Terrorism Has a Long, Infamous History

Hoodlum gangs in India eons ago got close to their victims disguised as poor beggars or rich merchants. Most of their prey: wealthy travelers. One of their beliefs: never spill blood. So they strangled their victims. Each gang member was required to kill at least once a year to maintain membership in the religious cult. The terrorist group was known as Thuggees. During its existence, members murdered more than two million people. The deaths were human sacrifices to Kali, the so-called bloodthirsty Hindustani goddess of destruction. According to legend, Thuggees believed that Kali devoured the bodies. The story goes that one of the secret society hid behind a tree to spy on the goddess. That angered her and she punished the members, ordering them to bury their victims. The cult plagued India for more than 350 years beginning in the 1500s. Between 1829 and 1848, the ruling British government managed to suppress it with mass arrests and speedy executions, deeming the problem solved when the last known Thuggee was hanged. This wasn’t the first terrorist organization. Roman emperors such as Tiberius (14–37 AD) and Caligula (AD 37–41) resorted to banishment, expropriation of property and execution to discourage rebellious opposition. The Spanish Inquisition implemented arrest, torture and execution to punish what it deemed religious heresy. Terrorist tactics were openly advocated by Robespierre to encourage revolutionary virtue during the French Revolution, leading to the Reign of Terror (1793–94). Religious leaders over the centuries have said “holy terror” was justified to combat unjust warfare. Most terrorism has been directed against governments. But it can take the form of state-sponsored intimidation when governments turn on their citizens or try to stir up trouble among the population of other nations. In 1605, a British terrorist was arrested and startling events gradually unfolded under torture. Although he gave his name as John Johnson, it was learned he was Guy Fawkes, one of 13 who conspired to blow up Parliament House, the king, and his lords, attempting to throw the country into turmoil. The traitors had hoped to raise a new monarch, sympathetic to their cause, and return England to its Catholic past. Shortly afterward, bonfires were lit throughout the country to celebrate discovery of the plot. The word “terrorism” took on a different meaning after German philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote about it in 1798, describing a pessimistic view of mankind’s destiny: anarchism. This view supported terrorism with statements such as “if you have to blow up half a continent to destroy the enemy, do so with no scruples or conscience.” Communism was introduced in 1844 by Karl Marx, expanding on Kantian ideas about the liberating potential of self-reliance and mass movements. Then Lenin expanded the communist theory by condemning individual acts of terrorism, but supporting mass acts of terrorism. Terrorism got its biggest boost in the 1850s. Ironically, it came from chemist Alfred Nobel, best known for prizes awarded since 1910 for physics, chemistry, etc., and toward promotion of international peace. In 1866, the pacifist from Sweden educated in Russia, perfected a combination of nitroglycerine and diatomaceous earth to produce dynamite. During the reign of Czar Alexander II (1855-81), when the Russian populist movement arose, hundreds of students were arrested and prosecuted, prompting radicals to use terrorist tactics. The People’s Will, an offshoot of the populist movement created 1879, advocated socialism and overthrow of autocracy. It called for creation of a new constitution and concentrated on murdering the czar even though he freed the serfs in 1861 and instituted several other reforms. But when the czar’s authority was challenged, he turned repressive and vehemently opposed political reform. So the terrorists put Nobel’s invention to use and made numerous attempts to kill Alexander II. At one point, the banquet hall at the winter palace was blown up. That’s when the Supreme Executive Commission was created under Count Mikhail Tarielovich Loris-Melikov, my great-uncle, to deal with terrorism. In 1880, after Loris-Melikov was appointed minister of the interior, Alexander II went into hiding. For five months, Loris-Melikov, hero of the Russo-Turkish War when he was a major general, was acting czar. He drafted the Loris-Melikov Constitution, an attempt to conciliate opposition by establishing a consulting parliament that would include peasants, allowing them to attend universities and own land. On the morning of March 13, 1881, Alexander II approved the reforms before attending the Sunday afternoon parade of troops despite Loris-Melikov’s warning to stay secluded. At the ceremony’s conclusion, the czar was assassinated when a bomb tossed at his carriage by a revolutionary student exploded. His son Alexander III said no way to the Loris-Melikov Constitution. So like all good Russian exiles, he traveled to France and resided in Nice for seven years until his death. On the spot where the assassination occurred, the beautiful Church of the Savior on the Spilt Blood was erected, modeled after St. Basil’s Cathedral on Red Square in Moscow.