This book represents a much revised and expanded version of the second part of my MA thesis, ‘The social composition and structure of the Socialist-Revolutionary party, and its activity amongst the Russian peasantry, 1901–1907’ (University of Birmingham, 1971). I am most grateful to my colleagues, both past and present, in the Centre for Russian and East European Studies at Birmingham, who have taken a constant interest in the progress of my work and provided me with so much valuable advice. Professor R. E. F. Smith, Professor R. W. Davies, and Dr Moshe Lewin have read and commented on various drafts. Professor Teodor Shanin, now of the University of Manchester, and Dr David Lane, now of the University of Cambridge, encouraged me in the early stages of the research. My work on the original thesis was supported by an SSRC studentship.

Research visits have been paid to the British Museum in London, the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam and the Lenin Library in Moscow, and I should like to thank the staffs of these libraries for their assistance. The bulk of the research, however, has had to be done in Birmingham, and I am deeply indebted to Miss Barbara Ronchetti and her staff in the Inter-Library Loans section of the University Library and to Mrs Jennifer Brine of the Alexander Baykov Library, for their efforts on my behalf.