In July 1877, a political prisoner, Arkhip Bogolyubov, refused to remove his cap in the presence of Colonel Fyodor Trepov, the governor of St. Petersburg famous for his suppression of the Polish rebellions in 1830 and 1863. In retaliation, Trepov ordered Bogolyubov to be flogged, which outraged not only revolutionaries but also sympathetic members of the intelligentsia. A group of six revolutionaries plotted to kill Trepov, but Zasulich was the first to act. She and her fellow social revolutionary, Maria (Masha) Kolenkina, were planning to shoot two government representatives: the prosecutor Vladislav Zhelekhovskii in the Trial of the 193 and another enemy of the populist movement. Following the Bogolyubov flogging, they decided that the second target should be Trepov.Barbara A. Engel and Clifford N. Rosenthal "Five Sisters: Women Against the Tsar" (1975), p.61. Waiting until after the verdict was announced at the Trial of 193, on 24 January 1878 they went for their respective targets. Kolenkina's attempt against Zhelekhovskii failed, but Zasulich used a British Bulldog revolver and shot and seriously wounded Trepov.Ana Siljak, Angel of Vengeance: the "Girl Assassin," the Governor of St. Petersburg, and Russia's Revolutionary World (2008), p. 2, 10-11.
