The Narodniks (populists)

• The idea of 'going to the people' became known as Narodnyism (populism) and in 1874 Pyotr Lavrov encouraged a group of around 2000 young men and women mainly from the nobility and intelligentsia to travel to the countryside in order to persuade the peasantry that the future of Russia depended on the development of the peasant commune.
• They aimed to explore the resentment felt since the Emancipation about the peasants' lack of land and the heavy tax burden they carried.
• Some Narodniks even tried dressing and talking like peasants but the romantic illusions of the young were soon shattered by peasant hostility. The peasants' ignorance superstition prejudice and deep-rooted loyalty to the Tsar ensured that the incomers were reported to the authorities. Around 1600 of them were arrested.
• There was a second attempt to 'go to the people' in 1876 but this proved no more successful than the first. More arrests followed and a series of show trials were held in 1877-78.
• Despite its immediate failure Narodynism had helped to take radical opposition away from the underground meeting rooms and into the countryside and in so doing helped to make the government more aware of the depth of feeling of its opponents.