Maurice Alexander Morisovich Conradi (Russian: Морис Морисович Конради; 16 June 1896, in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

− 7 February 1947, in

Chur , neighboring_municipalities= Arosa, Churwalden, Tschiertschen-Praden, Domat/Ems, Felsberg, Malix, Trimmis, Untervaz, Pfäfers , twintowns = Bad Homburg (Germany), Cabourg (France), Mayrhofen (Austria), Mondorf-les-Bains (Lux ...

) was a White Army emigre participant of the First World War and the

Russian Civil War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Russian Civil War , partof = the Russian Revolution and the aftermath of World War I , image = , caption = Clockwise from top left: {{flatlist, *Soldiers ...

and the assassin of the Soviet diplomat

Vatslav Vorovsky Vatslav Vatslavovich Vorovsky ( Russian: Ва́цлав Ва́цлавович Воро́вский; Polish: Wacław Worowski) (27 October Old_Style_and_New_Style_dates.html" ;"title="nowiki/>Old Style and New Style dates">O.S. 15 October1871 � ...

Early life

Conradi was born in

to a Swiss family from

Andeer Andeer () is a municipality in the Viamala Region in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. In 2009 Clugin and Pignia merged into Andeer. Upon the outbreak of World War I he joined the Russian Imperial Army. During the

Bolshevik Revolution The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...

most of his family was killed and their assets seized: his father was executed in

on 26 November 1919, his brother Victor taken hostage and executed in 1918, and two further siblings disappeared during the

Red Terror The Red Terror (russian: Красный террор, krasnyj terror) in Soviet Russia was a campaign of political repression and executions carried out by the Bolsheviks, chiefly through the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police. It started i ...

. It was during the civil war that he met his wife-to-be, Vladislava Lvovna Svartsevich (Владиславой Львовной Сварцевич). After the defeat of the Wrangel Army he fled to Switzerland, and among other Russian expats there was radicalized further against the Bolsheviks.

Murder of Vorovsky

In April 1923 Conradi attempted an assassination of Soviet People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs

Georgy Chicherin Georgy Vasilyevich Chicherin (24 November 1872 – 7 July 1936), also spelled Tchitcherin, was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and a Soviet politician who served as the first People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs in the Soviet government from ...

while he visited Germany, but unable to find him he returned to Geneva. Finding out about the upcoming conference, he planned another assassination.

, and Maxim Divilkovsky were envoys of the

Bolshevik The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

government to the Conference of Lausanne. They were accepted as observers to the conference but not as participants, and they received no diplomatic protection in the country. On 10 May 1923 Conradi and his companion (Аркадий Павлович Полунин) (Polonnine in French and court transcriptions) entered the restaurant of the Hotel Cécil, shooting the Bolshevik delegation. Vorovsky was killed at the scene, and Ariens and Divilkovsky were wounded but survived. Maurice Conradi arrest sketch printed 1923-11-17

Maurice Conradi arrest sketch printed 1923-11-17

Conradi did not resist arrest or conceal his actions or motivations. In his statement to police he said, "Among those who played their part in the ruin of Russia, and indirectly of all mankind, there are no innocents." The

Swiss Federal Council The Federal Council (german: Bundesrat; french: Conseil fédéral; it, Consiglio federale; rm, Cussegl federal) is the executive body of the federal government of the Swiss Confederation and serves as the collective head of state and governm ...

was "outrage by the assassination, but decided to treat it as a local crime rather than an international incident. Swiss-Soviet relations had been tense for years; Soviet foreign secretary

told the Federal Council that in denying Vorovsky official recognition and protection, they had "heavy and absolutely obvious responsibility" for the murder. The Council responded by demanding reparation for crimes against Swiss citizens living in Russia during the revolution. The "Conradi Affair" was an international sensation. Soviet and left-wing literature presented the murder as a conspiracy of "fascist White radicals", while Conradi was supported by many

White émigré White Russian émigrés were Russians who emigrated from the territory of the former Russian Empire in the wake of the Russian Revolution (1917) and Russian Civil War (1917–1923), and who were in opposition to the revolutionary Bolshevik commun ...

s and Russian activists in exile, including

Ivan Bunin Ivan Alekseyevich Bunin ( or ; rus, Ива́н Алексе́евич Бу́нин, p=ɪˈvan ɐlʲɪˈksʲejɪvʲɪtɕ ˈbunʲɪn, a=Ivan Alyeksyeyevich Bunin.ru.vorb.oga; – 8 November 1953) was the first Russian writer awarded the ...

, Ivan Shmelyov and

Dmitry Merezhkovsky Dmitry Sergeyevich Merezhkovsky ( rus, Дми́трий Серге́евич Мережко́вский, p=ˈdmʲitrʲɪj sʲɪrˈɡʲejɪvʲɪtɕ mʲɪrʲɪˈʂkofskʲɪj; – December 9, 1941) was a Russian novelist, poet, religious thinker ...

. The trial of Conradi and Polunin began on 5 November 1923 in the . Defended by

Théodore Aubert Théodore Aubert (8 September 1878, Geneva – 19 January 1963) was a Swiss lawyer and writer. Biography As a lawyer, he defended the White émigré Maurice Conradi who assassinated the Soviet envoy to Switzerland Vatslav Vorovsky in 1923 ...

, Conradi and Polunin plead not guilty, and with the defendants agreeing to most key facts except conspiracy, the argument became a moral one. Soon the local criminal trial became a trial of the Russian Revolution and the Bolshevik regime. Defense witnesses described the atrocities of the revolution and

, against Conradi's family and Swiss expats in particular; defense counsel arguments included that Bolsheviks had performed many assassinations and that Conradi was a "liberator of the world's conscience." The prosecution responded to this with witnesses including an Italian communist and a Bolshevik military official testifying about how happy life in Soviet Russia became after the Revolution. The jury agreed to all questions of fact but voted 5-to-4 against conviction. The court ordered Conradi to pay the legal fees of the trial at the request of the prosecutor. The verdict was controversial internationally, and Russia in response cut relations and boycotted all Swiss goods. The USSR would soon make repeated attempts to restore relations, although Vorovsky remained a contentious issue. A provisional solution was reached in 1927, but Swiss-Soviet relations were not restored until 1946.

Further life

Following the trial, Conradi remained in Lausanne with his wife until May 1925, when they moved to Paris. The couple divorced on 24 September 1929. Conradi served in the

French Foreign Legion The French Foreign Legion (french: Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army which comprises several specialties: infantry, cavalry, engineers, airborne troops. It was created in 1831 to allow foreign nationals into the French Army ...

and information about his death circulated in newspapers in 1931. However, he returned to his family's home canton of Graubünden, got remarried in 1942 to Regula Wickerlin, and died on 7 February 1947 in Chur. He never had children. Polunin went to Paris after the trial and died under mysterious circumstances in

Dreux Dreux () is a commune in the Eure-et-Loir department in northern France. Geography Dreux lies on the small river Blaise, a tributary of the Eure, about 35 km north of Chartres. Dreux station has rail connections to Argentan, Paris and Gra ...

23 February 1933. Ariens and Divilkovsky, the survivors of the assassination plot, returned to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

and held various positions in the administration. Ariens's final post was as Consul General of the USSR, and he was executed on 11 January 1938 during

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Yezhov'), was Soviet General Secreta ...

. Divilkovsky studied physics under L. I. Mandelstam and became secretary of the physics group at the

Academy of Sciences An academy of sciences is a type of learned society or academy (as special scientific institution) dedicated to sciences that may or may not be state funded. Some state funded academies are tuned into national or royal (in case of the Unit ...

. He volunteered for service in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and was killed in 1942.

References

Sources

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Conradi, M. 1896 births 1946 deaths Military personnel from Saint Petersburg Deaths by firearm in Switzerland People from Chur Swiss assassins White Russian emigrants to Switzerland