, commonly called
Narodnaya Volya, or Narodovoltsi, which succeeded in assassinating
Alexander II., were very soon broken up by the police and most of the
leading members were arrested. A few escaped, of whom some remained in
the country and others emigrated to Switzerland or Paris, and efforts
at reorganisation were made, especially in the southern and western
provinces, but they proved ineffectual. At last, sobered by experience
and despairing of further success, some of the prisoners and a few of
the exiles--notably Tikhomirof, who was regarded as the leader--made
their peace with the Government, and for some years terrorism seemed to
be a thing of the past. Passing through Russia on my way home from India
and Central Asia at that time, I came to the conclusion that the young
generation had recovered from its prolonged attack of brain-fever, and
had entered on a more normal, tranquil, and healthy period of existence.

My expectations proved too optimistic. About 1894 the Narodnaya Volya
came to life again, with all its terrorist traditions intact; and
shortly afterwards appeared the new group which I have just mentioned,
the Socialist-Revolutionaries, with somewhat similar principles and
a better organisation. For some seven or eight years the two groups
existed side by side, and then the Narodnaya Volya disappeared, absorbed
probably by its more powerful rival.

During the first years of their existence neither group was strong
enough to cause the Government serious inconvenience, and it was not
till 1897-98 that they found means of issuing manifestos and programmes.
In these the Narodovoltsi declared that their immediate aims were the
annihilation of Autocracy, the convocation of a National Assembly and
the reorganisation of the Empire on the principles of federation and
local self-government, and that for the attainment of these objects
the means to be employed should include popular insurrections, military
conspiracies, bombs and dynamite.

Very similar, though ostensibly a little more eclectic, was the
programme of the Socialist-Revolutionaries. Their ultimate aim was
declared to be the transfer of political authority from the Autocratic
Power to the people, the abolition of private property in the means
of production, and in general the reorganisation of national life on
Socialist principles. On certain points they were at one with the Social
Democrats. They recognised, for example, that the social reorganisa