Nihilists were members of a political organisation which found its most numerous supporters in Russia. They carried on their work in secret and had representatives in all classes of society.

They have been regarded as the moving spirits in many of the conspiracies and assassinations which were so frequent in Russia, their activity being greater than ever during the troubles subsequent to the Russo-Japanese war.

How far the Nihilists were responsible for the assassination of Czar Alexander II, in 1881, and the numerous subsequent assassinations of authoritative persons (including that of the Grand Duke Sergius) will probably never be fully known.

The Nihilists were a powerful obstructive force to autocracy. Since the overthrow of the Russian Autocracy in Russia in 1917 we hear little or nothing of Nihilists or Nihilism.