"Land and Freedom" (1861-1864)

The landowners considered N.P.’s article their program document. Ogarev “What do the people need?”, published in June 1861 in Kolokol. She warned the people against premature unprepared actions and called for the unification of all revolutionary forces. The main demands were the transfer of land to peasants, the development local government and preparing for future activism to transform the country.

"Land and Freedom" was the first major revolutionary democratic organization. It included several hundred members from different social strata: officials, officers, writers, students. The organization was headed by the Russian Central People's Committee. Branches of the society were created in St. Petersburg, Moscow, Tver, Kazan, Nizhny Novgorod, Kharkov and other cities.

At the end of 1862, the Russian military revolutionary organization created in the Kingdom of Poland joined “Land and Freedom”.

First secret organizations did not last long. The decline of the peasant movement, the defeat of the uprising in the Kingdom of Poland (1863), the strengthening of the police regime - all this led to their self-dissolution or defeat. Some members of the organizations were arrested, others emigrated. The government managed to repel the onslaught of radicals in the first half of the 60s. IN public opinion there was a sharp turn against the radicals and their revolutionary aspirations. Many public figures, who previously stood on democratic or liberal positions, moved to the conservative camp (M.N. Katkov and others).

In the second half of the 60s, secret circles arose again. Their members preserved the ideological heritage of N.G. Chernyshevsky, but, having lost faith in the possibility of a popular revolution in Russia, switched to narrowly conspiratorial and terrorist tactics. Your tall ones moral ideals they tried to implement immoral means. In 1866, a member of the circle N.A. Ishutina D.V. Karakozov made an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Tsar Alexander II.

In 1869, teacher S.G. Nechaev and journalist P.N. Tkachev created an organization in St. Petersburg that called on student youth to prepare an uprising and use any means in the fight against the government. After the defeat of the circle of S.G. Nechaev went abroad for a while, but in the fall of 1869 he returned and founded the “People’s Retribution” organization in Moscow. He was distinguished by extreme political adventurism and demanded unquestioning submission from his participants. For disagreement with the methods of S.G. Nechaev student I.I. Ivanov was falsely accused of treason and killed. The police destroyed the organization. S.G. Nechaev fled to Switzerland, he was extradited as a criminal. The government used trial against him to discredit the revolutionaries. “Nechaevism” for some time became a serious lesson for the next generation of revolutionaries, warning them against unlimited centralism.

At the turn of the 60s and 70s, largely based on the ideas of A.I. Ger price and N.G. Chernyshevsky, populist ideology took shape. It became very popular among democratically minded intellectuals of the last third of the 19th century, who considered it their duty to serve the people. There were two trends among the populists: revolutionary and liberal.

The first populist organizations in Russia were formed in the late fifties of the nineteenth century. This is how a student circle appeared, located at Kharkov University, and then a Moscow circle of propagandists, headed by P.G. Zaichnevsky and P.E Argyropulo. However, subsequently there were more of them.

The “Land and Freedom” circle, functioning from 1861 to 1864, was the first large organization of populists, which had more than three hundred members. The leaders of this organization were V.A. Obruchev, N.A. Serno-Solovyevich, as well as A.A. Sleptsov. The main goal of the society was considered to be the formation of conditions for the future revolution, expected in 1863, the time when the signing of charter documents would be completed. Illegal and legal propaganda were used to achieve the goals. The legal societies of “Land and Freedom” (Chess Club and Artel of Writers) included P.L. Lavrov, I.A. Goncharov, A.N. Nekrasov, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin, D.I. Pisarev, as well as F.M. Dostoevsky and N.G. Chernyshevsky.

During the period of repression in 1864, the organization dissolved itself.

From 1863 to 1866, another revolutionary organization called “Ishutintsy” operated, headed by N.A. Ishutin. D.V. Karakozov in 1866, a member of this organization, made an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Alexander II.

At the end of the sixties of the same century, the “People's Retribution” was organized. It was headed by the revolutionary-minded fanatic S.G. Nechaev, who denied any ethics, seriously believing that the end justifies any means. In order to raise revolutionary ideals, he was even able to organize a criminal crime.

The so-called “Chaikovites” - members of the “Big Propaganda Society” worked from 1869 to 1874. This organization was headed by such famous figures as P.A. Kropotkin, S.M. Kravchinsky, S.L. Perovskaya, N.V. Tchaikovsky, as well as M.A. Nathanson.

The revolutionary-minded populist organization “People's Will”, which existed from 1879 to 1882 and was headed by the Executive Committee, which included such figures as N.A. Morozov, V.N. Figner, S.L. Perovskaya and A.I. Zhelyabov, set as the main goal the revolutionary seizure of power in the state, the establishment of communal socialism and the establishment of political freedoms for everyone.

Also, one of the most famous was the Black Redistribution organization, which existed from 1879 to 1882.

Preparation for the revolution required the unification and centralization of all revolutionary forces.

At the end of 1861, revolutionary circles in Russia created organization "Land and Freedom". Its ideological leader and inspirer was N.G. Chernyshevsky.
"Land and Freedom" was the first major revolutionary-democratic secret organization in Russia. It included several hundred members from different social strata: minor officials, writers, students, officers.
The landowners launched active publishing activities in their illegal printing house. In the journal "Land and Freedom", in the proclamations “K to the younger generation", "Young Russia", "To the Soldiers", "Velikorus" they explained to peasants, soldiers and students the tasks of the upcoming revolution, substantiated the need for the elimination of autocracy, a fair solution to the agrarian question, the democratic transformation of Russia, its complete social reconstruction.
Focusing on the rise of the peasant and national movement in Russia, the landowners hoped to start a revolution. However, after 1863, the peasant movement began to decline, the uprising of 1863 in Poland was brutally suppressed, many revolutionaries (including N. G. Chernyshevsky back in 1862) were arrested; others emigrated to escape repression. By the spring of 1864 "Land and Freedom" ceased to exist. The autocracy managed to repel the onslaught of revolutionary democracy in the first half of the 60s.
Activity "Land and Freedom" was of great historical significance. The organization was a rallying point for the most active democratic forces to prepare for the revolution. “Land and Freedom” of the 60s had a serious influence on the subsequent development of the liberation movement and the formation of revolutionary democratic ideology in Russia.
In the second half of the 60s, the revolutionary democratic movement, despite government repression, did not die out. L. I. Herzen and N. P. Ogarev continued their activities in emigration. In Herzen’s worldview there was a decisive transition “... from the illusions of “above-class” bourgeois democracy to the harsh, unyielding, invincible class struggle of the proletariat” (Lenin V.I. Pol. sobr. soch. T. 21. P. 257). Herzen recognized the historical correctness of Marxism. He became acquainted with the activities of the First International, created in 1864, closely followed the development of the proletarian struggle, provided great help Geneva sections of the International, took part in the political struggle of the French proletariat.
Herzen's ideological development reflected the general changes taking place in the Russian liberation movement. In 1870, Russian revolutionaries who were in Geneva created the Russian Section of the International and turned to Marx with a request to be their representative in General Council. In 1871, during the days of the Paris Commune, Russian revolutionaries fought on the barricades, rendered medical care wounded. In 1872, volume I of K. Marx’s “Capital” was translated into Russian. In the proletarian struggle, some revolutionaries in Russia saw a powerful means of social transformation of the world.
However, the emigrant organizations of Russian revolutionary democrats were weakly connected with the existing in Russia in circles. The members of these circles did not see in Russia a proletariat capable of consistent revolutionary struggle. A certain decline in the mass peasant movement in the second half of the 60s led to the emergence of thoughts and theories among some revolutionaries about the possibility of social reforms without the participation of the masses. Groups emerged that viewed conspiracy and terror as a means to unleash a social revolution. Under the influence of these theories, in April 1866, student D.N. Karakozov made an unsuccessful attempt on the life of Tsar Alexander II. Tsarism took advantage of this to further intensify repression. The circle of P. A. Ishutin (which included Karakozov) was destroyed, progressive magazines were closed, student circles and mutual aid funds were banned.
However, young revolutionary forces continued anti-government activities. At the end of the 60s, a student circle was formed in St. Petersburg, headed by teacher S. G. Nechaev and journalist II. N. Tkachev. In the “Program of Revolutionary Actions” they called on young people to prepare an uprising, relying on any social forces and using any means. After the defeat of the circle in St. Petersburg, Nechaev disappeared abroad for a while. In the fall of 1869 he returned to Russia and created in Moscow new organization“People's reprisal”, built on the principle of unlimited centralism and blind subordination of ordinary members to the leader. For refusing to submit to Nechaev's dictatorship, student Ivanov was falsely accused of treason and killed. The police destroyed the organization. Nechaev fled to Switzerland, but was extradited to Russia as a criminal (1872). The tsarism used the trial of Nechaev to discredit the revolutionaries. For the revolutionary forces of Russia themselves, the trial revealed Nechaev’s political adventurism and showed the need to develop other methods of revolutionary struggle. The process also showed the growth of revolutionary sentiment among Russian youth. This growth was stimulated by a new upsurge of the peasant movement in the central provinces of Russia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Volga region and Ukraine.
At the turn of the 60s and 70s it began new stage in the history of the revolutionary democratic liberation struggle in Russia. “The dominant trend... has become populism” (Lenin V.I. Pol. sobr. soch. T. 25. P. 94).

However, for the populists, this whole campaign among the people ended in failure, and not so much due to the fact that they were immediately arrested, but because they did not come into contact with the people. The peasants in many places simply shunned them, in some places they even betrayed them, and in some places they showed a sharply hostile attitude towards them. Therefore, when this first campaign was so unfortunately liquidated, and yet significant cadres of the populists remained at large, some under supervision, and some completely unnoticed by the police, then conversations began among the revolutionaries about what to do next, and little by little they came to the idea of ​​the need for a more durable organization. We see already in 1876 two attempts at such an organization. One attempt was made in Moscow; it was the result of many years of cooperation and commonwealth of a circle made up of several young girls brought up abroad who became close there with a circle of Caucasian students, headed by the student Jabadari; It was they who made up the group of peaceful populist propagandists, which appeared in 1877 in the so-called “trial of 50.” This group included, among other things, L.N. Figner, V.I. Aleksandrova-Natanson, Jabadari and several Moscow workers, in particular Pyotr Alekseev, who made a fiery and very impressive speech at the trial.

But this attempt at organization had no of great importance; Another attempt was of much greater importance - in St. Petersburg, where the formation of an already fully formed community of populist revolutionaries was laid, which subsequently received the name by which it is known in history - “Land and Freedom”.

At the head of this society were Mark Nathanson, his wife Olga Nathanson, Alexander Mikhailov, and it also included the remnants of the Tchaikovsky circle and other populists who survived the arrests. This society received a fairly detailed organization. The starting point of the program he adopted was the position that only economic revolution from below, through the mediation of the people themselves, can lead to the final and complete replacement of the modern system with a more just and agrees with the people's ideals public organization.

Therefore, the populist revolutionaries, united in the “Land and Freedom” society, necessarily considered the popular masses to be the operational basis of their activities. Activities among the people boiled down to the following types: 1) organizational activities, meaning the creation among the people of such a consciously and systematically operating fighting squad, which, concentrating in itself all the material and spiritual weapons of struggle, could, at a favorable moment, either itself cause a general uprising, or, in the event of its spontaneous occurrence, utilize it for the people goals.

But since this required whole line preparatory work, which Bakunin himself bowed to admit before his death (in 1876), it was assumed:

2) propaganda activities, which would lead to the formation of the necessary situation. Campaigning was supposed to be twofold: passive (submission of petitions, sending walkers, strikes, refusal to pay taxes, etc.) and active(riots and uprisings), which, however, was applied only in one place, and then with the help of false manifestos, namely in Chigorin (the famous case of Stefanovich and Deitch).

3) Establishing correct relations with existing ready-made organizations among the people(schismatic and sectarian).

4) Propaganda of the ideas of revolutionary populism among society, youth and urban workers, with the goal of increasing the number of “critical thinkers” and consciously acting champions of the people. These four points were all – according to O.V. Aptekmana is the essence of the tactical Zemlya program.

Then, along with this program, a certain charter was developed, and the basis of the organization was the main group that drew up this charter in St. Petersburg, and then, on the recommendation of its members, outside elements could enter the society; from this main group the entire administration of the society was to be recruited, which was called the “administration” and which was in charge of all the affairs of the society; she had a special " heavenly office» for the production of false passports; then there were special groups for propaganda among youth and workers and, in addition, special "disorganizing" a group whose task was, due to the increasing frequency of clashes with the government, and also to use armed force to combat traitors and provocateurs. Finally, for direct propaganda and organization among the people, a special, most important and populous group was founded, the so-called “villagers”.

The “disorganizer” group is gradually expanding, and it will create, as you will see, the basis for an already completely terrorist party"People's Will", which I will have to tell you about later.

The first manifestation of the organization “Land and Freedom” was the organization of a rather grandiose demonstration, which, however, was reduced in reality to a very modest size. This was a demonstration on December 6, 1876, organized at the Kazan Cathedral, and it was expected that thousands of workers would take part in it. There was also a speaker, then a young man and now well-known leader of the Russian Social Democrats, G. V. Plekhanov; a banner was thrown out with the inscription “Land and Freedom” - a slogan, as it seemed to the demonstrators, understandable and close to the people, but in reality the people of the capital did not understand it at all. The police, taking advantage of the small number of the demonstration (no more than 200–300 people gathered), sent janitors and small shopkeepers to it, and the demonstration was easily dispersed. 20 people were captured and, in a trial that took place just a month and a half later, were punished with the most severe punishments; some were sent to hard labor for 5–10 years, and the minimum punishment was exile to a settlement.

That was the first public speaking a group of populist revolutionaries, who soon became known as the “Land and Freedom” society. The largest group of this society - the so-called "villages" - stubbornly continued to make attempts to settle among the people and establish stronger and more permanent connections among the people. Taught by the bitter experience of 1874, they changed significant tactics: they began to act much more carefully and prudently, they did not appear in the village as wandering laborers, whom the peasants everywhere showed such distrust, but tried to establish more permanent and solid settlements in different places under the guise of small ones. industrial enterprises or they settled in the village as volost clerks, paramedics, midwives, and sometimes teachers, and made connections with the peasants on this basis gradually, without allowing themselves to suddenly reveal their true tendencies and views and without proceeding too quickly to propaganda. But even such methods, although they protected them from too rapid collapses and failures, moved them very little towards their goal, in the end they made them more and more clearly and hopelessly convinced of the complete unpreparedness of the people to accept their ideas and of the impossibility of achieving success in their cause at the given level of popular opinion. development. It remained, therefore, either, putting aside all revolutionary plans and thoughts, turning almost for life into peaceful Kulturtraegers, or leaving the village, giving up on it, and getting down to business “from the other end.” The difficulties that they had to endure, the gross persecution and persecution to which the government subjected them, and the growing irritation against these repressions and the unconstrained arbitrariness of the police and administrative authorities - all this inevitably had to incline them to the second way out, and in front of them it was becoming increasingly clear the task was set - before conducting fruitless, under the given conditions, propaganda in the village, to win for ourselves those elementary conditions public life, in which free communication with the people, free and wide propaganda of their ideas among them will become possible and fruitful for them. Circumstances developed in such a way that among the populist revolutionaries of “Land and Freedom” the ranks of the “villagers” were to thin out more and more; on the contrary, the activities of the “disorganizer” group were to grow and develop more and more, which little by little from the “protective detachment" turns at the end of the 70s into the famous "executive committee", which initially arose among the Kiev revolutionaries, but then soon attracted all the most active forces of the revolutionaries and made the terrorist struggle against the government their main task, pushing into the background the populist dreams and ideals.

Organization.

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  At the turn of the 1850s-1860s, a number of student circles operated in the largest cities of Russia. They were under the ideological influence of “The Bell” by Herzen and Ogarev and were engaged in the propaganda of liberation ideas. Some societies were disclosed by the authorities, so information about them was preserved: the Kharkov-Kiev secret society, the Perm-Kazan secret society, the Kazan students library, the Argyropulo-Zaichnevsky circle that spun off from the latter.

  The first composition 1861-1864.

  The inspirers of the society were Herzen and Chernyshevsky. The participants set their goal to prepare a peasant revolution. Among the organizers were Rovinsky, Pavel Apollonovich, N. N. Obruchev, S. S. Rymarenko, I. I. Shamshin, M. A. Natanson and others. Policy documents were created under the influence of the ideas of Herzen and Ogarev. One of the most important demands put forward by members of the organization was the convening of a classless people's assembly.

  The first Executive Committee of the organization included 6 of its organizers (N. N. Obruchev, S. S. Rymarenko, brothers N. A. and A. A. Serno-Solovyovich, A. A. Sleptsov, V. S. Kurochkin). “Land and Freedom” was an association of circles located in 13-14 cities. The largest circles were Moscow (Yu. M. Mosolov, N. M. Shatilov) and St. Petersburg (N. I. Utin). The military organization “Land and Freedom” was represented by the “Committee of Russian Officers in Poland” under the leadership of Second Lieutenant A. A. Potebnya. According to the data available to A. A. Sleptsov, the number of “Land and Freedom” was 3,000 people (the Moscow branch consisted of 400 members).

  Second composition 1876-1879

  The second composition of “Land and Freedom,” which was restored in 1876 as a populist organization, included such figures as A. D. Mikhailov, G. V. Plekhanov, D. A. Lizogub, later S. M. Kravchinsky, N. A Morozov, S. L. Perovskaya, L. A. Tikhomirov, N. S. Tyutchev. In total, the organization consisted of about 200 people. “Land and Freedom” relied on a wide circle of sympathizers in its activities.

  The name “Land and Freedom” was given to the society at the end of 1878, with the appearance of a printed organ of the same name; former name: “Northern Revolutionary Populist Group”, “Society of Populists”.

  The organization’s propaganda was based not on the old socialist principles, incomprehensible to the people, but on slogans emanating directly from the peasantry, that is, the demands of “land and freedom.” In their program they proclaimed “anarchy and collectivism” as the goal of their activities. The specific requirements were the following:

  • transfer of all land to peasants
  • introduction of full community self-government
  • introduction of religious freedom
  • granting nations the right to self-determination

  The means of achieving these goals included organizational (propaganda, agitation among peasants and other classes and groups) and disorganization (individual terror against the most objectionable government officials and secret police agents). The organization had its own charter.

  The organization consisted of a main circle (divided into seven special groups by type of activity) and local groups located in many major cities empires. "Land and Freedom" had its own press organ with the same name. Agent “Land and Freedom” N.V. Kletochnikov was introduced into the Third Department. Landlords organized village settlements as a transition to “sedentary” propaganda. However, this action, as well as “going to the people,” ended in failure. After this, the populists concentrated all their efforts on political terror.

  Landlords took part in several strikes in St. Petersburg in 1878-79. "Land and Freedom". influenced the development of the student movement. She organized or supported demonstrations in St. Petersburg, including the Kazan demonstration of 1876, which was called “Land and Freedom”. for the first time openly declared its existence. Kazan demonstration of 1876, the first political demonstration in Russia with the participation of advanced workers. Caused by the growth of the strike movement in the country. It took place on December 6 on the square of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg. Organized and carried out by the land populists and members of workers’ circles associated with them. About 400 people gathered in the square. passionate revolutionary speech G. V. Plekhanov spoke to the audience. Young worker Ya. Potapov unfurled a red flag. The demonstrators resisted the police. 31 demonstrators were arrested, 5 of whom were sentenced to 10-15 years of hard labor, 10 were sentenced to exile in Siberia, and three workers, including Y. Potapov, were sentenced to imprisonment for 5 years in a monastery. The Kazan demonstration of 1876 marked the beginning of the conscious participation of the Russian working class in the social movement.

  The Lipetsk Congress of members of the populist organization “Land and Freedom” took place in June 1879 in Lipetsk. Convened in an atmosphere of heightened disagreement among the revolutionary populists on the issue of the future direction of the organization's activities. A. D. Mikhailov, A. A. Kvyatkovsky, L. A. Tikhomirov, N. A. Morozov, A. I. Barannikov, M. N. Oshanina, A. I. Zhelyabov, N. I. Kolodkevich, G. D. Goldenberg, S. G. Shiryaev, M. F. Frolenko. The congress decided to include in the Land and Freedom program recognition of the need political struggle with autocracy as a priority and independent task. Participants in the Lipetsk Congress declared themselves the Executive Committee of the Social Revolutionary Party and adopted a charter based on centralism, discipline and secrecy. The Executive Committee, in the event of the agreement of the general congress of “landers” in Voronezh with new program had to take upon himself the implementation of terror.

  Voronezh Congress of members of the populist organization “Land and Freedom,” convened in June 1879 in Voronezh in connection with disagreements among the revolutionary populists on the issue of the future direction of activity. About 20 people took part, including G. V. Plekhanov, A. D. Mikhailov, A. I. Zhelyabov, V. N. Figner, S. L. Perovskaya, N. A. Morozov, M. F. Frolenko, O. V. Aptekman. Supporters of the “politics” of political struggle and terror (Zhelyabov, Mikhailov, Morozov, etc.) came to the congress as a united group, which was finally organized at the Lipetsk Congress (June 1879). Plekhanov’s supporters (“villagers”) took a conciliatory position, considering the main task to be work among the peasants: they did not, in essence, object to terror. Plekhanov, who proved the danger of being carried away by terror for the prospects of working among the people, formally resigned from Land and Freedom and left the congress.