By May 1862, a number of pamphlets were issued including the very radical “Young Russia”, which called for extensive changes in the nature and statute of the Russian State. What first seemed as a mere feeling of radicalization, ended up turning into violence as fires were started in St Petersburg culminating into the destruction of over 2,000 shops. The fires, which were never proved to have been started deliberately, strongly worried Russian authorities and the Tsar, encouraged them to seek cautious methods of handling the situation. Many publications of leading radical journals were temporarily suspended, as well as Sunday schools which represents a serious danger to the autocratic government. The State felt that “it is not necessary to let them fall into the hands of those who organize them according to their own arbitrary pedagogy.” Gradually and cautiously, the consequence would be that the state should bring all schools under state control and "take those critical steps that are necessary to make them better and give the appearance of facilitating their rapid spread". Their reactionary method was to carefully and calmly resist every effort to broaden the curriculum. They would also limit the curriculum to religion (taught only by priests), basic literacy, writing and arithmetic, taught only with textbooks approved by official agencies
In the year of 1861, Alexander’s reforms were met with great violence as there were serious incidents of riots all over Russia. There were a total of 499 cases of riots that had been put down by armed troops, most performed by peasants who were seriously discontented by the consequences following the Emancipation Reform. The years preceding the reforms of Alexander II were ones marked by violence and terror, and to impel this feeling of concern, in 1863, a brutal revolution broke out in Poland. The Polish Revolt led to a growth of nationalistic feelings and a decline in radicalism, nonetheless representing a serious hazard to Russian autocracy.
Reforms in the area of Education were also well achieved during Alexander II’s reign. Until 1861, there was strict and repressive control, however, the Tsar appointed Golvonin as Minister of Education. Freedom of expression was permitted to a certain extent, which although benefited scholars and students, became the ideal breeding grounds for radicals and revolutionaries. It didn’t take much time for a radical action to occur, as in 1866, a former student of Kazan University attempted to assassinate the Tsar. Alexander’s reaction however, was understandably reactionary as he replaced Golvinin with Dmitri Tolstoy as the new Minister of Education. Tolstoy nonetheless, did have a great impact in educational areas. He established a far more ‘classical’ curriculum in the secondary schools, placing great emphasis on the study of Greek, Latin, and mathematics. Other reactionary responses were the restricted entry to Universities as well as also giving power to the Ministry to dictate the curriculum in schools and to control appointments. There was an uneasy balance being struck between progressive liberal initiatives and a desire to maintain autocracy. Many opposed the Tsar’s reforms and urged him to stop them before causing a revolution, as Russia had more change in 10 years altogether, than in the 150 years before. During Nicholas I’s reign, there had been repressed revolutionary movements, which after his death, where performed by the students themselves. Occurrences – such as the one in the St Petersburg University, where the students broke into a locked room to hold a protest meeting, marching throughout the city and boycotting lectures – were common until confronted by reactionary responses from the State to reduce the numbers of scholarships and ban student meetings.
Russia’s young generation was becoming even more adept to Chernyshevsky and his like-minded colleagues on the editorial board of “The Contemporary”, who within the restrictions of censorship, were advocating the obligation of socialism by rebellion, if necessary. Nikolai Chernyshevsky was a revolutionary democrat, philosopher, critic, and . He was the leader of the revolutionary democratic movement of the called Narodism. This was a system of views was formed in response to the growing conflicts between the and the . The groups did not establish a concrete organization, but shared the common general aim of overthrowing the and , and distributing land among the . The Narodniks generally believed that was not a necessary result of , and that it was possible to skip all together, and enter straight into a kind of . Chernyshevsky was a great adept of Russian intellectual, Herzen. He was known as “Father of Russian Socialism”, and it is believed that he developed the Narodnik Movement, where thousands of students and sympathisers dressed as peasants and descended to countrysides distributing pamphlets promoting propaganda, known as the first really “major movement for the people”. This failed however, as peasants did not understand what these ‘strangers’ wanted. With their ignorance, they were most likely to denounce the Narodniks to the police than to be converted. Some 800 were arrested, and eventually two groups of 193 and 50 people were held for trial. Chernyshevsky’s and Herzen’s views were different however, as the first, seeked a revolution, and the second promoted socialism, as well as , and argued that the full flowering of the individual could best be realized in a socialist order. The Tsar became even more shocked with such movements, but the revolutionaries, had not yet actually succeed as due to reactionary responses from Alexander, these actions were contained by force, if needed.
In , another case that alarmed the Tsar was the one of Vera Zasulich. She was a revolutionary who shot and wounded General , military governor of , after he ordered the flogging of a political prisoner, who was an associate of Zasulich. At her trial a sympathetic jury found her not guilty. Fleeing before she could be rearrested and retried, she became something of a hero to the populists. While she was against the terror campaign that would eventually lead to the assassination of , the incident incited more violence, and led to harsher policies by the government. The State immediately announced that all cases of ‘resistance to the authorities, rebellion, assassination or attempts on the lives of officials’, would from then on be dealt with by special courts.
After two assassination attempts, one in 1867 and another in 1879, Alexander saw the new need to restructure the Third Section. This Russian Secret Police had to be stronger as the increasing violence was not being well dealt with. Reorganization in the Third Section meant more reactionary actions. Not only the Third Section, but all of Russia had to be dealt with extreme caution, as revolutionary roots were spreading. Such reactionary policies, however, were not enough to impede the successful assassination attempt of Alexander II in 1881.
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