The Narodniks (Russian: Наро́дники) were a socially-conscious movement of the Russian middle class in the 1860s and 1870s. Their ideas and actions were known as Narodnichestvo (Наро́дничество), which can be translated as "Peopleism", though it is more commonly rendered as "populism". The term itself derives from the Russian expression "Going to the people" (Хождение к народу).

The Narodnik position was held by intellectuals who read the works of Alexander Herzen and Nikolay Gavrilovich Chernyshevsky, whose convictions were refined by N.K. Mikhailovskij. In the late 19th century, Marxism and capitalism were slowly becoming the primary theories of Russian political thought, and Mikhailovskij, realizing this shift in thought, began to tweak his original ideas of Narodnism, forming two groups of Narodniks: the Critical Narodniks and the Doctrinaire Narodniks. Critical Narodniks followed Mikhailovskij, and assumed a flexible stance on capitalism, whilst adhering to their basic orientation. The more well-known Doctrinaire Narodniks had a firm belief that capitalism had no future in Russia, or any agrarian country.

John Townes Van Zandt (March 7, 1944 – January 1, 1997), best known as Townes Van Zandt, was an American Texas Country-folk music singer-songwriter, performer, and poet. Many of his songs, including "If I Needed You," "To Live is to Fly," and "No Place to Fall" are considered standards of their genre.

While alive, Van Zandt was labeled as a cult musician; though he had a small and devoted fanbase, he never had a successful album or single, and even had difficulty keeping his recordings in print. In 1983, six years after Emmylou Harris had first popularized it, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard covered his song "Pancho and Lefty," scoring a number one hit on the Billboard country music charts. Despite achievements like these, the bulk of his life was spent touring various dive bars, often living in cheap motel rooms, backwoods cabins, and on friends' couches. Van Zandt was notorious for his drug addictions,alcoholism, and his tendency to tell tall tales. When young, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and insulin shock therapy erased much of his long-term memory.

Patrick James Smyth (c. 1823–1885) "Nicaragua Smyth" was an Irish politician and journalist.

He was educated at Clongowes Wood College where he became friends with Thomas Francis Meagher, with whom he joined the Repeal Association in 1844. Following his involvement in the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848, Smyth fled to America where he worked as a journalist.

In 1853 Smyth, code named Nicaragua, planned and carried out the escape of John Mitchel from Van Diemen's Land.

Smyth was elected a Home Rule Party Member of Parliament (MP) for Westmeath at a by-election on 17 June 1871, and was reelected in 1874. At the 1880 general election, he did not seek re-election in Westmeath, but stood instead in Tipperary, where he was elected unopposed. He left the House of Commons at the end of 1884, when he was appointed as Secretary to the Irish Loan Fund Board.

In 1871 he was made chevalier of the Légion d'honneur.