1) growth of opposition

Ivan Turgenev

• russian novelist and playwright who developed “western ideas”

• “a sportsman sketches”: helped to influence in favour of abolition

Count leo Tolstoy

• set up school for peasant children

• wrote “war and peace”

• anna karenina

• devoted himself to social reform advocating simplicity and non-violence

nikolai chernychevsky

• journalist

• 1855: joined staff of sovremenkik where he wrote about literature and politics

• criticized liberalism, believed it served interest of rich and powerful

• believed Russian peasants provided the hope of establishing an eglatarian socialist order

• july 1862: Chernychevsky was arrested and imprisoned for criticizing the established order in Russia

• “what’s to be done”: influenced the founding of the land and liberty group: resulted in being sentenced

Aleksander Herzen

• views: need to bring an end to serfdom and autocratic role

• after critizing the police he was sentenced totwo years exile in Novogorod

• 1852: established the free Russian press- the Bell

• the Bell was smuggled into Russia where it was distributed to those who favoured reform

• newspaper oppeared fairly conservative those embracing the ideas of a revolutionary groupsuch as the people’s will and the liberation of labour

• Herzen believed that any socialist revolution in Russia would have to be investigated by the peasantry

• to the peasantry that Herzen looked for revolutionary upheavel and socialist construction

• in this he advocated a new peasant-based spcial construction

• 1869: called on followers to “go to the people”

Mikhail Bakunin

• anarchist and socialist

• views that private ownership of land should be replaced by collective ownership and that income should be based by number of hours worked

• 1869: helped to introduce Marxism intro Russia by translating karl Marx’s the communist manifesto into russian

• 1872: first volume of Marxs Das Kapital published

• influence on radical young students in Russia

• 1873: statism and anarchy published

• advocated for abolition hereditiary property, equality for women and free education

Sergei nechoev

• 1869: student radical activist after calling on St Petersburg students to assasinate the tsar, wrote catchism of a revolutionary

• organised the membership of his group onto small cells, unknown to each other, highly dsciplined and directed by a cdentral committee

• great influence on radical young students

• august 1869: peoples retribution

• in contact with people’s will group while in prison

Peter lavrov

• influential in populist movement

• believed intellectuals owed education to toil of masses

• inspired populists to “go out to people”

• 1870- historical letters

• argued progress came about from deliberate action of “critically thinking individuals”

• converted to Marxism and allocated a greater role to economic forces in obtaining political charge

Tchaikovsky circle

• distribution of revolutionary works

why did opposition grow to the tsarist regime?

• radical intellectuals believed emancipation had betrayed serfs

• support from students- student circles and mutualaid groups discussed liberal and political ideas

• growing intelligentsia who objected to treatment of masses and hierarchal nature of society

• notable early group= radical land and liberty

emergence of new ideas and opposition

• initial relaxation of censorship encourafged spread of radical literature

• relaxation of controls in higher education increased numbers of independantly minded students

• creation of zemstvas and dumas provided platform educated intellectuals to challenge autocracy

• reofrm to judicial system produced professionally trained lawyers ready to challenge autocratic practices

• repressive atmosphere reinforced

how important was marxism in opposing alexander II?

• marxist stressed the role of classes and class struggle in history

• called themselved social democrats as they belived liberal democracy meant freedom only for the prosperous elite, not for exploited massesvwho needed social revolution to establish genuine democracy in a socialist society

• marxists helped organise a series of strikes in the 1890s seeking to turn basic economic grievances into hostility

1880s emancipation of labour

small numerically

hindered by the conditions of secrecy and repression in which they had to operate and torn by factional disputes