The assassination of Alexander II on 1 March 1881 marked the beginning of the end of Narodnaia Volia. Too weak in numbers and lacking in popular support, the party was unable to exploit its apparent success. Naively expecting a spontaneous revolt of the masses or, at the very least, a government sufficiently frightened to submit to constitutional demands, the Narodovoltsy had no programme in place to cope with post- March developments which neither fulfilled their expectations nor strengthened their party. As a matter of fact, within two years from its pyrrhic victory, Narodnaia Volia ceased to exist as an organized party. After 1882 it came to consist of people who felt attached to its tradition and sought to revive its political fortunes periodically. As a movement, however, Narodnaia Volia survived until 1887, though its body, still twitching with signs of life, was laid to rest only several years later.

That the years following the assassination of Alexander II have properly been seen as Narodnaia Volia's ‘period of decline’ must not, however, blind us to the historical significance of its continuous, albeit uncoordinated and less spectacular, revolutionary activity in the 1880s. Clearly, the Narodovoltsy of this decade operated under different conditions than their more famous predecessors. Jolted into action by the deadly attack of 1 March 1881, the government of Alexander III waged an uncompromising and sustained war against the revolutionaries and anyone it suspected as being ‘politically unreliable’.