Sofia Perovskaya, Terrorist Princess

Book excerpt: Sofia Perovskaya personally commanded the bomb squad that killed Tsar Alexander II of Russia on March 1, 1881 (date according to the Julian calendar). This startling assassination was the culmination of acts of the self-identified terrorist faction of Russian radicals, known as Narodnaya Volya. The deadly bombing was at bottom the culmination of an exercise of Perovskaya¿s personal force and stubborn determination. Her ascetic, empathic personality, avid feminism, intelligence and drive were mixed with an irrational, suicidal streak. She was born into a wealthy and prestigious family in the upper echelon of the nobility, one with royal connections as her great-great-great uncle was the husband of Russia¿s Empress Elizabeth (ruled, 1741 - 1761). Her father was the civil governor of St. Petersburg, although, he had some issues with an inferiority complex as is detailed in original research for this book. How then did Perovskaya become a terrorist leader, eager to die for the cause of radical utopian reform of Russian society? The question is answered in this in-depth profile of an entire generation of rebellious, idealistic youth, called the Russian ¿Generation of the Sixties,¿ that in many ways resembled the American Generation of the Sixties.This book is part of a series of profiles of historical terrorists. Terrorism, as these profiles show, has deep roots in an irrational facet of the human psyche. As civilized society has moved toward pluralism and respect for human life, the terrorist act of self-immolation has grown correspondingly in its appeal to the dark side of the mind. The terrorist, contrary to belief, is not the product of any particular ideological or religious movement. He or she is more accurately understood as the product of a peculiar personality disorder, one that takes over people who are intelligent, creative, adaptive and highly motivated, and who thirst for glory, and makes them suicidal. This explains the futility, as well as the lack of effectiveness, of much of what is done in the name of the war on terrorism. The typical response to terrorism is an overreaction syndrome, which can spawn many more terrorists.