In 1885 Zhitlowsky tried to found a Jewish section of the illegal Narodnya Volya party, but the Jews in the central committee of the Narodnya Volya who believed in cosmopolitanism and assimilation defeated the Zhitlowsky project. This was a severe blow for the young Jewish revolutionary. His grandfather consoled him, pointing out the revolutionary character of the prophets, and of the great Jewish intellects of the later times. This quickened Zhitlowsky's interest in Jewish history. At the St. Petersburg Imperial Library he found books he needed, and soon he established contact with a St. Petersburg group of the Narodnaya Volya.