The author of the monograph is looking for the image of Russian society in the mirror of the events that shook the Russian Empire in the last years of the reign of Alexander II. The revolutionary terror of 1879-1881 is seen as a communication process, a kind of dialogue between terrorists and society. The study of the information field allows Y. Safronova to tell not only about the attitude of society to the problem of terrorism, but also about the change in Russian society itself, which has sharply felt the murderous power of dynamite.