Commoners are historically the bulk of the population who are neither members of the nobility nor of the clergy. They were the third of the Three Estates of the Realm in medieval Europe, consisting of peasants and artisans. With the rise of the bourgeoisie during the Late Middle Ages, an intermediate class of wealthy commoners developed, ultimately giving rise to the modern middle classes. After the French Revolution, the Napoleonic wars and with industrialization, the division in three estates, nobility, clergy and commoners, had become obsolete, and in communist theory, society was now divided into capitalists on one hand, and the proletariat or the masses on the other. In Marxism, the people are considered to be the creator of history. By using the word "people", Marx did not gloss over the class differences, but united certain elements, capable of completing the revolution. The sympathy for the common people gained strength in 19th century in many countries. For example, in Imperial Russia a big part of the intelligentsia was striving for its emancipation. Several great writers (Nekrasov, Herzen, Tolstoy etc.) wrote about sufferings of the common people. Some organizations, parties and movements arose, proclaiming to the liberation of the people: "", "People’s Will", and others in the 19th century, "Party of Popular Freedom", "People's Socialist Party" and others at the beginning of 20th century.
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