6. Opposition to the Tsarist Regime

• What took place in the first assassination attempt in 1866?

  Answers:

  • Dmitri Karakozov (the perpetrator) belonged to a revolutionary faction named the Organisation which wanted to overthrow tsarism and create a workers' commune.
  • Took place in St Petersburg when his shot missed.
• What took place in the second assassination attempt in 1879?

  A bomb was planted in the dining room in the Winter Palace, which killed 11 people and wounded 30- but not the Tsar, who had arrived late to dinner and was unharmed.
• Who were the intelligentsia?

  Answers:

  • A critical thinking minority who were separated from power.
  • Took ideas from both Westerners and Slavophiles.
  • Didn't believe in autocracy so searched for absolute truths, not practical realities.
  • Small in number.
• When was 'Young Russia' published?

  1862
• What did 'Young Russia' argue?

  Answers:

  • That revolution was the only solution to Russia's problem.
  • A quote includes 'there is only one way out of this oppressive and terrible situation which is destroying contemporary man and that is revolution- bloody and merciless revolution'.
• What did the St Petersburg zemstva call for in 1865?

  They called for the establishment of a central zemstva office. Alexander refused and when they repeated the request the following year, he responded by dissolving the zemstva.
• Who was Nikolai Chernyshevsky and what did he do?

  Answers:

  • A student of the revolution who placed his faith in the people and contributed to 'The Contemporary', the most popular journal amongst the radical intelligentsia.
  • He sought a voluntary association of self-governing units.
  • Arrested in 1862 and wrote 'What Is To Be Done?', which embodied the idea for a socialist state.
• Who was Alexander Herzen and what did he do?

  Answers:

  • Edited an influential periodical called 'The Bell', and was intent on modernising Russia and overthrowing the existing political and social system.
  • Advocated a kind of socialism based on the mir to avoid the excesses of capitalism in the west.
• When was the Chaikovsky Group in action?

  1869-1872
• What did the Chaikovsy Group do?

  It wad dedicated to putting forward propaganda. Its members didn't believe that the peasants were yet ready for an uprising. They founded a secret press and began to distribute pamphlets and banned books, pressing forward with the 'to the people' approach.
• What was the reaction to the Chaikovsy Group?

  In 1873/1874, most members of the group were arrested and later prosecuted in the Trial of the 193.
• When were the Narodniks in action?

  1874-1877
• What did the Narodniks do?

  In the summer of 1874, several thousand students and sympathisers descended on the countryside in the first major 'movement to the people'. The peasants did not understand what these strangers from the towns (dressed largely as peasants) wanted.
• What was the reaction to the Narodniks?

  They were often denounced by the peasants themselves. 800 were arrested and put on trial in two groups of 50 and 193.
• When were the Trials of the 50 and the 193?

  1877-1878
• What took place in the Trials of the 50 and the 193?

  The defendants took the opportunity of making long, impassioned, and well-reported speeches bitterly criticising the government and the regime. The idealism and integrating of the defendants made a great impression on both the public and the jury. Of the 193 standing trial, 153 were acquitted. Even those convicted were given relatively light sentences on the 24th January 1878.
• When did Vera Zasulich commit the crime she would go on trial for?

  25th January 1878
• What crime did Vera Zasulich commit?

  She shot and seriously wounded General Trepov, the Governor of St Petersburg, because of what she described as a deep and just sense of moral outrage. She was the daughter of an army officer and a member of Land and Liberty (but wasn't in favour of unrestricted violence).
• When was the trial of Vera Zasulich and what took place?

  Answers:

  • April 1878
  • She was acquitted to a tumultuous applause from the spectators (who represented a good cross-section of society).
  • She was able to slip away to Switzerland, with the trial making the government look incompetent and impotent.
• What were the impacts of the Trials of 50 and 193, and the trial of Vera Zasulich?

  Public trials were abandoned and the government announced that the trial of all political prisoners would be in special military courts. Many political prisoners responded by going on hunger strike and some died.
• When was Land and Liberty in action?

  1877-1879
• What did Land and Liberty do?

  Answers:

  • They realised that a strong central organisation that enforced discipline was needed if they were to succeed against the powers of the Third Section.
  • Had a system of local and central command which included a section dealing with escapes from prison of arrested members, assassination of government officials for ill treatment of revolutionaries and for the discovery and punishment of spies.
  • Success was limited, but they did found the first unions for industrial workers in Odessa and St Petersburg.
• What took place in the assassination of General Mezentsev and Prince Kropotkin?

  Answers:

  • General Mezentsez, head of the Third Section, was killed in broad daylight in the middle of St Petersburg.
  • Land and Liberty subsequently published a pamphlet entitled 'A Death for a Death'.
  • The assassin, Kravinchski, made good escape with little apparent problem. Once again the authorities were powerless.
  • The perpetrators of the assassination of Prince Kropotkin also escaped.
• When was the Black Partition in action?

  1879-1883
• What did the Black Partition do?

  Answers:

  • It was a more moderate faction of Land and Liberty led by Plekhanov and Askelrod.
  • Its main aim was to achieve improved conditions for the peasants through agitation for political reform and mass protest, rather than violence.
• When was the People's Will in action?

  1879-1881
• What did the People's Will do?

  Answers:

  • Led by Mikhailov, who had a spy in the Third Section, which enabled him to outmanoeuvre the secret police. He even discovered and removed a spy through whom the police had infiltrated.
  • In September 1879, they formally condemned the Tsar to death and formally set about implementing its sentencing.
• What did the People's Will do (card two)?

  Answers:

  • In 1880, a member was captured and tricked into revealing organisation information. Numerous arrests followed and the organisation reduced its numbers.
  • On 11th March 1881, Zheliabov was captured, refused to answer questions but boasted that his arrest would not prevent the Tsar's death.
• When was Alexander II assassinated?

  13th March 1881
• How did Russia's students oppose the Tsarist regime?

  Answers:

  • Russia's students were generally hostile towards the tsarist regime, considering Alexander's emancipation reform to be inadequate and being resentful of the authoritarian attitude towards universities.
  • Protests erupted at universities in 1861, with fires set alight in St Petersburg and leaflets urging revolution being distributed.
  • The government responded with imprisonment in the Peter and Paul fortress.