Russian Revolutionary Movement Research Articles

Рецензия на монографию: Шаламов А. Ю. Московская полиция. 1905-1907. М.: Кучково поле, 2022. 560 с.: 8 л. ил.

The book under review covers the activities of the Moscow police during the First Russian Revolution, the structure and personnel composition of the Moscow police. This monograph will be useful to researchers focusing on the history of the Russian police, the Russian revolutionary movement, the modern history of Russia in the first half of the 20th century, educators teaching courses such as “History of Law Enforcement Agencies”, “History of Russia”, students, and a wide range of readers interested in the recent history of Russia.

«Фонд имени бывшего начальника Главного тюремного управления тайного советника А. М. Максимовского» (1907–1917): причины создания, деятельность, историческое значение

The purpose of this article is to study the activities of the “Foundation named after the former head of the Main prison department, privy councilor A. M. Maksimovsky”. Research objectives: to identify the reasons for the foundation’s creation, to analyze the main directions of its activities, to determine the list of persons who established this fund, to establish the historical significance of the foundation’s work. The chronological framework of the study is determined by the time of the existence of this charitable organization. The source base consists of unpublished office documents, reference sources, pre-revolutionary periodicals. Clerical documentation from two funds of the Central archive of the Nizhny Novgorod region was used: fund 386 “Nizhny Novgorod prison inspectorate” (1908–1918), fund 1952 “Balakhninsky district branch of the Prison trustee society”. The most important historical sources include reference materials on the highest and central state institutions of Russia (1801–1917), the pre-revolutionary periodical press — the journal of the Main prison administration called the “Prison bulletin”. The author came to the conclusion that “The Foundation named after the former head of the Main prison department, privy councilor A. M. Maksimovsky”, was created on the initiative of representatives of the political elite of the Russian empire. Its founders wanted not only to perpetuate the memory of A. M. Maksimovsky, who died while performing his official duty, but also, in the context of the growing revolutionary movement in Russia, to financially support the families of prison officers killed in their posts.

Women, political violence and economics

The participation of women in armed insurgencies calls into question a widespread belief that women are inherently more peace loving than men on account of their hard-wired caring disposition. To explain why women engage in political violence, existing research either ignores the fundamental collective action problem involved because of motivations focused on the value of the cause, or looks for selective incentives in the form of loot and appropriation, which often cannot be found. This paper offers a simple gendered model of the supply of violence that can account for both peaceful and violent choices and make sense of the apparent extremism of some choices as rational, not fanatical behaviour. Crucially, it regards the individual reward for violence as not material gain, but the possibility of women of breaking out of the cage of traditional gender roles and making a statement by their deeds, thereby joining a cult of heroes and martyrs. For evidence, we turn to the extraordinary involvement of women in the Russian revolutionary movement leading up to the 1917 revolution.

‘I Invoke You to Understand My Despair Due to the Disruption of the Production Plan.’ Yuri Shaporin, Elena Malinovskaya and the Bolshoi Theater in the First Half of the 1930s

The article is devoted to the history of the interactions between the important Soviet composer Yuri Shaporin with the State Academic Bolshoi Theater in the first half of the 1930s. The research is based on archival materials to a considerable degree brought into scholarly use for the first time. A special role for disclosing the theme was played by the documents of the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (preserved in the personal archives of Yuri Shaporin, director of the Bolshoi Theater Elena Malinovskaya and, of course, the archive of the Bolshoi Theater) and the Russian State Archive of Social-Political History. In the early 1930s the directory of the Bolshoi Theater, which was headed by Malinovskaya, was actively looking for works pertaining to a new, “Soviet” repertoire; the necessity of the theater’s “renewal” was also constantly reminded both by the press and the country’s leadership. In these conditions serous hopes were set on the collaboration with Leningrad-based composer Yuri Shaporin, who committed himself to presenting a symphony and an opera. The latter, which was supposed to have written on the plotline of the insurrection of the Decembrists, was more crucial for the theater. Malinovskaya expected this composition to open with itself a grandiose musical cycle devoted to the history of the revolutionary movement in Russia: the two following operas which Shaporin was expected to write were supposed to be devoted to the members of the Narodnaya Volya [People’s Will] revolutionary movement and to the Marxists. However, the work on The Decembrists began to be delayed unacceptably, which was the result both of the irresponsible behavior of the composer, who worked only from time to time on the composition entrusted to him, as well as his disagreements with the writer Alexei Nikolayevich Tolstoy, who was working on the libretto based on his own novelette written by him earlier. As the result, prior to 1935 (the year Malinovskaya resigned and there was a change of the directory of the Bolshoi Theater) The Decembrists were not completed (this happened much later, in 1953, already in different historical conditions).

Vasilij Yakovlevich Bogucharskij (Yakovlev)

The article is devoted to the famous pre-revolutionary historian, publicist and public figure VYa. Bogucharskiy (Yakovlev). His scientific research laid the foundations of the Russian historiography of revolutionary populism, and the sources published by him are of undoubted interest to modern historians of social thought and the revolutionary movement in Russia.

Russian Nihilists in British Periodicals, 1880–1900

Abstract The late-nineteenth-century Russian nihilist movement was popularized by the portrait of Bazarov in Ivan Turgenev’s Fathers and Sons. But despite Turgenev’s nuanced and poignant portrayal, nihilism became associated with Russian revolutionary activities and especially terrorism. Discussions of the nihilist ethos were not limited to Russia but pervaded print culture in Western Europe. The orientalizing rhetoric of British journalism placed Russia firmly in the Eastern camp, so that it offered both the spectacle of exotic, retrograde monarchy and the equally fascinating or threatening vision of revolution in Europe. Revolutionary activities in Russia became part of the “dynamite theme” in British fiction of the fin de siècle, when terrorism also accompanied anarchist movements in continental Europe and Fenian bombings in support of Irish independence. Additionally, Russians became part of the London population through the immigration of Jews, a movement that increased significantly after around 1880. Russian dissidents themselves were welcomed in Britain after the Extradition Act of 1870. This article surveys a range of periodical writings, both reportage and fiction, in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. Periodical articles and stories reflect the pervasiveness and varied presentation of Russian revolutionary movements and ideas in late Victorian British publications.

Revolutionary, Terrorist, and Muse: Mariia Alekseevna Prokof’eva, 1883–1913

This article uses a variety of published and archival sources to reconstruct the life of Mariia Alekseevna Prokof’eva (1883-1913), a member of the Combat Organization (i.e. terrorist wing) of the Russian Socialist-Revolutionary Party. Largely overshadowed by her relationships with more famous male revolutionaries, including the terrorist-litterateur Boris Savinkov and, in particular, Egor Sozonov (the celebrated assassin of Viacheslav von Pleve in 1904), Prokof'eva’s revolutionary career has, to date, been overlooked almost entirely by historians. As this article shows, however, her biography serves as an exemplary microhistory of the origins, ascendancy and (after 1905) degeneration of Russian revolutionary terrorism, while shedding light on several interrelated (and still underexplored) issues: the role played by women in the Russian revolutionary movement generally and the terrorist subculture in particular, the moral and psychological profile of revolutionary terrorists, and the curious attraction such figures held for leading representatives of Russia’s literary and philosophical avantgarde.

THE HERALDS OF POLITICAL TERROR: VALERIAN OSINSKY AND THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE RUSSIAN SOCIAL-REVOLUTIONARY PARTY

Th e transition of the Narodniks to the terrorist tactics is still a very debatable issue in Russian historiography. One of the pioneers of the terrorist direction was V.A. Ossinsky (1852–1879). Th e Executive Committee of the Rus-sian Social-Revolutionary Party (henceforth EC RSRP) was established on his initiative in the spring of 1878. Th e history of this revolutionary group, which was active throughout the South of Russia in 1878 and early 1879, has not yet been suffi ciently studied, although it heralded the transition of most of the revolution-ary Narodniks to political struggle, including terror. Th e purpose of this study is to reconstruct the previously little-known or completely unknown pages of the history of the EC RSRP, its structure and composition. Th e author examines politi-cal views of V.A. Ossinsky and his entourage, contacts of the members of the EC RSRP with other opposition movements in Little Russia, including liberals and representatives of the Gromada, the eff ectiveness of the EC RSRP and its infl u-ence on the administrative spheres of the South of Russia. He concludes that the transition of the part of Narodniks to political terror in the late 1870s occurred largely due to the lawless and repressive policy of the authorities and the radicals’ awareness of the futility of peaceful ways of struggle. Th e systematic use of terror-ism by the EC RCRP together with an active propaganda campaign and other acts of defi ance against the authorities (armed resistance during arrests, proclamation campaign, jailbreaks, organization of demonstrations and riots, etc.) made this organization truly dangerous in the eyes of the government. Th e actions of the EC RSRP and the very death of V.A. Ossinsky had a signifi cant impact on the future of the entire Russian revolutionary movement. Th e EC RSRP was in fact a forerun-ner of the Executive Committee of the Narodnaya Volya, which subsequently car-ried out the assassination of Emperor Alexander II, and its activity undoubtedly infl uence the fate of the Russian monarchy.

Идея всемирной империи культуры в воззрениях В.С. Соловьева и в русском общественно-политическом сознании XIX века

The paper considers the formation of the idea of a world empire in the Russian philosophical and socio-political thought of the 19th century, embracing all of humanity and based on the absolute priority of high culture. Based on the analysis of the encyclopedic article by V.S. Solovyov on this subject, it is shown that the source of this idea is in the philosophy of I.G. Fichte, who was one of the first to talk about a united Europe in his work “The Main Features of the Modern Era”, but recognized not the economy and politics, but high culture as the main factor of unity. A similar model of the coming world civilization is presented in the works about Russia and the West by F.I. Tyutchev. It is noted that the idea of “world revolution” in the book by A.I. Herzen “On the Development of Revolutionary Ideas in Russia” refers to the creation of a universal “kingdom of culture” headed by Russia in the sense that Fichte thought of it. Analysis of the work of A.I. Herzen shows that this socio-political figure was skeptical about the real revolutionary movement in Russia (which led to the revolution of 1917), calling it “autocracy in reverse”, and considered Peter I to be the true initiator of the true revolution. The paradoxical similarity of the views of Tyutchev and Herzen about the coming “kingdom of culture” was noted by F.M. Dostoevsky, who expressed his point of view in the famous Pushkin speech and through Versilov’s hero of the novel “The Row Youth”. It is concluded that the Russian Empire in its history sometimes approached the ideal model of the “kingdom of culture”, which famous Russian thinkers of the 19th century dreamed of.

Время переломов

The article will focus on the beginning of the dissident movement, the sprouts of which appeared at the end of World War II, and on the difference between the first opposition groups to the dissident movement of the 1960s. The first groups are the student “Brotherhood of Beggars of Sybarites” which appeared in 1945 and a group of professional historians Krasnopevtsev-Rendel who tried to theoretically deal with the processes taking place in the USSR. In this sense, the novel by N.N. Williams “The Island of GNIPI” and the article by Krasnopevtsev “The main points of the development of the Russian revolutionary movement” are of interest. The dissident movement that emerged in the Sixties differed from the first opposition groups in that it was essentially moral and ethical, deeply personal, not systemically theoretical. In this regard, between the movement of the late 50s and 60s of the twentieth century. there is no continuity, and therefore it seems wrong to bring both under the general term “dissidence”: although both of them disagreed, they proceeded from different principles. It's more of a generational gap.

Источники по истории российско-финляндских отношений начала ХХ в.: проблемы и перспективы публикации

The review examines content and features of sources published in the three-volume collection “Russia and the Independence of Finland” (2021), prepared by the Russian-Finnish team of authors (compiled by M. V. Zelenov and P. Hakala) headed by the head of the Federal Archival Agency, Doctor of Historical Sciences A. N. Artizov, with participation of the National Archive of Finland. The publication presents documents from the Russian federal archives: State Archive of the Russian Federation (GA RF), Russian State Historical Archive (RGIA), Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI), Russian State Archive of Economics (RGAE), Russian State Archive of the Navy (RGAVMF), Russian State Military Archive (RGVA); from departmental archives: Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire (AVPRI), Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation (WUA RF), Archive of the President of the Russian Federation (AP RF); and from the National Archive of Finland (NAF). From the NAF fonds have been chosen for publication mostly Russian-language documents of Russian institutions and officials. The collection contains documents revealing the development of political process starting with the Grand Duchy of Finland’s struggle for autonomy and ending with Finland’s movement for the state independence. Commentary, nominal and geographical indexes, chronicle of events, appendices with a list of resolutions of the Russian and Soviet institutions in Finland are of independent scientific significance. Absence of illustrative materials is compensated by lists of photographic documents, including photographs and documentary newsreel footage, with indication of the archives. The collection materials expand the source base of research, reflect specifics of the source base on the history of Russian-Finnish relations, where prevail documents on the legal status of the Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian Empire. The authors pay considerable attention not only to the legal controversy of the parties, but also to documents revealing the complex political relations between Russia and Finland, especially in the period of 1917–20. Introduction into scientific use of documents containing information on the underlying causes of confrontation between the Russian and Finnish political elites of the Russian Empire and on interaction of the Soviet and Finnish structures give credit to the team of Russian and Finnish archivists. Among documents published for the first time, stand out documents of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia on the support of revolutionary movement in Russia in 1905–07 by the Finnish left-wing political forces. The documents point to diverging positions of Russian bureaucracy on the Finnish issue and search for compromise solutions. Introduction into scientific use of documents containing information on the underlying causes of confrontation between Russian and Finnish political elites and their publication are associated with difficulties in deciphering handwritten texts and their translation from French, Swedish, and other languages. It is noted that some documents on the essence of the Russian-Finnish contradictions during the First World War have already been introduced into scientific use by Russian researchers, indicating presence of research interest and need for further work on the publication of sources.

Letter from the old Bolshevik M. S. Olminsky to the Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR V.I.Lenin on the issue of ensuring the safety of the valuables of the Armory Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin (May 7, 1922)

In the autumn of 1921 — in the spring of 1922, the Soviet government initiated a large-scale confiscation campaign. The jewels brought to Moscow from all over the country were destined for subsequent sale on the foreign market. Seizures were made (among other things) from operating liturgical buildings and prayer rooms of various denominations, as well as from some museums. Employees of the Main Committee for Museum Affairs and the Protection of Ancient Art and Nature Monuments of the People’s Commissariat for Education of the RSFSR took part in the seizure procedure. Museum workers interpreted the normative documents in force at that time as the right of the museum community to fundamentally influence the course and scale of the confiscation process (up to the right of veto). Party and Soviet functionaries were convinced that among the museum workers there were many persons closely associated with church circles, counter-revolutionary seeking to disrupt the work of seizing church gold. On May 7, 1922, in the midst of a “conflict” between museum staff and state structures, the chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the RSFSR V.I.Lenin receives a letter from Olminsky, one of the oldest figures in the Russian revolutionary movement, about the need to prevent the possibility of theft of the values of the Armory Chamber of the Moscow Kremlin by museum workers. For the first time we publish 6 documents concerning the discussion. These documents were found in the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History among the materials of one of the “thematic folders” of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the RKP(b) — VKP(b) — CPSU: 21st “group of documents”. The archivalsources clarify the role played by the Glavmuseum (and its local branches) in saving the country’s cultural heritage during the large-scale confiscation measures of 1921–1922.

Konrad Zilliacus and Revolutionary Russia

Abstract The Russian revolutionary movement was not well known in the Grand Duchy of Finland. Connections between Finnish political activists and Russian revolutionaries started only in the first years of the twentieth century. This article investigates Swedish-speaking author and activist Konrad Zilliacus's relation with the Russian revolutionaries. It analyzes how Zilliacus's understanding of revolutionary Russia was constructed. Based on the close reading of his book Det Revolutionära Ryssland and the Finnish and English translations of this book, this study analyzes Zilliacus's perceptions of Russia, sources of his information, and the reception of the book and its impact on general knowledge of revolutionary Russia in Finland. The article illuminates Zilliacus's connections abroad and with the Russian socialist revolutionaries. It provides an insight into the topics of the book and discusses how this information was obtained and how the experts of the book were related in the network of the revolutionaries. The article discusses the impact of the book and draws a synthesis of the Russian expertise in Finland and abroad of that time. The article demonstrates how the socialist revolutionaries, who had also sought support from abroad, influenced Zilliacus's thinking on Russian opposition and the future of Finland.

The Network Organization of the Russian Revolutionary Movement in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries

The Network Organization of the Russian Revolutionary Movement in the second half of the 19th – early 20th centuries

Еволюція взаємин Михайла Драгоманова та російської революційної емігра- ції в Швейцарії наприкінці 1870-х – на початку 1880-х років

The purpose of the study is to shed light on the evolution of M. Drahomanov’s relations with the Russian revolutionaries in the late 1870s and early 1880s. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism and objectivity. A number of methods are involved: general scientifi c methods of analysis and synthesis, as well as special-historical methods: problem-chronological, comparative-historical, retrospective. The scientifi c novelty lies in the fact that unexplored aspects of M. Drahomanov’s relations with the representatives of the Russian revolutionary movement in exile in the late 1870s and early 1880s are shown. The views of such figures as V. Zasulych, L. Deich, J. Stefanovych, the testimony of the gendarmerie units on the role of M. Drahomanov in emigrant circles in Switzerland are presented. Conclusions. During the second half of the 1870s and early 1880s, the relations between M. Drahomanov and the Russian revolutionary emigration went from being absolutely friendly to openly hostile and ignoring. Having arrived in Switzerland, the famous scientist and public fi gure gathered emigrants around him. They were attracted by his principled and moderate views. However, in the times of crisis for the revolutionary movement of 1880–1881, M. Drahomanov became an undesirable fi gure for the emigrant revolutionaries. Many of them publicly showed reluctance to keep in touch with Drahomanov and even talk about him. The reason for this, in our opinion, is the peculiarities of the emigrant environment, which aff ected the psychology, way of thinking, and even actions of exiled revolutionaries, provoking radicalization of views, intolerance of other people’s opinions, the search for hidden traitors, and enemies of the revolutionary cause. Th e change in their attitude was due to the fact that M. Drahomanov did not share the idea of revolutionary terror, and for some time collaborated with the newspaper “Volnoe Slovo” (“Free Word”).

Revolutionary Violence and the Rise of the Art Novel

Revolutionary Violence and the Rise of the Art Novel

Социально-демографический облик евреев-революционеров (на материалах Всесоюзного общества политкаторжан и ссыльнопоселенцев)

The work is devoted to the study of the generalized sociographic image of the cohort of Jewish revolutionaries. The participation of Jews in the revolution is seen as an integral part of the all-Russian revolutionary process. In the course of the study, the role and place of Jews in the Rus-sian revolutionary movement in the late 19th – early 20th centuries was clarified and concretized. Thanks to the analysis of a personalized electronic database on Jewish revolutionaries, created on the basis of materials from the All-Union Society of Political Prisoners and Exiled Settlers, the structure of social origin, level of education and type of activity of the left wing of politically ac-tive Jewry has been analyzed. The features of the political socialization of Jews, constrained by restrictive articles of Jewish legislation, are shown. We come to the conclusion that such a signifi-cant percentage of Jews in the revolutionary movement is explained both by the long-term devel-opment of the revolutionary liberation movement in the Pale of Settlement, and by the existence of numerous restrictions for representatives of the Jewish nationality.

Итальянские масоны и русское революционное движение: история Всеволода Лебединцева (о прототипе героя «Рассказа о семи повешенных»)

The Archives of A.M. Gorky Institute of World Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences keep a record of the lecture of the Italian freemason, writer and journalist Arrigo Rizzini “Ideas and Dramas of Maxim Gorky,” read on March 13, 1903 at a meeting of the Literary and Philosophical Circle of the University of Rome. Rizzini prefaced the recordings of the lecture on the Gorky's work with an unexpected dedication: “I dedicate with brotherly love to Maria Feliksovna Zelenskaya and Vsevolod Vladimirovich Lebedintsev.” This early dedication reveals a very important, but little-known page in the history of the Russian revolutionary movement — its connection with Italian Masons and the secret assistance of Italian Masonic organizations to Russian emigrant revolutionaries. The story of V. Lebedintsev is well known, in particular, thanks to the story of Leonid Andreev “The Tale of the Seven Hanged,” where Lebedintsev was bred under the name of Werner. However, Lebedintsev’s connection with Italian Freemasons has so far remained out of sight of Russian researchers. The well-known fact of the execution of a militant Social Revolutionary under the name of the Italian Mario Calvino sheds light on the rather large-scale and effective activities of Italian Masons to legalize Russian revolutionaries in Russia and in Europe by providing them with passports of members of Masonic lodges (just in 1907 more than 100 passports were handed over, according to the results investigation by the Italian Ministry of the Interior). Masons, who were opponents of violent actions, saw in Russian revolutionaries, first of all, victims of autocracy and fighters for civil society, and not terrorists, as the case of M. Calvino testifies.

Anatomy of the Protests of Political Exiles in Western Siberia in the 1880s

Using the methods of regional history, the present paper studies some little-known pages of the history of the political exile life in Western Siberia. The present case gives us a new perspective on the institution of political exile, and insights into the relationship between the provincial government and political exiles. The article is based on hitherto unstudied documents from the archives of Tobolsk and Surgut. The focus is on collisions of political exiles with the local administration, which resulted in a series of protests by political exiles. Reconstructing the daily life of exiled revolutionaries, the author analyzes the decision-making by central and provincial authorities towards exiled revolutionaries. Special attention is paid to the life circumstances of political prisoners in the Tobolsk North, in particular in the town of Surgut, where the confrontation between exiles and the local administration reached an extreme degree of tension, leading in 1888 to the "Surgut protest". These events later triggered the Yakut protest of 1889, the largest in the history of political exile, which ended in direct bloodshed. The author emphasizes the short-sightedness of the tsarist government as well as the petty and vindictive desire of officials at all levels to brutally and often excessively punish opponents of the existing political system. These factors had harmful consequences for the Russian Empire. On the one hand, the relationship between the government and the opposition became more tense; on the other, the harsh treatment of poli- tical exiles seriously undermined the prestige of the autocracy on the international scene, moving world public opinion into the direction of supporting the Russian revolutionary movement.

William Le Queux and Russia

This article examines how Le Queux’s writings about Russia both reflected and shaped the construction of the country in the British imagination in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The first part examines Le Queux’s early novels, showing how his conviction that tsarist Russia posed a major threat to the security of the British Empire was reflected in his surprisingly positive treatment of the Russian revolutionary movement. The second part then examines how Le Queux’s later writings on Russia reflected the changing nature of international politics following the outbreak of war in 1914. Russia’s new-found status as Britain’s ally in the First World War shaped the content of a number of books written by Le Queux in 1917–1918. These include Rasputin the Rascal Monk (1917) and The Minister of Evil: The Secret History of Rasputin’s Betrayal of Russia (1918), in which Le Queux claimed that Rasputin was a creature of the German government.