Small Deeds Theory

Abramovshchina, a doctrine proposed in Russia in the liberal-populist newspaper Nedelia (The Week) during the period of reaction of the 1880’s by the liberal-populist publicist Ia. V. Abramov. The advocates of the small deeds theory (I. I. Kablits, S. N. Iuzhakov, and S. N. Krivenko) called on the intelligentsia to enter zemstvo (local self-government) institutions and to work as teachers and doctors to serve the popular welfare. They advocated a program of improving the economic situation of the people through organizing people’s credit and insurance, aiding the purchase of land by the peasants, and disseminating improved agricultural implements. Rejecting “all violent improvement of social forms,” preaching “quiet cultural work,” the advocates of the small deeds theory strove to divert the progressive forces of society away from revolutionary activity. The theory was one of the symptoms of the ideological crisis of populism, its liberal degeneration.