narodnichestvo

Narodnichestvo, or Russian populism, was a 19th-century socialist movement in Russia. Members believed that educating the peasantry would lead to the masses influencing the tsarist regime towards liberalization. The movement emerged from dissatisfaction with the Emancipation Manifesto of 1861, which created economic hardships for peasants despite freeing them from serfdom.1

Narodniki adapted socialist ideas, focusing on agrarian communism and the traditional communal land tenure (mir) as a basis for skipping industrial capitalism and moving directly to socialism. Early efforts involved intellectuals "going to the people" to incite peasant uprisings, but this led to arrests and disillusionment. This pushed the movement towards more radical and organized tactics, including terrorism, with groups like Zemlya i Volya and later Narodnaya Volya. Narodnaya Volya assassinated Tsar Alexander II in 1881, but the group was subsequently dismantled.123