The liberation of the peasantry, and the effecting of the other reforms that necessarily accompanied and followed that measure, were a notable victory for liberalism. But this was not the first time on which absolutism had entered liberal paths. Since the days of Peter, the bureaucracy had been compelled to recognise liberalism in practice, the constraint, in Russia as elsewhere, being supplied by the administration's own interests, which could be adequately served in no other way. Reactionaries like Katkov realised this clearly enough.
It was natural that these reforms should strengthen radicalism. After 1861, the socio-political opposition became organised in secret societies; and the example of the Polish revolution of 1863 had its effect upon radical circles in Russia
The reaction armed in its own defence, and many liberals wavered in their allegiance to liberal principles. Katkov, the admirer of English constitutionalism, opened his campaign against Herzen. Čičerin, a typical exponent of moderate liberalism, likewise attacked Herzen. But Herzen found a defender even among the moderate liberals (Kavelin).
The attempt on the life of Alexander II in the year 1866 strengthened the reaction. Such liberals as Nekrasov now made for the sake of the reaction the "sacrificio del intelletto" (Nekrasov, for the rest, was always a wiseacre); but the opposition was by no means intimidated. Society underwent a cleavage into liberal "fathers" and revolutionary "children"; liberals, no less than conservatives and reactionaries, devoted themselves to the analysis of "nihilism." The leader of such liberals was Turgenev, the spokesman of liberal Hamletism, but his admiration for the bold woman terrorist swept him off his balance.
Both before and after 1861, the aristocracy and the gentry continued to make up the bulk of the liberals, but the strength of the raznočincy contingent increased. The towns were expanding and were undergoing economic changes, and the capitalistic bourgeoisie and plutocracy were gaining in strength and numbers. The rich bourgeois wanted to lead a quiet life, but at the same time he wanted to play the gentleman.[1] It was natural that the radical should despise the bourgeois
