Markovo Republic

The Markovo Republic (Russian: Марковская республика) was a self-proclaimed peasant state located in Russia, roughly 150 kilometers outside of Moscow, in the Volokolamsk district.

Demands included the convocation of a national parliament, universal suffrage with secret ballots for adults, equal civil rights for peasants, progressive taxes, land grants for landless peasants, a free and universal education system, political amnesty and freedom of movement.

A control over rents, an implementation and introduction of agronomic measures, a democratization of volost government and 'nationalization' of church schools happened.

Meanwhile, the Tsarist government stood powerless as only one police sergeant and no land captain was in the volost, and was therefore unable to put down the increasingly famous and large republic.

[4] The police had been informed that 'the village contained a dangerous revolutionary' by Semyonov's arch-rival in Andreevskoe, chief elder Grigory Maliutin; after two months in prison in Moscow, Semyonov was sent into exile abroad; here, with the financial aid of Tolstoy, he toured the English and French countryside for eighteen months, where, inspired by what he saw, became even more determined to reform the Russian communal system.