Nikolai Annensky

When he was young, he lost both of his parents and had to care for his younger siblings, including the future Russian poet Innokenty Annensky.

[1] In 1869, Annensky was arrested, but later released, when the police were investigating a murder committed by the revolutionary Sergey Nechayev, whose associates included Alexandra's brother, Pyotr Tkachev.

[2] In the 1870s and 80s, Annensky was a major representative of Legal Populism and contributed to such journals as Notes of the Fatherland (Otechestvennye Zapiski) and The Cause (Delo).

Annensky's work as a statistician enabled him to gather valuable information on the social conditions of workers and peasants in turn-of-the-century Russia.

He argued strenuously against the PSR's revival of political terrorism as a tactic and deplored the influence of Marxism on its leading theorists, such as V.M.

9 January 1905), Annensky was part of a delegation who presented a petition to Russia's Minister of the Interior, drafted by Father Georgy Gapon, while a huge peaceful crowd gathered in the streets.

After police had fired on the crowd, triggering the Russian Revolution of 1905, Annensky was arrested again and held for three weeks in the Trubetskoy bastion.

The Popular Socialists also played an important role in the Provisional Government of Kerensky following the February Revolution of 1917.