Leonid Kannegisser

Leonid Kannegisser
Born	1896 Mikhailov, Russian Empire
Died	1918 Petrograd, Russian SFSR
Allegiance	Imperial Russian Army
Service/branch	Artillery
Years of service	1913-1917
Rank	Junker

Leonid Akimovic Kannegisser (also spelled Kanngießer, in Russian: Леони́д Иоаки́мович Каннегисер) Born March 1896, in Mikhailov, Russian Empire – October 1918, in Petrograd, Russian SFSR) was a Russian poet and military cadet known for killing Moisei Uritsky, chief of Cheka in Petrograd, on August 17, 1918

Life and career

Kannegisser was born in Mikhailov, Russian Empire, in a aristocratic family of Jewish origin. In 1913 became a military cadet in the Mikhailov Artillery School of the Imperial Russian Army.

Kannegiser was a poet and friend of Sergei Yesenin. He hosted in his house many literary meetings, where Marina Tsvetaeva, Osip Mandelshtam and others presented their poetry

After the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, the Bolshevik government began to liquidate all people who could be potentially dangerous for their regime. In 1918 after reading in the press about an execution of another group of people, one of whom was his friend, he decided to kill Uritsky who signed orders about the executions.

On August 30, 1918 morning he shot Uritsky in the building of People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs. After killing Uritsky, he tried to escape on a bicycle, but was caught and arrested. He was executed shortly afterwards in Petrograd. After the arrest, the Bolsheviks authorities also arrested several members of his family and friends. His parents escaped from Russia and sought refuge in Warsaw.

Uritsky's assassination, along with the attempted murder to Vladimir Lenin by Fanny Kaplan that happened on the same day, sparked the beginning of the "Red Terror" campaign by the Bolsheviks.