"Walking to the people" is a phenomenon that does not haveanalogs in no other country in the world. Agrarian Russia was not shaken by bourgeois revolutions. The best representatives of the nobility rose up against autocracy and serfdom. The peasants were given freedom under the reform of 1861, which was of a half-nature, which caused their discontent. The revolutionary races were taken by raznochintsi who believed in the possibility of achieving socialism through a peasant uprising. The article is devoted to the movement of the progressive intelligentsia for enlightenment and revolutionary propaganda among the people.
Young people from the middle class were drawn toeducation, but the fall of 1861 was marked by higher tuition fees. Mutual aid funds were also banned to help poor students. There began unrest, brutally suppressed by the authorities. Activists were not only excluded from universities, but also thrown out of life, as they were not taken to the civil service. AI Herzen called the victims "exiles of science". In the magazine Kolokol published abroad, he suggested that they go "to the people."
So spontaneously began "walking to the people."This movement grew into a mass movement in the early 70's, gaining a special scope in the summer of 1874. The appeal was supported by the revolutionary theorist PL Lavrov. In his "Historical Letters" he expressed the idea of the necessity of "paying the debt to the people".
By that time, Russia had formedutopian idea of the possibility of a peasant revolution, the victory of which will lead to socialism. Its adherents were called Narodniks, because they spoke of a special way of the country's development, idealizing the peasant community. The reasons for "walking to the people" lie in the unconditional faith of the raznochintsy in the correctness of this theory. In the revolutionary ideology three currents were distinguished (the diagram is presented slightly above).
Anarchist MABakunin believed that the people were ready for a riot and enough to call on the peasants to take up the pitchfork. PL Lavrov suggested that the "critically thinking" representatives of the intelligentsia should first help the people (peasants) realize their mission in order to jointly create history. Only PN Tkachev argued that the revolution must be committed by professional revolutionaries for the people, but without his participation.
"Walking into the people" of the Narodniks began under thethe ideological leadership of Bakunin and Lavrov, when the first associations - the Moscow and St. Petersburg circles of N.V. Tchaikovsky and the Kyiv Commune - were already established.
Thousands of propagandists went to the deafvillages under the guise of traders and artisans, disguised as artisans. They believed that their costumes would arouse the confidence of the peasants. With them, they carried books and propaganda appeals. Thirty-seven provinces were covered by the movement, especially actively - Saratov, Kiev and Verkhnevolzhskaya. The triple goal of "walking to the people" included the following points:
The first stage (until the middle of 1874) is called"Flying Propaganda," for the revolutionaries, counting on their strong legs, moved from one settlement to another, without delaying for a long time. In the second half of the 70s, the second stage began - "sedentary propaganda." Populists settled in the villages, acting as doctors, teachers or artisans, specially mastering the necessary skills.
Instead of supporting the revolutionaries, they metmistrust. Even in the Lower Volga region, where the traditions of Emelian Pugachev and Stepan Razin should be alive. The peasants eagerly listened to speeches about the necessity of dividing the landed estates and abolishing taxes, but as soon as it came to appeals for rebellion, interest faded. The only real attempt at an uprising was the Chigirinsky Conspiracy of 1877, brutally suppressed by the autocracy. Often the villagers themselves surrendered the propagandists of the gendarmerie. In six years, 2,564 people were involved in the inquiry.
In the painting I.Repin in 1880 captured the time of the arrest of a propagandist in a peasant hut. The main evidence is a suitcase with literature. The picture clearly shows how "going to the people" ended. This led to massive repression. The most active were convicted in St. Petersburg in 1878. The court went down in history as "The process of one hundred and ninety-three," in which about one hundred people were sentenced to exile and hard labor.
Why did the movement of the revolutionary youth end in failure? Among the main reasons are:
To what conclusion did the unsuccessful "people"? This can be understood from subsequent historical events. The mass departure from Bakuninism and the search for new forms of political struggle began. There was a need for a single all-Russian organization under conditions of the strictest secrecy. It will be created in 1876 and in 2 years will go down in history under the name "Earth and Will".
