[3][4][5] A literary society for self-education within the Medical Surgical Academy was the heart of the organization, the initial purpose of which was to share books and knowledge that had been banned in the Russian Empire.

Besides self-education, the circle's main tasks were to unite students of Petersburg and other cities, and conduct propaganda among workers and peasants with the purpose of fomenting a social revolution.

These principles were formulated in the Программа для кружков самообразования и практической деятельности (Program for the circles of self-education and practical activity), put together by the Tchaikovtsy in late 1870 – early 1871.

Circles in Moscow (Nikolai Alexandrovich Morozov, Lev Tikhomirov, Mikhail Frolenko), Odessa (Felix Volkhovsky, Andrei Zhelyabov), Kiev (Yakov Stefanovich, Pavel Axelrod) and other cities sided with the Petersburg cell on a federal basis.

The final stage of activities of the Tchaikovtsy included the Going to the People campaign, bringing revolutionary propaganda and organization directly to the peasants of Russia.