They hunted him like a hare.

There was a fairly long pause in the assassination attempts; for more than a decade since 1867, Alexander II lived relatively peacefully.

However, the revolutionaries once again entertained thoughts of regicide. Formally, in 1878, the revolutionaries responded to the terror unleashed against them by the secret police and regular police with terror of their own. The terrorists killed officials, gendarmes, and policemen. And in 1879, the third assassination attempt on the emperor took place. It was organized by "Land and Liberty" — the first militant revolutionary organization in Russia. On April 2 (14), 1879, on Easter Tuesday, a member of this organization, Alexander Solovyov, carried out another attempt on the tsar. The emperor was taking his usual walk around the Winter Palace with a small escort following at a distance. Times were still simple: anyone could approach the head of state. Alexander II crossed the Singing Bridge and came out onto the square in front of the palace. Behind him, at a distance so as not to disturb his thoughts, walked his chief of security, Captain Koch. Nearby, by the arch of the General Staff building, as always, a crowd of curious onlookers had gathered… And then the emperor saw a very tall young man in a long black coat and a uniformed cap with a cockade.

Let us now give the floor to contemporaries:

From the diary of Madame General Bogdanovich: “Makov, who saw the Sovereign half an hour after the attempt, recounted from the Sovereign’s own words that as the young man came alongside the Sovereign, he stopped and saluted him. The face of this man caught the tsar’s attention. And when he involuntarily turned around… he saw a pistol aimed at him.”

The turn of the head saved his life — the bullet whistled past.

“The bullet pierced the palace wall, where it got stuck. The villain took aim a second time — the tsar dodged to the left; the criminal took aim a third time — the tsar dodged again.”

“Dodged” — that is how Makov described the flight of the Sovereign of All Russia across the square.

“On April 2, 1879,” wrote A. A. Kunkel, “at the beginning of the tenth hour in the morning, Alexander II was taking his usual walk. He circled the Guards Headquarters building (along Millionnaya, Winter Canal, and Moika) and turned toward Palace Square. At that moment, a man in a uniformed cap (later identified as Solovyov) crossed the square and, moving toward the tsar, fired at him. Alexander II began to run, shouting to the policemen: ‘Catch him!’ But Solovyov chased after him, trying to cut him off. He fired three more shots while running, but to no avail, as the tsar ran not straight but in zigzags, making it impossible to aim properly. The gathered crowd rushed along with the police to catch the shooter. One of the first to catch Solovyov was the gendarme Koch, who struck him on the back with a drawn saber. Falling, Solovyov fired one more shot, then bit into a nut containing poison that he had in his mouth so as not to fall alive into the hands of his enemies. At that moment, a pile of bodies fell on him. A woman grabbed his hair, and one of the policemen tore the revolver from his hands. Solovyov’s first question was: ‘Did I kill the sovereign?’ To which he was answered: ‘God did not allow you, villain.’”

As the investigation revealed, the terrorist was poorly skilled with weapons; the revolutionaries of this wave were theorists ready for self-sacrifice but paid no attention to the practical side of the matter. Solovyov’s speech at the trial fully confirmed this. He said: “The idea of an attempt on His Majesty’s life arose in me after becoming acquainted with the teachings of the socialist revolutionaries. I belong to the Russian section of this party, which believes that the majority suffer so that a minority can enjoy the fruits of the people's labor and all the benefits of civilization inaccessible to the majority.”

In the evening, Alexander recorded in his diary: “Walked. Near the General Staff building an unknown person fired five shots at me from a revolver. God saved me. The whole family gathered — one after another. Conversation with Drenteln: the assassin arrested. Thanksgiving prayer service. Many ladies and gentlemen. All officers: hurrah!”

In the end, Alexander Solovyov was sentenced to death and on June 8, 1879, was hanged at Smolensk Field, the same place where Karakozov, the first attacker on the emperor, was executed, in the presence of up to 70,000 people.

Sources:

“The Murder of the Emperor. Alexander II and Secret Russia” by Edward Radzinsky

https://eadaily.com/ru/news/2018/04/02/etot-den-v-istorii-1879-god-trete-pokushenie-na-carya-aleksandra-ii

https://www.spb.kp.ru/daily/26825.7/3862586

https://www.bbc.com/russian/russia/2014/04/140417_russian_empire_terror