Political Emigration Research Articles

Social and political activity of Mikhail Rostovtzeff in emigration through his correspondence with Pyotr Struve

Mikhail Rostovtzeff, an eminent classicist, occupied a pivotal role not only within the academic milieu of the Russian Diaspora but also in the years preceding and following his departure from Russia in 1918. His activities were especially noteworthy during the initial years of emigration. The State Archive of the Russian Federation holds copies of four documents from the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace (Leland Stanford Junior University) that illustrate the close relationship Rostovtzeff maintained with his like-minded colleague Pyotr Struve, one of the leaders of the Russian political emigration at the turn of the 1910s and early 1920s. Furthermore, the documents demonstrate Rostovtzeff’s active involvement in advancing anti-Bolshevik initiatives within the United States. Despite the apparent futility of his anti-Bolshevik efforts, Rostovtzeff nevertheless endeavoured to fulfill his public obligation through active engagement in social life abroad. This entailed offering aid to colleagues confronting daunting circumstances, cultivating and sustaining ties with the political milieu, particularly in the realm of foreign affairs, within the United States. The article introduces a previously unexplored correspondence between Rostovtzeff and Struve, providing insights not only into the lives of these scholars but also into the historical context of Soviet-American relations prior to the formal establishment of diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union and the United States.

RISORGIMENTO'S ECHOES IN THE SOUTHWESTERN KRAI DURING THE 1860s IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN EUROPE

The article emphasises that during the nineteenth century, the processes of the rise of national movements in Europe, which led to large-scale transformations in international relations, were reflected in the territory of Dnipro Ukraine, and of particular interest is their impact on the public life of Kyiv, Podillia and Volyn provinces, where the Polish socio-cultural presence was traditionally significant. After the November Uprising of 1830-1831, Polish political emigration influenced the formation of Polonophile sentiments in Europe and the actualisation of the Polish question in the activities of European diplomacy, parliaments, and press. The echoes of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's noble democracy were embodied in the Polish national liberation struggle, the uprisings against Russian autocracy in 1830-1831 and 1863-1864, the role of Polish emigrants in the socio-political processes of Western European and Balkan countries, and, above all, in the events of “the Springtime of Nations” of 1848-1849. The study of the documents of the Office of Kyiv, Podillya and Volyn Governor-General at the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in Kyiv, which were first introduced to scientific circulation, sheds light on the rise of patriotic sentiments and resistance to Russian autocracy among the local Polish population against the background of intensification of national liberation movements in Europe during the nineteenth century, the emergence of new states on the political map – Greece (1830), Belgium (1830), Romania (1861), completion of the unification of Italy (1871) and creation of the German Empire (1871), and the state and legal transformation of the Austrian (since 1867 – Austro-Hungarian) monarchy. First of all, it is about the influence of information about the events of the Risorgimento and the related intensification of Polish emigration in Europe on the public life of the Southwestern region of the Russian Empire in the 1860s. The unification of Italy was a significant process in the context of the dismantling of the Vienna system of international relations that was initiated by the results of the Eastern War of 1853-1856. In general, it was about a set of international political processes and phenomena that influenced the balance of power on the continent. Italy's geopolitical position determined its key role in the struggle of the great European powers for control over the Mediterranean, powerful military, trade and economic leverage at the intersection of strategically important sea routes between the West and the East.

Советская пропаганда и прометейцы (1917–1939 гг.)

The history of Soviet propaganda is a less-studied problem, including in relation to the international political emigration that left the former Russian Empire after the Bolsheviks came to power in 1917. The article uses the textual research method to analyze a number of archival data and materials of the Soviet press introduced into scientific circulation for the first time. The main conclusion is that Promethean criticism of the Kremlin’s domestic and foreign policies was effective and had an influence on the European public opinion.

Secret committee of high political surveillance in Russia and Polish emigration (1837–1839)

The article analyzes the history of the creation and the activities of the «Secret committee of high political surveillance» (1837–1839) – the Russian interdepartmental body of international policing in the era of tsar Nicholas I, which is unknown in the historical literature. The paper introduces the minutes of the sessions of this body and the interdepartmental correspondence attached to them from The State Archive of The Russian Federation (GARF). These sources expand on the Russian empire’s system of international policing and highlight the Polish emigration’s history from the viewpoint of the Russian secret police, which wasn’t sufficiently covered in the historiography of the Polish national movement. The Committee examined intelligence on the Polish political emigration, which was formed after the failure of the November Uprising of 1830–1831 in Congress Poland. Alexander Benckendorf, the chief of the III Section of His Imperial Majesty’s Own Chancellery, was the chairman of this committee. The representatives of the War and Foreign Ministries took part in its meetings. The Committee corresponded with Congress Poland’s viceroy Ivan Paskevich and with the governors of the border provinces of Russia, as well as with the Prussian and Austrian authorities. The analysis of the minutes from the sessions of this committee shows that this body was exclusively consultative. It was an attempt to create a unified interdepartmental system of intelligence exchange on the activities of the Polish emissaries.

The Spanish Communist Exiles and Consentful Contention in State Socialist Czechoslovakia

This study focuses on the issue of the Spanish Communist exile in state socialist Czechoslovakia. It analyses the everyday resistance of the heterodox Spanish political emigrant José Valledor, which was carried out in the form of consentful contention – a tactic, through which a subordinate actor contests the government’s decisions whilst performing the role of a dutiful citizen. Valledor was able, with his petitions to the state organs while appealing to the regime’s own legitimating value system, to threaten the Czechoslovak authorities with the loss of the regime’s international prestige.

SFRJ, SAD i hapšenje jednog hrvatskog emigranta 1980. godine

The article examines the arrest of Croatian political emigrant Mirko Markotić in May 1980 and its ramifications on Yugoslav-American relations. It delves into the legal and political dimensions of this case, primarily drawing from archival materials sourced from the Archives of Yugoslavia and the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia.

Comunişti români în Arhivele Cominternului. Noi informaţii, I

The article brings to attention some of the results of the research carried out by the author in the former Comintern Archives (now the Russian State Archives of Social-Political History / RGASPI) in Moscow, which contain thousands of files containing very important documents for the knowledge of the history of contemporary Romania.Particularly interesting is the information that the author extracts from the archives of the Representation of the Romanian Communist Party to the Comintern and its correspondence with Romanian communists and political emigrants, from the fonds on the participation of Romanian volunteers in the internationalist brigades in Spain (1936-1938) or the tragic fate of leading Romanian communists and political emigrants who were executed during the Great Stalinist Terror of 1936-1938. Last but not least, documents on anti-fascist propaganda and `re-education` work among Romanian prisoners held (in 1941-1956) in NKVD camps and for their recruitment into the USSR's post-war foreign agents are brought to light.

Veliki čudež malega jezika

With Slovenia’s entry to the EU in May 2004 Slovene became one of the EU’s 21 official languages, a figure that has now grown to 23. Thus for the first time in history the entire autochthonous language area found itself in the same legal framework. Only the Slovenian minority in Istria and social and political emigrants outside Europe remained outside this framework. Within the linguistic-political framework of the EU Slovene has experienced its most extensive functional expansion. With this background I seek to outline the centrifugal and centripetal forces in the formation of a common (literary) language and culture. In so doing I will not quote new factographic data, nor will I repeat generally known findings, instead I will attempt to change the perspective on selected linguistic and culturological facts. Rather than a mental concept focused on finding original purity, monolinguism and unidirectionality in development, I bring to the fore the dynamic relationships of intercultural diversity, regional transience and the mutual interweaving of diverse elements. Unfortunately, within this framework I will not be able to pursue all of the complexities of development, and in the interest of the greater clarity I will not be able to avoid certain simplifications.

Ukraińscy emigranci polityczni w Kaliszu i Piotrkowie Trybunalskim w latach 1920–1930 w świetle źródeł archiwalnych

In this article, the author considered the fate of Ukrainian political emigrants in the socio-economic life of Kalisz and Piotrków Trybunalski in the 1920s and 1930s. Apart from mentions in general works and articles about Ukrainian political emigration in Poland, there are several special studies devoted to Kalisz and Piotrków Trybunalski. This study was conducted primarily on the basis of documents processed by the author in the state archives of Lodz and Piotrków Trybunalski.

Повсякденна діяльність членів «Стамбульської платформи» упродовж 1929-35 рр.

The daily activities of the members of the illegal residency of the UPR Central Committee in exile ‘Istanbul Platform’ during 1929-35 consisted of various aspects: domestic, social, and public. However, a red thread through the daily life of representatives of the Ukrainian political emigration in Istanbul was intelligence work, which still impresses researchers not only with the ambitiousness of intentions, plans, and tasks, but also with the professionalism and skill of their implementation. Especially given the fact that none of the members of the residency had previously been a professional intelligence officer and had no previous practical experience in the special services. Being under the close supervision of Soviet agents, without funding and the necessary means, without permanent and reliable channels of communication with their curators, members of the Istanbul Platform had to not only integrate into the life of the local community in Istanbul, establish their daily routine, and not cause discontent with the Turkish migration service, but also carry out intelligence, educational and propaganda activities. Every day, they resorted to new, creative methods; they used all available opportunities and skills in confronting Soviet agents.

С.Д. Димитров – герой не нашего времени

Although the fate of S. D. Dimitrov (1904–1938) began to attract the researchers’ attention only recently, it is very demonstrative for the history of our country in the 1920–30s. S. D. Dimitrov was born in Bulgaria into a working-class family; he took part in the revolutionary movement in his early ages, and joined the Communist Party. After taking part in the armed uprising of 1923, he had to leave Bulgaria, and emigrated to the USSR in 1925. He studied at the Communist University and then at the Institute of Red Professors, where he specialized in the history of the revolutionary movement in Bulgaria and the history of the Communist International. After completing his studies, on November 1, 1934, he was admitted to the Institute for the History of Feudal Society at the State Academy for the History of Material Culture (SAHMC). There began his rapid promotion through the ranks. S. D. Dimttrov became a deputy director of the Institute, and the acting director in November 1936. Despite the obvious lack of special knowledge, he was actively involved in the archaeological study of the Crimea, headed the Crimean Commission of the SAHMC and the Eski-Kermen expedition (1936). He was entrusted with the preparation of the Crimean plenum of the SAHMC, which was supposed to unite all the scholarly efforts of the Soviet Union interested in studying the history and culture of the Crimea. This plenum did not take place, and the SAHMC ceased to exist in 1937. S. D. Dimitrov was arrested soon and charged with belonging to an anti-Soviet Trotskyist organization that existed in Leningrad among Bulgarian political emigrants. He was sentenced to death and shot on September 23, 1938; exonerated on April 4, 1956.

Гросс-Гессенское викариатство РПЦЗ при архиепископе Филофее (Нарко) 1946–1949 гг.

The article studies the creation and development of the Gross-Hessen Diocese of Vicar of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCOR) in the years of 1946-1949. It is noted that at the end of the 2nd World War on the territory of Western zones of occupation in Germany, thousands of Orthodox refugees were in need of pastoral and spiritual care and guidance. Synod of ROCOR decided to form a set of vicar’s dioceses, so that in the region of Gross-Hessen, the one was established and was headed by the bishop of the Belarusian Autonomous Orthodox Church by Archbishop Philofei (Narko). Contrary to financial and other social difficulties, the Vicar managed to organize regular liturgical life and largely unite different Orthodox parishes of the Displaced Persons. Some organizational decisions made by Archbishop Philofei are analyzed. In particular, the decision was made to hold regular meetings of the clergy, to form an advisory body under the Vicar Bishop (Vicarian Council in Wiesbaden). The Archbishop organized with success distribution of food assistance to parishes of his diocese in the economically difficult 1949.Based on original documents preserved in the Archives of the German Diocese of the ROCOR, the author provides statistics on the number of parishes, specific names of the clergy who developed parishes in Wiesbaden, where the residence and the Cathedral of Vicar was established, in Darmstadt, Frankfurt, Menhegoff, Furstenwald, Gudensberg and in other places were discovered. The problems that prevented a successful development of the liturgical and out-service life of the Vicar’s diocese are studied, namely: lack of clergy after mass departure of priests and parishioners from Germany to countries of the Western Hemisphere in 1947-1949; conflict over activities of the Orthodox Missionary Group of Hessen-Nassau; problem of the development of Belarusian parishes due to desire of part of the Belarusian political emigration to strengthen the autocephalous movement. Comparative analysis of the activities of the Vicar’s bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, activities of the North German Bishop Afanasy (Martos) and the Grossen-Hessen’s Archbishop Philofei (Narko) is carried out.

Українські політичні емігранти в суспільному, господарському і культурному житті Ченстохови, Пйотркува-Трибунальського, Торуня, Каліша та Тухолі в 1920–1930-х роках

The fate of Ukraine is intertwined with the fate of Poland to a greater extent than that of other nations. There are many alliances and friendships in Ukrainian-Polish history. On April 22, 1920, the Ukrainian-Polish union was concluded. Thus, the story of the Ukrainian regular armed forces ended. Ukrainian political emigrants in Poland in the 1920s and 1930s tried to take a decent place in the social and economic life of their place of residence. The authors deal with the issue of a Ukrainian army emigration to be found active in the territory of Poland in the interwar period (from 1920 to the outbreak of World War II). He shows the context and circumstances of its appearance in the Republic of Poland, as a result of the Ukrainian People’s Republic army activity and Symen Peltura’s cooperation with Józef Piłsudski. The authors characterize the way the army emigration functioned within the reality of the Polish nation covering various aspects, a developed cultural and educational structure among others. Based on a comprehensive analysis of modern Ukrainian historiography of the problem, the authors note the necessity of further historiographical research.

Historiographical views of the Anti-Hetman uprising (November–December 1918) during the period of 1918–1991

Even though the Anti-Hetman uprising (November-December of 1918) was a short-term and brief military conflict nevertheless, it had a significant impact on the course of the Ukrainian revolution and gained some place in historiography. A characteristic feature of historiography dedicated to the Ukrainian revolution is that part was created by Ukrainian political emigration abroad (in the atmosphere of ideological discussion between different Ukrainian parties), and another part – in the Soviet Union under the pressure of censorship and communist ideology. Accordingly, the depiction of events of the Ukrainian Revolution both in the home country and abroad is significantly ideologized. This is also due to the Anti-Hetman uprising (November-December of 1918). The depiction of this event in historiography throughout the 20th century serves as a notable illustration of how historical narratives can be used as instruments in political and ideological struggles, and in turn, demonstrates how political contention influences the formation of scholarly historical literature.The article highlights and provides an overview of the various perspectives on the Anti-Hetman Uprising in domestic historiography from the conclusion of the conflict until 1991. It examines the evolution and changes in these perspectives throughout the mentioned period. The article also sheds light on the major shifts and trends in approaches to studying this event during different periods of the 20th century. It analyzes the role and influence of political factors in shaping the historical narrative regarding the Anti-Hetman Uprising, as well as identifies the interplay between the political context of the time and historiographical debates.

Подолання суспільного страху як один із чинників боротьби за незалежність України

The article defines the concepts of „public fear” and „Russian Bolshevism”. After the Russian Bolsheviks seized power in Ukraine, the Ukrainian SSR was proclaimed with the aim of subduing the public space of Ukraine and penetrating the territories of neighbouring countries where Ukrainians lived, for subversive purposes. A criminal body, the All-Ukrainian Extraordinary Commission, was established to subdue the Ukrainian population and take over its economy. The main methods used in the struggle against the Ukrainian population were the introduction of the institution of ‘hostage-taking’; the institution of denunciation; extrajudicial executions; evictions from Ukrainian territory; the fragmentation of the population on social and national grounds; the physical destruction of opponents and those who resisted the regime; the use of a genocidal system of punishment such as the Holodomor against the Ukrainian peasantry, resulting in the deaths of millions of people. The systemic crisis in the USSR, access to education, the resistance of the Ukrainian intelligentsia to Russification and the fragmentation of society and access to information were the main factors in overcoming social fear. The combined efforts of internal opposition to the Soviet regime and Ukrainian political emigration led to the collapse of the USSR and the restoration of Ukrainian independence.

Павло Скоропадський: прибічник консерватизму чи політик-реаліст?

The purpose of the work is to fi nd out the perception of P. Skoropadsky’s policy dur- ing the leadership of Ukraine in 1918 in the context of its attribution to one of the trends of political thought known at the time, which was expressed in the refl ection of the participants of those events on the example of the analysis of their memories and propaganda texts, created in the environment of Ukrainian political emigration. Th is will make it possible to more accurately understand the true purpose and probable results of P. Skoropadsky’s political course, which were not implemented due to the short-term management of Ukraine in 1918. Th e research methodology is primarily based on special scientifi c (characteristic of historical discourse) methods, namely: comparative- historical, historical-typological, as well as general scientifi c methods of analysis, induction, deduc- tion, synthesis, structural-systemic, etc. Th e principles of research are non-political, objective, and scientifi c. Th e scientifi c novelty lies in a new approach and a modern “reading” of the content of P. Skoropadsky’s political activities and views, which allows for strengthening the research of the Hetmanate period, giving them a further fl ow and a new, modern content, considering the interdisciplinary approach, which consists in combining the data of historical science, philosophy, psychology, and political science. Conclusions. Th e initial apoliticalness of P. Skoropadsky and the fact that his life credo was following common sense, and innate pragmatism due to signifi cant life experience are substantiated. All these brought him closer to the position of those few Ukrainian political circles that professed conservative political doctrine. But he remained a man of common sense and a pragmatist, which, in the conditions of the marginality of Ukrainian conservatism itself, logically determined his separation from many of his associates, as well as the transition of some of them to the ranks of radical political currents.

György Márkus, 75% mensch: On the occasion of the publication of the English version of How Is Critical Economic Theory Possible?

In this article I give an overall interpretation of the development of the Budapest School in Australia as political emigres, who initially worked and wrote in Melbourne and Sydney until the final years when Heller and Feher moved on to New York in the mid-1980s and then back to Budapest in 1993. The translation of How Is Critical Economic Theory Possible? has allowed us to better grasp the motivations and theoretical innovations of the Budapest School, to appreciate their internal disputes and to recognise fundamental continuities and difference in these two key thinkers. This book was a gallant retrieval of democratic potentials in Marx. It excavated Marx’s own appreciation of needs produced by, and critical of, the alienations of the capitalist system. Ultimately, this early work was unable to realise its ambition to educate the diverse progressive movements of the times. I will show later that the retrieval of progressive potentials took a more social democratic form in the work of Maria Márkus on needs as she encountered them later in the Hawke Labor Government of Australia from 1983. Introducing the world media to the Budapest School in The Times Literary Supplement on 15 February 1971, Lukács described Márkus as ‘75% mensch’. When Lukács first met him, George already had his own philosophical interests, which he would bring with him when he became a key figure in ‘the Budapest School’. Márkus had studied in Moscow where he wrote his dissertation on the topic History and Consciousness and met his Polish wife, Maria. George used to modestly say that he was an expert only on the works of Karl Marx. That was despite that he had taught the history of modern philosophy at Eotvös Loránd University to Hungary’s most promising philosophers for a decade and later to philosophy students at Sydney University for the next 20 years. In the early 1970s, George invited Janos Kis and György Bence to work on his next project that would become the Hungarian version of Überhaupt, which was to become How Is Critical Economic Theory Possible? The new English translation published by Brill this year opens this important rethinking of the work of Marx to an international readership.

The regulation of international migration in the Cold War: a synthesis and review of the literature

ABSTRACT For a long time, research on international migration during the Cold War maintained that a rigid distinction existed between political emigration, generated by the ideological conflict between liberalism and communism, and labour migration, which was determined by transformations in the capitalist world economy. This article challenges that assumption on several grounds. It starts from the premise that the Cold War was primarily a competition between the capitalist and communist projects of development. It ascribes to this rivalry the establishment of the international system regulating migration as a terrain of ideological confrontation in the early postwar period, and its evolution into one of convergence over development strategies since the 1970s. It reviews both the literature on labour migration to/in Western Europe and the recent studies exploring how socialist Europe also relied on foreign labour recruitment to achieve development. It brings these findings in conversation with research that examines the expansion of economic cooperation between Eastern and Western Europe during the long 1970s. It shows that, in this context, the distinction between economic migrant and political refugee continued to justify the erection of wired walls, this time between an enlarging European Union and the Global South.

Neprijateljska propaganda, napadi na organe reda i propagandno delovanje stranih obaveštajnih službi u socijalističkoj Jugoslaviji 1953–1973.

The article analyzes the enemy propaganda and the violation of public order and peace, as well as the secret services’ propaganda activities as a form of resistance and subversion towards the regime in Serbia and Yugoslavia by the early 1970s. With illegal forms of active resistance eradicated until the beginning of the 1950s, dissatisfaction mostly manifested itself through an increased number of enemy propaganda acts and the attacks on law and order authorities. Unlike those from the time immediately after the war, the culprits of these deeds were to be found predominantly among the young people who grew up after the war, and who mostly originated from communist families. The phenomena to blame for “corrupting Yugoslav youth” were to a significant extent the activities of “foreign intelligence agencies”, as well as the activities of Yugoslav political emigration.

Repressed Utopias vs. Utopian Repressions: Czech Countercultural Communal Living Arrangements in the ‘Normalization’ Era (1970–1989)

The present contribution aims to examine this specific historic ‘Second World’ phenomenon — the communal living arrangements attempted by counterculturally minded, predominantly working-class youth in post-1968 Czechoslovakia, often (though not exclusively) in the former German Sudetenland — as an instance of the potentials and limitations associated with an attempt at a ‘mobile commons’ in 20th-century state socialism. Not only is the legacy of the Czech communes (baráky) an insufficiently researched historical topic, but even further, the placement of this phenomenon between its reflection of the American communal-utopian tradition in its 1960s forms, the emerging critique of industrial modernity, the growth of 20th-century ‘civil-society’ concepts, and the ‘Cold War’ mobilities across the Iron Curtain (intellectual-cultural autarky versus forced political emigration) forms a highly fruitful starting point for wider considerations. Examination of the Czech countercultural communal-living attempts within the social framework of the ‘normalization’ order of the 1970s and 1980s — state repression, socialist modernity, anti-public familialism — finds that their character as communities of refuge, rather than as deliberate planned experiments, places them at a particularly unique angle to the utopian vs. antiutopian debates, indeed even calling into question the very premises of this opposition.