In this artwork, how is the Political violence of the Background and inspiration elucidated?
On 13 March 1881 in Saint Petersburg, the reformist Russian Tsar Alexander II was assassinated by a bomb thrown by Ignacy Hryniewiecki, a member of the revolutionary organization Narodnaya Volya. The bomb also seriously injured Hryniewiecki, who died a few hours later. Hryniewiecki's accomplices, the Pervomartovtsy, were executed on 13 April 1881. Repin, who visited Saint Petersburg in mid-February 1881 for the opening of the Wanderers' exhibition, was present when the tsar was killed. He returned there in April and attended the execution of the attack's perpetrators and their accomplices.Repin's friend, poet Vasily Kamensky, wrote in his memoirs Repin had told him "how he had witnessed the public execution of the Pervomartovtsy" (Zhelyabov, Perovskaya, Kibalchich, Mikhailov and Rysakov). "Ah, as it was nightmare times," – sighed Repin – "complex, appalling. I even remember each board on the breasts, with the inscription "regicide". I even remember Zhelyabov's gray pants, Perovskaya's black hat".Several of Repin's next paintings; Refusal of confession (Отказ от исповеди; 1881), Arrest of a propagandist (Арест пропагандиста, 1882) and They Did Not Expect Him (Не ждали; 1884–1888); were devoted to the Pervomartovtsy. He also wrote several times in his memoirs about this period of his creations: "This year followed like a trace of blood, our feelings were bruised by the horrors of the contemporary world, it was frightening to confront it: it will end badly! ... We had to look for a way out at this key moment in history." For Repin, there was a link between the events of 1881 and the scene represented in Ivan the Terrible and His Son Ivan on 16 November 1581 from exactly 300 years earlier, in which the Tsar is the murderer.
Zhelyabov Ignacy Hryniewiecki Russian Vasily Kamensky Rysakov Alexander II Saint Petersburg Perovskaya assassinated Pervomartovtsy ru Mikhailov Kibalchich Narodnaya Volya They Did Not Expect Him Wanderers Ivan the Terrible Russia