Tchaikovsky circle

• The Tchaikovsky Circle named after its most prominent member Nikolai Tchaikovsky was set up in 1868-69 in St Petersburg. It was primarily a literary society that organised the printing publishing and distribution of scientific and revolutionary literature including the first volume of Marx's Das Kapital.
• The circle was never large: probably no more than a 100 people spread between St Petersburg and other major cities but it sought (although not politcal) revolution. From 1872 the Tchaikovsky circle began organising workers with the intention of sending them to work among the peasants in the countryside