Social movements have existed since the beginning of society. A social movement occurs when a individual or groups of individuals focus on a social or political issue, such as resisting or promoting social or political change. Most of the time the social movements require a designated leader or group of leaders. Usually social movements either complete their desired goal or do not get enough accomplished to keep people interested in the movement and they break apart. An example of a social movement is the Nihilist Movement that began in the early and mid 18th century in Russia.
The biggest problem was implementing a reform that would be effective and politically realistic. By the middle of the 19th century Russia had been in a state or repression for so long and there had been so many problems that reforming would be very difficult. The only viable answer seemed to be Nihilism. Finally even a determined police-state could not keep the revolutionaries at bay, and the nihilism movement began to rapidly spread. The foundation of the nihilism movement started around 1860 and the counter-cultural aspects began to form. One of the reasons also being turning away from the westernization of Russia which many people disliked.
During the first years of the movement the first Land and Freedom began. It supported the polish independence movement and to agitate the peasants who had to pay off huge debts because of the redemption payments required by the emancipation of the serfs in 1861. After the plot failed the Land and Freedom was abandoned in 1863. That's when the first of the Nihilist secret societies began to form. The Organization built a school to help train the revolutionaries in Moscow. They also had a secret group called hell who trained and participated in political terrorism whose main goal was to assassinate the czar. This caused a failed attempt from Dmitry Karakozov on April 4th, 1866, Dmitry and the leader of the organization, Nicholas Ishutin were executed. This caused the organization to collapse and the white terror began. White terror was the czars plan to keep the Nihilists in check which was led by Count Michael Muravyov. The two most radical journals, The Contemporary and Russion Word, were banned, liberal reforms were very rare, and the education system was reformed to teach all the wrongs of the revolutionaries.
The Nihilists also believed in the emancipation of the women in Russia. During the 18th century women were not allowed to travel without the presence of their husband or father and could not pursue any academic or enterprise. The nihilists fixed this by allowing fictitious marriages and allowed for an emancipation.
During the 1870's a man by the name of Sergei Nechaev symbolized the revolutionary period of the nihilist movement. He argued that the European monarchies and Catholic Jesuits were ruthless in their pursuit of total control, there were no actions that could not be used for the peoples revolution. Nechaev formed the secret, cell-based organization called the People's vengeance, and maintained relationship with the people's will. He confronted Bakunin (another one of the revolutionaries) but was rejected by him. The goal of the revolutionaries was to organized the peasants, which was inspired by the belief that the Russian institution of the village commune, a self-governing body that managed village affairs and made decisions collectively, was the shortest path to Russian socialism. That effort, however, failed in the end because the peasants often handed the Nihilists over to the police and, moreover, the concept of rural revolt was not confirmed to the peasants as they did not have ability to arm themselves in a meaningful way and did not actually have a tradition of successful uprising(NIR).
Many secret societies were created, two of the main ones were the Troglodytes and the Revolutionary-Populist group of the north which formed the second land and freedom. On April 2nd, 1879, there was a failed assassination attempt on the czar by Alexander Solovyov. Over the next 8 months the repression was severe. 16 Nihilists were hung throughout Russia, but that did not stop them. There was another assassination attempt on one of the governor generals in charge of the repression. People began to question how effective land and freedom was because the violent methods did not seem to be getting them anywhere. Land and freedom was disbanded and the Black Repartition was created in its place which decided that militant propaganda was the means of moving forward. They then decided that they would try to get to the czar be attempting to derail the train that he was on, but ultimately the plan failed. Finally their efforts paid off in march 1881, Alexander II was assassinated five members of the plot were captured and hung, Alexander III quickly suppressed any remaining nihilists, So ended the nihilism movement.
In the end the goal was partially but not completely met, They successfully assassinated the czar which was their primary goal but they did not receive the all of the change that they longed for. The nihilists majorly influenced political change in the Russian society.
