Going to the People

Going to the People (Russian: Хождение в народ) was a populist movement in the Russian Empire.

Arrest of a Propagandist, painting by Ilya Repin

It was largely inspired by the work of Russian theorists such as Mikhail Bakunin and Pyotr Lavrov, who advocated that groups of dedicated revolutionaries could inspire a mass movement to overthrow the ruling class, especially as it concerned the peasantry.[1] In 1874, approximately 2,000 to 4,000 students traveled to rural parts of the empire in order to live among the serfs and "prepare them for their future political role."[2][3]:202[4]

Many of these youths had never before visited the villages of Russia, but sought to adopt their manner of dress and take up jobs as manual laborers as a way of engaging the population.[5][4] They found the people often unperceptive to their revolutionary message, with many turning over their "exotic urban visitors" to government authorities.[5][6]

It was ultimately a failure, and by the Autumn of that year more than a thousand arrests were made. They failed to inspire "unrest even on a local scale" or to establish local footholds for future activities.[4][7]

Of those arrested, many spent three to four years imprisoned, until a group was eventually brought to court in the 1877 Trial of the 193. In the end, 90 were acquitted and 28 were sentenced to hard labor.[3]:54[8]

See also

References
  1. Victor Terras (1985). Handbook of Russian Literature. Yale University Press. pp. 351–. ISBN 978-0-300-04868-1.
  2. Leonard Schapiro (1982). Turgenev, His Life and Times. Harvard University Press. pp. 259–. ISBN 978-0-674-91297-7.
  3. Jonathan Bromley (2002). Russia 1848-1917. Heinemann. pp. 202–. ISBN 978-0-435-32718-7.
  4. Daniel P. Todes (15 October 2014). Ivan Pavlov: A Russian Life in Science. Oxford University Press. pp. 95–. ISBN 978-0-19-939444-9.
  5. Isaiah Berlin (7 March 2013). Russian Thinkers. Penguin Books Limited. pp. 281–. ISBN 978-0-14-139317-9.
  6. Orlando Figes (11 February 2014). Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia. Henry Holt and Company. pp. 304–. ISBN 978-1-4668-6289-0.
  7. Ben Eklof; Tatiana Saburova (6 October 2017). A Generation of Revolutionaries: Nikolai Charushin and Russian Populism from the Great Reforms to Perestroika. Indiana University Press. pp. 111–. ISBN 978-0-253-03125-9.
  8. A. T. Lane (1995). Biographical Dictionary of European Labor Leaders. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 1057–. ISBN 978-0-313-29900-1.
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