Russian scholars have long recognized the interest and importance of the Russian intellectual movement of the 1860's. Several excellent books, and many valuable articles, have been devoted to the subject. The agrarian socialism of Chernyshevski, for example, or the nihilism of Pisarev have been fairly well treated.
It is surprising that almost no attention has been paid to the reactions of the Russian radicals of the period of great reforms to the problems incident to the development of factory industry. A study of this question can contribute to our understanding of more than one aspect of Russian social thought. It will help to explain the populist socialism of the 1870's, and it will shed light on the problem of the extraordinary receptivity of Russian intellectuals to the ideas of Karl Marx.