REVOLUTION FROM THE RIGHT: THE RUSSIAN BLACK HUNDREDS MOVEMENT AND ITS PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF EUROPEAN FAR RIGHT PARTIES AND MOVEMENTS Part II-I: the Black Hundred understanding of Russianness in the general European context of the history of nationalism and the consolidation of nations: origins and development of varieties of nationalism in the Russian Empire and Europe

Abstract

This series of articles investigates the Black Hundreds’ understanding of Russianness in the general European context of the history of nationalism. In brief, Russianness is the totality of nationally specific characteristics that define Russians as Russians and that distinguish Russians from other peoples. Through Russianness, according to the Black Hundreds, Russians should form a cohesive, selfidentifying community united in loyalty to the triple formula “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality”. The Black Hundred understanding of Russianness strongly differed from the definition of Russianness by other Russian nationalists of the period. Several historians have noted that the Black Hundreds’ definition of a “true Russian” indicated not an ethnic but rather a political affiliation - loyalty to the triple formula “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality”. The Black Hundreds’ understanding of Russianness had contradictory applications. The Black Hundreds emphasized the allembracing nature of the Russian people and considered many members of the non-Russian peoples as members of the Russian nation. However, they also excluded entire categories of Russians from the ranks of the Russian people and divided the non-Russian peoples of the Empire into the categories of “friendly to Russia” and “hostile to Russia”. The Black Hundreds also often used eschatological themes of demonization of external and especially internal enemies of Russia and the Russian people. Note that the Black Hundreds followed general European trends in political eschatology. It is important to note that the debates about Russianness were an integral part of the general European process of the consolidation of both ethnic and political nations against the background of competing understandings of identity of individuals, groups, and societies. The articles will give a comparative analysis of the Black Hundreds’ concept of Russianness with the concepts of Frenchness in the French Revolution and Germanness in Nazi Germany. The articles’ theme has a huge contemporary relevance in light of debates about national identities and values in the Russian Federation and many European countries.