One hundred years ago, in 1917, the Berlin Philharmonic hosted a conference led by Pavel Milyukov, a prominent minister of the former Russian Provisional Government and head of the Constitutional Democratic Party. The gathering occurred amid a violent incident carried out by Pyotr Shabelsky-Bork and Sergey Taboritsky, monarchist conspirators. Although Milyukov escaped injury, his longtime ally and the father of the future renowned writer Vladimir Nabokov, Vladimir Nabokov Sr., died while trying to restrain the assailants.
The conference, held on March 28, 1922, followed Milyukov’s return from Washington. He participated alongside other Provisional Government representatives in discussions on arms control and Far East issues at an international forum titled the “Restoration of America and Russia.” Approximately 1,200 listeners attended. The Cadet Party’s two leading figures, Pavel Milyukov and Vladimir Nabokov, had long diverged in exile. Milyukov favored a tentative rapprochement with left-leaning forces, while Nabokov leaned more to the right and adopted nationalist tones. They had dispersed geographically as well, with Milyukov in Paris and Nabokov in Berlin.
Yet the older comrades retained mutual respect, and on the eve of the lecture there was a trend toward reconciliation. Nabokov even received a nominal invitation and sat near the front in solidarity.
“In just a few minutes, we met very amicably after a painful political break. When I arrived in Berlin, I read your heartfelt greetings to me. I knew him as an old and loyal friend under the guise of an unconventional political dissident. Words of reconciliation were spoken. We kissed. Who would have thought that his kiss would be goodbye?” Milyukov later wrote in an article titled “In Memory of an Old Friend,” published in Nabokov’s newspaper Rul’. In the days prior, Nabokov had contributed a piece in the same newspaper about the advent of PN and praised Milyukov as one of the greatest and most authoritative figures among Russians.
As the lecture concluded, a “black-headed” man rose. It was later disclosed that Shabelsky stepped forward, shouting something like: “This is the tsar’s revenge.” Some memories suggest he cried out about revenge for insulting the empress in the Duma. He then fired two shots, both missing. A doctor named Alexander Asnes immediately treated Milyukov, and panic spread through the hall as people rushed for the exits.
With only a pistol in hand, Nabokov acted to disarm the assailant and shield the crowd. He moved quickly and kept his head. However, there were two conspirators, and the second gunman, Taboritsky, shot Nabokov in the back three times to safeguard his partner. One bullet struck Nabokov in the heart, and he collapsed.
Afterwards, Taboritsky attempted to escape in the wardrobe, but a bystander identified him as the murderer. The crowd twisted him, and besides Nabokov, nine others were wounded by the indiscriminate fire. Among the wounded were the Berlin head of the Cadet faction and Lev Elyashev, an editor of Rul, along with Kaminka and doctor Asnes.
The first attacker, Shabelsky, was detained while still inside the hall. Both men were handed over to the police, who promptly arrived at the scene. Medical examinations later revealed that the detainees had used drugs heavily and had taken a strong dose on the day of the assault.
Milyukov, uninjured in the attack, wrote to his late friend about the tragedy: bullets had been meant for him, yet he lived while the friend lay silent. He described a single red mark near the heart, two identical marks on the back, and the three shots that shattered a poised, elegant form. The moment of intervention had proven fatal for a noble act, a friend, and a mind that valued courage above all else. The words of a man who witnessed the event lingered in the air, a testament to a life that intersected with danger and virtue, and to a moment when a public figure chose to risk personal safety for the sake of justice.
The death of a popular politician, journalist, and scholar sent shockwaves through Russian émigré communities. Responses flowed from a wide array of figures, including writers and artists such as Alexander Amfiteatrov, Ivan Bunin, Alexander Kuprin, and Dmitry Merezhkovsky.
Kuprin described Nabokov as having a calm, steadfast restraint that masked a profound Russian spirit, a disciplined intellect, and a noble heart. Nabokov, then just beginning to gain recognition with early pieces in his father’s newspaper, responded with a touching poem about his father’s death and the hope of spring.
Vladimir Nabokov, Jr., who had recently started to publish under a pseudonym in Rul, was moved to reflect on the loss in verse, a tribute to a father who embodied courage and principle.
The two men, Milyukov and Nabokov, shared notable traits. They were articulate public speakers, prolific publishers, and respected educators who navigated both revolutionary upheaval and periods of constraint under the tsarist and Soviet regimes. Their legacies include memorable aphorisms and a commitment to liberal ideals, even when those commitments brought them into conflict with those in power. The exchange between their paths—marked by public leadership and intellectual rigor—left an imprint on Russian political and literary life.
Milyukov’s public influence was evident in a landmark statement from November 1, 1916, delivered from the rostrum of the Fourth State Duma during wartime debates. Nabokov’s broader political memory traces to the early push for popular representation in 1906, a moment when he argued that the executive must submit to the legislature, a principle that continued to shape discussions about governance and civil rights.
The legal case tied to the Shabelsky and Taboritsky incident unfolded at the Berlin Criminal Court in Moabit in early July 1922. The jury sentenced Taboritsky to fourteen years for complicity in the shooting, and Shabelsky-Bork received twelve years for Nabokov’s murder. The sentence, while harsh, placed both men in some of Germany’s harshest institutions, and they were released several years later under amnesty and, in subsequent years, gravitated toward other political movements. Taboritsky later joined the NSDAP in 1942 and promoted monarchist ideas, even as he engaged with German nationalist circles. He participated in the postwar Russian émigré networks before dying in Germany. Shabelsky-Bork, who aligned with Nazi-era ideologies, eventually moved among Russian émigré groups and, after the war, relocated to Argentina.