[Dandalf] USA - NO. (See my clarification above).

[Raak] Influence outside Russian Empire - NO. [flerdle] Alive in 1905 - NO. (murmurs of "oooh, so close")
[Inkspot] Exiled - NO, anything but.

[Projoy] Murdered in the Russian Empire - YES! (Audience goes wild)

[Projoy] Karakozov - NO.

(well, it was a poltical act, but I guess he doesn't count as an oligarch. :)

[Projoy] In an Imperial government - YES!

Sorry, rather hogging this game. That's my last question for a while.

I mean a Count or some such title?

[Projoy] Major General Nikolai Ivanovich Bobrikov, much-loathed Governor-General of Finland - YES!!
[Inkspot] Titled - No, he wasn't as a matter of fact -- a soldier, not a nobleman.

That was more difficult than I'd expected it to be. The arts connection is via Ulysseus, which mentions the assassination of Bobrikov -- it happened on the day the novel takes place. Also, I think I committed a couple of mistakes by answering too literally sometimes and not sufficiently literally at other times. Feel free to issue edicts and threaten me with years of oppression. Baton goes to Projoy...

---

Oops. Well, I think I got that one more by carpet-bombing tactics than anything else. Still, here's a (hopefully less wikipedia-heavy) VEGETABLE. (Annoyingly, I thought of a really good one to set the other day, but can I bring it to mind now? Tch.)

[Phil] Wooden - NO

[Dandalf] Edible - NO
[Raak] Textile - NO
(just as a totem against pedantry, I should probably mention there is probably a very small MINERAL element to this, but not in any way that need detain us here.)

Néa, flerdle] oops, soory - though I had read all the moves.

Darn. I go out and the game runs away...

[Né] Manufactured - YES

[a] YES to your question also.
[Ig] Cooked? Um, NOT REALLY

though that might be "wood"

[flerdle] Cardboard box? NO

[Lib] Colourful - NO
[flerdle] would you have one in your house? NO, you wouldn't.

Haven't thought that through very far but may as well make a guess.

[Tuj] Carpet? NO.

(Tuj) The implication of your guess is that flerdle's house doesn't have carpets. I await the storm. -:)

[CdM] In your house? Hm. I DOUBT IT (although I couldn't actually say for certain in your case or flerdle's. Incidentally, I don't have one in my house either.)
[Rosie] A plant of some kind - YES (but that's nigh-on inevitable in this category)
[CdM] Heated in manufacture? YES! *applause*

Hm. At the risk of complicating things the more correct answer to the "would I have one in my house" question, for anyone who might ask it is strictly NO.

[Rosie] Told you I didn't think it through... (sorry flerdle)

[Tuj] That's already been asked, unfortunately. Incidentally, carpeting is a culture-bound phenomenon. Soft wall-to-wall carpets are unusual here, for instance.

[Tuj] edible, NO *there are some titters in the audience, as some new significance to this question dawns on them*
[Néa] tool, NO