Покушение в Берлине в 1922 г. на П. Н. Милюкова и убийство В. Д. Набокова: показания обвиняемого, монархиста П. Н. Шабельского

Abstract

This publication introduces document on preparation and realization of the terrorist act of far-right Russian monarchists P. N. Shabelsky-Bork and S.V. Taboritzky into the scientific use and offers their analysis. On March 28, 1922 Shabelsky-Bork and Taboritzky attempted to assassinate P. N. Milyukov in Berlin. In the attempt Taboritsky killed V. D. Nabokov, several people were wounded. This political murder was a result of the split within Russian emigration that sprang from contradictions inherited from Russian political life in the revolutionary 1917. Despite common hostility towards the Soviet regime, the Kadet leaders targeted by the assassins and the monarchists, to whom the latter belonged, were in harsh opposition and blamed one another for the catastrophe of the revolution, the following victory of the Bolsheviks, and the crash of old Russia. The introductory article assesses the person of Shabelsky, the investigation, and the changes of his testimonies in the course of inquiry and trial. Defendants attempted to acquit Taboritsky; it was more difficult to prove his guilt. Changing his testimonies, Shabelsky irritated the court and was sentenced longer than the prosecution insisted. The court made use of the evidence of witnesses and the testimony of the accused obtained on March 29, which was judged most truthful. The investigation and the court found no trace of accomplices. According to the testimonies of the accused, they committed the crime on the grounds of personal hate towards Milyukov and organized the assassination themselves, without accomplices. From the moment of assassination attempt until today there have been many doubts about the official version. However, the published document and other evidence (testimonies of witnesses), as well as the court decision corroborate it. This allows to consider it reasonable that the assassins acted for themselves and there was no monarchist plot against the Kadets, as many contemporaries assumed.