Alexeyev was born into a peasant family in a village in Smolensk province in south west Russia, and was sent to work in a textile factory at the age of nine.
[2] Arrested in February 1875, he was held in prison for two years, then arraigned with other members of the circle at the Trial of the 50, in March 1877.
His speech at his trial, delivered on 10 March, described in vivid language the squalid living conditions of Russia's working class.
It concluded: "Russia's working people can rely only on themselves and no-one else, except the young intelligensia...Only they ... will march alongside us, without flinching, until the mighty hand of millions of working people is raised, and the yoke of despotism, ringed by soldiers' bayonets, is scattered to dust.
Parts were printed in English translation in the Pall Mall Gazette on 20 April 1877.