In 1879, the revolutionary organization "Land and Liberty" split due to internal disagreements. Most of the movement's leaders supported political terror. From its remnants arose Plekhanov's "Black Repartition" and the purely terrorist "People's Will." The primary goal declared by the People's Will was the assassination of the emperor. It was members of the "People's Will" who would be connected to all subsequent assassination attempts on Alexander II. Now the tsar was opposed not by lone individuals, but by an organization determined and ruthless. The target was set as the imperial train. Two locations were chosen for the explosion. One of the People's Will leaders, Andrei Zhelyabov, posing as a merchant, acquired a plot supposedly for building a factory near the railway by the city of Alexandrovsk (now the city of Zaporizhzhia) and planted a bomb there. Nearby Moscow, at the Rogozhskaya-Simonovskaya outpost, another group of terrorists settled in the house of a track inspector. The plan was carried out by Lev Hartman and Sofya Perovskaya, who, posing as a married couple, bought a house on the outskirts of Moscow and set up an entire laboratory there, then under the pretext of repairs organized a tunnel under the railway track to secretly plant a bomb, although this involved significant expenses.

On November 19, 1879, Alexander II, with his retinue, was returning after a summer vacation in Crimea. This time, the gendarmerie and police were cautious. Both imperial trains — the one with the retinue going first, and the one with the royal family following — changed their route and instead of the usual path through Odessa, went via Alexandrovsk, arriving there on November 18, 1879. Zhelyabov's explosive device did not detonate, and the tsar's train continued its journey. On November 19, at the Rogozhskaya-Simonovskaya outpost, the bomb exploded exactly when the militants intended. It went off under the fourth carriage of the second train. However, the People's Will members did not know that from Kharkov the imperial train had moved ahead of the retinue train, and instead of Alexander II's carriage, a carriage used as a fruit storage was blown up. Fate favored the Russian emperor — that day he not only survived but was completely unharmed.

It would seem that the entire security system should have been devoted to protecting the emperor's life, but nothing of the sort happened. Prince Golitsyn, after the railway assassination attempt, noted that the emperor's life might be at risk due to the laziness and passivity of the people around him, who did not take all measures for his protection. The prince also said that there were too many people near the emperor who kissed his hand but were ready to betray him. Alexander was seriously upset and exclaimed in frustration: "What do these wretches have against me? Why do they pursue me as if I were a wild beast?"

Sources:

https://histrf.ru/read/articles/okhota-na-osvoboditielia-piat-faktov-iz-istorii-pokushienii-na-alieksandra-ii

https://sputnikipogrom.com/history/52094/the-emperor-hunt/

https://www.bbc.com/russian/russia/2014/04/140417_russian_empire_terror