practice, however, a significant percentage of Zemlya i Volya members (so-called Zemlevoltsy), returned to the model of the study circle and concentrated their efforts upon the industrial workers of urban centers. Among these were the young Georgi Plekhanov (1856–1918), an individual later celebrated as the father of Russian Marxism. Whatever the practical activities of its local groups, the official position of the Zemlya i Volya organization endorsed the tactic of terrorism, which the lead article in the first issue of the party's newspaper characterized as a "system of mob law and self-defense" put into action by a "protective detachment" of the liberation movement. The group also rationalized political assassination as "capital punishment" and "self-defense" for "crimes" against the nation. The organization began to look at regicide as the highest manifestation of political action, culminating in a December 1879 assassination attempt on Tsar Alexander II by the Zemlevolets A. K. Soloviev (1846–1879). Accelerated state repression of Zemlya i Volya followed the hanging of attempted assassin Soloviev, with arrests nearly wiping out revolutionary cells in Ukraine and putting severe pressure on the organization elsewhere. The tension over terrorism led to a division of the organization, with proto-Marxists who favored an end to the use of terrorism gaining control over the official newspaper while the terrorist wing controlled a majority of the Executive Committee. Efforts to reconcile the two wings were unsuccessful and a split was formalized on 15 August 1879, by a commission appointed to divide the organization's assets. During the latter part of 1879, those favoring study circles and propaganda to build a revolutionary movement from the ground up, exemplified by Plekhanov and his co-thinkers, launched independent activity as a new organization called Chërnyi Peredel (Russian: Чёрный передел, "Black Repartition"). The unrepentant terrorist wing re-established itself as well, this time under a new banner—Narodnaya Volya ("People's Freedom", frequently albeit imprecisely rendered into English as "People's Will"). Establishment During the first months after its formation, Narodnaya Volya founded or co-opted workers study circles in the major cities of St. Petersburg, Moscow, Odessa, Kiev, and Kharkov. The group also established cells within the military, among the army garrison at St. Petersburg and the Kronstadt naval base. The organization established a party press and issued illegal newspapers in support of its efforts—five issues of the eponymous Narodnaya Volya and two issues of a newspaper targeted to industrial workers, Rabochaia Gazeta (The Workers' Newspaper). A