This study examines the leading 19th century Russian revolutionary organization, Land and Freedom, during its three brief years of existence and its significance for later Russian history. The book traces the two groups which emerged within Land and Freedom: the populist faction known as the narodniki, dedicated to propagandizing among the peasantry of the villages, and the violent sub-group sometimes called the politiki for whom assassination of government officials and eventually of the tsar himself appeared the sole route to change.