Russian Revolution Research Articles

Activities of the Odessa branch of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society (1896-1916): the statistics essay

In the article, based on the annual reports' data, for the first time an attempt to compile the statistics on the activities of the Odessa branch of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society (IOPS) was made. The studied structural division of the IOPS was opened on December 19, 1893 and became the second after the Yakut branch of the IOPS (March 21, 1893). Using diagrams, the author of the scientific research clearly showed the dynamics of changes in the quantitative composition of the Odessa branch of the IOPS and the ratio by category of membership in the period from 1896 to 1916, analyzed the financial and economic activities of the branch. The article concludes that the growth in the number of members of the Odessa branch before 1905 was associated with the administrative support and public popularity of representatives of the first generation of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society. The reduction in the number of members was subsequently facilitated by the banal non-payment of membership fees for three or more years, as well as the death of IOPS members, under which its active formation took place. The maximum economic viability of the Odessa branch of the IOPS was achieved by 1901, after which the organization's revenues began to fall. Grain harvests in the grain-growing regions of the Russian Empire, as well as domestic and foreign policy factors (the Russo-Japanese War, the First Russian Revolution, the Balkan Wars, the First World War, the Great Russian Revolution of 1917) contributed to the hard crisis in the Odessa branch. The article is intended for specialists in the field of church history, missiology, the history of public organizations, as well as for a wide range of researchers interested in the issues of Russia's presence in the Holy Land.

The “Miracle” of the Russian Revolution: The Mystery Play in Early Soviet Culture

Some of the very first theatre productions following the Russian Revolution of 1917 were built around Christian imagery and dramatic forms, a surprising choice given that atheism was a key tenet of the new Soviet nation. The first Soviet play, Vladimir Mayakovsky’s Mystery Bouffe, is modelled after the medieval mystery play and depicts workers coming to revolutionary consciousness after encountering a Christ-like figure. Subsequently, several of the earliest Soviet mass spectacles, a vibrant form of state-sponsored propaganda, also drew comparisons to mystery plays. This article examines the interdependence of theatricality and spirituality in these early Soviet mysteries (approx. 1918–21), referencing the context of church practice, the mystery play genre, and Russian symbolism’s earlier fascination with the mystery play. I argue that these Soviet variants on this medieval dramatic form struggle self-consciously with the ironies and the possibilities of borrowing from the mystery in the newly Soviet theatre. Their triumphant messages about socialism and the revolution are nuanced by the essentially religious nature of the genre even as they attempt to replace mystery with theatrical spectacle to create a new model of theatre. By revealing spiritual dimensions of socialist avant-garde aesthetics, these Soviet mysteries can enrich our understanding of both the place of religion in modernism and the consistency of modernist values.

Viewing the influence of Vkhutemas on the Bauhaus from the perspective of production art: Main concepts and directions

After the October Revolution of 1917, the Russian avant-garde established close relations with the German left wing. Vkhutemas, as the center of the Russian avant-garde, also had an important influence on the development of the Bauhaus. This study examines the specific path and results of the influence of Vkhutemas on the Bauhaus in terms of concept, structural transformation and production strategy in order to clarify the relationship between them. In this work, Vkhutemas is taken as the center, based on the analysis of conceptual principles, structural transformations and production strategies, specific ways and manifestations of the influence of the Russian avant-garde on the Bauhaus in various periods of the 1920s are explored. This comprehensive and multidimensional Russian influence not only develops the modern system of design education and finally consolidates the historical status of the Bauhaus, but also lays the foundation for its final fate. Firstly, on an ideological level, the goals of Russian production are directly related to the construction of socialism, to the creation of a system of proletarian culture, which Avartov calls proletarian, which largely coincides with the left-wing ideals of Gropius. Secondly, at the level of artistic thought, productivism and constructivism, as new ideas of the early 20th century, represented the contribution of the Russian avant-garde to modernist design. Finally, at the level of educational practice, thanks to the introduction of Russian constructivism by Moholy Nagy, the Bauhaus created a prototype of the three main components of modern design education, taking lessons from teaching composition by Vkhutemas, and opened the transition from expressionism to function. This was a new stage in the transformation of socialism, and thus formed the classic image of the Bauhaus for the outside world.

Ural satirical magazines of the First Russian revolution (“Gnom”, “Rubin”, “Magnit”)

INTRODUCTION. We analyze a special type of newspaper literature from the beginning 20th century, it is provincial satirical magazines from the time of the First Russian revolution. The purpose of the study is to analyze the editorial activities of Yekaterinburg satirical magazines 1906– 1907.MATERIALS AND METHODS. Based on the comparative historical method, an attempt was made to identify the specifics of provincial satirical magazines in comparison with capital magazines, to understand the specifics of the work of the editor of such a magazine, and the publishing behavior of the authors.RESULT AND DISCUSSION. Provincial magazines more boldly outlined the main themes of satirical magazine poetry and prose of this time. At the same time, they managed to exist for a longer time. Such magazines represent a qualitatively new printing, publishing, and poetry product. They turned out to be in demand by the provincial reader of that time (1906–1907).CONCLUSION. The study of the genre-thematic unity of the satirical magazine can be applied to the study of other Ural satirical magazines.

“ХАЛҚ ДУШМАНЛАРИ” КИМЛАР БЎЛГАН ЁХУД “КАТТА ТЕРРОР” ЙИЛЛАРИДА ИНСОН ҚАДР-ҚИММАТИНИНГ ТОПТАЛИШИ ҲАҚИДА

Historically, we know that repression against “enemies of the people” in the former Soviet Union intensified after the October Revolution of 1917 and continued step by step until the 1980s. The article talks about the repressions carried out by the Soviet government in 1937-1938, and explains the specific term “enemy of the people.” The charges against them and the punishment imposed on them are revealed based on an analysis of the literature.

러시아 정교와 반유대주의

When the Soviet system collapsed and the new “faith” that had dominated that society, Marxism-Leninism, was abandoned, it was not surprising that Orthodoxy was considered as the faith to replace it. Historically, in Russia, Orthodoxy and the state recognized each other's roles and always maintained a close relationship. Until just before the Russian Revolution, the Russian Orthodox Church was influential in all strata of society, including the intelligentsia. During the Soviet period, the Orthodox Church was forced to give way to the new communist ideology as a state ideology, and Orthodoxy, as a fundamental part of the system, was to be extinguished. However, during World War II, Stalin enlisted the Orthodox Church in the fight against Nazi Germany, and the Church and the state were restored to a cooperative relationship, and Russian Orthodoxy was able to survive in an atheistic Soviet society because of its political usefulness. In the post-Soviet period, Russian Orthodoxy was revived as an alternative to fill the ideological vacuum, gradually regaining its pre-revolutionary status in Russian society and becoming very close to the powers that be. Since Putin's rise to power, a number of phenomena have been observed in Russia, including the rise of nationalist tendencies in various sectors of Russian society, and the Russian Orthodox Church has joined the movement. The most prominent phenomenon is the fact that Russian nationalist ideology in the post-Soviet period has been linked to the Russian Orthodox Church, and the policies of the Putin administration, especially with regard to religion, can be interpreted as state-centered nationalist tendencies. The most characteristic of these phenomena is the role of Russian Orthodoxy in the spread of anti-Semitic ideology in modern Russia. This study examines the anti-Semitic tendencies of the Russian Orthodox Church, focusing on the publication of the Protocols of Zion.

From Imperial Russia to the Soviet Union: formal and non-formal vocational education in Kyrgyz lands in 1917–1918

ABSTRACT This study aims to examine the vocational training activities carried out in Kyrgyz lands during the transition from Imperial Russia to the Soviet Union and the role of these activities in the construction of a new society. The study focuses on the norms and institutions involved rather than on the curriculum of these schools introduced by the Soviet reform. The role of agricultural vocational schools changed after the February and October Revolutions in 1917. Two prominent vocational schools, Pishpek Agricultural School (1890), established by the Russian Empire, and the Zhetysu Agricultural School (1918), were operated in Kyrgyz lands. These schools aimed to meet the need for qualified workers in the field of industry and food production. After Russia’s defeat in World War I (1914–1918), the most urgent problems addressed by the Bolsheviks were regaining the trust of the peoples in the lands controlled by Imperial Russia, solving the consequences of the economic crisis, and transforming society by using, among other means, vocational education.

Politicizing Islam in Central Asia: from the Russian Revolution to the Afghan and Syrian Jihads. By Kathleen Collins

Politicizing Islam in Central Asia: from the Russian Revolution to the Afghan and Syrian Jihads. By Kathleen Collins

КУЛЬТУРНЫЕ КОНТАКТЫ МЕЖДУ РОССИЕЙ И КИТАЕМ НА ДАЛЬНЕВОСТОЧНЫХ ТЕРРИТОРИЯХ В XIX – НАЧАЛЕ XX в.

The paper analyzes the formation and development of cultural relations between Russia and China in the 19th – early 20th centuries in the Far Eastern territories. The issues of the origin of Russian-Chinese cultural interaction, the contact between Russian and Chinese cultures, as well as the peculiarities of contacts between the two ethnic groups are covered. The work uses a historical-chronological research method, which made it possible to trace the formation and development of contacts in the field of culture between the two countries in the Far Eastern border region in the mid-19th – early 20th centuries (from the signing of the Aigun and Beijing treaties to the October Revolution of 1917), as well as a systematic approach, the use of which led to the consideration of cultural ties as a component of the overall system of Russian-Chinese relations at the interstate and interregional levels. Materials in Chinese in the author's translation were introduced into scientific circulation. When studying cultural contacts between the two countries, the concept of sociocultural interaction developed by N.A. Samoilov was applied, which made it possible to analyze the features of relations between the two countries in the field of culture and highlight the forms of interaction. According to the authors, the development of mutual contacts in the field of culture was determined by foreign policy and socio-economic conditions, significant transformations in the political, economic and cultural spheres that took place in the mid-19th – early 20th centuries in the Russian state and the Qing Empire, as well as the meeting of Chinese migration and Russian colonization flows in the Russian Far Eastern borderland. In general, Russian-Chinese sociocultural interaction during the period under study went through several stages, during which the Russian and Chinese peoples mutually recognized each other and learned to interact. At the same time, in the Far Eastern territories at the turn of the century, a contact zone of relations between two ethnic groups was formed, a special environment of Russian-Chinese interaction was formed, and at the same time, the difference between the two cultures and the impossibility of their mixing and mutual assimilation became increasingly obvious.

Уникальность концепции русского пути в ракурсе философского познания

This paper explores the influence of various philosophical movements, such as Orthodox Christianity, Slavophilism, Westernism, and Eurasianism, on the formation of the distinct path of Russian civilization. It examines the contribution of the Russian emigration after the October Revolution to the development of the national idea, as well as the role of leading Russian thinkers like Ivan A. Ilyin, Nikolai A. Berdyaev, among others, in both apologetics for and criticizing the Russian idea. The study convincingly develops the thesis that the Russian path is not merely a quest for national distinctiveness but also a messianic idea, combining idealism and pragmatism in the pursuit of a synthesis of Eastern and Western cultures. Moreover, it evaluates the concept of the Russian path through the lens of historical uniqueness, Russia's cultural calling, and in the context of contemporary issues such as globalization, political life, and cultural identity. The author of the article raises issues of criticism and realism in philosophy, focusing on debates among representatives of various philosophical movements regarding the role of science, religion and social order in the Russian idea. It centers on concepts such as conciliarity, collectivism, and Russia's messianic role, which are juxtaposed with the individualism and rationalism of Western traditions. In conclusion, the discourse surrounding the concept of the Russian path, as explored through various philosophical lenses, unveils a complex interplay between historical context, cultural heritage, and contemporary challenges. The synthesis of Eastern and Western thought, embodied in the Russian idea, reflects not only a quest for national identity but also a broader aspiration for global significance. This study underscores the ongoing relevance of philosophical inquiry in understanding the trajectory of Russian civilization, inviting further exploration into the dynamics of national identity, cultural distinctiveness, and the global mission of the Russian people.

Ideology and Education: Soviet Ideological Educational Practices in the Kyrgyz Territory (1924–1927)

AbstractThis study aims to investigate the ideological propaganda applied by the Soviet Union in schools in Kyrgyzstan during 1924–1925. During these years, propaganda was used in its most widespread form in Kyrgyzstan and education became an ideological weapon. I use the document analysis technique for data collection and collected data by obtaining the necessary permissions from the Kyrgyzstan State Archive. The research focuses on the activities carried out by the Soviet Union to have the Soviet ideology adopted in the old tsarist schools and newly opened schools in Kyrgyzstan after the October Revolution. In addition, this study provides primary sources that are not found in the literature on the ideological educational practices of the Soviet administration in Kyrgyz schools. The Soviet administration prioritized the ideological training of teachers and trained them to transfer the Soviet values to students. The Soviet Union implemented a single educational program prepared by Soviet ideologues in schools throughout its territory. The educational content aimed to eliminate completely the national culture and old beliefs of societies. In addition to the education program, they renamed physical areas, such as school and street names, consistent with this ideology.

Metabolic Modernities: Digestion, Energy Transformations, and the Making and Unmaking of the World in Early Soviet Literature

AbstractEarly Soviet society featured clear nutrition guidelines and a robust plan for streamlined logistics in food processing, distribution, and consumption, all of which was aimed at building a stronger state through a virtuous transformation of calories into labor power. Such rhetoric appeared even in children’s illustrated books, such as Vladimir Maiakovskii and Nikolai Kupreianov’s Story of Petia, Fat Boy, and of Sima, Who is Skinny (1926). This paper shows how in the 1920s authors such as Viktor Shklovskii and Iurii Olesha turned that rhetoric on its head and pushed back against the early Soviet obsession with planning and mastering nature and the human body by employing metaphors of food, digestion, and agriculture. In Shklovskii’s memoirs A Sentimental Journey (1923) and Knight’s Move (1923) and Olesha’s novel Envy (1927), the October Revolution itself emerges as a metabolic process on a vast scale: prerevolutionary aesthetic threads, motifs, and concepts are broken down and processed, reassembled, and repurposed into a seemingly new society and worldview, in which the individual original components are still recognizable.

Parties, Power, and People: The Impact of Duma Participation on Political Parties in the Russian Empire

This article explores role of the State Duma in shaping the destinies of key political parties, particularly the Constitutional Democratic Party (Kadets) and the Bolsheviks, prior to the Russian Revolutions of 1917. Despite its failure to avert the revolutions, the State Duma was instrumental in shaping the future trajectories of the participating parties. Utilizing a framework that combines power dynamics and historical analysis, the essay scrutinizes the State Duma's role in Russian power dynamics and its impact on the future trajectories of Russian political parties. The essay provides an interpretation of the Kadets' and Bolsheviks' fates through their attitudes, idealism, and interactions with this experimental legislative body.

ON THE TRAINING OF CADRES FOR THE CHINESE REVOLUTION IN THE USSR (ON THE HISTORY OF THE YUANLI SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES)

The victory of the October Revolution in Russia in 1917 awakened the enthusiasm of advanced Chinese intellectuals to master the Russian revolutionary experience, and many young Chinese revolutionaries sought to study directly in the birthplace of October. In order to study Russian revolutionary theory and experience and achieve the goal of transforming the country, it was necessary to train a group of Russian-speaking cadres for the future revolution. The article deals with the history of the first cadre school of the Communist Party of China, the School of Foreign Languages in Yuyangli, a neighborhood of Shanghai. The research shows that, although it existed for only about a year, this school made an important contribution to the education of the first cadres of the CPC and to the development of the Chinese revolution. Its teachers and students vigorously propagated Marxism, actively participated in party construction, led the Chinese workers, peasants, youth, women’s movements and armed struggle. They played a special role in connecting Marxist theory with the practice of the Chinese revolution, developing and strengthening the Party’s organizational strength and expanding its political influence. Old Yuyangli and New Yuyangli are two neighboring streets. In 1920, it was here that a group of Chinese communists in Shanghai established the School of Foreign Languages, which actually became a school for training Chinese revolutionary cadres. The first group of young communists who studied here were sent to the USSR after only a few months of Russian language and political training. Upon returning home, most of the graduates of the School of Foreign Languages became prominent figures of the Chinese revolution. The spread of Marxism in China is closely connected with this group of young people who studied in the USSR. Yuyangli is not just a toponym and a place where the School of Foreign Languages was located, but it is a historical “witness” of the CPC’s more than century-long struggle for its ideals.

Rethinking the Significance of the Russian and Chinese Revolutions: A Dialogue with Wang Hui

Abstract This is a transcript of a dialogue between faculty and students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the renowned “new leftist” Chinese intellectual, Wang Hui. The immediate theme of the discussion concerned the two major socialist revolutions of the twentieth century, namely the Russian and Chinese revolutions. Wang Hui’s recent work asks how these revolutions and their associated processes problematize typically Eurocentric assumptions about “modernity.” Relatedly, there has been a recent tendency to subsume the Soviet Union and Mao’s China under the history of capitalism. Such revisionist readings of the Russian and Chinese Revolutions echo earlier Marxist arguments about “actually existing” socialism being a form of state capitalism. The various discussants develop different positions on this issue, but they in general affirm the idea that the socialist revolutions partially succeeded in creating an alternative to capitalism, and this legacy continues to be meaningful to our social imagination.

CONSERVATIVES OF THE KINGDOM OF POLAND IN 1914-1916

Since the birth of independent Poland in 1918, historians and publicists have been arguing about who deserves the main credit for this most signifi cant event in the modern history of the Polish nation. In the period between the world wars, the dispute for supremacy was fought between J. Piłsudski and R. Dmowski, in socialist Poland they were supplanted by the Russian October Revolution, but already in the 1980s the debate resumed with renewed vigor. Th e compromise solution proposed by Prof. S. Kieniewicz was not widely s upported. Since the 1990s, there has been a steady return to pre-war approaches to the problem. Th us, political forces other than the pilsudniks and national democrats, led by R. Dmowski, once again remain outside the fi eld of vision of the authors writing on this topic. Among them are conservatives of the Kingdom of Poland, through whose eff orts, from September 1917 to 14 November 1918, the construction of the state institutions of the Kingdom of Poland was underway with the consent of the Central Powers. Th e Kingdom was formed by the act of Emperors Wilhelm II Hohenzollern and Franz Joseph Habsburg of 5 November 1916. Th e contribution of the conservatives is clearly underestimated; moreover, they alone are accused of pursuing a conciliatory (Ugodian) policy towards the Russian, fi rst, and then the German and Austro-Hungarian authorities, although all other political parties in the Polish lands, with the exception of the social democrats of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, also took conciliatory positions at the beginning of the 20th century. Moreover, it was these parties, which were united under the general name of “activists”, who responded to the manifesto of 5 November and sent their representatives to the Provisional State Council of the Polish Kingdom. Th e conservatives, on the other hand, took a wait-and-see attitude in November 1916 and refused political cooperation with the German and Austro-Hungarian occupation authorities until September 1917.

Proletarian Internationalism in the Contemporary Women’s Movement: A Perspective from India

This article discusses the influence of internationalist perspectives on the women’s movement in India. It provides a history of anti-imperialist feminism in general but focuses on some of the major women’s organizations in India. The aim is to trace the legacy of anti-imperialist feminist politics as a response to the strategies of Western imperialist powers to counter the influence of radical and socialist politics, particularly after the Russian Revolution. The article also documents women’s participation in radical and socialist struggles for independence and social transformation, which received strong political support from the Soviet Union in the postwar period and extends the analysis to the period of neoliberalism and the structural adjustment policies imposed on the South.

Убийство В.В. Воровского и процесс Конради–Полунина 1923 года в восприятии российской социалистической эмиграции

The article dwells on the assassination of V.V. Vorovsky, head of the Soviet delegation at the international conference in Lausanne, on May 10, 1923 and on the trial of M. Conradi and A.P. Polunin as viewed by Russian socialist émigrés, i.e. members of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and social democrats (Mensheviks). This paper aimed to study the attitude of the socialist community of Russian émigrés towards individual political terror during the 1920s. The methodology is based on the principles of intellectual history, which allow us to shed some light on the perception of the 1923 Lausanne trial by analysing the confrontation and ideological struggle of certain political figures and civic groups for attention. The paper provides a brief description of the main works of Russian and foreign historians who studied the assassination of Vorovsky and the trial of his murderers. The context of the trial, the reaction of different émigré camps and the organization of Conradi and Polunin’s defence are analysed. The official response of the Foreign Delegation of the Socialist Revolutionary Party, reflected in the Revolutionary Russia journal, is noted. Particular attention is given to the unpublished article “Both Are Worse” (1923) by leader of the Russian Socialist-Revolutionary Party V.M. Chernov on the results of the trial in Lausanne. Chernov’s argumentation and his views on the fundamental differences between the pre-revolutionary Socialist Revolutionary terror and the assassination of Vorovsky are analysed. Chernov points out that Socialist Revolutionary and Narodnaya Volya’s terror stayed within a strict moral and ethical framework that forbade political assassinations on the territory of free democratic countries. Socialist Revolutionary terrorists had never followed the path of least resistance, proclaiming the idea of selfsacrifice. Chernov emphasizes that only those not involved in the White Terror can hold others accountable for the Red Terror. The paper considers the response of Russian social democrats abroad, in particular, leader of the émigré Mensheviks F.I. Dan’s article dedicated to the Lausanne trial. His thesis about the exclusive right of socialist parties to fight the Bolshevik dictatorship, without involving the White movement, is emphasized. A conclusion is drawn that Russian socialists abroad held a fundamentally unified position on resisting political terror.

Иван Ильин и Алексей Боровой: история одной дружбы

The publication is devoted to the reconstruction of the relations that established between the philosopher, sociologist, anarchist A.A. Borovoi and the young philosopher I.A. Il’in. The ideological and political position held by A.A. Borovoi as a Private Associate Professor of the Faculty of Law of the Moscow Imperial University is reconstructed, as well as his attitude to other colleagues, in particular to P.I. Novgorodtsev, B.A. Kistyakovsky. The evolution of the views of the young Ilyin, who initially sympathized with radical political trends and the anarchist movement, and then switched to the positions of liberal conservatism, is demonstrated. Based on memoirs, letters stored in the archives of A.A. Borovoi in RSALA (Russian State Archive of Literature and Art), memoirs and letters of I.A. Il’in, as well as studies dedicated to Borovoi and Ilyin, the period of meetings of thinkers in Paris in 1911–1912 is reproduced in more detail. The details of the changes that occurred at the Faculty of Law of the Moscow Imperial University in connection with the “Casso Case”, which had a different impact on the fate of thinkers, are revealed. The relationship between Borovoi and Il’in with B.A. Kistyakovsky, who was also in Europe in 1911, is mentioned. An assumption is made about the reasons for the cessation of communication between I.A. Il’in and A.A. Borovoi during the World War I, which could be associated both with the ideological differences between the philosophers and the activities to which each of them devoted himself during these years. The meeting between Borovoi and Il’yin after the February revolution could have given rise to a resumption of communication, but the difference in assessment of the October revolution (imaginary or real) became a stumbling block. Based on the fragment mentioned by Borovoi from the book by G.I. Kish “Hitler and others” and the archive of I.A. Il’in there is reproduced an episode of the thinker’s speech at a meeting of the “Men’s Club” in March 1930. The article recreates the history of relations between I.A. Il’in and representatives of the conservative wing of German entrepreneurs and the failed cooperation with the centrist party represented by German Catholics.

Behavior of Nizhny Novgorod Diocese Clergy during First Russian Revolution

This study examines the behavior of the clergy of the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese regarding the revolutionary events at the beginning of the 20th century. It identifies instances of oppositional behavior and its consequences for the priests of the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese during the period of 1905-1907. The novelty of the research lies in the fact that, for the first time in this article, based on materials from the Nizhny Novgorod Spiritual Consistory, attention is drawn to the anti-government sentiments and actions of representatives of parish clergy of the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese during the first revolution. It is shown that oppositional behavior was not widespread but rather isolated. The author concludes that it manifested as a protest against social injustice, military field courts, in defense of peasants’ rights to land against landlords, urging peasants to disobey authority, non-payment of taxes, church fees, association with politically unreliable individuals, liberal interpretation of the Manifesto of October 17, 1905, and so on. The author believes that the accused priests did not align themselves with a specific political party, except for Father I.I. Vladimirovsky, an archpriest from Arzamas and a deputy of the Second State Duma from the Constitutional Democrats party. It was found that 2 out of 4 cases against priests were dropped. Meanwhile, 3 out of 4 priests were punished by the diocesan authorities with a ban on serving or transfer to other parishes. The findings of this research can be utilized in courses studying the history of the Russian Orthodox Church.