ntioned in a previous chapter, that the Tsar meant to give
them all the land, and to compensate the landed proprietors by salaries.
Even when the law was read and explained to them, they clung obstinately
to their old convictions, and confidently expected that the REAL
Emancipation would be proclaimed shortly. Taking advantage of this state
of things, the propagandists to whom I refer confirmed the peasants
in their error, and sought in this way to sow discontent against the
proprietors and the Government. Their watchword was "Land and Liberty,"
and they formed for a good many years a distinct group, under that title
(Zemlya i Volya, or more briefly Zemlevoltsi).

In the St. Petersburg group, which aspired to direct and control this
movement, there were one or two men who held different views as to the
real object of propaganda and agitation. One of these, Prince Krapotkin,
has told the world what his object was at that time. He hoped that the
Government would be frightened and that the Autocratic Power, as in
France on the eve of the Revolution, would seek support in the landed
proprietors, and call together a National Assembly. Thus a constitution
would be granted, and though the first Assembly might be conservative
in spirit, autocracy would be compelled in the long run to yield to
parliamentary pressure.

No such elaborate projects were entertained, I believe, by the majority
of the propagandists. Their reasoning was much simpler: "The Government,
having become reactionary, tries to prevent us from enlightening the
people; we will do it in spite of the Government!" The dangers to which
they exposed themselves only confirmed them in their resolution. Though
they honestly believed themselves to be Realists and Materialists, they
were at heart romantic Idealists, panting to do something heroic. They
had been taught by the apostles whom they venerated, from Belinski
downwards, that the man who simply talks about the good of the people,
and does nothing to promote it, is among the most contemptible of human
beings. No such reproach must be addressed to them. If the Government
opposed and threatened, that was no excuse for inactivity. They must be
up and doing. "Forward! forward! Let us plunge into the people, identify
ourselves with them, and work for their benefit! Suffering is in
store for us, but we must endure it with fortitude!" The type which
Tchernishevski had depicted in his famous novel, under the name of
Rakhm