| “ | My name is Fanya Kaplan. Today I shot Lenin. I did it on my own. I will not say from whom I obtained my revolver. I will give no details. I had resolved to kill Lenin long ago. I consider him a traitor to the Revolution. I was exiled to Akatuy for participating in an assassination attempt against a Tsarist official in Kiev. I spent 11 years at hard labour. After the Revolution, I was freed. I favoured the Constituent Assembly and am still for it. | ” |
— Kaplan to the Cheka during her interrogation
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Fanny Efimovna Kaplan was a Russian woman who attempted to assassinate the first head of government of Soviet Russia, Vladimir Lenin, in 1918. Her attempt failed, but did badly injure Lenin and caused him permanent damage that is speculated by some to have contributed to his later death from natural causes in 1924. Kaplan was caught shortly after and, after refusing to name any accomplices in her deed, was executed.
Background[]
There exists much confusion as to her actual name, with it varying between sources giving differing names for her. Regardless, little is known about Kaplan's childhood and upbringing. It is known that she was one of eight children from a Jewish family and was home educated. She left home to work as a milliner in Odessa and at some point in her teenage years became a political revolutionary and joined a socialist group called the Socialist Revolutionaries (SRs). Kaplan was arrested at 16 in 1906 in Kiev over her involvement in a terrorist bomb plot to blow up the city's governor, Vladimir Sukhomlinov. She was captured after a bomb she and her romantic partner were working on accidentally exploded. She was committed for life to the katorga, a hard labour prison camp. She served 11 years in the Maltsev and Akatuy prisons of Nerchinsk katorga, Siberia, where she lost her sight, which was later partially restored, but she still suffered from continuous headaches and periods of blindness. Kaplan was released on March 3, 1917, after the February Revolution overthrew the imperial government. She grew to hate Vladimir Lenin for being a "traitor" to the revolution and decided to assassinate him.
Assassination attempt[]
On August 30, 1918, Kaplan shot Lenin while he was heading to his car as he was leaving an arms factory in Moscow, severely injuring him. He was taken to his living quarters in Kremlin where doctors were brought to treat him, as he refused to leave his home in fear that there were other assassins in the crowd waiting for him. Kaplan herself was apprehended the same day, though how exactly differs in varying stories. Just three days after the attack, Kaplan was executed on September 3 by a gunshot to the back of her head, aged 28. Her body was then stuffed in a barrel which was then lit aflame.
There exists today much speculation as to the actual events of the shooting and of Kaplan herself. Some believe she was not the actual shooter (as her poor eyesight would have most likely made her unable to even carry out such an act) and some witnesses to the event claimed to have not even seen her fire the gun. Also, bullets were removed from Lenin's body post-mortem that were not found to have been from the gun used in the shooting. It was also mentioned that several arrests had been made in connection to the shooting, though Kaplan herself refused to name any accomplices she may have had. The SRs denied any involvement in the event and there has been speculation that Kaplan may not have even been one herself to start with.
Modus Operandi[]
Kaplan shot Lenin with a .32-caliber FN 1900 pistol. She fired three shots, one of which passed harmlessly through his coat, one lodged in his left shoulder and the other passed through his neck (puncturing part of his left lung and stopped near his right collarbone). No details are specified as to how exactly she attempted to carry out the 1906 bombing.
Known Victims[]
- Unspecified date in 1906: A victimless bombing
- August 30, 1918: Vladimir Lenin, 48 (shot three times; survived)
On Criminal Minds[]
- Season Twelve
- "Unforgettable" - The 1981 assassination attempt was mentioned by Garcia while the BAU speculated about the poisoning of Sam Bower.