Moderate liberal opposition

• Although a relatively small group since there were few literate and educated Russians the size and influence of the liberal intelligentsia grew with the reforms and economic changes of the later 19th century. Liberal intellectuals not only had the benefit of education but possessed the wealth time and interest to reflect on political matters. Many had travelled abroad and despaired at the political and social stagnation of their country.
• Some of the intelligentsia sought the 'truth' via philosophical ideas such as nihilism or anarchism. However most fell into one of two broad categories: Westernisers who wanted to 'catch up with the West' by copying western ways and the Slavophiles who favoured a superior 'Russian' path to a better future.The writer Ivan Turgenev was a Westerniser while Leo Tolstoy was a slavophile.
• Slavophiles believed that Russia had a unique culture and heritage centered on the prevailing peasant society and the principles of the Orthodox Church which should be preserved as the country modernised.
• The Westernisers thought that Russia should abandon Slavic traditions and adopt modern western values. This included not only economic and military reform but also reforms to 'civilise' society by providing representative assemblies reducing the authority of the Orthodox Church and establishing civil liberties.
• The zemstva provided a natural home for Westernising liberal opposition voices as local decision making encouraged members to think more nationally. Their members' hope was to reform the autocracy so that the Tsar would listen and rule in conjunction with his subjects. However although Alexander II had created the representative Zemstva he was not prepared to give them national influence.
• After peaking in 1881 the attractions of the Slavophiles diminished in the 1890s as the country moved forward in its march towards industrialisation creating conditions in which Western-style socialism began to take root. This split the intelligentsia. Some were attracted by the Marxist theory and were drawn to socialism others maintained a more moderate liberal stance and continued to pin their hopes on a reform of tsardom.
• The experience of the 1891-92 famine when the inaction of the over-bureaucratic tsarist government left the zemstva largely responsible for relief work both increased convictions that the tsarist system had to change and provided the confidence needed to demand this.