Academic Periodical

The article considers an issue, understudied in the historiography, of the attitude of reformist Narordniks to people’s religious movements (Old Belief and sectarianism) in the second half of the XIX century. The paper outlines the main features of the ideology of “peaceful” Narodism and the reasons why Narodnik intelligentsia addressed the issue of religious nonconformists. The author also delineates the single intellectual area of Old Belief and sectarianism and the main concepts of the Narodnik worldview. Special attention is paid to the theories of social progress, developed by reformist Narordniks, determining the possibility of non-capitalist modernization in Russia in the second half of the XIX century.