The Russian Terrorists Who Went After the Tsar
Nineteenth-century Russia was marked by great discontent and political turmoil. It groaned under the heavy-handed – and incompetent – absolutist rule of the Tsars. Reforms were attempted, but reformers often ran into the tsarist government’s oppressive instincts. Without political freedom, and with free expression severely restricted, many reformers grew disgusted with the system, and turned into revolutionaries dedicated to its overthrow. One such group formed a secret organization, Narodnaya Volya (People’s Will), which sought to overthrow the autocratic government by acts of violent propaganda calculated to spark a mass revolt.
People’s Will was a terrorist organization, in short. It saw terrorism as a proactive tool to overthrow the tsarist regime. It called for violence, announced an ambitious program of terrorism and assassination to break the government’s power, and decreed a death sentence against Tsar Alexander II, who was to be executed as an enemy of the people. They established clandestine cells in major cities and within the Russian military, and began to publish underground revolutionary newspapers and leaflets targeted at industrial workers.