Nikolai Ivanovich Kibalchich (1854 - 1881) Russian revolutionary and inventor in the field of rocketry.

Kibalchich graduated from a secondary school on Sept. 19, 1871 and enrolled in the St. Petersburg Institute of Transportation Engineers. (122) In 1873, Kibalchich joined the Medico-Surgical Academy. (2)

In 1875, the Tsarist police arrested Kibalchich for possession of banned literature, for which he remained in prison until 1878.

After his release, Kibalchich joined "Narodnaya Volya" or Narodniks, a radical revolutionary movement. Within the organization, Kibalchich worked as "chief technician" specialized in explosives used for terrorist actions.

Since December 1879, the Narodnaya Volya committee had been preparing an assassination of Emperor Alexander II, which was successful on March 1, 1881. In the wake of the attack, Kibalchich was arrested on March 17, 1881, along with Andrei Zhelyabov, Sofia Perovskaya, Timofei Mikhailov and Nikolai Rysakov.

During his 17-day incarceration in the Petrapavloskaya Fortress, Kibalchich sketched and described a manned flight vehicle propelled by a solid-fuel engine, the earliest known proposal of this kind.

Kibalchich was hanged on April 3, 1881, along with other conspirators of the March 1, 1881 assassination.

A crater on the Moon is named after Kibalchich.

Nikolai Kibalchich