In the 70s of the XIX century, in connection with the activation of the revolutionary movement in Russia and the transition of narodnik organizations to the tactics of individual terror as one of the main forms of struggle against the government, the authorities developed and widely distributed a system of provocations. Until that time, there were no special names in the Russian language either for activities understood as provocation or for persons engaged in this activity. The words provocation and provocateur in their usual meanings are not reflected in explanatory dictionaries. In N. Yanovsky's" New Word Interpreter "(1803-1806), provocateur is"one of the names of gladiators armed with various weapons, opponents of hyplomachs". The word provocation entered the Russian language in the Petrine era (See N. A. Smirnov. "Dictionary of foreign words that entered the Russian language in the era of Peter the Great") in the meaning of "evocation". And this meaning ("challenge to a duel") is recorded by a number of Russian dictionaries of the second half of the XIX-early XX centuries. In the revolutionary environment, since the 70s of the XIX century, there has been a search for a name for the concept of "provocateur" from the synonymous series: spy, agent, agent - provocateur. The opinion that the modern meaning of the word provocateur was formed among revolutionaries already in the 70s (Granovskaya L. M. Razvitie leksiki russkogo literaturnogo yazyka v 70s gody XIX-nachala XX vv. (1917) / / Leksika russkogo literaturnogo yazyka XIX-nachala XX vv. Moscow, 1981) is not confirmed by our observations. Moreover, in the main documents of Narodnaya Volya of the late 70s and early 80s of the XIX century, the word provocateur is not used at all. The first fixation of its new meaning is noted in the third edition of the Dictionary of V. I. Dahl edited by A. I. Baudouin de Courtenay and is further indicated by many dictionaries of the beginning of the XX century. The first nominat ... Read more