On March 28, 1922, an assassination attempt took place in Berlin on Pyotr Milyukov, a well-known political figure, historian, and publicist, one of the organizers and leaders of the Constitutional Democratic Party, who emigrated shortly after the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia and was the chief editor of the Paris newspaper "Latest News." During the attempt, one of the leaders of the Cadet party, lawyer and publicist Vladimir Nabokov (pictured here during World War I), the father of the famous writer, was killed. Milyukov was unharmed.

Milyukov became especially hated by monarchists after proclaiming the so-called "new tactic" in 1920, which involved abandoning armed struggle against the Bolsheviks and, consequently, rejecting the need to maintain the White Army.

They also did not forget his famous speech on November 1, 1916, delivered in the State Duma. In it, he accused Empress Alexandra Feodorovna and the Russian Prime Minister Boris Stürmer of preparing a separate peace with Germany — repeatedly asking, "Is this stupidity or treason?" The assassins were detained on the spot by the German police.

Pyotr Popov was born on May 5, 1893, into a noble family in Kislovodsk. Later, as a literary pseudonym, he took the surname of his godmother E. A. Shabelskaya-Bork. He studied at Kharkov University. During World War I, he served in the Ingush cavalry regiment of the Caucasian native cavalry division. Cornet. He was seriously wounded. Until 1917, he belonged to far-right organizations "Union of the Russian People" and "Union of Michael the Archangel."

After the February Revolution, he left the army. After the October Revolution, in November 1917, he was arrested along with V. M. Purishkevich, F. V. Vinberg, N. O. Graf, as a member of the "monarchist organization of V. M. Purishkevich." On January 3, 1918, the Petrograd Revolutionary Tribunal sentenced him to nine months of forced community service. On May 1, 1918, he was amnestied on the occasion of the "International Day of Proletarian Solidarity." In prison, he met F. V. Vinberg, with whom he later collaborated in emigration.

After his release, he went to Kiev, and at the end of 1918 emigrated to Germany with Vinberg alongside retreating German troops after Kiev was taken by Petliura's forces. In Berlin, together with Vinberg, he published the magazine "Ray of Light."

Sergey Taboritsky, born on August 2, 1895, in St. Petersburg, was the son of a state councilor. Their life paths were closely intertwined in the Caucasian cavalry regiment. Like Popov-Shabelsky, Taboritsky went to Ukraine, and from there, with the Germans, to Germany.

They initially lived in Berlin, and from 1920 in Munich. Since Shabelskaya-Bork’s father's property was confiscated, he earned a living through translations and literary work. Taboritsky was engaged in editorial work (in the magazine "Ray of Light" and the newspaper "Call"), and shortly before the assassination attempt, he worked as a typesetter. Shabelsky-Bork and Taboritsky claimed during interrogations that they did not belong to any political parties, while openly expressing their monarchist beliefs.

The third arrested, student Vladimir Kuyarovich, suspected of complicity in the crime, was released after interrogation due to lack of evidence against him.

The lecture titled "America and the Restoration of Russia," which Milyukov gave to a full hall at the Berlin Philharmonic, began at 8:30 and ended at 10 o'clock. After it ended, Milyukov went toward the presidium intending to take his seat. As he approached the presidium, Shabelsky-Bork, sitting in the third row, stood up and shouted, "I avenge the royal family!" and began shooting at Milyukov. Dr. Asnes, sitting at the presidium, threw Milyukov to the floor, but Shabelsky-Bork jumped onto the podium and continued shooting, missing. Then Nabokov rushed at Shabelsky, striking his hand holding the revolver. After that, he knocked him down along with August Kaminka, pinning him to the floor. At that moment, Taboritsky fired three shots into Nabokov’s back, trying to free his accomplice. Nabokov instantly died from a bullet to the heart.

Popov-Shabelsky-Bork showed that he fired from two revolvers: first from the one in his left pocket, then, when the cartridges ran out, from another in his right pocket. He said someone knocked him to the floor, but he got up and with a weapon in hand made his way through the crowd. He also confirmed shouting from the podium: "I avenge the royal family and Russia." According to him, he intended to drop the weapon and surrender voluntarily to the police after the killing, but this did not happen as he was detained by the crowd.

Taboritsky stated that he was supposed to carry out the plan to kill Milyukov if Shabelsky-Bork failed, but he believed the latter, as the senior comrade, had the "preferential right." He categorically denied the presence of accomplices, claiming it was a kind of "Caucasian family revenge."

The criminals destroyed all their private correspondence before leaving Munich, and before heading to the Philharmonic, they said goodbye, convinced that one of them would be killed.

The actions of the police before and during the incident are noteworthy.

Several plainclothes agents of the Berlin police were present at the lecture. When, after the attempt, police agents began arresting Shabelsky-Bork standing on the podium, those in the hall protested, suspecting them of being accomplices, and demanded the police be called. The police arrived and took Shabelsky-Bork and Taboritsky to a separate room. This circumstance led some newspapers to claim that the criminals possibly had accomplices in the hall and that not only Shabelsky-Bork and Taboritsky fired but someone else from the audience as well.

Nine people were wounded during the attempt, including the chairman of the Berlin group of the (Milyukov) Cadet party Lev Elyashev and the same August Kaminka.

According to the indictment, the initiative for the attempt belonged to Shabelsky-Bork, who decided to kill Milyukov after the latter’s speech on November 1, 1916, at the State Duma session. In it, he accused the Empress of treason, stating he had documentary evidence of his words. In 1917, Shabelsky-Bork sent Milyukov two letters demanding the publication of these documents, and not receiving a response, began planning the murder of the Cadet leader. Taboritsky agreed with his comrade.

Anti-Bolshevik motives were present in the actions of Shabelsky-Bork and Taboritsky: like many other monarchists, they considered Milyukov one of the main culprits of the monarchy’s fall in Russia, which led to anarchy and the subsequent Bolshevik seizure of power.

Left-wing circles insisted on the criminals’ connection with monarchist organizations, while the right denied it. "Latest News" claimed that the attackers belonged to the monarchist party, whose congress was to begin those days in Berlin. The newspaper also covered the reaction of the monarchist congress attendees led by Baron Taube: they denied any involvement in the terrorist act.

"Latest News" emphasized the connection of the assassination attempt with long-standing plans of émigré monarchist circles, with the murder of Milyukov intended as a signal for other terrorist acts. The date (March 10) and place (Munich) of the meeting where the assassination plan was developed were cited as evidence of the operation’s good organization.

"Common Cause" wrote that the killers had far-reaching plans, intending to deal with such well-known political figures as P.N. Milyukov, V.P. Rodzyanko, V.V. Shulgin, A.I. Guchkov, considering them all "responsible for the fall of the Russian monarchy and their mortal enemies." "Latest News" went further, believing that Shabelsky-Bork and Taboritsky were in contact with German monarchists dissatisfied with Milyukov’s activities, who criticized the cooperation of the right-wing Russian émigré circles with Germany.

Milyukov himself stated: "...There is no political evidence yet of these persons’ connection with the group of extreme monarchists in Berlin. But there are grounds to believe that the Markov-2 group, dissatisfied with the mood of more moderate monarchists, recently decided to move to terrorist activities."

"Common Cause" published curious data from the medical examination of Shabelsky-Bork and Taboritsky, revealing "bright signs of degeneration and mental abnormality" in Shabelsky-Bork. It also turned out that both had long used drugs, with a strong dose taken on the day of the attempt.

The trial for the assassination attempt on Milyukov took place from July 3 to 7, 1922, at the Berlin criminal court in Moabit.

The defendants were defended by German lawyers Zak and Andersen. Initially, it was unclear whether Taboritsky fired: although witnesses testified that he killed Nabokov, Shabelsky-Bork and Taboritsky himself claimed that only Shabelsky-Bork fired. The court proceedings established that Nabokov was killed by Taboritsky.

Popov-Shabelsky-Bork was found guilty of attempted murder of Milyukov with premeditated intent and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor. Taboritsky was sentenced to 14 years of hard labor for complicity in the attempt and intentionally inflicting severe wounds on Nabokov, which caused his death. No other accomplices were identified by the investigation or court.

The question remained unresolved whether the attackers acted on personal initiative or followed a decision made by some organization to which they possibly belonged.

Some clarity on this issue is provided by information contained in the book by American Sovietologist W. Lacker "Russia and Germany: Hitler’s Mentors." As Lacker writes, Shabelsky-Bork and Taboritsky were "young assistants" of the well-known Russian émigré figure General V.V. Biskupsky and before moving to Munich created in Berlin an organization similar to the "Black Hundreds," and Taboritsky also attacked Guchkov there in Berlin.

Both terrorists were released early (on March 1, 1927, by amnesty) and continued their political activities in Germany, sympathizing with the Nazis. In the 1930s, Shabelsky-Bork worked for Biskupsky, who was then head of the Office of Russian Emigration Affairs in Germany. He received a modest pension from the German Nazi government. After the war, he moved to Argentina, where he died in Buenos Aires in 1952 from pulmonary tuberculosis.

Taboritsky in 1938 became assistant to the head of the "Russian National Union of War Participants," General A.V. Turkul. After the war, his traces were lost.

Sources:

https://warsh.livejournal.com/7384634.html

https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/5272069#:~:text=28%20марта%201922%20года%20в,отец%20русского%20писателя%20Владимира%20Набокова.