The Circle of Tchaikovsky, also known as Tchaikovtsy/Chaikovtsy (), or the Grand Propaganda Society (, Bolshoye obshchestvo propagandy) was a Russian literary society for self-education and a revolutionary organization of the Narodniks in the early 1870s. It was named after Nikolai Tchaikovsky, one of its prominent members. Background and origin The intelligentsia of mid-nineteenth century Tsarist Russia were dissatisfied with what they saw as social stagnation of the nation and had begun to demand reform. Their attitude was called "nihilist" by Ivan Turgenev, explained by a character in his novel Fathers and Sons thus: "A nihilist is a man who does not bow down before any authority, who does not take any principle on faith, whatever reverence that principle may be enshrined in." The peak of this social activism gave rise to a number of secret organisations, among them Land and Liberty, People's Revenge, and the Circle of Tchaikovsky. The Circle was founded in St. Petersburg during student unrest in 1868-1869 as a group opposed to what they saw as the reckless violence of Sergey Nechayev. A literary society for self-education within the Medical Surgical Academy was the heart of the organization, the initial purpose of which was to share books and knowledge that had been banned in the Russian Empire. It included students Mark Natanson, V. M. Aleksandrov, and Anatoly Serdyukov, who were joined by Nikolai Tchaikovsky and Feofan Lermontov. Besides self-education, the circle's main tasks were to unite students of Petersburg and other cities, and conduct propaganda among workers and peasants with the purpose of fomenting a social revolution. The Tchaikovsky set higher moral standards for their members in the face of Nechayev's unscrupulousness. They had a negative attitude towards struggle for political freedoms, which, in their view, were only advantageous to the arising Russian bourgeoisie. These principles were formulated in the (Program for the circles of self-education and practical activity), put together by the Tchaikovtsy in late 1870 – early 1871. Activities One of the first tasks of the Tchaikovtsy was to organize the printing, publishing, and distribution of scientific and revolutionary literature with the help of publishers Nikolai Polyakov, Kozma Soldatyonkov, and others. These literary works included the first volume of Das Kapital by Karl Marx, and books by others including Nikolai Chernyshevsky, Nikolai Dobrolyubov, Alexander Herzen, Pyotr Lavrov, Vasili Bervi, Ferdinand Lassalle, Charles Darwin, and John Stuart Mill. In the summer of 1871, the circle