Circle of Tchaikovsky
Circle of Tchaikovsky Чайковцы | |
---|---|
St. Petersburg | |
Ideology | Populism Revolutionary socialism |
Political position | Left-wing to far-left |
Movement | Narodniks |
The Circle of Tchaikovsky, also known as Tchaikovtsy/Chaikovtsy (Russian: Чайковцы), or the Grand Propaganda Society (Russian: Большое общество пропаганды, Bolshoye obshchestvo propagandy) was a Russian literary society for self-education and a revolutionary organization of the Narodniks in the early 1870s. It was named after Nikolai Tchaikovsky, one of its prominent members.
Background and origin
The
The Circle was founded in
A literary society for self-education within the Medical Surgical Academy was the heart of the organization, the initial purpose of which was to share books and knowledge that had been banned in the Russian Empire. It included students Mark Natanson, V. M. Aleksandrov, and Anatoly Serdyukov, who were joined by Nikolai Tchaikovsky and Feofan Lermontov. Besides self-education, the circle's main tasks were to unite students of Petersburg and other cities, and conduct propaganda among workers and peasants with the purpose of fomenting a social revolution.[6] The Tchaikovsky set higher moral standards for their members in the face of Nechayev's unscrupulousness.[7] They had a negative attitude towards struggle for political freedoms, which, in their view, were only advantageous to the arising Russian bourgeoisie. These principles were formulated in the Программа для кружков самообразования и практической деятельности (Program for the circles of self-education and practical activity), put together by the Tchaikovtsy in late 1870 – early 1871.
Activities
One of the first tasks of the Tchaikovtsy was to organize the printing, publishing, and distribution of scientific and revolutionary literature with the help of publishers
In 1872, the Tchaikovtsy began organizing circles of workers with the purpose of training propagandists for work in the countryside. These activities were most successful in Petersburg and Odessa, where the circles comprised around 400 workers. Some of these workers—including
The final stage of activities of the Tchaikovtsy included the Going to the People campaign, bringing revolutionary propaganda and organization directly to the peasants of Russia. In 1873/1874, most members of the circle were arrested and were later prosecuted in the trial of the 193. Tschaikovsky joined a religious-communist group and emigrated to the United States in 1874.[9]
Similar articles
- Nihilist movement
- Samizdat
Footnotes
- ^ Turgenev, Ivan. "Chapter 5". Fathers and Sons. Translated by Constance Garnett.
- ^ a b Hodge 2008, p. 516
- ^ Mavor 1914, p. 75
- ^ Avrich 1971, pp. 27–28
- ^ Yarmolinsky 2014, p. 179
- ^ Avrich 1971, p. 28
- ^ Beran 2007, p. 328
- ^ Eklof & Saburova 2018, pp. 67–93
- ^ Yarmolinsky 2014, p. 190
Bibliography
- OCLC 1154930946.
- Beran, Michael (2007). Forge of Empires, 1861-1871. New York: Free Press. ISBN 0-7432-7069-X.
- ISBN 978-0-14-144220-4.
- Eklof, Ben; Saburova, Tatiana (2018). "'Remembrances of a Distant Past': Generational Memory and the CollectiveAuto/Biography of Russian Populists in the Revolutionary Era". The Slavonic and East European Review. 96 (1): 67–93. Retrieved 2022-07-06.
- Hodge, Carl (2008). Encyclopedia of the Age of Imperialism, 1800-1914. Westport: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-33404-8.
- Mavor, James (1914). An Economic History of Russia. London: J.M. Dent & Sons. OCLC 1616923.
- OCLC 890439998.