Zemlya i Volya (Land and Liberty) of 1860s

Categories / Social Life/Political Parties and Organizations
ZEMLYA I VOLYA (Land and Liberty) of 1860s, a secret revolutionary society that was founded in St. Petersburg in 1861 with its Central Committee and St. Petersburg Committee operating in the capital. N.A. and A.A. Serno-Solovyevichs, A.A. Sleptsov, N.N. Obruchev, V.S. Kurochkin, and others were at the head of the society; N.I. Utin, L.F. Panteleev, A.A. Zhuk, M.S. Gulevich, and others were members of the St. Petersburg committee. N.G. Chernyshevsky was the ideological leader of the society. The society’s headquarters were located in N.A. Serno-Solovyevich's bookstore (24 Nevsky Prospect) and the Chess Club in St. Petersburg. Zemlya i Volya maintained close contact with A.I. Herzen and N.P. Ogarev who lived abroad as emigrants and revolutionary circles in other Russian cities. An illegal printing office was established in a cottage on Peterburgskaya Side where a number of leaflets, Svoboda (Liberty) circulars 1 and 2, etc. were printed. In the late summer-early autumn of 1862, the Russian Central People's Committee was founded in St. Petersburg as the governing centre of the society. In the late 1862, the leaders of the society held negotiations with members of the Russian officer circles in the Polish Kingdom and representatives of the Polish national liberation movement, which resulted in a joint action agreement. Zemlya i Volya was dissolved after a number of society members had been arrested and the Polish rebellion of 1863-64 suppressed.

Reference: Революционная ситуация в России в середине XIX века. М., 1978; Штурманы будущей бури: Воспоминания участников рев. движения 1860-х гг. в Петербурге. Л., 1983.

Z. P. Solovyeva. Chernyshevsky Nikolay Gavrilovich
Gulevich Mikhail Semenovich
Herzen Alexander Ivanovich
Kurochkin A.M.
Obruchev Nikolay Nikolaevich
Ogarev Nikolay Platonovich
Panteleev Longin Fedorovich
Serno-Solovyevich Alexander Alexandrovich
Serno-Solovyevich Nikolay Alexandrovich
Sleptsov Alexander Alexandrovich
Utin Nikolay Isaakovich
Zhuk Alexander Antonovich
Nevsky prospect/Saint Petersburg, city, house 24
Революционная ситуация в России в середине XIX века. М., 1978
Штурманы будущей бури: Воспоминания участников рев. движения 1860-х гг. в Петербурге. Л., 1983