He was in that respect is a representative of his movement (Narodniks). Russian revolutionary movement in the mid 19th century consisted of 2 main parts - Zapadniks (Westernists) who was emphasizing technical aspects of government&#x2F;society&#x2F;economy organization and transition and Narodniks <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Narodniks" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Narodniks</a> who was more about organic transition through build-up from the bottom, through enlightenment of the regular, poor, people. Narodniks almost wanted to see what was happening in Japan as a kind of such revolution.<p>The Narodniks were also pretty close or overlapped on many issues with Slavophils - where ideas were of building up upon supposedly great intrinsic national qualities of Russian&#x2F;Slavic people (again in many cases it was in opposition to the idea of following Western civilization). Such principle - only replacing Russian&#x2F;Slavic with Japanese - was also very close to the corresponding political movement in Japan then.