SR Combat Organization

The Combat Organization (Russian: Боевая Организация, or the Fighting Organization) was the terrorist branch within the Social Revolutionary Party of Russia. It was a terror sub-group that was given autonomy under that Party. In his memoirs, group member Boris Savinkov called the group the "Terrorist Brigade." (This phrasing was followed in his own memoirs by Whittaker Chambers, an American spy for the Soviets.)

History

In 1902, Grigory Gershuni founded and led the group.

In 1904, Gershuni was arrested, and Yevno Azef succeeded him, with Boris Savinkov as his deputy. Azef changed the Terrorist Brigade's mode of attack from firearms to dynamite. In its middle period (1903–1906) the brigade's members included more than a dozen women and more than four dozen men—some nobles, honorary citizens, priests, and merchants. Most were 20–30 years old; 19 Jews, and two Poles. In 1908, Savinkov succeeded Azef, but the group disbanded shortly thereafter.

Members

• Grigory Gershuni
• Yevno Azef (also "Evno" and "Azev"/"Azeff" and "Yevno Asiev")
• Boris Savinkov (also "Savinkoff")
• Mikhail Melnikov
• Stepan Balmashev
• Thomas Kachura
• Yegor Sazonov (also "Egor" and "Sozonov")
• Ivan Kalyayev ("Kaliaev" in the 1931 translation of Savinkov's Memoirs of a Terrorist)
• Sikorsky
• Borishansky
• Dulebov
• Shveitser (also "Schweitser"/"Schweizer")
• Karl Trauberg

Assassination efforts

Assassinations

• 1902: Dmitry Sipyagin
• 1904: Vyacheslav von Plehve
• 1905:
  • Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich of Russia
  • Nicholas Bogdanovich (governor of Ufa)
• 1906: Vladimir von der Launitz

Failed assassinations

• Nicholas Kleigels
• Fedor Dubasov
• Ivan Mikhailovich Obolensky

See also

• Socialist Revolutionary Party
• 1905 Russian Revolution
• Terrorism in Russia
• PSP Combat organization
• The Just Assassins

External sources

• Boris Savinkov, Memoirs of a Terrorist (New York: Boni, 1931) / Воспоминания террориста (1917)
• Albert Camus, The Just Assassins / Les Justes (Paris: Gallimard 1950)