allowed for physical elimination of "the most harmful or prominent members of the government". The most famous terrorist act of Land and Liberty was the assassination of the Chief of the Gendarmes Nikolai Mezentsov in 1878. The members of Land and Liberty saw the peasantry as the principal revolutionary force, as opposed to the working class, which would have to play a part of the "second fiddle". Proceeding from the inevitability of a "forced coup d'état", the revolutionaries considered agitation and organization of revolts, demonstrations and strikes to be very important. Land and Liberty represented a "rebellious" current of the revolutionary movement of the 1870s. Vladimir Lenin said that Land and Liberty’s "striving to enlist all the discontented in the organisation and to direct this organisation to resolute struggle against the autocracy … that was its great historical merit." See also Nihilist movement References Bibliography External links Program of Land and Liberty - The Anarchist Library 1860 establishments in the Russian Empire 1864 disestablishments in the Russian Empire 1876 establishments in the Russian Empire 1879 disestablishments in the Russian Empire Anarchist organizations in Russia Left-wing militant groups Organizations established in 1860 Organizations disestablished in 1864 Organizations established in 1876 Organizations disestablished in 1879 Political parties established in 1876 Political parties disestablished in 1879 Narodnaya Volya Political organizations based in the Russian Empire Socialist organizations in Russia Far-left politics in Russia