page_title: Going to the People
hierarchical_section_title: Going to the People
caption_attribution_description: English: Arrest of a Propagandist Español: Arresto de un propagandista Русский: Арест пропагандиста
context_page_description: Going to the People was a populist movement in the Russian Empire.
  It was largely inspired by the work of Russian theorists such as Mikhail Bakunin and Pyotr Lavrov, who advocated that groups of dedicated revolutionaries could inspire a mass movement to overthrow the ruling class, especially as it concerned the peasantry. In 1874, approximately 2,000 to 4,000 students traveled to rural parts of the empire in order to live among the serfs and "prepare them for their future political role."
  Many of these youths had never before visited the villages of Russia, but sought to adopt their manner of dress and take up jobs as manual laborers as a way of engaging the population. They found the people often unperceptive to their revolutionary message, with many turning over their "exotic urban visitors" to government authorities.
  It was ultimately a failure, and by the Autumn of that year more than a thousand arrests were made. They failed to inspire "unrest even on a local scale" or to establish local footholds for future activities.
  Of those arrested, many spent three to four years imprisoned, until a group was eventually brought to court in the 1877 Trial of the 193.
context_section_description: Going to the People (Russian: Хождение в народ) was a populist movement in the Russian Empire. 
  It was largely inspired by the work of Russian theorists such as Mikhail Bakunin and Pyotr Lavrov, who advocated that groups of dedicated revolutionaries could inspire a mass movement to overthrow the ruling class, especially as it concerned the peasantry. In 1874, approximately 2,000 to 4,000 students traveled to rural parts of the empire in order to live among the serfs and "prepare them for their future political role."
  Many of these youths had never before visited the villages of Russia, but sought to adopt their manner of dress and take up jobs as manual laborers as a way of engaging the population. They found the people often unperceptive to their revolutionary message, with many turning over their "exotic urban visitors" to government authorities.
  It was ultimately a failure, and by the Autumn of that year more than a thousand arrests were made. They failed to inspire "unrest even on a local scale" or to establish local footholds for future activities. 
  Of those arrested, many spent three to four years imprisoned, until a group was eventually brought to court in the 1877 Trial of the 193. In the end, 90 were acquitted and 28 were sentenced to hard labor.
caption: Arrest of a Propagandist, painting by Ilya Repin
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