A group of agrarian socialists in Russia devoted to radical reform and government by small economic units resembling village communes. The movement was active in the latter half of the 19th century, first under the name of Land and Liberty, when members such as Herzen, Bakunin, Lavrov, Plekhanov, and Chernyshevsky advocated the overthrow of the Tsarist regime, being dissatisfied with government reforms; radicals were soon persecuted by the police. In 1879 the most radical wing of the Populist group re-formed under the name of the People’s Will Movement and began to adopt terrorist tactics that culminated, two years later, in the assassination of Alexander II.