Members of the organization are called Narodnaya Volya. The most famous members of the organization are P. L. Lavrov, A. I. Zhelyabov, A. D. Mikhailov, S. L. Perovskaya, V. N. Figner, N. A. Morozov, L. A. Tikhomirov, S. N. Khalturin , N. I. Kibalchich , Yu. N. Bogdanovich , G. A. Lopatin , N. S. Tyutchev , A. I. Barannikov , N. V. Kletochnikov , Ya. .
The party "Narodnaya Volya" was organized at the Lipetsk Congress in June 1879. In contrast to Land and Will, from which Narodnaya Volya emerged, the latter emphasized political struggle as a means of conquering the socialist order.
The theoretical worldview of the revolutionary Narodniks (participants in the “going to the people”), expressed in the journals Vperyod, Nachalo, Zemlya i Volya, was also adopted by the Narodnaya Volya party. Like Zemlya i Volya, the Narodnaya Volya party proceeded from the conviction that the Russian people “are in a state of complete slavery, economic and political... They are surrounded by layers of exploiters created and protected by the state... The state is the largest in the country capitalist power; it also constitutes the only political oppressor of the people... This state-bourgeois outgrowth is maintained solely by bare violence... There is absolutely no popular sanction to this arbitrary and violent power... The Russian people, in their sympathies and ideals, are completely socialist; its old, traditional principles are still alive in it - the right of the people to land, communal and local government, the beginnings of a federal structure, freedom of conscience and speech. These principles would be widely developed and would give a completely new direction, in the spirit of the people, to our whole history, if only the people were given the opportunity to live and arrange themselves as they want, in accordance with their own inclinations. In view of this, the Narodnaya Volya party considered its task to be "a political coup in order to transfer power to the people." As a weapon of revolution, the party put forward a constituent assembly, elected by free universal suffrage. Undertaking to fully submit to the will of the people, the party nevertheless put forward its program, which it had to defend during the election campaign and in the Constituent Assembly:
The political trials of 1877-1878 had a serious influence on the mood in revolutionary circles (the trial of the participants in the Kazan demonstration, the trial of the 50s, the trial of the 193s). The assassination of Zasulich, the assassination of Mezentsov by Kravchinsky, the assassination of Solovyov led to an increase in terrorist sentiment in revolutionary circles.
In May 1879, in St. Petersburg, a group of Zemlednvolye - supporters of political struggle and terrorist methods - created a secret organization "Freedom or Death".
For the summer of 1879, a congress of landowners representing both metropolitan and provincial circles was scheduled. Supporters of the new direction, "politicians" who were inclined to use terrorist methods of struggle, secretly from the rest held a separate congress in Lipetsk on June 15–17, where they coordinated their actions and the program for the general Voronezh Congress that followed soon after.
At the Voronezh congress, which was held from June 18 to 21, disagreements between "politicians" and "village people" led to a split in the organization. The leader of the "villagers" G. V. Plekhanov defiantly left the congress.
However, a formally unified organization "Land and Freedom" existed until the end of August - the beginning of autumn 1879, when supporters of the political struggle and terror organized a new party "Narodnaya Volya", and the "villagers" created the "Black Repartition".
The Executive Committee (EC) of Narodnaya Volya initially included approximately 15 people (exact lists are unknown), in particular, participants in the Lipetsk Congress: A. I. Barannikov, A. I. Zhelyabov, A. A. Kvyatkovsky, N. N. Kolodkevich , A. D. Mikhailov , N. A. Morozov , M. N. Oshanina , L. A. Tikhomirov , M. F. Frolenko , S. G. Shiryaev .
In the autumn of 1879, N. K. Bukh, M. F. Grachevsky, V. V. Sege von Laurenberg, S. S. Zlatopolsky, A. I. Zundelevich, S. A. Ivanova, G. P. Isaev, T I. Lebedeva, O. S. Lyubatovich, S. L. Perovskaya, E. D. Sergeeva, V. N. Figner, A. V. Yakimova, and in 1880 - M. R. Langans, A. P. Korba , Yu. N. Bogdanovich , N. E. Sukhanov , P A. Tellalov , M. N. Trigoni .
Narodnaya Volya had a centralized structure headed by an Executive Committee. By the beginning of 1881, the organization included about 500 people, and for the entire period from 1879 to 1883 it united 80-90 local, 100-120 workers, 30-40 student, 20-25 gymnasium and about 25 military circles.
The founders of Narodnaya Volya, as a rule, at first broadly understood the tasks of the new party, not reducing them only to terror and considering it as one of the means of political struggle. However, from the first days of the existence of the Executive Committee, its main practical efforts were directed towards the execution of the death sentence of Alexander II, pronounced at the Lipetsk Congress.
In November 1879, three attempts were made to blow up the tsar's train, in which the emperor was returning from the Crimea to St. Petersburg. The assassination attempt near the village of Gnilyakovo near Odessa, which was prepared by M.F. Frolenko, T.I. Lebedeva and N.I. Kibalchich, did not take place due to a change in the train route. The second mine, laid by the group of A. I. Zhelyabov near Aleksandrovsk, did not work due to a technical malfunction. The third - near Moscow, was blown up on November 19 by a group of Narodnaya Volya (A. D. Mikhailov, S. L. Perovskaya, L. N. Gartman, G. P. Isaev, A. I. Barannikov, S. G. Shiryaev and others. ). But this attempt failed. Contrary to the usual order, the royal train went first, and the explosion occurred under the baggage car of the retinue's train, which was running second. No harm done.
Two more assassination attempts were being prepared, but did not take place in the summer of 1880. In Odessa, at 47 Italianskaya Street, S. L. Perovskaya, G. Isaev and others were preparing a dig to blow up the crew of Alexander II on the way from the station to the pier. However, the digging was not completed on time.
Several members of the Executive Committee were arrested as early as the end of 1879. A.I. Zundelevich - October 28, 1879, A.A. Kvyatkovsky and G.D. Goldenberg - in November, and S.G. Shiryaev - 4 December. On the same day, the organization's passport office was seized by the police.
On January 18, 1880, the police uncovered the secret printing house of Narodnaya Volya in Saperny Lane. The revolutionaries put up armed resistance, one of them died, four were arrested. Among those arrested were two members of the IK -- N. K. Bukh and S. A. Ivanova .
In the spring of 1880, the Narodnaya Volya organized the Central Workers' Circle in St. Petersburg, which was led by A. Zhelyabov and S. Perovskaya, and which a year later consisted of more than 300 workers. In the autumn of 1880, the Military Organization was created. In the spring of 1881, it included about 50 officers from St. Petersburg, Kronstadt, Helsingfors.
The active terrorist activity of Narodnaya Volya, especially the explosion in the Winter Palace, forced the government to take urgent measures. February 12, 1880 was established "". The head of this commission was M.T. Loris-Melikov, who, having received broad powers, began urgent changes in the administrative and police spheres and at the same time toughened the persecution of revolutionaries.
In the spring of 1880, the arrested Goldenberg gave extensive statements to the police, allowing the police to make further arrests.
In October, the trial of 16 Narodnaya Volya members took place in the St. Petersburg Military District Court. Two - A. A. Kvyatkovsky and A. K. Presnyakov - were sentenced to death penalty, the rest - to hard labor and exile in Siberia. The execution of Kvyatkovsky and Presnyakov prompted the Narodnaya Volya to accelerate the preparation of an assassination attempt on the tsar, which they understood as retribution.
The key figure in the conspiratorial activities of Narodnaya Volya was A. D. Mikhailov, who established the work of underground printing houses, dynamite workshops, financed the organization, and maintained contact with the agent of the revolutionaries in the Third Department - N. V. Kletochnikov.
The arrest of Mikhailov in November 1880 led to disorganization and a series of failures.
N. N. Kolodkevich was arrested on January 26, 1881, A. I. Barannikov and N.V. Kletochnikov - 28 January. On the same day, during an illegal return from abroad, N. A. Morozov was arrested.
In December 1880, preparations began for a new assassination attempt on the king. A shop was hired at the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and Malaya Sadovaya Street, from where a mine was dug. At the same time, the emperor's departures were monitored. It was decided to carry out an assassination attempt on his way from the Winter Palace to the arena.
Assassination attempt on March 1, 1881. The explosion of the second projectile (The World Illustration magazine of March 14, 1881).
The January failures forced the terrorists to hurry, since there were no guarantees of the very existence of the organization for a long time. On February 27, together with the head of the Odessa organization, M.N. Trigoni, who arrived in St. Petersburg, A.I. S. L. Perovskaya took over the leadership. The attack was scheduled for March 1st. If the tsar did not go to Malaya Sadovaya, it was decided to use projectiles.
On the appointed day, the tsar chose the route along the Catherine Canal and was killed there by a bomb thrown by I. I. Grinevitsky, who was also mortally wounded.
The popular unrest initiated by regicide, which the revolutionaries counted on, did not occur. Shortly after March 1, most active members of the organization were arrested. At the soon-to-be trial of six March Day workers (A. I. Zhelyabov, S. L. Perovskaya, N. I. Kibalchich, T. M. Mikhailov, N. I. Rysakov, G. M. Gelfman), everyone was sentenced to death. Pregnant G. Gelfman, he was replaced by life hard labor.
Meeting of the special presence of the Governing Senate on the case of the March 1 atrocity. From the Niva magazine No. 20, May 16, 1881
Numerous arrests took place over the following months. As a result, Narodnaya Volya, having lost many members and the majority of the Executive Committee, moved the center of its activities to Moscow, where P. A. Tellalov and M. N. Oshanina operated. More and more attention was concentrated on the creation of military organizations and propaganda among officers. More and more Narodnaya Volya leaned towards the conspiratorial tactics of seizing power.
Lacking the strength for major actions, especially for a new regicide, the organization makes an attempt on the Kyiv military prosecutor V. S. Strelnikov, who earned the hatred of the revolutionaries with his tough actions in the South. On March 18, 1882, in the center of Odessa, he was shot dead by N. A. Zhelvakov. Zhelvakov, along with S. N. Khalturin, who accompanied him, was captured and executed.
At the beginning of 1882, in St. Petersburg, the police arrested large group terrorists who were preparing an assassination attempt on the gendarmerie colonel G. P. Sudeikin.
On the initiative of Yu. N. Bogdanovich, an organization was created to prepare escapes and help prisoners, the predecessor of the "Political Red Cross". The organization was destroyed by the police in early 1882.
The betrayal of S.P. Degaev, a member of the officer organization, had critical consequences for the organization. In the summer of 1882 he was named to the Executive Committee and shortly thereafter recruited by the police. Degaev gave the police a number of Narodnaya Volya members, in particular, Vera Figner. Central authorities"Narodnaya Volya" were finally defeated, and attempts to restore them in the future did not lead to success.
In March 1883, the police arrested most of the members of the military organization who had been extradited by Degaev. Plans to carry out a coup by the military did not materialize. The activities of the remaining circles were reduced to the distribution of brochures and leaflets, propaganda among the workers.
Degaev, exposed by the Narodnaya Volya, organized the murder of his "curator" Sudeikin on December 16, 1883, for which he was allowed to hide abroad.
An attempt to unite disparate circles and recreate the organization was made by G. A. Lopatin, who arrived from abroad in the spring of 1884. However, already in October he was arrested, and the records found on him gave the police the opportunity to destroy most of the remaining circles.
1 . revolutionary - populist organization of the beginning. 80s 19th century Formed in Aug. 1879, when "Land and Freedom" split into "Narodnaya Volya" and "Black Repartition". It was the largest and most important revolution. org-tion of the raznochinsk period will release. movement in Russia. The founders of "N. v." were revolutionaries - supporters of the political. fight against autocracy. Program "N. V." contained the requirements of broad democratic. transformations: convocation Establish. assembly, the introduction of universal electoral law and permanent people. representation, freedom of speech, conscience, press, gatherings, broad communal self-government, replacement of the standing army of bunks. militia, transfer of land to the people, granting the oppressed peoples the right of self-determination. Like the previous populists. programs, it mixed democratic and socialist tasks, believed in the possibility of their simultaneous implementation as a result of the seizure of power by the revolutionaries and the awakening of the cross. revolution. Taking a step forward by recognizing the need for political struggle against the autocracy, the Narodnaya Volya remained utopian socialists who shared the main. populist positions. ideology and, above all, faith in the possibility for Russia to bypass capitalism, to come to socialism through the cross. revolution. Most of them believed in the possibility of directly merging the political. and socialist. coups, relying on the socialist. peasant instincts. Others shared the political and social upheaval in time, believing that after the overthrow of the autocracy and the establishment of democratic. freedoms, the revolutionaries will be able to develop the preparatory for the socialist. revolution work. Finally, the liberal wing (which did not enjoy significant influence) was satisfied with obtaining a constitution, without thinking about further struggle. Narodnaya Volya strengthened and expanded the org. principles of "Earth and freedom", creating a centralized, branched, well-secret org-tion. It was headed by the Executor. to-t, consisting of professional. revolutionaries: A. D. Mikhailov, A. A. Kvyatkovsky, A. I. Zhelyabov, S. L. Perovskaya, V. N. Figner, N. A. Morozov, M. R. Frolenko, L. A. Tikhomirov, A. I. Barannikov, A. V. Yakimova, M. N. Oshanina, and others. A network of local and special (working, student, military) groups was subordinate to him. In 1879-1883 the people's volch. there were groups in almost 50 cities, especially in the Ukraine and the Volga region. Narodnaya Volya members distinguished between "organization" - a community of revolutionaries united by strict discipline, recognizing the program and charter, and "party" - a wide circle of like-minded people who are not connected with the organization by certain obligations. The number of members of the org-tion did not exceed, apparently, 500 people, the number of those involved in the investigation reached 2 thousand, while the participants of the Narodnaya Volch. There were several movements. thousand. Widely unfolded "N. v." revolutionary agitation and propaganda in all segments of the population. Gas. People's Will, Listok Narodnaya Volya, Rabochaya Gazeta sought to popularize the idea of a political struggle against the autocracy, contributed to the elimination of anarchist illusions in the revolution. environment. The revolutionaries launched a struggle to seize power under the motto "Now or never!" 70s revolutionary situation. Along with this, the Narodnaya Volya believed in the possibility of creating the conditions for a coup themselves, which meant, in their understanding, to disorganize the government with terror, to ensure support for the revolutionaries of all sections of the population, to strengthen and strengthen the revolution. org-tion. In the preparation of the uprising, as well as in its implementation, "N. v." ch. role assigned to the revolutionary. minority, i.e., their org-tion. Nar. masses - mountains. the workers and the peasantry were to play an auxiliary, secondary role. This was reflected in the Blanquist nature of the N.V. program, which understood the political. struggle as a conspiracy. In practice, the revolutionaries failed to achieve any kind of stable balance between the various aspects of activity. With the development and exacerbation of political fight everything greater value acquired terror. The peculiarity of the form of politics. struggle "NV", the heroism of its leaders and their impotence find an explanation not only in the ideology of the revolutionaries, but also in the objective ist. reality beginning. 80s with the absence of a broad mass movement in it: the peasantry has not yet awakened to a political. life, and in the working class there was neither a broad movement nor a firm org-tion. Terror, to-ry program Execute. to-ta defined as one of the means of combating the autocracy, the logic of events began to turn into Ch. its means, displacing all others. "N. in." prepared seven assassination attempts on Alexander II. People's Volunteer terror frightened the government, forced it to make certain concessions. However, seeing that there was no mass support for the revolutionaries, the autocracy went on the offensive. In the terrorist struggle Narodnaya Volya squandered the best forces, bled org-tion. The implementation of their terrorist plan - the execution of Alexander II - showed the failure of the People's Volunteers. tactics and its program prerequisites. In the post-March period "N. v." experienced ideological and org. a crisis. Attempts to get out of it were doomed to failure, because the revolutionaries remained on the old ideological. and program positions, making changes only to tactics and org. forms of their activities. The largest attempts are associated with the activities of G. A. Lopatin (1884), P. F. Yakubovich (1883-84), B. D. Orzhikh, V. G. Bogoraz, L. Ya. Sternberg (1885) and S. M. Ginsburg (1889). A special place in Narodovolch. traffic takes the most mean. 80s group - "Terrorist faction of the People's Will" A. I. Ulyanov, who sought to bring into the program "N. otd. Marxist positions. Populist. org-tion of the 90s. (a group of Narodnaya Volya in St. Petersburg, a group of old Narodnaya Volya in exile) essentially merged with liberal movement , abandoning many revolutions. principles of "NV". The beginning of the Marxist historiography "N. v." put the work of G. V. Plekhanov ser. 80s He is in." repeatedly wrote V. I. Lenin. In the 20-30s. "N. in." became the subject of a special study of owls. historians (M. N. Pokrovsky, V. I. Nevsky, S. N. Valk, I. A. Teodorovich, and others). After a long break in the conditions of the cult of personality, only with con. 50s a number of works about "N. century" appear, continuing the study of the Narodnaya Volch. inheritance. A prominent place is occupied by the theme "N. in." in a foreign bourgeois historiography. Source: Archive of "Earth and Freedom" and "Narodnaya Volya", M., 1932; Literature of the party "Nar. Volya", M., 1930; Calendar "People's Will" for 1883, Geneva, 1883; "Nar. Volya" in documents and memoirs, (M., 1930); Narodnaya Volya after March 1, 1881. Sat. Art. and mat-lov, M., 1928; Narodnaya Volya members of the 80s and 90s, M., 1929; "Nar. Volya" before the royal court, c. 1-2, M., 1930; From the people's autobiographical dok-tov, "KA", 1927, v. 1, Trial of sixteen terrorists (1880), St. Petersburg, 1906; Trial of 20 Narodnaya Volya members in 1882, Past, 1906, No 1; Trial March 1, 1881, St. Petersburg, 1907; Trial of 17 Narodnaya Volya members in 1883, Past, 1906, No. 10; March 1, 1881, ibid., 1918, No 4-5 (Special issue); To the history of the people's volch. movements among the military at the beginning. 80s, ibid., 1906, No 8; Ashenbrenner M. Yu., Voen. org-tion "People's Will" and other memories, M., 1924; Bukh N., The first printing house of "Narodnaya Volya", "KiS", 1929, No 8-9; his own, Memoirs, M., 1928; Volkov N. (I. I. Mainov), Narodovolch. propaganda among Muscovites. workers in 1881, Past, 1906, No 2; Ivanova-Boreysha S., The first printing house of "Narodnaya Volya", ibid., 1906, No. 9; Ivanovskaya P. S., The first printing houses of "Narodnaya Volya", "KiS", 1926, No 3; Yokhelson V.I., The first days of Nar. will, P., 1922; Morozov N. A., Tale of my life, vol. 1-2, M., 1965; Stepnyak-Kravchinsky S. M., Soch., vol. 1-2, M., 1958; Tikhomirov L., Memoirs, M.-L., 1927; Figner VN, Imprinted work. Memoirs, vol. 1-2, M., 1964; Frolenko M. F., Sobr. soch., vol. 1-2, M., 1932; Yakimova A., From the distant past, "KiS", 1924, No 1. Lit .: Lenin V.I., What are "friends of the people" and how do they fight against the Social Democrats?, Soch., 4th ed., Vol. . one; his, What is to be done?, ibid., vol. 5; him, Persecutors of Zemstvos and Annibals of liberalism, ibid., vol. 5; his own, In memory of Herzen, ibid., vol. 18; his, From the past of the working press in Russia, ibid., vol. 20; Plekhanov G. V., Our differences, Works, vol. 2; his own, Socialism and Politics. wrestling, ibid.; his own, Rus. worker in the revolution movement, Works, vol. 3; his own, Preface to Rus. edition of the book. A. Tuna "History of revolutionary movements in Russia", Works, vol. 24; his, Unsuccessful history of the party "People's Will", ibid.; Marx, Lenin and Plekhanov on Populism and Nar. Volya. Sat. Art., M., 1931; Bogucharsky V. Ya., From the history of political. wrestling in the 70s and 80s. 19th century, M., 1912; Levitsky B. O., Party "People's Will", M.-L., 1928; Kon F. Ya., History of the Revolution. movements in Russia, vol. 1, X., 1929; Teodorovich I. A., Historical. the meaning of the party "People's Will", Sat. 1, M., 1930; Levin Sh. M., Society. movement in Russia in the 60-70s. XIX century., M., 1958; Shirokova VV, On the issue of evaluating the activities of "Nar. Volya", "VI", 1959, No 8; Volk S.S., Program documents of the "Narodnaya Volya" (1879-1882), in Sat: Questions of historiography and source studies of the history of the USSR, M.-L., 1963; him, the activities of "Narodnaya Volya" among the workers during the second revolution. situations (1879-1882), IZ, vol. 74, 1963; his own, Narodnaya Volya, M.-L., 1966; Tvardovskaya V. A., Org. Fundamentals of "Narodnaya Volya", IZ, vol. 67, 1960; her own, The problem of state-va in the ideology of the people's will (1879-1883). IZ, vol. 74, 1963; Venturi F., Il populismo russo, t. 1-2, (Torino), 1952; Footman D., Red prelude. The life of the Russian terrorist Zhelyabov, N. Y., 1945; Billington J., Mikhailovsky and Russian populism, Oxf., 1958; Rayne P.St. R., The terrorists, N. Y., 1957; Jarmolinskij A., Road to revolution, L., 1957. See also lit. under the articles Narodism and individual Narodnaya Volya members and trials. V. A. Tvardovskaya. Moscow. 2 . revolutionary newspaper. populist organization "People's Will" in Russia, social-revolutionary. review. The first issue of the newspaper is dated Oct. 1879, last (No 11-12) - Oct. 1885. It came out intermittently due to persecution by the authorities. In such cases, it was replaced by the Leaf of the People's Will. Published in Petersburg. Free printing house (No 1-3), in the printing house of "Narodnaya Volya" in St. Petersburg (No 4-5), in Moscow (No No 6-8, 9), Dorpat (No 10), Rostov-on-Don (2nd ed. No 10), in Taganrog (No 11-12). Circulation - 2-3 thousand copies. To the editor in different time included L. A. Tikhomirov, N. A. Morozov, V. S. Lebedev, P. F. Yakubovich, G. A. Lopatin, V. G. Bogoraz; A. I. Ivanchin-Pisarev, S. N. Krivenko, N. K. Mikhailovsky participated in the editing. Other authors include N. I. Kibalchich, A. A. Kvyatkovsky, A. P. Korba, and others. published policy articles, political. feuilletons, a chronicle of a worker, a cross. and student. movements, secret governments. documents, materials on the persecution of revolutionaries, etc. First reprinted by V. Bogucharsky (B. Bazilevsky) in 1905 in Paris ("Literature of the Narodnaya Volya Party", Paris, 1905; last ed., M., 1930) . Lit .: Kuzmin D., Narodovolch. journalism, M., 1930; Verevkin V.P., Rus. illegal revolution. printing of the 70s and 80s. XIX century., M., 1960; Esin B.I., Rus. journalism in the 70s and 80s XIX century., M., 1963; Alekseev V.A., History of Russian. journalism (1860-1880), L., 1963. V. A. Tvardovskaya. Moscow.
Tkachev's ideas about the seizure of political power by revolutionaries and the use of the state to carry out socialist transformations, which were not popular among the apolitical Narodniks of the 1870s, actually found their embodiment in the activities of Narodnaya Volya, although the Narodnaya Volya themselves denied the direct influence of Tkachev's ideas on them.
The Narodnaya Volya organizations that existed in more than 60 cities included about 500 people, and approximately 5,000 more people actively assisted the Narodnaya Volya. At the head of the organization was the Executive Committee, which consisted almost entirely of professional revolutionaries. The name "Executive Committee" exactly corresponded to the essence of this body - its members not only conceived, but also with the help of several dozen agents Executive Committee implemented the most important People's Will enterprises.
Such is the organization in place. In large centers it is divided into subjects of jurisdiction; such is labor organization, military, youth, etc., at the same beginning of the autonomy of circles and centralization. There are many such groups: some of them are in the provinces, others are here, in the capital. Some of the character is combative, general revolutionary, others are combat special, like a working squad, but adapted to a different environment.
The leaders of the organization were A.I. Zhelyabov, A.D. Mikhailov, A.A. Kvyatkovsky, S.L. Perovskaya, V.N. and etc.
The organization was strictly centralistic and conspiratorial in nature. The printed organs are the newspaper Narodnaya Volya and the revolutionary socio-political review Vestnik Narodnaya Volya.
From the notes of V.N. on the basis of their program, they laid the foundation for a completely new one. This beginning was the significance and influence of a centralized state power for the whole system folk life. This element played, in their opinion, an enormous role at all moments of our history. Thus, in the economic sphere, the modern state was presented to "Narodnaya Volya" as the largest owner and the main independent predator of the people's labor, supporting other, smaller exploiters.
The revolutionary faction of Narodnaya Volya, calling the modern organization, the main enemy of the people in all spheres of his life. This thesis and its consequences: political struggle, shifting the center of gravity of revolutionary activity from the countryside to the city, preparing not an uprising among the people, but a conspiracy against the supreme power, with the aim of seizing it in their hands and transferring it to the people, the strictest centralization of revolutionary forces, as a necessary condition success in the fight against a centralized enemy - all this brought a real revolution in the revolutionary world of that time. These provisions undermined former revolutionary views, shook the socialist and federalist traditions of the organization and completely disrupted the revolutionary routine that had already been established over the past decade. Therefore, it is not surprising that in order to break the opposition and give the new views the final predominance in the revolutionary environment, it took 1 - 1 1/2 years of tireless propaganda and a whole series of dazzling facts ... Considering the embodiment of socialist ideals in life a matter of a more or less distant future , the new party set the immediate goal in the field of economic transfer of the main instrument of production - land - into the hands of the peasant community; in the political realm, the replacement of the autocracy of one by the autocracy of the whole people, i.e. establishment of such political system in which the freely expressed popular will would be the highest and only regulator of all social life. The most suitable means for achieving these goals seemed to be the elimination of the modern organization of state power, by the power of which the whole present order of things, so opposite to the desired one, is maintained; this elimination was to be accomplished by a coup d'état prepared by a conspiracy.
Meetings to prepare the assassination took place at the main safe house on Voznesensky Prospekt, which only members of the Executive Committee (the "owners" - Isaev and Figner) had the right to visit, as well as at the safe house maintained by Zhelyabov and Perovskaya. The dynamite was kept in the apartment of Grachevsky and P.S. Ivanovskaya. A.P. Korba-Pribyleva, T.I. Lebedeva, L.D. Terentyeva and some others were also involved in the preparation of the assassination attempt. The briefing of the metalworkers took place at the safe house of Sablin and G. M. Gelfman on Telezhnaya Street.
The terror of "Narodnaya Volya" completely ceased to bring results, and a commission was created, headed by Minister Loris-Melikov, to develop the Russian constitution. (There is a legend that just on March 1, 1881, Alexander II was on his way to sign the draft of this constitution and was killed by the populist Grishnitsky).
The very assassination of Alexander marked the beginning of a period of political repression and a crisis of populism. In 1887 conspiracy uncovered to assassinate Alexander III headed by Alexander Ulyanov. 5 people were executed. Terrorism did not find support, but at the same time in Russia, in parallel with populism, new stage revolutionary movement working days and the spread of Marxism.
The regicide turned out to be a pyrrhic victory for the Narodnaya Volya. The liberals, on whose support they counted, recoiled from the party. Most of party leaders was arrested in 1881-82. The last member of the "great" Executive Committee, Figner, was imprisoned in 1883. The only major case that the party managed to carry out at that time was the murder in Odessa in 1882 of the Kyiv prosecutor V.S. Strelnikov (N.A. Zhelvakov and S.N. Khalturin).
According to the trials of the "March First" (1881), "17" (1883), "14" (1884), "21st" (1887), some of the leaders of the "Narodnaya Volya" were sentenced to death, others to long periods of hard labor. Some members of the Executive Committee (Tikhomirov, Oshanina, Sergeeva) went abroad. The provocation of S.P. Degaev finished off the party: despite the fact that he confessed to his betrayal and helped organize the murder of his "seducer" gendarme lieutenant colonel G.P. Sudeikin, it was not possible to make up for the human and moral losses incurred by the organization.
Organization Narodnaya Volya 1879
Rise of the People's Will
The organization arose as a result of the split of the Land and Freedom. Its representatives were divided into those who saw the meaning of the struggle in educating the population, and those who planned complete elimination autocracy by radical methods.
Radicals organized Narodnaya Volya. August 1879 is considered to be the start date of the existence of the organization.
Ideas of the People's Will
The fight against centralized power as the cause of the socio-economic crisis in the country. It was planned at the very as soon as possible establish socialist order in the country and transfer the land and state power into the hands of the peasants. The people's will was to be the main mechanism that regulates all public life. The main method of achieving the goal of eliminating centralized power was conspiracy and coup.
The official program of the organization
- Demanding democratic changes in the country;
- The introduction of suffrage for all social strata;
- Convocation Constituent Assembly;
- Freedom of speech, conscience and press;
- Transfer of land holdings to peasants.
Leaders and notable members of Narodnaya Volya
The main controlling structure of the Organization was the Executive Committee, which included professional revolutionaries. Main leaders: S. Perovskaya, L. Tikhomirov. A. Zhelyabov, V. Figner, A. Kvyatkovsky.
Activities of the People's Will
The organization operated in at least 60 cities. It consisted of almost 500 members, and about 5 thousand sympathized. The Executive Committee thought through and implemented the main plans for the organization's activities. The organization had two printed editions- the newspaper "Narodnaya Volya" and the review "Bulletin of the People's Will". Structurally, the organization was divided according to individual groups, depending on the direction of activity - for youth, military, etc.
The actions of the society were classified and tightly centralized. After the defeat of Narodnaya Volya, its individual structures continued to operate, and in 1887 an unsuccessful attempt was made on. The experience of the Narodnaya Volya had a great influence on further development revolutionary movement in Russia. The main goal of the Organization was to carry out the assassination of Alexander II.
For this, seven assassination attempts were carried out, the main of which are:
- 1879 explosion of the train in which the tsar was traveling, returning from the Crimea;
- 1880 explosion in the Winter Palace by S. Khalturin, who got a job there as a carpenter;
- The explosion was in the dining room, but the king was late for dinner and the security officers were wounded;
- 1881 Zhelyabov's arrest speeds up the preparation of a new assassination attempt on the tsar. The attempt was led by S. Perovskaya. The signal for the start of the operation to kill the king was a handkerchief, which she brought to her face. The bombs were thrown by I. Grinevitsky and N. Rysakov.
The assassination of the king did not bring the expected effect, and the revolution did not happen, the liberals turned their backs on the members of the Organization. It was the assassination of the king that began the decline of the populist movement. The main representatives of Narodnaya Volya were arrested or executed in 1881-1882. Many were sent to hard labor, but there were those who went abroad.
- According to legend, before his assassination, Alexander II was on his way to sign the first Russian constitution;
- Sofia Perovskaya was the first woman to be punished by hanging, in Russian Empire on a political article;
- The bomb that killed Alexander II was designed by Nikolai Kibalchich. Military experts of that time said that it was made on enough high level;
- After his arrest, sitting in prison, Nikolai Kibalchich managed to sketch out a draft of a jet aircraft for space flight i.e. rockets. But the project fell into the hands of scientists only in the 1918th century under a different government;
- According to legend, the ghost of Sofya Perovskaya, with a rope around her neck and a blue face, sometimes appears on the Griboyedov Canal, waving a white handkerchief;
- Vera Figner spent 20 years in Shlisselburg after her arrest.
The activities of the party "People's Will"
Tkachev's ideas about the seizure of political power by revolutionaries and the use of the state to carry out socialist transformations, which were not popular among the apolitical Narodniks of the 1870s, actually found their embodiment in the activities of Narodnaya Volya, although the Narodnaya Volya themselves denied the direct influence of Tkachev's ideas on them.
The Narodnaya Volya organizations that existed in more than 60 cities included about 500 people, and approximately 5,000 more people actively assisted the Narodnaya Volya. At the head of the organization was the Executive Committee, which consisted almost entirely of professional revolutionaries. The name "Executive Committee" exactly corresponded to the essence of this body - its members not only conceived, but also, with the help of several dozen agents of the Executive Committee, carried out the most important people's will enterprises.
The organization of the Narodnaya Volya party (the largest and most significant revolutionary populist organization that arose in St. Petersburg in August 1879) consists of a whole network of secret circles, grouped at the beginning of the centralization of groups of a lower order around a group of a higher order. Each group higher order is replenished the best forces lower order groups. The whole organization is drawn to a single center - the Executive Committee. All groups are interconnected by the unity of the program and the plan of practical actions, by the commonality of forces and means. Relations between groups are conducted through an agent of the highest group, which is part of junior group as its partner. The interests of the center for each member are higher than the interests of his group. Therefore, the center has the right to recall members of subgroups for needs known to it, without motivating the recall to the group. Each group is independent in the conduct of its affairs and has its own budget... All program questions, as well as questions of party policy, are submitted by the center for discussion by the entire organization. The decision on these issues is decided by the congress of representatives of local central groups, together with representatives from the Executive Committee - the Executive Committee monitors the exact fulfillment of the plans of the congress and directs all the forces of the organization in accordance with them. Mutual relations of local central groups among themselves and to the Executive Committee, their terms of reference are determined by special agreements. Such is the organization in place. In large centers it is divided into subjects of jurisdiction; such is the workers' organization, the military, youth, etc., on the same basis of the autonomy of the circles and centralization. There are many such groups: some of them are in the provinces, others are here, in the capital. Some of the character is combative, general revolutionary, others are combat special, like a working squad, but adapted to a different environment.
The leaders of the organization were A.I. Zhelyabov, A.D. Mikhailov, A.A. Kvyatkovsky, S.L. Perovskaya, V.N. and etc.
The organization was strictly centralistic and conspiratorial in nature. The printed organs are the newspaper Narodnaya Volya and the revolutionary socio-political review Vestnik Narodnaya Volya.
From the notes of V.N. On the basis of their program, they laid the foundation for a completely new one. This beginning was the significance and influence of centralized state power on the entire system of people's life. This element played, in their opinion, an enormous role at all moments of our history. Thus, in the economic sphere, the modern state was presented to "Narodnaya Volya" as the largest owner and the main independent predator of the people's labor, supporting other, smaller exploiters.
It was to this lord of Russian life - state power, based on an innumerable army and an all-powerful administration - that the revolutionary faction of Narodnaya Volya declared war, calling the government, in its modern organization, the main enemy people in all areas of their lives. This thesis and its consequences: political struggle, shifting the center of gravity of revolutionary activity from the countryside to the city, preparing not an uprising among the people, but a conspiracy against supreme power, with the aim of seizing it in their hands and handing over to the people, the strictest centralization of the revolutionary forces, as necessary condition success in the fight against a centralized enemy - all this brought a real revolution in the revolutionary world of that time. These provisions undermined former revolutionary views, shook the socialist and federalist traditions of the organization and completely disrupted the revolutionary routine that had already been established over the past decade. Therefore, it is not surprising that in order to break the opposition and give the new views the final predominance in the revolutionary environment, it took 1 - 1 1/2 years of tireless propaganda and a whole series of dazzling facts ... Considering the embodiment of socialist ideals in life a matter of a more or less distant future , the new party set the immediate goal in the field of economic transfer of the main instrument of production - land - into the hands of the peasant community; in the political realm, the replacement of the autocracy of one by the autocracy of the whole people, i.e. the establishment of such a state system in which the freely expressed popular will would be the highest and only regulator of all social life. The most suitable means for achieving these goals seemed to be the elimination of the modern organization of state power, by the power of which the whole present order of things, so opposite to the desired one, is maintained; this elimination was to be accomplished by a coup d'état prepared by a conspiracy.
The Narodnaya Volya launched propaganda among the workers, issuing a special “Program of Workers, Members of the Narodnaya Volya Party” (1880) and releasing three issues. Rabochaya newspaper» (1880-81), created military organization, having managed to attract several hundred officers to it and its accompanying circles, conducted active propaganda among the students. However, terror proved to be the most effective weapon of the Narodnaya Volya. The organization very quickly began to acquire a predominantly conspiratorial-terrorist character. This was clearly manifested in secret instruction « Preparatory work party" (spring 1880): "The party must have the strength to create for itself auspicious moment action, start a job and see it through to the end. A skillfully executed system of terrorist enterprises, simultaneously destroying 10-15 people - the pillars of the modern government, will lead the government into a panic, deprive it of unity of action and at the same time excite the masses, i.e., create an opportune moment for an attack.
On the public opinion greatest impression carried out popular terror. Even the royal court became agitated, appointing Count M.T. Loris-Melikov as the de facto dictator. In January 1881, M.T. Loris-Melikov proposed to the tsar a project for convening advisory commissions with the participation of elected deputies. It seemed that the liberals' dreams of a Zemstvo Duma were coming true.
However, the Narodnaya Volya were carried away by terror. In August 1879, the executive committee of Narodnaya Volya announced that it was condemning the tsar to death. A real hunt for Alexander II began, several attempts were made to kill the king. The Narodnaya Volya, who sentenced Alexander II to death, organized a total of seven assassination attempts on the emperor, including the explosion of a train near Moscow on November 19, 1879, and the explosion in the Winter Palace on February 5, 1880. The explosion in the royal residence caused a panic at the top and essentially forced the authorities to make concessions: abolish the Third Section, suspend the death penalty, and start looking for support in society. However, the execution in November 1880 of the Narodnaya Volya members Kvyatkovsky and Presnyakov, who were convicted in the process of "16" on October 25-30, 1880 in St. Petersburg, was the first major trial of members of the "Narodnaya Volya". Accusation of preparing assassination attempts on Alexander II. Sentence: A.A. Kvyatkovsky and A.K. Presnyakov to death, 4 people to eternal hard labor, the rest to various terms of hard labor and exile., made regicide a "matter of honor" of the party. March 1, 1881 on the embankment Catherine's Canal N.I. Rysakov threw a bomb at the royal carriage, but the emperor was not even wounded. Another terrorist, I.I. Grinevitsky, threw a bomb at the feet of the tsar. Grinevitsky was killed, and Alexander II was seriously wounded and died an hour later in the Winter Palace. During the investigation, Rysakov betrayed everyone he knew. In April 1881, five Narodnaya Volya members were publicly hanged: Zhelyabov, Perovskaya, Rysakov, Mikhailov, Kibalchich. Soon the "military cells" of the "Narodnaya Volya" were defeated. Almost all members of the Executive Committee took part in the preparation of the regicide, and Perovskaya directly supervised the attack. All these events defused the political crisis, there was no peasant uprising, the people pitied the murdered tsar.
Preparations for the assassination attempt on the emperor, which ended in his assassination, began in the autumn of 1880, when an observation detachment was created to monitor the tsar's trips. The detachment consisted of young students, it included six people - I.I. Grinevitsky, E.N. Olovennikova, E.M. Sidorenko, N.I. Rysakov, A.V. Tyrkov, P.E. Tychinin - S. L. Perovskaya). A group of technicians preparing explosive devices (mine and hand-held projectiles) consisted of M.F. Grachevsky, G.P. Isaev, N.I. Kibalchich and N.E. Sukhanov.
To lay a mine on Malaya Sadovaya Street, along which Sundays sometimes the king passed by, a cheese shop was rented, the owners of which, the Kobozev spouses, were A.V. Yakimova-Dikovskaya and Yu.N. Bogdanovich. A.I. Barannikov, Bogdanovich, A.I. Zhelyabov, N.N. Kolodkevich, Isaev, M.R. Langans, N.A. Sablin, Sukhanov, M.N. Trigoni, M.F. Frolenko. The explosion of a mine in the event that the tsar on March 1, 1881 drove along Malaya Sadovaya, should have been carried out by Frolenko. Zhelyabov also formed a group of throwers, which included students Grinevitsky and Rysakov, worker T.M. Mikhailov and a graduate of a vocational school I.P. Emelyanov.
Meetings to prepare the assassination were held at the main safe house on Voznesensky Prospekt, which only members of the Executive Committee (the "owners" - Isaev and Figner) had the right to visit, as well as at the safe house maintained by Zhelyabov and Perovskaya. The dynamite was kept in the apartment of Grachevsky and P.S. Ivanovskaya. A.P. Korba-Pribyleva, T.I. Lebedeva, L.D. Terentyeva and some others were also involved in the preparation of the assassination attempt. The briefing of the metalworkers took place at the safe house of Sablin and G. M. Gelfman on Telezhnaya Street.
Figner, Perovskaya, Korba, Lebedeva, Isaev, Grachevsky, Sukhanov, Frolenko took part in the last meeting of the Executive Committee before the assassination attempt on February 28, 1881 in an apartment on Voznesensky Prospekt (Zhelyabov and Trigoni were arrested the day before). Thus, half of the persons who decided the fate of Alexander II were women. The forces of the Narodnaya Volya on the eve of the assassination attempt were very limited, which forced the same people to carry out various functions. There was practically no division into "leaders" and "performers". Members of the Executive Committee worked in the mine, personally prepared explosive shells, etc.
After the regicide, most of the participants in the assassination attempt were arrested. In the case of the "First March" Members of the "Narodnaya Volya", organizers and participants in the execution of Emperor Alexander II on March 1, 1881. In the process of March 26-29, 1881 A.I. Zhelyabov, S.L. Perovskaya, N.I. Kibalchich, T.M. .Mikhailov, N.I. Rysakov were hanged, G.M. Gelfman was sentenced to eternal penal servitude, the rest of the participants were convicted in other processes of the "Narodnaya Volya". Zhelyabov, Perovskaya, Kibalchich, Mikhailov, Rysakov and Gelfman passed. All of them, except Gelfman, were hanged on April 3, 1881. Gelfman, due to her pregnancy, the death penalty was postponed until the birth of a child, subsequently replacing it with eternal hard labor, however, due to unbearable conditions in prison, she died already on February 1, 1882. Grinevitsky was mortally wounded in a bomb explosion. Sablin shot himself during his arrest. The remaining participants in the assassination attempt, who later found themselves in the hands of the authorities, were convicted at other People's Will trials or punished in an administrative manner. Tychinin committed suicide in the House of Preliminary Detention before the trial. Sukhanov, as a former officer, was shot. Sentenced to death Grachevsky, Bogdanovich, Isaev, Kolodkevich, Emelyanov, Frolenko and Yakimova, the punishment was replaced by eternal penal servitude. Grachevsky burned himself in the Shlisselburg fortress in protest against the prison regime. Bogdanovich, Isaev, Kolodkevich died in custody, as did the “vechniks” Barannikov and Langans. Lebedev died in hard labor (20 years of hard labor). Olovennikova and Tyrkov fell ill with mental illness. After his recovery, Tyrkov was administratively exiled forever to Minusinsk.
Trigoni, Frolenko, Korba, Ivanovskaya, Figner, Yakimova, Emelyanov, Tyrkov survived hard labor and exile, moreover, Figner, Korba and Yakimova, who fled from the settlement, were involved in the activities of the Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Yakimova was a member of her Central Committee, and Ivanovskaya, who also fled from the settlement, joined the Socialist-Revolutionary Fighting Organization and took part in the preparation of the assassination of the Minister of Internal Affairs V.K. Pleve.
But the party did not have the strength to prepare any speech or commit a new terrorist attack. On March 10, 1881, the demands of the Narodnaya Volya were formulated in the form of a letter from the Executive Committee to Alexander III. The demands were reduced to an amnesty for political affairs and the convocation of people's representatives. The new emperor Alexander III abandoned the Loris-Melikov project, dismissed all liberal ministers and moved on to counter-reforms. The chance of Russia's political modernization was missed. The decapitated Narodnaya Volya failed to rouse the people to revolution. And the peasants interpreted the murder of the tsar simply: "The nobles killed the tsar because he gave freedom to the peasants."
The terror of "Narodnaya Volya" completely ceased to bring results, and a commission was created headed by Minister Loris-Melikov to develop Russian constitution. (There is a legend that just on March 1, 1881, Alexander II was on his way to sign the draft of this constitution and was killed by the populist Grishnitsky).
The very assassination of Alexander marked the beginning of a period of political repression and a crisis of populism. In 1887 A conspiracy was uncovered to assassinate Alexander III, led by Alexander Ulyanov. 5 people were executed. Terrorism did not find support, but at the same time in Russia, in parallel with populism, a new stage of the revolutionary movement, working days and the spread of Marxism, began.
The regicide turned out to be a pyrrhic victory for the Narodnaya Volya. The liberals, on whose support they counted, recoiled from the party. Most of the party leaders were arrested in 1881-82. The last member of the "great" Executive Committee, Figner, was imprisoned in 1883. The only major case that the party managed to carry out at that time was the murder in Odessa in 1882 of the Kyiv prosecutor V.S. Strelnikov (N.A. Zhelvakov and S.N. Khalturin).
According to the trials of the "First March" (1881), "17" on March 28-April 5, 1883 in St. Petersburg over members of the "Narodnaya Volya" (5 members, 2 agents of the Executive Committee) on charges of preparing assassination attempts on Alexander II. Sentence: 5 people (including Yu.N. Bogdanovich) to eternal hard labor, the rest to various terms of hard labor and exile. (1883), "14" September 24-28, 1884 in St. Petersburg over members of the "Narodnaya Volya". The accusation of preparing a coup d'état and assassination attempts on Alexander II. Sentence: N.M. Rogachev and A.P. Shtromberg to death, 5 people (including V.N. Figner) to eternal hard labor, the rest to various terms of hard labor and exile. (1884), "21st" May 26-June 5, 1887 in St. Petersburg (G.A. Lopatin and others). The accusation of belonging to the "Narodnaya Volya" and the murder of the gendarme Lieutenant Colonel Sudeikin. About 300 people were involved in the inquiry. Sentence: 5 people to eternal hard labor, the rest to various terms of hard labor and exile. (1887), some of the leaders of the "Narodnaya Volya" were sentenced to death, others to long terms of hard labor. Some members of the Executive Committee (Tikhomirov, Oshanina, Sergeeva) went abroad. The provocation of S.P. Degaev finished off the party: despite the fact that he confessed to his betrayal and helped organize the murder of his "seducer" gendarme lieutenant colonel G.P. Sudeikin, it was not possible to make up for the human and moral losses incurred by the organization.
