Ivan Pavlovich Yuvachev was a narodovolets, a member of The People's Will (Narodnaya Volya) revolutionary organization that assassinated Tsar Alexander II, after seven failed assassination attempts. He was a defendant at the Trial of the Fourteen

Trial of the Fourteen

The Trial of the Fourteen was a trial of fourteen members of Narodnaya Volya. It took place on September 24-28 , 1884 in Saint Petersburg's district military court. Vera Figner - the last member of the Executive Committee of Narodnaya Volya to remain in Russia - was the principal defendant...

 in 1884, where he was found guilty of "terrorist activities".

Yuvachev served four years at Peter and Paul Fortress

Peter and Paul Fortress

The Peter and Paul Fortress is the original citadel of St. Petersburg, Russia, founded by Peter the Great in 1703 and built to Domenico Trezzini's designs from 1706-1740.-History:...

 on the Neva River

Neva River

The Neva is a river in northwestern Russia flowing from Lake Ladoga through the western part of Leningrad Oblast to the Neva Bay of the Gulf of Finland. Despite its modest length , it is the third largest river in Europe in terms of average discharge .The Neva is the only river flowing from Lake...

, and at the Schlusselburg Fortress. He was imprisoned with fellow narodovolet Alexander Ulyanov, brother of Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...

, who was hanged there. In this period he experienced a religious awakening, or perhaps a mental breakdown. Rejecting an offer to be released to a monastery, Yuvachev served eight additional years of hard labor on the Sakhalin

Sakhalin

Sakhalin or Saghalien, is a large island in the North Pacific, lying between 45°50' and 54°24' N.It is part of Russia, and is Russia's largest island, and is administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast...

 peninsula. Anton Chekhov

Anton Chekhov

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian physician, dramatist and author who is considered to be among the greatest writers of short stories in history. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics...

 came to know Yuvachev well in this period, and later wrote about Yuvachev in a text recalling his time at Sakhalin. Yuvachev emerged from prison a vocal pacifist, and he authored two memoirs and several religious-mystical tracts.

Yuvachev is the father of Russian poet Daniil Kharms

Daniil Kharms

Daniil Kharms was an early Soviet-era surrealist and absurdist poet, writer and dramatist. One of his pseudonyms, which was signed in Latin alphabet, was Daniel Charms.- Life :...

. A popular account of Kharm's birth has Yuvachev predicting the precise day of his son's birth in advance, and, from a telephone on Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy

Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...

's estate, ordering his wife to adhere to the date. She gave birth to her son on the date named by Yuvachev.