“BASIC PROVISIONS OF PEOPLE’S MONARCHIST UNIONS” AS A STRATEGY OF NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: ON THE QUESTION OF ASTRAKHAN RIGHTISTS’ PROPOSALS FOR THE PRESERVATION OF STATEHOOD (beginning of the 20th century)

Abstract

This article discusses the main provisions proposed by the Astrakhan People’s Monarchist Party in the political realities of the First World War in order to prevent a revolutionary crisis. The crisis phenomena growing in wartime conditions in the late Russian Empire required the development of a national development strategy to prevent a possible catastrophe. The Astrakhan People’s Monarchist Party, represented by the chairman N.N. Tikhanovich-Savitsky, offered the views in this direction. The document, called “Basic Provisions of the People’s Monarchist Unions”, contained the positions of the Astrakhan rightists on the main problems of the state system.
 
 The main purpose of this study is to analyze the conceptual positions of the Astrakhan People’s Monarchist Party in the context of a rather difficult war for Russia. Materials and methods. Based on the analysis of archival stock materials and programmatic sources using historical-genetic, retrospective and problematic methods, the main directions of the positions of provincial conservative forces, which carry the paradigm of further national development, are considered.
 
 Research results. The position of the Astrakhan People’s Monarchist Party on the issues of the system of supreme government, the role and place of elected representative institutions, in which the party, professing right-wing conservative views, connected the existence and further development of the Russian state with the preservation of autocratic power as meeting its spirit, was studied. The fundamental views of this party on the religious issue, the problems of education and upbringing, and foreign policy were studied. The proposals of the Astrakhan right in ensuring the country’s defense capability, determining the main directions of economic policy in the pre-revolutionary year are analyzed. The demands of the provincial right-wing conservatives to introduce universal conscription, ensure the country’s military-technical sovereignty, develop its own agricultural and industrial production, and expand the domestic market were seen as the basis of the country’s independence. Conclusions. The conclusion is made about the nature of the main provisions of the people’s monarchist unions proposed by the Astrakhan People’s Monarchist Party as measures to preserve the Russian statehood and national development strategy.