Kibalchich was an explosives expert with an engineering degree from St. Peterburg who worked on early forms of rocketry. He was arrested for possesing a piece of anti-Czarist propaganda and was sentenced to exile in Siberia. The experience greatly enraged Kibalchich and upon his release he joined the terrorsit group People's Will and put his explosives expertise to use for them. In 1881 some of his bombs were used in the assassination of Czar Alexander II and Kibalchich was arrested and sentenced to death. While awaiting execution Khibalchich sketched a design for a rocket carrying humans into space, the first time this idea had ever been imagined. He was hanged on April 3, 1881.