narodnichestvo

Narodnichestvo, often translated as Populism or the people's movement, was an influential intellectual and political movement in the Russian Empire during the 1860s and 1870s. It emerged as a response to the perceived alienation of the educated elite from the peasantry, which constituted the vast majority of the Russian population. Narodniks believed that the peasantry held the key to Russia's future and that their traditional communal way of life, particularly the mir (peasant commune), offered a potential path to socialism, bypassing the perceived ills of Western industrial capitalism.

The movement was characterized by a deep reverence for the common people and a desire to "go to the people" (khodit v narod). This led to various attempts by intellectuals, students, and professionals to live and work among the peasantry, hoping to educate them, improve their living conditions, and incite a socialist revolution from below. These efforts often met with limited success, as peasants were frequently suspicious of outsiders and the Narodniks’ ideas did not always align with their immediate concerns.

While initially advocating for peaceful propaganda and education, some factions of the Narodnik movement, disillusioned by their lack of progress and facing government repression, turned to revolutionary tactics. The most prominent group to emerge from this radicalization was Narodnaya Volya (The People's Will), which advocated for political terrorism as a means to overthrow the autocracy. Their assassination of Tsar Alexander II in 1881 ultimately led to a severe crackdown by the authorities, significantly weakening the Narodnik movement as a cohesive force, though its ideas continued to influence subsequent Russian political thought.