Grigory Gershuni - Biography

Grigory Andreyevich Gershuni (Григорий Андреевич Гершуни) (–) was a Russian revolutionary and one of the founders of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party.

Early life

Born in Kovno, Russia 1870 to Jewish peasants. Gershuni studied as a pharmacist at Kiev University and later opened his own bacteriological laboratory in Minsk.

Revolutionary Life

Gershuni was a socialist and a founding member of the Workers' Party for the Political Liberation of Russia. This led to him being arrested in 1900 by the Okhrana (secret police).

After his eventual release he joined with fellow revolutionaries including Catherine Breshkovsky, Victor Chernov, Alexander Kerensky and Yevno Azef to establish the Socialist Revolutionary Party in 1901.

Gershuni also founded the SR Combat Organisation in 1902, which became responsible for planning the assassination of the Minister of Interior, D. S. Sipyagin.

In 1903 Gershuni and the SR Combat Organisation arranged to assassinate N. M. Bogdanorich, the Governor of Ufa, but Gershuni was unaware that Yevno Azef, his deputy was working as an Okhrana spy. In 1904 this betrayal finally led to Gershuni's arrest after Azef supplied the Okhrana with information linking Gershuni to terrorism.

Gershuni was sentenced to death in court, though his sentence was reduced to life imprisonment at hard labour. In 1905 he was able to escape from the Akatui Prison located in Eastern Siberia. From Siberia he escaped in a barrel of sauerkraut to China.

After China, he traveled to America, where he met Jane Addams, but eventually arrived back in Europe in February, 1907. There he continued to argue for a campaign of terror to overthrow the Tsar in Russia. Gershuni strongly defended Azef against claims of being a traitor until his death in Zurich, 1908 of tuberculosis.