If the peasant revolts of earlier centuries had been doomed for lack of urban leadership and thought-out program, now the situation was for several decades reversed. Russia was seething with programs and her cities crowded with would-be leader; but the masses remained passive and indifferent, the countryside gave no sign. However, as the nineteenth century drew to a close, the atmosphere became charged with electricity. All signals presaged a coming storm. Theory and physical might, intellectual program and mass movement, city and countryside, began to approach each other.

Onward to the Next!