Российское черносотенство и его место в прошлом и настоящем европейских популистских партий и движений

Abstract

The history of the prerevolutionary Russian Black Hundreds movement is an integral part of the general European history of populist parties and movements, especially of the far-right type. However, the European context of the Black Hundreds is not reflected in Russian and foreign historiography. This absence of a broader context for the study of the Black Hundreds constitutes a huge blank spot in our understanding of this complex and often contradictory political phenomenon. This article examines the groundbreaking possibilities of studying the Black Hundreds phenomenon in a European context of the history of populist parties and movements. A comparative approach to the study of the Black Hundreds movement would help us to understand many complexities of its history. By doing a comparative analysis of the Black Hundreds with other European far-right populist movements, we can trace elements of similarities and differences and determine elements of Russian uniqueness. The comparative approach helps us to avoid incorrect conclusions about the essence of the Black Hundreds movements. Incorrect conclusions include identifying the Black Hundreds with traditionalist counter-revolutionary movements from the time of the French and other democratic revolutions between 1770 and 1850 or with fascism, National Socialism and related ideologies in the 20th century. Instead, in many ways, the Black Hundreds movements were the forerunners of today’s mass European far-right populist parties and movements and even centrist and leftist populist parties. Populist parties are protest movements against traditional parties across the political spectrum. It is time to explore the Black Hundreds movement as part of the history of populism. Also through the comparative approach, one can determine the place of the Black Hundreds in the European-wide context of the history of European revolutionary, antirevolutionary, and counterrevolutionary movements, nationalism, the consolidation of ethnic and political nations, questions about the identity of individuals, strata, and societies, and the development of nationalist, separatist, autonomist, and regionalist parties and movements. Studying the Black Hundreds in a broad context has a huge current relevance and helps us to sort through the elements of mythmaking in the history of the Black Hundred phenomenon from its origins to the present day.