This famous account of the most fascinating period of Russian revolutionary history, takes the 1848 revolution which crystallized populist ideology in the minds of the true founders of populism as its starting date. Venturi examines Russia’s internal and external problems and the ideals and beliefs of her subjects in so far as they touch on the formation of populism.The core of the book concentrates on an account of the conspiracies and struggles through which populism expressed itself. It ends on March 1st 1881 with the assassination of Alexander II by the executive committee of Narodnaya Volya. Introduction by Isaiah Berlin