Suicide

General Boris Savinkov, the Terrible, ended his life by jumping from the window of his prison cell in the State Political Department.

Late last summer, Savinkov was caught by the ogpu (secret police, successors to the Tsars' okrana) and subsequently brought to trial (TIME, Sept. 8). Although the organizer of many political assassinations, including those of Von Plehve and Grand Duke Sergius, he had become an enemy of the Bolsheviki.

At his sensational trial, he did not scruple to say that his estimates of Bolshevism had been mistaken, but told the court bluntly:

"I know the decision beforehand. I do not value my life and am not afraid to die. I recognize all my guilt. I never sought anything for myself."

Lately, in a letter to Comrade Dzierzynzky, Chief Commissar of the Supreme Economic Council, demurring against his imprisonment, he wrote:

"I thought that two courses would be open to me-either I would be shot immediately, or, if I told all, I would be forgiven and allowed to engage in some work."

When M. Dzierzynzky informed him that there was little chance of his being released, he vaulted the sill of his cell window.