Fanny Kaplan

Fanny Kaplan and the shooting of Lenin — August 30, 1918. A black-and-red eight-panel historical comic.

1. Panel1 — Early life

   SceneA young Feyga Roytblat stands before a town in Volhynia in the Russian Empire.

   Text

   Born in Volhynia in the Russian Empire, Feyga Roytblat was one of eight children. Her father taught at a Jewish school, and she received her early education at home.

2. Panel2 — Revolutionary underground

   SceneAs a teenager, Kaplan stands before a crowd carrying a red revolutionary banner.

   Text

   As a teenager, she adopted the name Fanya Kaplan and joined an anarchist revolutionary group.

3. Panel3 — The 1906 explosion

   SceneKaplan shields herself as a bomb detonates prematurely amid weapons and tools.

   Text

   In 1906, while involved in preparing arms for a political attack, a bomb exploded prematurely.

   She was arrested and sentenced to hard labor in Siberia.

4. Panel4 — Imprisonment and eyesight

   SceneKaplan reads with visible strain beside a barred prison window.

   Text

   Kaplan endured years in the harsh Siberian prison system, suffering illness and prolonged confinement.

   She became blind for several years. Medical treatment in 1913 partially restored her sight, but serious vision problems continued.

5. Panel5 — Opposition to the Bolsheviks

   SceneKaplan stands among demonstrators beneath a banner calling for the Constituent Assembly.

   Text

   Kaplan opposed the Bolsheviks after they dispersed the elected Constituent Assembly.

   She reportedly regarded Lenin as a traitor to the revolution.

6. Panel6 — Lenin at the Michelson Factory

   SceneLenin addresses factory workers from a platform in Moscow.

   Text

   August 30, 1918. Lenin spoke to workers at the Michelson Factory in Moscow.

7. Panel7 — The shooting

   SceneA handgun fires toward Lenin outside the factory while Kaplan appears among the surrounding crowd.

   Text

   Three shots were fired outside Moscow's Michelson Factory. Two bullets struck Lenin—but no eyewitness reliably identified Kaplan as the shooter.

8. Panel8 — Arrest and interrogation

   SceneKaplan sits across a table from an interrogator under a bare lamp.

   Text

   Kaplan was arrested nearby and interrogated without a trial.

   ‘I shot at Lenin today.’ —Statement attributed to Kaplan in the interrogation record.

9. PanelEpilogue

   Text

   Kaplan was executed on September 3, 1918.

   The weapon was not found on her, witness accounts conflicted, and historians still dispute whether she fired the shots.