On April 4th, 1866, Emperor Alexander II was exiting the northern gate of the Summer Garden in St. Petersburg, while on a walk. A small crowd of passers-by spontaneously gathered at a respectful distance to see the Emperor walk towards his carriage. And from this crowd, a shot was fired by a 26-year-old Dmitry Karakozov. Luckily, Osip Komissarov, a 28-year-old peasant who worked as a hatmaker's apprentice, was also at the scene, and ended up saving the Emperor.
“I saw this man hurrying through the crowd,” Komissarov remembered. “I could not help watching him, but then, however, I forgot him when the Emperor came up. Suddenly, I see that he has taken out his pistol and is aiming it.” The Emperor paused near his carriage to put on his coat, and that’s when Komissarov hit Karakozov’s hand, so the shot went in the air – this was witnessed by Eduard Totleben, a Russian general who was present in the crowd, and he later confirmed Komissarov taking part in the incident.
