The role of M. M. Vinaver in political communities of the first-wave emigrants

Abstract

This article analyzes the activity of the politician, former deputy of the First State Duma of the Russian Empire from the Cadet Party – M. M. Vinaver (1862 – 1926) during the period of emigration. Leaning on the materials from the personal archive of Maxim Vinaver stored in the State Archive of the Russian Federation, memoir of his contemporaries, as well as the achievements of modern historiography on the topic, the author explores the role of M. M. Vinaver in the work of such political anti-Bolshevist liberal organizations of the first-wave emigrants as the Crimean Regional Government, Russian Society of the League of Peoples, Russian Democratic Association, as well as private-held sessions of the former members of the Constituent Assembly. The scientific novelty of this research consists in gaining historical experience of the formation and evolution of anti-Bolshevist liberal political projects and acquiring historical knowledge on the emigrated political elite of the Russian Empire during the transition historical period. The research result lies in tracing the evolution of views of the politician on the methods, strategies and form of struggle against the Bolsheviks; as well as in the analysis of his projects on reconstruction of the Russian State based on the legal principles of civil society, as well as some of his psychological characteristics. The author indicates the active participation and crucial role of Maxim Vinaver in life of the white émigré overall and its political liberal organizations in particular.