Russian Revolutionary Democrats, representatives of the revolutionary movements and ideologists of peasant democracy, which emerged in the 1840s and became the leading force among social movements of the 1860s and 1870s. The key figures were V. G. Belinsky, A. I. Herzen and N. G. Chernyshevsky whom Lenin called "predecessors of Russian SocialDemocracy" (V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, 316 Vol.5, p. 370). Their common link with Russian Social-Democracy was revolutionary struggle against serfdom and the feudal monarchy, awareness of the transient nature of capitalism and the need to radically change all the socio-economic conditions in the country, and faith in inevitability of socialism. The revolutionary democrats combined the idea of a peasant revolution with ideas of Utopian Socialism. The ideologist of the democratic trend in the 1840s was V. G. Belinsky (1811-1848). Overcoming the obstacles of censorship he criticised serfdom and advocated changes in the country’s socioeconomic relations. Unlike other revolutionary democrats, he was deeply convinced of the inevitability of the capitalist stage in development of Russia, and aware that the bourgeois system was more progressive than the feudal system, and believed that the bourgeoisie had a role to play in eliminating the bounds of serfdom. Moreover, Belinsky wrote that Russia would not stop at the capitalist stage because capitalism had many vices, and would surely proceed ahead to socialism. He did not know the real way to establish socialism; his socialism was Utopian. However, his socialist ideas responded to the vital needs of Russia and were useful in the revolutionary class struggle against the feudal serf economy and in moving towards progressive new production relations. In the 1850s and 1860s revolutionary democratic ideas were put forward and publicised by A. I. Herzen (1812-1870) and N. P. Ogarev (1813-1877), who established a free Russian press abroad, in London. Their magazine Kolokol (The Bell) became the focus of struggle against serfdom in Russia. Herzen and Ogarev sharply criticised Russian serfdom, the principal reason for the country’s backwardness. Herzen called for the free takeover of all land by the peasants, and realised that this was only possible through revolution. Consequently, he was the ideologist of a peasant revolution. Lenin pointed out that Herzen "played a great part in paving the way for the Russian revolution" (V. I. Lenin, Collected Works, Vol.18, p. 25). Herzen criticised the Western capitalist system and its contradictions, and came to the conclusion that it would inevitably collapse and be replaced by socialism. However, he overlooked the historical role of capitalism, thought that Russia might not necessarily develop along the capitalist road; it was on this premise that he constructed his erroneous theory of "Russian socialism”. He wrongly believed that the Russian peasant village community was the embryo of socialism and the muzhik— the Russian peasant—would be the man of the future. Near the end of his life Herzen acknowledged the significance of the First International led by Marx, and of the class struggle waged by workers in the West. An eminent Russian pre-Marxian economist was N. G. Chernyshevsky (1828- 1889), the inspirer and spokesman of the peasantry which rose to fight serfdom. The magazine Sovremennik (The Contemporary) which he edited (1853-1862) was the centre of social and political struggle. Chernyshevsky profoundly and comprehensively criticised the feudal serf economy and pointed to democratic revolution as the only possible way of liberating the peasants. His economic programme included confiscation of the land from the landlords, nationalisation, and the transfer to communities. He believed that once it had acquired a new essence, the community would become the stronghold of socialism. Consequently, Chernyshevsky was the ideologist of peasant socialism, and a profound critic of capitalism with its many vices such as anarchy of production, competition, overproduction crises, exploitation of the working people, etc. Chernyshevsky believed that Russia would be able to avoid or at least reduce the duration of the stage of capitalism because capitalism was, in his view, a social form which was "wasteful for society”, which would cause its collapse. He correctly concluded that capitalism was of a transient nature, and believed that the transition to socialism was historically justified. But since he was not conscious of the objective ways of this transition, his socialism was Utopian. Chernyshevsky made a significant step forward in comparison with Western Utopian socialists because he saw class 317 struggle and revolution as leading the way to socialism. Marx appreciated Chernyshevsky as a brilliant critic of bourgeois political economy who competently exposed its bankruptcy (Karl Marx, Capital, Vol 1 pp. 24-25).