Russian revolutionary and a leading Narodnik.

Born to a family of serfs shortly before emancipation, Zhelyabov entered the law school at Novorossiysk University in Odessa but was expelled for his part in student disturbances of October 1871. He continued to be a member of revolutionary circles in Kiev and Odessa, being arrested for his activities but acquitted.

In June 1879 he took part in a congress of political terrorists and became an advocate of such a policy. He helped found the worker, student, and military arms of the extremist organization People's Will (Narodnaya Volya) and the newspaper of that organization in 1880 and wrote several of the organization's manifestos. One of the organizers of the assassination of Alexander II (March 1 【March 13】, 1881), he was arrested on February 27 (March 11), demanded to be tried together with his subsequently captured compatriots, and was found guilty and executed.