Lev Tikhomirov

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[edit] Lev Tikhomirov

Lev Tikhomirov (Лев Тихомиров in Russian)(1850-1922) was a Russian revolutionary and one of members on the Executive Commitee of the Narodnaya Volya.

Lev Tikhomirov was born in the Don province of Russia in 1850. As a student he was deeply influenced by the ideas of Sergei Nechayev and joined the People's Will group.

In 1880 there was strong disagreement in People's Will about the purposes of terrorism. One faction that included Nikolai Morozov and Olga Liubatovich, argued that the main objective was to force the government to grant democratic rights to the people of Russia. However, another faction, led by Tikhomirov, believed that it was possible for a small group of revolutionaries to use terrorism in order to directly capture power.

Olga Liubatovich and Nikolai Morozov strongly disagreed with the ideas of Lev Tikhomirov. They argued that this was an example of Jacobinism and would result in the kind of dictatorship that had taken place after the French Revolution. Liubatovich and Morozov left the organization and Tikomirov's views prevailed.

After the assassination of Alexander II Tikhomirov fled from Russia. Tikhomirov lived in several European countries and published biographies of Sophia Perovskaya, Andrei Zhelyabov and Nikolai Kibalchich.

In 1888 Tikhomirov apologized for his past revolutionary activities and was allowed to return to Russia. He now became an opponent of reform and became one of Russia's leading right-wing journalists. Lev Tikhomirov died in 1922.