Carola Dietze (Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, Germany). The Invention of Terrorism in the 19th Century in Europe, Russia and the United States

Presentation at 27th Bathhouse Readings (May 29, 2021): nlobooks.ru/events/konferentsii/27th-bathhouse-readings-anthropology-of-violence-state-society-culture

It is often assumed that modern-day terrorism emerged as a specific type of political violence in nineteenth century Russia. To underpin this assumption, the literature typically points to Dmitrij V. Karakozov’s failed shooting of Russian Czar Alexander II in 1866 and/or to the foundation of the group Narodnaya volya in 1879, whose members assassinated Tsar Alexander II. in 1881 using terrorist tactics. Historian Carola Dietze examines key cases of terrorist violence from a brief but decisive eight-year period to show that the first modern acts of political terrorism occurred considerably earlier than has generally been acknowledged. Moreover, transnational communication played a more significant role than has been widely recognized to date. Dietze argues that the dissemination of news about terrorist violence was at the core of a strategy that aimed for political impact on tyrants or rulers as well as the general public. She also reveals how the spread of knowledge about terrorist acts was from the outset a transatlantic process between Europe, Russia and the United States. Two incidents, their context, and their impact form the centerpiece of her argument. The first is the failed attempt to assassinate French Emperor Napoléon III by Felice Orsini in 1858, in an act intended to trigger a European revolution and achieve Italian unity and democracy. The second case study offers a new reading of John Brown's raid on the arsenal at Harpers Ferry in 1859, as a decisive moment in the abolitionist struggle and occurrences leading to the American Civil War. Three further examples from Germany, Russia, and the US are Oskar Becker’s attempted assassination of German Emperor Wilhelm I in 1861, John Wilkes Booth’s murder of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, and Dmitrij V. Karakozov’s failed shooting of Russian Czar Alexander II in 1866. They illuminate the transfer and reception processes as well as the development of the tactic by first imitators. With their acts of violence, the “invention” of terrorism was completed. Terrorism has existed as a tactic since then and has essentially only been adapted through the use of new technologies and methods.