In January 1873 the St Petersburg Chaikovtsy assigned to Nikolai Charushin the task of informing affiliated circles that socialist propaganda among workers, the so-called rabochee delo, ought to take precedence over any other activities such as ‘self-education’. Describing his ‘diplomatic mission’, which was also intended to promote greater organizational uniformity, Charushin comments in some detail on the activities and personalities of affiliated and analogous circles in Moscow, Odessa, and Kiev. With regard to the membership of these circles he writes that in the Kiev branch Pavel Borisovich Akselrod (1850–1928) was the ‘most influential’ individual. In the case of the Odessa circle he refers to Solomon Chudnovskii as the ‘right hand’ of its leader Feliks Volkhovskii. From among the members of the Moscow branch he singles out Samuil Lvovich Kliachko (1850–1914) as ‘playing a prominent role’. The fact that all three were Jews points to a significant degree of Jewish participation in the network of Chaikovskii branch circles (filial'nye otdeleniia) extending from St Petersburg to other cities of European Russia.

As we elaborate on Charushin's appraisal of Kliachko, Chudnovskii, and Akselrod, we find indeed many other Jews who played an important role in the operation of the filial'nye otdeleniia. We shall discover as well that these circles were not merely the creations of St Petersburg Chaikovtsy. Although influenced by Natanson's circle and serving as ‘agencies’ of its knizhnoe delo, these branches originated and developed quite independently along the road which would lead them into the Chaikovskyist fold.