Alexander Dolgushin

He led a group of 13 students from Siberia, who began as a 'commune' - a cultural club offering mutual help and a library - and evolved into a political organization advocating Siberian independence.

[2] In 1869, Sergey Nechayev made contact with the group during a short visit to St. Petersburg, and recruited one of its members, Pyotr Toporkov, to his conspiratorial Russian Revolutionary Society.

In January 1870, Dolgushin and other members of the group were arrested, but after a year and a half in prison, they were acquitted in August 1871 for lack of evidence.

[2] By autumn 1872, Dolgushin – married with an infant son – had formed a new student circle, the Group of Twenty-Two, who planned to foment a peasant rebellion by promising to free them from debt, redistribute land, end military conscription, abolish the internal passport system and set up village schools.

In March 1873, they moved to Moscow, then to a small house near the city, where they set up a printing press and began handing their books and pamphlets out to the peasants, who were astonished to be offered them free.

[1] Elizaveta Kovalskaya, who was in prison with him in Krasnoyarsk, wrote that "he impressed me as a person constantly burning with some inner fire, all the while maintaining an external calm in his movements and speech.