Narodniks

The Narodniks were members of a movement of the Russian Empire intelligentsia in the 1860s and '70s, some of whom became involved in revolutionary agitation against tsarism. Their ideology, known as Narodism, Narodnism, or Narodnichestvo, was a form of agrarian socialism, though it is often misunderstood as populism.

The Going to the People campaigns were the central impetus of the Narodnik movement.

Etymology

Naród (see нарóдъ and нарóд) is the Russian word for people, nation.

History

Narodnichestvo as a philosophy was influenced by the works of Alexander Herzen (1812–1870) and Nikolay Chernyshevsky (1828–1889), whose convictions were refined by Pyotr Lavrov (1823–1900) and Nikolay Mikhaylovsky (1842–1904). In the late 19th century, socialism and capitalism were slowly becoming the primary theories of Russian political thought, and Mikhaylovsky, realizing this shift in thought, began to tweak his original ideas of Narodnism, such that two groups of Narodniks emerged: the so-called "Critical Narodniks" and "Doctrinaire Narodniks". Critical Narodniks followed Mikhaylovsky, and assumed a very flexible stance on capitalism, whilst adhering to their basic orientation. The more well-known Doctrinaire Narodniks had a firm belief that capitalism had no future in Russia or in any agrarian country.

Narodniks established semi-underground circles (кружки, kruzhki) such as the Chaikovsky Circle and Land and Liberty, with the goals of self-education and external propaganda work. They shared the common general aims of destroying the Russian monarchy and of distributing land fairly among the peasantry.