Wikipedia
Beseda ( Russian for Symposium) was a clandestine discussion circle consisting of liberal " zemstvo men", among them the most prominent and grand names of the Russian aristocracy, formed in 1899. The members, which included among others Prince Lvov, met in the palace of the Princes Dolgorukov in Moscow, and initially restricted discussion strictly to the affairs of the zemstvos. After the persecution of the zemstvos was increased in 1900, when it dismissed several hundreds of liberals from the elected zemstvo boards, the circle was forced to confront political issues and questions. In the following two years, the Beseda would become the "leading force of the constitutionalist movement", with a wide spectrum of public men, from industrial magnates to civic leaders, supporting it, and its calls for reform.
The intelligentsia discussion group was formed in the wake of resumed persecution of the zemstvos after increased liberties during the Russian famine of 1891–92. The resumed persecution had also banned Dmitry Shipov's All-Zemstvo Organization, formed 1896 and closed shortly after, which drove him, "a reluctant revolutionary", into the circles of the radical constitutionalists.
One of the founders of the circle was Prince Sergei Nikolaevich Trubetskoy, a distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Moscow University.