A secret society came into existence in Moscow, and towards the close of 1865 was consolidated under the name of Organisation. In this society, two trends were manifest, one comparatively moderate, which aimed merely at the diffusion of a socialist program, and the other more radical, desiring to bring about the revolution by direct action and if needs must by tsaricide. Karakozov, who belonged to this left wing, made the first attempt upon Alexander's life on April 17, 1866, Karakozov and his associates were adherents of Černyševskii, but the attempt was made by Karakozov upon his own initiative and in opposition to the wishes of the society.
Agitation was carried into wider circles by the proclamations issued from the newly established secret printing presses, The aim of these proclamations was not so much to formulate a program as to function as instruments of political propaganda and to promote a political awakening. Such proclamations were sometimes issued by authors and publicists of note, were ascribed to these, rightly or wrongly. They were addressed either to the community at large or to particular strata of society, to cultured persons and to students, to soldiers, to peasants, to operatives.
As early as 1854, proclamations were issued (by Engelssohn); but not until the radical movement of the sixties was in full swing did they become an effective means for political propaganda.
Much attention was attracted by the before-mentioned proclamation Young Russia (May, 1862), which contained threats of a bloody and pitiless revolution; Russia was to be transformed into a republican and federative state; there were to be national and local parliaments, a judiciary appointed by popular election, just taxes, "social" factories and shops, "social" education of children, emancipation of women, abolition of marriage and the family, abolition of monasteries, provision for invalids and the elderly, increased pay for soldiers, etc. Should the tsar and his-party, as was to be anticipated, turn upon Young Russia, then: "Inspired with full confidence in ourselves, in our energies, in popular sympathy, in the splendid future of Russia, predestined to be the first of all countries to realise socialism, we shall sound the clarion call, 'Seize your axes.' Then we shall strike down the members of the tsarist party, shall strike them unpityingly as they have unpityingly struck us, shall hew them down in the squares
