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Rh was the movement of the intellectuals, and in especial of the younger intellectuals, who endeavoured to educate the people and to win them on behalf of a program of social and political reconstruction. It is frequently contended that Lavrov was the originator of the movement "towards the people." True enough that Lavrov, in his Historical Letters (1868–1869), insisted upon the duty of self-sacrifice on behalf of the folk, and thus did much to promote the movement "towards the people." But that movement had been directly advocated by other writers before Lavrov. It originated out of the peculiar situation which ensued upon the liberation of the peasantry. The intellectuals, if they wished to realise their social and political ideals, had to turn for help to the enfranchised peasants. The movement was favoured by the literary idealisation of the peasant.

Simultaneously with the political movement there originated the ethico-economical movement introduced by A. N. Engelhardt. The intelligentsia was to withdraw to the country and was to engage in rational agriculture ("to establish itself upon the soil").

Towards the close of the seventies occurred the development of the radical and revolutionary narodničestvo led by the Narodnaja Volja. After the assassination of Alexander II, the revolutionary mood became weaker, and at the same time, owing to the increasing strength of Marxism, the narodničestvo was compelled, not merely to revise its doctrines, but above all to formulate them with greater precision. The development of manufacturing industry and the growth of the towns were contributory causes of the change, for an increasing number of peasants became operatives. It is usual to speak of a crisis in the narodničestvo, setting in during the eighties and attaining its climax in the middle nineties, when the Marxists were endeavouring to furnish statistical proofs that the teaching of the narodniki was fallacious.

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