Narodnaya Volya

People's Will Наро́дная во́ля
Founded	June 1879 (1879-06)
Dissolved	March 1887 (1887-03)
Split from	Land and Liberty
Headquarters	St. Petersburg (1879–1881) Moscow (1881–1882)
Membership	2193[1]
Ideology	Narodism Agrarian socialism Revolutionary socialism
Political position	Far-left
Movement	Narodniks
Anthem	Народовольческий гимн ("Hymn of the People's Will")[2]
Politics of Russia Political parties Elections

Narodnaya Volya (Russian: Наро́дная во́ля, IPA: [nɐˈrodnəjə ˈvolʲə], lit. 'People's Will') was a late 19th-century revolutionary socialist political organization operating in the Russian Empire, which conducted assassinations of government officials in an attempt to overthrow the autocratic Tsarist system. The organization declared itself to be a populist movement that succeeded the Narodniks. Composed primarily of young revolutionary socialist intellectuals believing in the efficacy of direct action, Narodnaya Volya emerged in Autumn 1879 from the split of an earlier revolutionary organization called Zemlya i Volya ("Land and Liberty"). Predecessor groups had already started using the term "terror" positively and Narodnaya Volya in similar fashion self-identified as terrorists and venerated dead terrorists as "martyrs" and "heroes" as part of a propaganda driven campaign to attract attention to their moral justifications for using political violence.^[3]

Based upon a secret society apparatus of local, semi-independent cells co-ordinated by a self-selecting Executive Committee, Narodnaya Volya espoused acts of political violence in an attempt to destabilize the Russian Empire and spur insurrection against Tsarism, justified "as a means of exerting pressure on the government for reform, as the spark that would ignite a vast peasant uprising, and as the inevitable response to the regime's use of violence against the revolutionaries". This culminated in the successful assassination of Tsar Alexander II in March 1881—the event for which the group is best remembered. The group developed ideas—such as the assassination of the "leaders of oppression"—that were to become the hallmark of future small non-state groups, and were convinced that the developing technologies of the age—such as the invention of dynamite—enabled them to strike directly and precisely, minimising casualties.

Much of the organization's philosophy was inspired by Sergey Nechayev and "propaganda by the deed"–proponent Carlo Pisacane. The group served as inspiration and forerunner for other revolutionary socialist and anarchist organizations that followed, including in particular the Russian Socialist Revolutionary Party (PSR). Although they were socialist and often associated with Marxism, they generally opposed it in favour of an ideal of anarchic self-government.