In 1878 the jury declared the terrorist Vera Zasulich "not guilty." She made an attempt of assassination on St. Petersburg's Governor Trepov. She took revenge for his order to whip one imprisoned revolutionary for his refusal to take off his hat in Trepov's presence. Ivan Turgenev dedicated to her the poem "Threshold." The contemporaries considered the poem an anthem for a newly appeared social force in Russia. What formed those people's mentality and what was the reason for their popularity?