Paul Gorguloff

Paul Gorguloff
Gorguloff (standing) during his trial
Born	Pavel Timofeyevich Gorgulov June 29, 1895 Labinsk, Russia
Died	September 14, 1932 (aged 37) Paris, France
Cause of death	Execution
Criminal penalty	Death by decapitation
Criminal status	Deceased
Motive	Honor killing
Conviction(s)	Murder

Paul Gorguloff, originally Pavel Timofeyevich Gorgulov (Russian: Павел Тимофеевич Горгулов; June 29, 1895 – September 14, 1932) was a Russian émigré who assassinated French President Paul Doumer at a book fair at the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild in Paris on May 6, 1932.

Gorguloff was born in Labinskaya in the Kuban region of Russia. He studied medicine before serving in the First World War, in which he was badly wounded in the head. During the Russian Revolution of 1917, he served with the White Russian Army against the Bolsheviks, before emigrating to Prague in Czechoslovakia, where he completed his studies. He was later expelled from Czechoslovakia for practising abortion, which was illegal at the time.

He moved to Paris and then to Nice, where in 1931 he was again found to be committing illegal medical acts and was threatened with expulsion. He applied for a permit to live in Monaco, which was accepted, and he lived there until May 4, 1932.

On May 6, 1932, a book fair was being held at the Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild in Paris, and the President of France, Paul Doumer, was present.

Gorguloff arrived at the hotel concealing a Browning FN Model 1910 gun. He then approached the President from behind, pulled out his gun and fired three shots. Two of them hit the President, one in the back of the head and the other in the right armpit. The President fell to the floor. He was rushed to the Beaujon Hospital in Paris but died the next day. One of the authors at the exhibition, Claude Farrère, managed to wrestle with Gorguloff until the police arrived. Gorguloff's motive for the murder was that he believed that France had failed to support the White Movement in Russia against Bolshevism.