Hryniewiecki and his accomplices believed that the assassination of Alexander II could provoke a political or social revolution to overthrow the tsarist autocracy.

[7] In 1879 he became involved with Narodnaya Volya (People's Will), an underground Russian revolutionary movement to which he had contributed financial support,[8] and within which he established a Belarusian faction.

In that year, working under the pseudonyms Kotik (Russian for "Kitten") and Mikhail Ivanovich, Hryniewiecki was engaged in anti-Government activities and disseminated revolutionary propaganda among students and workers.

[iii] According to contemporary descriptions, Hryniewiecki was of medium height, lightly bearded, possessed curly hair,[11] and was good-natured and taciturn.

[3] In the fall of 1880, Hryniewiecki and five others were tasked with monitoring the various departure routes of the Tsar following his regular Sunday review of the troops at Mikhailovskii Riding School.

On February 26, 1881, their observations were discussed in a meeting held at Hryniewiecki's apartment at 59 Simbirskaya street, where he had been living under the surname Elnikov.

They had observed that the Tsar frequently traveled through Malaya Sadovaya Street, so the executive committee decided to lay a mine there beneath the pavement.

[15] At a clandestine meeting, Hryniewiecki joined Kibalchich, Nikolai Rysakov and Timofei Mikhailov to test half-loaded bombs in an unfrequented suburban park beyond the Neva around Pargolovo.

[1][15] The night before the assassination, Hryniewiecki wrote a letter to posterity, part of which reads:[16] Alexander II must die.

[1][16] Perovskaya would later relate that, before heading to the Catherine Canal, she, Rysakov and Hryniewiecki sat in a confectionery store located opposite of the Gostiny Dvor, impatiently waiting for the right time to intercept Alexander II's cavalcade.

At this point, Tsar had come to less than 1.5 meters from Hryniewiecki,[v] who was leaning against the railing by the canal fence and carrying a bomb wrapped in a handkerchief.

[20] Following the explosion, the third bomber Ivan Emelyanov rushed to the scene to see if Hryniewiecki could still be spirited away in the chaos, but found him lying gravely wounded and unconscious from the blast.

Numerous arrests depleted the executive committee, which together with the intensified police surveillance dealt serious blows to the movement.

[ix] A chapel and later the Resurrection Cathedral (in popular parlance, "the Savior on the Blood") was erected on the spot of Alexander's assassination on Catherine Canal.