 Nikoladze declined the offer because at that time his views were closer with the Russian revolutionary democrats, Nikolai Chernyshevsky and Nikolay Dobrolyubov, whom he had met in St. Petersburg.While in Europe, he briefly collaborated with Aleksandr Herzen in his influential newspaper, "Kolokol" ("The Bell"), in 1865, but Nikoladze soon broke with Herzen when the latter sent a reconciliatory open letter to the tsar.Back in his native Georgia, he became involved in national-liberation movement inspired by Georgia’s most famous intellectual of that time Prince Ilia Chavchavadze though Nikoladze’s relations with Chavchavadze were not always easy.