Leonid Kannegisser

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

Leonid Akimovic Kannegisser (also spelled Kanngießer, in Russian: Леони́д Иоаки́мович Каннегисер) (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 17 August 1918.

Life and career

Kannegisser was born in Nikolaev, Russian Empire, in a wealthy Jewish family. His father, Akim (Ioakim) Kannegisser was a mechanical engineer and the head of Russia's largest shipyards at Nikolaev. His mother was a doctor.

He graduated from a private school and studied economics from 1915 to 1917 at the Petrograd Polytechnic Institute. He was a member of Popular Socialist Party. In 1913 Kannegisser became a military cadet in the Mikhailov Artillery School of the Imperial Russian Army. During the Bolshevik armed insurrection on the night from 25 to 26 October 1917 (Old Style Julian Calendar) along with several other cadets Kannegisser defended the Provisional Government at the Winter Palace.

Uritsky's assassination

On 30 August 1918 around nine o’clock Kannegisser, wearing a leather jacket and an officer’s cap, turned up at the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs. He left his bicycle by the door and entered the building. Uritsky arrived in his car at around ten o’clock. A few moments later Uritsky was fatally shot in his head and body by Kannegisser. After shooting Uritsky, he ran out into the street and tried to escape on his bicycle. He rode quickly but was chased by car. He threw away his bicycle and ran into the British Embassy. He left the Embassy after having donned a longcoat and opened fire on Red Guards but he was arrested. He was tortured and declared that he had acted alone. He was executed shortly afterwards in Petrograd. After the arrest, the Bolshevik authorities also arrested several members of his family and friends. After being released his parents emigrated from Russia and sought refuge in Warsaw where they died.

Motivation

Kannegisser was part of a clandestine anti-Bolshevik group led by his cousin Maximilian Filonenko. Filonenko had close links with Boris Savinkov who gave the order to assassinate Uritsky. After Viktor Pereltsveig, an Army officer lover (Kannegisser was homosexual) was executed with a group of officers by the Cheka in the summer of 1918, he decided to take revenge by killing Uritsky who signed the execution orders. Mark Aldanov, who knew Kannegisser and his family, wrote that Uritsky's assassination was intended to restore the "good name of the Russians Jews" (Uritsky, as well as Kannegisser, were born to Jewish families).

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

Poetry

From childhood Kannegisser had written poetry. Kannegisser 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. His poems were posthumously published by Mark Aldanov in Paris in 1928.

A major part of Kannegisser's literary heritage is preserved in the closed files of the Central Government Archives of Literature and Art in Moscow.