Terrorists and Social Democrats Russian Research Center Studies, 82 Terrorists and Social Democrats The Russian Revolutionary Movement Under Alexander III Norman M. Naimark Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England 1983 Copyright © 1983 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21 This book is printed on acid-free paper, and its binding materials have been chosen for strength and durability. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Naimark, Norman M. Terrorists and social democrats. (Russian Research Center studies ; 82) Bibliography; p. Includes index. 1. Rossiiskaia sotsial-demokraticheskaia rabochaia partiia —History. 2. Soviet Union — History — Alexander 111,1881-1894. 3. Radicalism-Soviet Union-History. 4. Terrorism —Soviet Union —History. I. Title. II. Series. JN6598.S6N24 1983 322.4'2'0947 82-23303 ISBN 0-674-87464-1 For Lila and Sarah Acknowledgments Most of the research for this book was carried out in Leningrad and Moscow with the support of the International Research and Exchanges Corporation (IREX) and the Fulbright-Hays Program. I owe a great debt of gratitude to the staffs of the archives and libraries in those cities, particularly the Central State Archives (TsGIA SSSR) in Lenin- grad. In addition, thanks are due the librarians and archivists of the Hoover Institution, the International Institute of Social History, and Widener Library. At the final stages of the research, and for the writ- ing of this book, I was fortunate to have received financial support from the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung, the Deutsche Forschungs- gemeinschaft, Harvard University's Russian Research Center, and the Boston University Graduate School. The writing particularly has benefited from the quiet office and congenial atmosphere at the Rus- sian Research Center. My special thanks to the Center's Director, Adam B. Ulam, and Administrative Assistant, Mary Towle, for their help and encouragement. I also wish to express my gratitude to the Osteuropa Institute of the Free University of Berlin and its Director, Hans-Joachim Torke, for providing a friendly home for this work dur- ing the year 1977-78. More than most authors, I am beholden to my colleagues in the field. Joan Axelrod, Harley Balzer, Terence Emmons, Daniel Field, William Fuller, Abbott Gleason, Manfred Hildermeier, Ronald Suny, Nina Tumarkin, and Reginald Zelnik read parts or all of the manuscript and offered valuable criticisms. I am especially indebted to those hearty friends —John Ackerman, Gregory Freeze, and David Powell —who vili Acknowledgments read and commented on more than one version of the manuscript. I also thank The Russian Review for permission to publish in somewhat altered form my spring 1978 article, "The Workers' Section and the Challenge of the Young.'" Contents Introduction 1 1 Background to Radicalism 8 2 Narodnaia Volia after the First of March 41 3 Social Democrats in St. Petersburg, 1884-1888 69 4 Narodnaia Volia in the South, 1884-1887 90 5 Russian Radicals and the Military 111 6 The St. Petersburg Student Movement and the Terrorist Fraction 130 7 Social Democracy in St. Petersburg and Moscow, 1889-1893 154 8 Social Democrats in the Provinces, 1887-1892 187 9 Narodovol'tsy — Old and New 213 Conclusion 239 Abbreviations 246 Notes 247 Selected Bibliography 292 Index 301