The ‘going to the people’ movement was the high-point of revolutionary activity and optimism in the first half of the 1870s; it was the crest of that wave of Populist radicalism which had formed in 1869–71 and which quickly subsided in 1874–75. In its wake followed profound disillusionment. From the height of Utopian expectations the ‘lovers of the people’ were plunged into a state of utter despondency. Their euphoric enterprise had collapsed in the face of police repression, peasant inertia and, last but not least, the xenophobic hostility of the masses with whom they wanted to ‘merge’ in the expectation of creating a new social order. For many this spelled temporarily, if not definitely, the end of their revolutionary career. Of the thousands who had participated in the pilgrimage, hundreds were imprisoned, scores died in their cells while awaiting trial, and still others, who had been lucky enough to escape detection or to gain early release due to lack of evidence against them, quietly abandoned the movement in disappointment at the unresponsive narod. In short, the movement had been crushed and there seemed little hope for its resurrection in the near future. All that remained were scattered remnants of die-hard, but disillusioned and disorganized, groups of radicals who had been sufficiently chastened to query their propagandistic endeavours which had produced nothing more than ephemeral outbursts of revolutionary energy. Chto delat′ – what is to be done? – was the question they asked themselves throughout 1875 and well into the following year?