Timofey Mikhaylov

Timofey Mikhaylovich Mikhaylov (Тимофе́й Миха́йлович Мих́айлов; born January 22 (February 3) 1859 in Smolensk - died April 3, 1881 in Saint Petersburg) was a Russian boiler maker who participated in the assassination of Tsar Alexander II.

Early life
Mikhaylov was the son of a peasant, born in Smolensk in 1860; he later moved to Saint Petersburg where he found work in a factory. Mikhaylov became involved in revolutionary politics and joined the Workers' Section of Narodnaya Volya.

Revolutionary life
In the mid-1870s, Mikhaylov worked as a laborer and a steam-boiler operator in a few factories of Saint Petersburg. He attended one of the groups of Zemlya i volya. In 1880, Mikhaylov became a member of Narodnaya Volya.

Assassination of the Tsar
In January 1881, he joined the bomb-thrower unit, created for the purpose of assassinating Tsar Alexander II.

On March 1, 1881, Mikhaylov was one of the plotters but when the Tsar decided to pay a brief visit to his cousin, the Grand Duchess Catherine, Mikhaylov lost his nerve, took his missile back to Headquarters, and went home.

That very day Nikolai Rysakov began to inform against his erstwhile comrades. What he said enabled the police to raid the Telezhnaya quarters the next night. Gesya Gelfman was arrested and Sablin committed suicide. The following morning Timofey Mikhailov was seized after he had wounded three police officers. Rysakov identified both prisoners.

The trial reached its expected denouement at 3 a.m., 29 March, when all the defendants were found guilty, and at 6:30 a.m. they were sentenced to be hanged.

On April 3, Andrei Zhelyabov, Sophia Perovskaya, Nikolai Rysakov, Nikolai Kibalchich, and Mikhaylov were hanged. Mikhaylov was the second to be hanged. Twice the rope broke under his weight, and a third time he was hanged with a reinforced rope. The bodies were buried in a nameless grave.