Whatever the practical activities of its local groups, the official position of the "Zemlya i Volya" organization endorsed the tactic of terrorism, which the lead article in the first issue of the party's newspaper characterized as a "system of mob law and self-defense" put into action by a "protective detachment" of the liberation movement. The group also rationalized political assassination as "capital punishment" and "self-defense" for "crimes" against the nation. The organization began to look at regicide as the highest manifestation of political action, culminating in a December 1879 assassination attempt on Tsar Alexander II by the "Zemlevolets" A. K. Soloviev (1846–1879).