People's will

The party "Narodnaya Volya" was organized at the Lipetsk Congress in June 1879 . In contrast to the "Land and Freedom" from which the "People’s Will" stood out, the latter emphasized the political struggle as a means of conquering the socialist system.

The theoretical outlook of the revolutionary Narodniks (participants in “going to the people” ), expressed in the magazines “Forward”, “Beginning”, “Earth and Freedom”, was also adopted by the party “Narodnaya Volya”. Like "Land and Freedom", the party "Narodnaya Volya" proceeded from the belief that the Russian people "is in a state of complete slavery, economic and political ... It is surrounded by layers of exploiters created and protected by the state ... The state is the largest in the country capitalist power; it constitutes the only political oppressor of the people ... This state-bourgeois outgrowth is kept exclusively by naked violence ... There is absolutely no popular sanction of this arbitrary and violent power ... The Russian people are completely socialist in their sympathies and ideals; his old, traditional principles are still alive in him - the people's right to land, community and local self-government, the beginnings of a federal structure, freedom of conscience and speech. "These principles would be widely developed and give a completely new direction, in the national spirit, of our entire history, if only the people had the opportunity to live and settle down as they want, in accordance with their own inclinations." In view of this, the Narodnaya Volya party considered its task "a political coup to transfer power to the people." As a weapon of coup, the party put forward a constituent assembly, elected by free universal suffrage. Obliging to completely obey the will of the people, the party nonetheless set forth its program, which it was supposed to defend during the election campaign and in the Constituent Assembly:

1. Permanent representation of the people, having full power in all national issues;
2. broad regional self-government, ensured by the election of all posts, the independence of the world and the economic independence of the people;
3. independence of the world as an economic and administrative unit;
4. ownership of land by the people;
5. a system of measures aimed at transferring all the plants and factories to the hands of workers;
6. complete freedom of conscience, speech, press, gatherings, associations and election campaigning;
7. universal suffrage , without estate and any property restrictions;
8. replacement of a standing army with a territorial one.

The Creation of the People’s Will

The failures of “ going to the people ” in the mid- 1870s raised doubts in the Narodnik circles for the goals of the movement and the tactics of their achievement. The peasantry did not accept the propaganda of propagandists, many of whom ended up in prisons and exiles, without achieving noticeable results. Agitation was increasingly transferred from village to city. The Narodniks were increasingly inclined to the need for a struggle for political transformation and freedom.

In the largest revolutionary organization “ Earth and Freedom, ” which in the fall of 1878 lost a number of leaders as a result of the failure of the main circle ^[2] , a split has ripened. Some of the revolutionaries, led by G.V. Plekhanov and M.R. Popov, insisted on continuing campaigning in the countryside. Others, led by A. D. Mikhailov, called for a political struggle, "disorganization" of the government by any means, including terrorist ones ^[3] .

The political processes of 1877-1878 (trial of the participants of the Kazan demonstration , the process of the 50s , the process of the 193s ) had a serious influence on the mood in revolutionary circles. The assassination of Zasulich , the assassination of Mezentsov by Kravchinsky , the assassination of Solovyov led to increased terrorist sentiments in revolutionary circles.

In May 1879 in St. Petersburg, a group of landlords - supporters of political struggle and terrorist methods - created a secret organization, " Freedom or Death " ^[3] .

In the summer of 1879, a congress of landowners was scheduled, representing both metropolitan and provincial circles. Supporters of the new direction, “politicians”, 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 program for the general Voronezh congress that soon followed.

At the Voronezh Congress, which was held from June 18 to 21, disagreements between the "politicians" and the "countrymen" led to a split in the organization. The leader of the "countrymen" G.V. Plekhanov defiantly left the congress.

However, a formally unified organization "Land and Freedom" existed until the end of August - early fall of 1879, when supporters of political struggle and terror organized a new party, "Narodnaya Volya", and the "countrymen" created the " Black Redistribution " ^[4] .

Approximately 15 people initially entered the Executive Committee (EC) of Narodnaya Volya (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 ^[5] .

Activities of the People’s Will until March 1, 1881

In the fall of 1879, NK Bukh , MF Grachevsky , V.V. Zege 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 ^[6] .

“Narodnaya Volya” had a centralized structure led by the Executive Committee. By the beginning of 1881, the organization consisted of 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 gymnasiums, and about 25 military circles ^[7] .

The founders of Narodnaya Volya, as a rule, at first widely 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 Executive Committee's existence, its main practical efforts were aimed at the execution of the death sentence to Alexander II imposed at the Lipetsk Congress ^[8] .

In November 1879, three attempts were made to undermine the royal train, in which the emperor returned from the Crimea to St. Petersburg. The assassination near the village of Gnilyakovo near Odessa ^[9] , which was prepared by M. F. Frolenko, T. I. Lebedev 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 people's volunteers (A.D. Mikhailov, S.L. Perovskaya, L.N. Hartman, G.P. Isaev, A.I. Barannikov, S.G. Shiryaev, etc. ) But this attempt failed. Contrary to the usual order, the tsar’s train went first, and the blast occurred under the luggage carriage of the second train of the retinue. No harm done.

On February 5, 1880, S. N. Khalturin , who had penetrated into the Winter Palace in September 1879 as a joiner, prepared an explosion there, destroying the ceiling between floors and killing 11 guards . However, the tsar did not suffer this time either, since he was not at the usual time in the dining room, under which the charge was laid ^[10] .

Two more attempts were made, but did not take place in the summer of 1880. In Odessa, on Italian street, 47 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 ^[11] . However, they did not manage to finish the dig in time ^[12] .

In St. Petersburg, under the Stone Bridge , which lay on the way from Tsarskoye Selo to the Winter Palace, seven pounds of explosives were laid, but it was not possible to blow up the bridge during the emperor’s passage because one of the terrorists was late ( M. Teterki ^[12] ).

Several members of the Executive Committee were arrested at the end of 1879. A.I. Zundelevich - October 28, 1879, A.A. Kvyatkovsky and G.D. Goldenberg - in November, and S.G. Shiryaev - December 4. On the same day, the organization’s passport bureau was captured.

On January 18, 1880, the police revealed the secret printing house of the people's volunteers in Saperny Lane . The revolutionaries put up armed resistance, one of them died, four were arrested. Among the arrested were two members of the IK - N.K. Bukh and S. A. Ivanov ^[14] .

In the spring of 1880, the Volunteers organized the Central Workshop in St. Petersburg, led by A. Zhelyabov and S. Perovskaya, and which a year later numbered 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 , and Helsingfors ^[15] .

The active terrorist activities of Narodnaya Volya, especially the explosion in the Winter Palace, forced the government to take urgent measures. On February 12, 1880, the “ Supreme Administrative Commission for the Preservation of Rule of Law and Public Peace " was established. The head of this commission was M.T. Loris-Melikov, who, having received broad powers, began urgent reforms in the administrative and police sphere and at the same time tightened the persecution of revolutionaries.

In the spring of 1880, the arrested Goldenberg gave the police extensive testimony, allowing the police to make further arrests.

In October, the St. Petersburg Military District Court held a trial of 16 people's volunteers . Two - A. A. Kvyatkovsky and A. K. Presnyakov - were sentenced to death, the rest - to hard labor and exile to Siberia. The execution of Kvyatkovsky and Presnyakov prompted the Volunteers to accelerate the preparation of the assassination attempt on the tsar, which they understood as retaliation.

The key figure in the conspiratorial activities of Narodnaya Volya was A. D. Mikhailov, who organized the work of clandestine printing houses, dynamite workshops, financing the organization, and maintained contact with the agent of the revolutionaries in the Third Division, 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 - January 28. On the same day, when N.A. Morozov was arrested illegally from abroad, he was arrested ^[16] .

In December 1880, preparations began for a new attempt on the king. A shop was hired on the corner of Nevsky Prospekt and Malaya Sadovaya Street , from where a digging was made for laying mines. At the same time, the emperor’s visits were monitored. It was decided to commit an attempt on his way from the Winter Palace to the arena .

The January failures made the terrorists rush because there were no guarantees of the very existence of the organization for a long time. On February 27, A.I. Zhelyabov, who headed preparations for the assassination, was arrested along with the head of the Odessa organization M.N. Trigoni, who arrived in St. Petersburg. The leadership was assumed by S. L. Perovskaya. The attack was scheduled for March 1. If the king did not go Malaya Sadovaya, it was decided to use throwing shells ^[16] .

On the appointed day, the tsar chose the route along the Catherine’s canal and was killed there by a bomb thrown by I.I. Grinevitsky , who was also mortally wounded.

The unrest initiated by the regicide, on which the revolutionaries had hoped, did not happen. Shortly after March 1, most active members of the organization were arrested. At a trial that soon took place over the six First Martians (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 imprisonment.

“Narodnaya Volya” after March 1, 1881

Over the next months, numerous arrests took place. As a result, Narodnaya Volya, having lost many members and the majority of the Executive Committee, moved its focus to Moscow, where P. A. Tellalov and M. N. Oshanina acted. More and more attention was concentrated on the creation of military organizations and propaganda among officers. More and more people were inclined toward conspiratorial tactics of seizing power ^[17] .

Having no strength for major actions, especially a new regicide, the organization attempts to assassinate the Kiev military prosecutor V. S. Strelnikov , who earned the hatred of the revolutionaries by his tough actions in the South. March 18, 1882 in the center of Odessa, he was shot dead by N. A. Zhelvakov . Zhelvakov, along with S. N. Khalturin, accompanying him, was captured and executed.

In early 1882, in St. Petersburg, the police arrested a large group of terrorists who were preparing an attempt on the assassination of the gendarme colonel G.P. Sudeikin .

At the initiative of Yu. N. Bogdanovich, an organization was created to prepare shoots and help prisoners, the predecessor of the Political Red Cross . The organization was destroyed by the police in early 1882 ^[18] .

Critical consequences for the organization were the betrayal of S.P. Degayev , a member of the officer organization. In the summer of 1882, he was included on the Executive Committee and was soon turned over by the police. Degayev gave the police a number of Narodnaya Volya, in particular, Vera Figner. The central organs of Narodnaya Volya were finally defeated, and attempts to restore them in the future did not lead to success.

In March 1883, police arrested most members of a military organization issued by Degayev. Plans for a coup were not realized by the military. The activities of the remaining circles came down to the distribution of brochures and leaflets, propaganda among the workers.

Exposed by the Volunteers, Degayev organized the murder on December 16, 1883 of his "curator" Sudeikin, for which he was allowed to hide abroad.

An attempt to unite separate 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 with him gave the police the opportunity to destroy most of the remaining circles.

The group of the “ Terrorist Faction of the People’s Will ” by P. Ya. Shevyrev , A. I. Ulyanov and their comrades, who was preparing the regicide on March 1, 1887, was not organizationally connected with its predecessors.

In the years 1882-1887, a series of trials of the Volunteers took place. Most of them were sentenced to long hard labor and exile to Siberia, kept in the Alekseevsky ravelin of the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Shlisselburg Fortress , and the Carian penal servitude. Many died in custody, but some (V.N. Figner, N. Morozov, M. Frolenko, G. Lopatin, etc.) survived to the 1905 amnesty. In the future, some of them collaborated with the revolutionary parties, mainly with the Socialist Revolutionaries . Others, like L. A. Tikhomirov or G. G. Romanenko , changed revolutionary beliefs to conservative-monarchist ones.

Причину падения «Народной воли» распространённое мнение видит в общественной реакции, вызванной убийством Александра II. С. Кравчинский , в книге «Подпольная Россия» предлагает, однако, другое объяснение этого факта. По его мнению, «Народная воля» была очень сильна и после 1881 г., но она задалась несбыточными планами широкого государственного заговора, при посредстве которого она могла бы захватить сразу власть и устроить временное правительство; задавшись этими планами, она отказалась от покушений, которые могли бы все более расшатывать правительственную власть и питать партию «Народная воля» новыми силами.

В числе актов, совершённых «Народной волей», необходимо отметить кражу в херсонском банке в 1879 г. посредством подкопа, не увенчавшуюся успехом, так как почти все деньги, унесённые из банка (свыше миллиона руб.), были очень скоро найдены полицией. Факт этот, имевший место ещё в эпоху расцвета сил партии, несомненно произвёл отрицательное впечатление на значительные круги общества, вредно отразясь на «Народной воле».

Ещё губительнее была деятельность жандармского подполковника Г. П. Судейкина , который уже в последний период истории «Народной воли» завербовал в тюрьме одного из виднейших народовольцев С. П. Дегаева , который выдал большинство оставшихся членов организации.

Партия «Народная воля» издавала в тайных типографиях в Петербурге и в провинции одноимённую газету (вышло 11 номеров, 1879—1885) и листки «Народной Воли» (значительное их число выходило с 1880 по 1886 г.); затем отдельные листки, издаваемые различными народовольческими группами, были выпущены в 1890—1892, 1896 и других годах. Кроме того, за границей издавался журнал: «Вестник Народной Воли» под ред. П. Л. Лаврова , самого видного теоретика «Народной воли»; 5 его томов вышли в 1883—1886 гг. В 1883 г. выпущен в Женеве «Календарь Народной Воли». В этих литературных произведениях была развита теория «Народной воли». Социалистические идеалы постепенно отодвигались на задний план и партия получала чисто политический характер. Веря в близость революции, партия боялась, что в России найдётся своя

Вандея , из которой реакционные силы начнут поход против торжествующей революции; поэтому она выдвигала централистические требования, не замечая их противоречия требованию самоуправления общин и областей. Таким образом Народная воля под конец могла считаться партией якобинской; её журналы часто напоминали « Набат » Ткачёва.

Журнал «Народная Воля», листки и некоторые прокламации партии перепечатаны в сборнике Базилевского ( В. Я. Богучарского ) («Литература партии Народной Воли», 2-е приложение к сборнику «Государственные преступления в России», Париж, 1905). Очень суровую критику «Народной Воли» дают с одной стороны «Наши разногласия» Плеханова (Женева, 1884), с другой — «Историческая Польша и великорусская демократия» Драгоманова (Женова, 1883; перепечатано в собрании сочинений Драгоманова, т. I, Париж, 1905). Яркую характеристику (сочувственную) Народной Воли можно найти в «Подпольной России» Степняка (СПб., 1905) и в его же романе «Андрей Кожухов», перепечатанном в Санкт-Петербурге под заглавием «Из прошлого» (1905). Много ценного материала для истории партии «Народная воля» заключается в отчётах о её процессах, напечатанных в своё время в легальных и нелегальных газетах. Из них «Дело 1 марта 1881 г.» (официальный, сокращённый и искажённый отчет) перепечатано в Санкт-Петербурге (1906), с примечаниями Льва Дейча .

Петербургская группа «Гомон» , состоящая из белорусских студентов, примыкавших к «Народной воле», выпустила в 1884 году два номера гектографированного журнала « Гомон », призывая к борьбе с самодержавием в союзе с русским революционным движением, определения автономии для народов Российской империи .

• Первомартовцы
• Народное право
• Процесс шестнадцати (1880)
• Чернознаменцы

• Барабанова А. И., Ямщикова Е. А. Народовольцы в Петербурге. — Лениздат, 1984. — 221 с.
• В. Я. Богучарский (ред.) Процесс 20-ти народовольцев в 1882 году
• Литература социально-революционной партии «Народной воли» Типография партии социалистов — революционеров, 1905.
• Тун А. «История революционных движений в России» СПб., 1906.
• Троицкий Н. А. «Народная воля» перед царским судом (1880–1891). Саратов: Издательство Саратовского университета, 1971; 2 изд., испр. and add. Саратов: Издательство Саратовского университета, 1983.
• Троицкий Н. А. Царские суды против революционной России (Политические процессы 1871–1880 гг.). Саратов: Издательство Саратовского университета, 1976.
• Троицкий Н. А. «Безумство храбрых. Русские революционеры и карательная политика царизма 1866–1882 гг.» . М.: Мысль, 1978.
• Троицкий Н. А. Царизм под судом прогрессивной общественности (1866–1895). М.: Мысль, 1979.
• Троицкий Н. А. Политические процессы в России 1871–1887 гг. Пособие к спецкурсу. Саратов: Саратовский государственный университет им. Н. Г. Чернышевского , 2003.
• Суд над цареубийцами. Дело 1-го марта 1881 года / Под редакцией В. В. Разбегаева. - SPb .: Ed. them. Н. И. Новикова., 2014. — Т. 1,2. — 698 с. — (Историко-революционный архив). — ISBN 978-5-87991-110-7
• Волк С. С. Народная воля: 1879-1882. — Наука, 1966. — 510 с.
• Кан Г. С. Народная воля : Идеология и лидеры. — М. : Пробел, 1997. — 195 с. — ISBN 5893460065 .
• Твардовская В. А. Революционное подполье // Россия в революционной ситуации на рубеже 1870 - 1880-х годов: коллективная монография. — Наука, 1983. — 556 с.

• Ю. Давыдов . Глухая пора листопада.
• Ю. Давыдов. Завещаю вам, братья.
• В. Войнович . Степень доверия.
• Ю. Трифонов . Нетерпение.

• Народная Воля // Энциклопедический словарь Брокгауза и Ефрона : в 86 т. (82 т. и 4 доп.). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Братья, вперед! Не теряйте... «Народовольческий гимн»
• Документы «Народной воли»
• Речь А. Желябова на процессе первомартовцев
• Инсаров М. Народная воля
• Троицкий Н. А. «Народная воля» //Россия в XIX веке: Курс лекций
• Троицкий Н. А. «Народная воля» и её «красный террор»
• Троицкий Н. А. «Подвиг Николая Клеточникова»
• Троицкий Н. А. «Безумство храбрых. Русские революционеры и карательная политика царизма 1866—1882 гг.» (монография)
• Троицкий Н. А. За что я люблю народовольцев
• Иохельсон В. «Первые дни „Народной воли“»
• Царская тюрьма в воспоминаниях народовольца М. П. Орлова: «Об Акатуе времен Мельшина»
• Народная воля . On the Chronos website .
• спектакль «Жизнь за царя» в постановке «Театро Ди Капуа» (по документам партии «Народная воля»)