapon other than the one that Kaplan had.<ref name="Sixsmith" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Volkogonov |first=Dmitri |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Sz4VOBMm2QC&pg=PT244 |title=Lenin |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=978-0-684-84716-0 |page=244 |language=en}}</ref> Semion Lyandres went so far as to argue that Kaplan was not even an SR.<ref name="Lyandres" />{{rp|433}}

==Legacy==
[[File:Моисей Урицкий.jpg|thumb|upright|Moisei Uritsky]]
[[File:Моисей Урицкий.jpg|thumb|upright|Moisei Uritsky]]
Despite her refusal to name accomplices, the official announcement of the assassination attempt had Sverdlov blame the Right SRs although it denied any involvement.<ref name="Lyandres">{{cite journal |doi=10.2307/2498997 |jstor=2498997 |title=The 1918 Attempt on the Life of Lenin: A New Look at the Evidence |first=Semion |last=Lyandres |journal=Slavic Review |volume=48 |issue=3 |date=Autumn 1989 |pages=432–448 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|s2cid=155228899 }}</ref>{{rp|432}} [[Moisei Uritsky]], the [[People's Commissar]] for Internal Affairs in the Northern Region and the head of the Cheka in [[Petrograd]], had been assassinated nearly two weeks prior to the attack on Lenin.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Simkin |first=John |date=September 1997 |title=Moisei Uritsky |url=https://spartacus-educational.com/RUSuritsky.htm |access-date=August 29, 2020 |website=Spartacus Educational}}</ref> The Cheka did not find any evidence linking both events,{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} but their occurrence so soon after each other appeared significant in the context of the [[Russian Civil War#1918|intensifying civil war]]. The Bolsheviks' reaction was an abrupt escalation in the persecution of their opponents.<ref name="spartacus" />


An official decree announcing the [[Red Terror]] was issued only hours after the Kaplan shooting and called for an "all-out struggle against enemies of the revolution".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Werth |first1=Nicolas |last2=Bartosek |first2=Karel |last3=Panne |first3=Jean-Louis |last4=Margolin |first4=Jean-Louis |last5=Paczkowski |first5=Andrzej |last6=Courtois |first6=Stephane |year=1999 |title=[[The Black Book of Communism|Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression]] |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=0-674-07608-7 |page=74}}</ref> In the next few months, about 800 Right SRs and other political opponents of Bolsheviks were executed. During the first year, the scope of the [[Red Terror]] expanded significantly.<ref>{{Cite magazine |date=2018-09-05 |title=How the 'Red Terror' Exposed the True Turmoil of Soviet Russia 100 Years Ago |url=https://time.com/5386789/red-terror-soviet-history/ |access-date=2023-08-11 |magazine=Time |language=en}}</ref>
In the official announcement of the assassination attempt, Kaplan was declared a [[Right Eser]] (Right SR). [[Moisei Uritsky]], [[People's Commissar]] for Internal Affairs in the Northern Region and head of the Cheka in [[Petrograd]], had been assassinated nearly two weeks prior to the attack on Lenin. While the Cheka did not find any evidence linking the two events, their co-occurrence appeared significant in the overall context of the [[Russian Civil War#1918|intensifying civil war]]. The Bolshevik reaction was an abrupt escalation in the persecution of their opponents.


== In fiction ==
An official decree on [[Red Terror]] was issued only hours after the Kaplan shooting, calling for all-out struggle against enemies of the revolution. In the next few months, about 800 Right SRs and other political opponents of Bolsheviks were executed. During the first year, the scope of the Red Terror expanded significantly.
{{More citations needed section|date=August 2021}}
In the 1939 Soviet film ''[[Lenin in 1918]]'' directed by [[Mikhail Romm]], [[Natalia Efron]] portrayed Kaplan.


In the 1934 Hollywood film ''[[British Agent]]'' directed by [[Michael Curtiz]], Corinne Williams and Zozia Tanina portray Kaplan.
=== Fictional ===

⚫
The event is portrayed in ''[[Reilly, Ace of Spies]],'' a 1983 British TV series. Kaplan has been the subject of or character in several plays including (''Fanny Kaplan'' by [[Venedikt Yerofeyev]]; ''Kill me, o my beloved!'' by Elena Isaeva) and books (''[[Europe Central]]'' by [[William T. Vollmann]]).
In the West German TV series ''{{Ill|Bürgerkrieg in Rußland|de}}'' (1967), [[Peggy Parnass|Peggy Parnas]] portrays Franja Kaplan.<ref>{{IMDb title|qid=Q56035759|title=Bürgerkrieg in Russland}}</ref>

In the 1983 British TV series ''[[Reilly, Ace of Spies]]'', Sara Clee portrays Kaplan.<ref>{{cite web |title=Endgame (1983) |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7608a96d |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201126033832/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7608a96d |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 26, 2020 |website=[[BFI]] |access-date=22 November 2022}}</ref>

The life of Fanny Kaplan has also been portrayed in a Ukrainian film [[My Grandmother Fanny Kaplan (film)|''My Grandmother Fanny Kaplan'']] (2016) directed by [[Olena Demyanenko]].<ref>{{Cite news|date=2017-04-19|title=Ukraine ready to launch its own Oscars |url=https://www.kyivpost.com/lifestyle/movies/ukraine-ready-launch-oscars.html|access-date=2021-02-28|newspaper=[[Kyiv Post]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=My Grandmother Fanny Kaplan |url=https://europeanfilmawards.eu/en_EN/film/my-grandmother-fanny-kaplan.9324|access-date=2021-02-28|website=[[European Film Awards]]|language=en}}</ref>

⚫
Kaplan has been the subject of or character in several plays (including ''Fanny Kaplan'' by [[Venedikt Yerofeyev]]; ''Kill me, o my beloved!'' by Elena Isaeva; ''The Bolsheviks'' by [[Mikhail Shatrov]]) and books (''[[Europe Central]]'' by [[William T. Vollmann]]).{{citation needed|date=August 2020}}

[[Pamela Adlon]]'s character in ''[[History of the World, Part II]]'', Fanny Mudman, is loosely based on Kaplan, most notably when she attempts to kill Lenin.


== See also ==
== See also ==
* [[Leonid Kannegisser]]
* [[Fritz Platten]]
* [[Fritz Platten]]
* [[Faina Stavskaya]]


== References ==
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
{{Reflist}}
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* [http://www.zamos.ru/news/?tree_id=1&qid=51 Monument to Fanny Kaplan in Moscow] {{ru icon}}
* [http://www.zamos.ru/news/?tree_id=1&qid=51 Monument to Fanny Kaplan in Moscow] {{in lang|ru}}
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* [http://www.theatre-studio.ru/library/yerofeev_v/yerofeev_v_kaplan.html Venedikt Erofeev, 'Fanny Kaplan'] {{ru icon}}
* [http://www.theatre-studio.ru/library/yerofeev_v/yerofeev_v_kaplan.html Venedikt Erofeev, 'Fanny Kaplan'] {{in lang|ru}}
* [http://www.isaeva.ru/plays/killme.html Elena Isaeva, 'Kill me, o my beloved'] {{ru icon}}
* [http://www.isaeva.ru/plays/killme.html Elena Isaeva, 'Kill me, o my beloved'] {{in lang|ru}}


==Further reading==
==Further reading==
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==External links==
==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline}}
* [http://www.spartacus-educational.com/RUSkaplan.htm Fanya Kaplan on Spartacus]
* [http://www.spartacus-educational.com/RUSkaplan.htm Fanya Kaplan on Spartacus]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080620115257/http://www.j-grit.com/radicals-fanya-kaplan.html Fanya Kaplan Biography] at [http://www.j-grit.com J-Grit: The Internet Index of Tough Jews]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080620115257/http://www.j-grit.com/radicals-fanya-kaplan.html Fanya Kaplan Biography] at [http://www.j-grit.com J-Grit: The Internet Index of Tough Jews]
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{{Authority control}}
{{Authority control}}



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[[Category:People from Volyn Oblast]]
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[[Category:Jews from the Russian Empire]]
[[Category:Ukrainian Jews]]
[[Category:Ukrainian Jews]]
[[Category:Imperial Russian Jews]]
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[[Category:Russian prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment]]
[[Category:Socialist Revolutionary Party politicians]]
[[Category:Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Russia]]
[[Category:Executed Soviet women]]
[[Category:Jewish people executed by the Soviet Union]]
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[[Category:Executed Russian women]]
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[[Category:People executed for attempted murder]]
[[Category:Victims of Red Terror in Soviet Russia]]
[[Category:Victims of Red Terror in Soviet Russia]]
[[Category:Vladimir Lenin]]
[[Category:Vladimir Lenin]]
[[Category:Russian assassins]]
[[Category:Soviet assassins]]
[[Category:Russian socialists]]
[[Category:Socialists from the Russian Empire]]
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[[Category:People executed by the Soviet Union by firearm]]
[[Category:People executed by the Soviet Union by firearm]]
[[Category:20th-century women]]
[[Category:20th-century Ukrainian women]]
[[Category:Female revolutionaries]]
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[[Category:Executed revolutionaries]]

Latest revision as of 17:32, 27 October 2024

Fanny Kaplan
Фанни Каплан
Born
Feiga Haimovna Roytblat

(1890-02-10)February 10, 1890
Volhynian Governorate, Russian Empire
DiedSeptember 3, 1918(1918-09-03) (aged 28)
Moscow, Russian SFSR
Cause of deathExecution by shooting

Fanny Efimovna Kaplan (Russian: Фанни Ефимовна Каплан; real name Feiga Haimovna Roytblat; Фейга Хаимовна Ройтблат; February 10, 1890 – September 3, 1918) was a Russian Socialist-Revolutionary who attempted to assassinate Vladimir Lenin. She was arrested and executed by the Cheka in 1918.

Born into a Jewish family, Kaplan served a sentence of hard labor during the tsarist years for her revolutionary activities.[1][2] As a member of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, Kaplan viewed Lenin as a "traitor to the revolution" when the Bolsheviks enacted one-party rule and banned her party. On August 30, 1918, she approached Lenin, who was leaving a Moscow factory, and fired three shots, which badly injured him. Interrogated by the Cheka, she refused to name any accomplices and was executed. The Kaplan attempt and the Moisei Uritsky assassination were used by the government of Soviet Russia for the reinstatement of capital punishment, which had been abolished by the Russian Provisional Government in March 1917.

Early life

[edit]

Relatively little is known for certain about Kaplan's background. She was born into a Jewish family. Her father was a teacher, and she had seven siblings.[3] There has been confusion about her full name. Vera Figner (in her memoirs, At Women's Katorga), stated that Kaplan's original name was Feiga Khaimovna Roytblat-Kaplan (Фейга Хаимовна Ройтблат-Каплан). However, other sources have stated that her original family name was Roytman (Ройтман), corresponding to the common German and Yiddish surname Reutemann (רויטמאן‎). She was also sometimes known by the given name Dora.[4]

Kaplan was home educated and soon left home to work as a milliner in Odessa.[3] She became a political revolutionary at an early age and joined a socialist group, the Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs). In 1906, when she was 16 years old, Kaplan was arrested in Kiev over her involvement in a terrorist bomb plot to blow up the city's governor, Vladimir Sukhomlinov.[5] She was captured after a bomb she and her romantic partner were working on accidentally exploded.[6] She was committed for life to the katorga, a hard labour prison camp. She served in the Maltsev and Akatuy prisons of Nerchinsk katorga, Siberia, where she lost her sight, which was partially restored later. She was released on March 3, 1917, after the February Revolution overthrew the imperial government. As a result of her imprisonment, Kaplan suffered from continuous headaches and periods of blindness.[7]

Kaplan became disillusioned with Lenin in 1917–1918, due to conflict between the SRs and the Bolsheviks.[8] The latter had strong support in the soviets, but in the November 1917 elections to the Constituent Assembly, non-Bolsheviks were the majority. When the Assembly met in January 1918, a Socialist Revolutionary was elected president. The Bolsheviks responded by dissolving the Constituent Assembly. By August 1918, the Bolsheviks had banned most other parties. Most recently, they had banned the Left Socialist Revolutionaries (Left SRs), formerly the Bolsheviks' main coalition partners, who had rebelled against them in July in opposition to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Kaplan decided to assassinate Lenin because she considered him "a traitor to the Revolution".[9][10]

Assassination attempt

[edit]
Vladimir Pchelin's depiction of the assassination attempt

On August 30, 1918, Lenin spoke at the Hammer and Sickle, an arms factory in southern Moscow.[11] As Lenin left the building and before he had entered his car, Kaplan called out to him. When Lenin turned towards her, she fired three shots with a FN M1900 pistol. One bullet passed through Lenin's coat, and the other two struck him. One passed through his neck, punctured part of his left lung, and stopped near his right collarbone; the other lodged in his left shoulder.[4][12]

Fanny Kaplan's FN 1900 pistol, used in the attempted assassination of Lenin.

Lenin was taken back to his living quarters at the Kremlin. He feared that others might be planning to kill him and refused to leave the security of the Kremlin to seek medical attention. Doctors were brought in to treat him but could not remove the bullets outside a hospital. Despite the severity of his injuries, Lenin survived, but his health never fully recovered from the attack. It has been speculated that the shooting contributed to the strokes that incapacitated and eventually killed him in 1924.[13]

Capture and execution

[edit]

There are contradictory stories of her capture. According to the testimony of Deputy Commissar S. N. Batulin, he was within 20 steps of Lenin when he heard three shots and saw Lenin face down on the ground. Afterwards, he identified a woman who he felt looked suspicious and detained her. That turned out to be Kaplan.[14] However, the factory commissar N. I. Ivanov claimed to have arrested her after she had been identified by several children, who had followed her down the street.[3]: 439  During interrogation by the Cheka, she made the following statement:

My name is Fanya Kaplan. Today I shot Lenin. I did it on my own. I will not say from whom I obtained my revolver. I will give no details. I had resolved to kill Lenin long ago. I consider him a traitor to the Revolution. I was exiled to Akatuy for participating in an assassination attempt against a Tsarist official in Kiev. I spent 11 years at hard labour. After the Revolution, I was freed. I favoured the Constituent Assembly and am still for it.[10]

Kaplan referenced the Bolsheviks' growing authoritarianism, citing their forcible shutdown of the Constituent Assembly in January 1918, the elections to which they had lost. When it became clear that Kaplan would not implicate any accomplices, she was executed in Alexander Garden. The order was carried out by the commander of the Kremlin, the former Baltic sailor P. D. Malkov and a group of Latvian Bolsheviks[15][page needed][non-primary source needed] on September 3, 1918, with a bullet to the back of the head.[4] Her corpse was bundled into a barrel and set alight. The order came from Yakov Sverdlov, who only six weeks earlier had ordered the murder of the Tsar and his family.[16][3]: 442 

Guilt

[edit]
Kaplan in 1918

Grigory Semyonov, a military commander in the SR who later turned state's evidence against the group, testified in 1922 that Kaplan had been a member of his organization and that he regarded her as the "best person to carry out the attack on Lenin".[6][17]

Some historians such as Dmitri Volkogonov, Arkady Vaksberg and Donald Rayfield have questioned the actual role of Kaplan in the assassination attempt. Volkogonov suggested that "it is more likely" that Kaplan was actually not the culprit and described her assassination attempt as "another of the many mystifications of Bolshevik history".[18] Vaksberg stated that Lidia Konopleva, another SR, was the culprit and believed that it would be all too comforting that Lenin narrowly avoided being assassinated by a woman whose personality is so far from the stereotype of a national hero.[19] In particular, it had been suggested that she was working on behalf of others and, after her arrest, assumed sole responsibility. The main arguments put forth in that and other versions is that she was nearly blind, and none of the witnesses actually saw her fire the gun.[18][20] Another argument points to the contradiction between the official Soviet account and official documents, particularly a radiogram by Yakov Peters that mentions the arrest of several suspects, instead of only one.[citation needed] Furthermore, the bullet removed from Lenin's neck after his death was found to have been fired from a weapon other than the one that Kaplan had.[6][21] Semion Lyandres went so far as to argue that Kaplan was not even an SR.[3]: 433 

Legacy

[edit]
Moisei Uritsky

Despite her refusal to name accomplices, the official announcement of the assassination attempt had Sverdlov blame the Right SRs although it denied any involvement.[3]: 432  Moisei Uritsky, the People's Commissar for Internal Affairs in the Northern Region and the head of the Cheka in Petrograd, had been assassinated nearly two weeks prior to the attack on Lenin.[22] The Cheka did not find any evidence linking both events,[citation needed] but their occurrence so soon after each other appeared significant in the context of the intensifying civil war. The Bolsheviks' reaction was an abrupt escalation in the persecution of their opponents.[10]

An official decree announcing the Red Terror was issued only hours after the Kaplan shooting and called for an "all-out struggle against enemies of the revolution".[23] In the next few months, about 800 Right SRs and other political opponents of Bolsheviks were executed. During the first year, the scope of the Red Terror expanded significantly.[24]

In fiction

[edit]

In the 1939 Soviet film Lenin in 1918 directed by Mikhail Romm, Natalia Efron portrayed Kaplan.

In the 1934 Hollywood film British Agent directed by Michael Curtiz, Corinne Williams and Zozia Tanina portray Kaplan.

In the West German TV series Bürgerkrieg in Rußland [de] (1967), Peggy Parnas portrays Franja Kaplan.[25]

In the 1983 British TV series Reilly, Ace of Spies, Sara Clee portrays Kaplan.[26]

The life of Fanny Kaplan has also been portrayed in a Ukrainian film My Grandmother Fanny Kaplan (2016) directed by Olena Demyanenko.[27][28]

Kaplan has been the subject of or character in several plays (including Fanny Kaplan by Venedikt Yerofeyev; Kill me, o my beloved! by Elena Isaeva; The Bolsheviks by Mikhail Shatrov) and books (Europe Central by William T. Vollmann).[citation needed]

Pamela Adlon's character in History of the World, Part II, Fanny Mudman, is loosely based on Kaplan, most notably when she attempts to kill Lenin.

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Shrayer, Maxim D. (2015). An Anthology of Jewish-Russian Literature: Two Centuries of Dual Identity in Prose and Poetry. Routledge. p. 210. ISBN 978-1-317-47696-2.
  2. ^ Engelstein, Laura (2018). Russia in Flames: War, Revolution, Civil War, 1914–1921. Oxford University Press. p. 273. ISBN 978-0-19-979421-8.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Lyandres, Semion (Autumn 1989). "The 1918 Attempt on the Life of Lenin: A New Look at the Evidence". Slavic Review. 48 (3). Cambridge University Press: 432–448. doi:10.2307/2498997. JSTOR 2498997. S2CID 155228899.
  4. ^ a b c Donaldson, Norman; Donaldson, Betty (1983). How Did They Die?. Greenwich House. p. 221. ISBN 9780517403020.
  5. ^ Brenton, Tony (2017). Was Revolution Inevitable?: Turning Points of the Russian Revolution. Oxford University Press. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-19-065891-5.
  6. ^ a b c Sixsmith, Martin (2017). "Fanny Kaplan's Attempt to Kill Lenin, August 1918". In Brenton, Tony (ed.). Was Revolution Inevitable?: Turning Points of the Russian Revolution. Oxford University Press. pp. 175–180. ISBN 978-0-19-065893-9.
  7. ^ Schneer, Jonathan (2020). The Lockhart Plot: Love, Betrayal, Assassination and Counter-Revolution in Lenin's Russia. Oxford University Press. p. 208. ISBN 978-0-19-259444-0.
  8. ^ Kowalski, Ludwik (2008). Hell on Earth – Brutality and Violence Under the Stalinist Regime. American Academy of Arts and Sciences. p. Glossary. ISBN 978-1-60047232-9.
  9. ^ "1918: Fanya Kaplan, Lenin's would-be assassin". www.executedtoday.com. September 3, 2009.
  10. ^ a b c "Fanya Kaplan". Spartacus Educational.
  11. ^ Moscow: A Cultural History by Caroline Brooke, Oxford University Press, p. 74
  12. ^ Partly confirmed in Top Five Assassination Attempts – Number Four, Lenin 1918 (link), Military History Monthly magazine, published November 18, 2014, accessed November 20, 2014.
  13. ^ ""Это были времена крайней жестокости"". Известия (in Russian). August 30, 2018. Retrieved August 11, 2023.
  14. ^ "Presidential Library declassified materials, which cast light on assassination attempt on Lenin's life". Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library. August 30, 2018. Retrieved August 31, 2020.
  15. ^ Malkov P. Notes of the Kremlin commandant. – M.: Molodaya gvardiya, 1968.S. 148–9149.
  16. ^ Slezkine, Yuri, The house of government : a saga of the Russian Revolution, p. 158, ISBN 978-1-5384-7835-6, OCLC 1003859221
  17. ^ Radzinsky, Edvard (2011). Stalin. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 187. ISBN 978-0-307-75468-4.
  18. ^ a b Volkogonov, Dmitri. Lenin. Simon and Schuster. pp. 242–244. ISBN 978-0-684-84716-0.
  19. ^ Rayfield, Donald (2004). Stalin and His Hangmen: The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him. Random House. pp. 78–79. ISBN 978-0375506321.
  20. ^ Tumarkin, Nina. "Kaplan, Fannie Efimovna". The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. Retrieved August 28, 2020.
  21. ^ Volkogonov, Dmitri. Lenin. Simon and Schuster. p. 244. ISBN 978-0-684-84716-0.
  22. ^ Simkin, John (September 1997). "Moisei Uritsky". Spartacus Educational. Retrieved August 29, 2020.
  23. ^ Werth, Nicolas; Bartosek, Karel; Panne, Jean-Louis; Margolin, Jean-Louis; Paczkowski, Andrzej; Courtois, Stephane (1999). Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression. Harvard University Press. p. 74. ISBN 0-674-07608-7.
  24. ^ "How the 'Red Terror' Exposed the True Turmoil of Soviet Russia 100 Years Ago". Time. September 5, 2018. Retrieved August 11, 2023.
  25. ^ Bürgerkrieg in Russland at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
  26. ^ "Endgame (1983)". BFI. Archived from the original on November 26, 2020. Retrieved November 22, 2022.
  27. ^ "Ukraine ready to launch its own Oscars". Kyiv Post. April 19, 2017. Retrieved February 28, 2021.
  28. ^ "My Grandmother Fanny Kaplan". European Film Awards. Retrieved February 28, 2021.

Further reading

[edit]
[edit]
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