Alexander Dolgushin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alexander Vasilievcih Dolgushin (Russian: Александр Васильевич Долгушин) (June 1848 – 30 June 1885) was a Russian Empire populist and political prisoner.
Revolutionary career
In 1866, Dolgushin moved to St. Petersburg, supposedly to study, but has main purpose was political activities. He led a group of 13 students from Siberia, who began as a 'commune' - a cultural club offering mutual help and a library - and evolved into a political organization advocating Siberian independence. A portrait of Nikolay Chernyshevsky, whom they regarded as an honorary Siberian because he was in exile there, hung at their meetings.[2]
In 1869, Sergey Nechayev made contact with the group during a short visit to St. Petersburg, and recruited one of its members, Pyotr Toporkov, to his conspiratorial Russian Revolutionary Society. In January 1870, Dolgushin and other members of the group were arrested, but after a year and a half in prison, they were acquitted in August 1871 for lack of evidence.[2]
By autumn 1872, Dolgushin – married with an infant son – had formed a new student circle, the Group of Twenty-Two, who planned to foment a peasant rebellion by promising to free them from debt, redistribute land, end military conscription, abolish the internal passport system and set up village schools.[1] Their propaganda was expressed in religious tones as if they were creating a "religion of equality". In March 1873, they moved to Moscow, then to a small house near the city, where they set up a printing press and began handing their books and pamphlets out to the peasants, who were astonished to be offered them free.[2]
