Similarities Abound

 "The Black Hundred – The Rise of the Extreme Right in Russia” by Walter Laqueur, 1993

Laqueur is a liberal historian focused on the history of the ultra-right and fascist organizations in Russia and the USSR. This book is dated, but what is interesting is that many present themes of Russian conservatism and neo-fascism are still present after 1993. Slavophilism, the Russian Orthodox Church, hatred of Jews, Monarchism, worship of ‘strong leaders,’ violent nationalism, Euro-Asianism, even the obsession with ‘Satan’ – it’s as if the Black Hundreds, like the KKK in the U.S., never really went away.

It is not just Ukraine that coddles Nazis. Given the present existence of various ultra-right and neo-fascistic Russian forces involved in the war on Ukraine – the Wagner Group (Russia’s own Blackwater), Rusich, Russian Imperialist Mvmt., Slavic Union, Don, Borey, DPNI, etc. or ultra-nationalist propagandists like Dugin – it seems things have not changed. Territorial expansion is the hallmark of this kind of conservatism and geo-politics - the 'land' is sacred. 

BACKGROUND

Laqueur tracks the anti-Semitic and Tsarist history of the Black Hundreds, which carried out pogroms against Jews during and after the 1905 revolution. He shows how fascists still operated during the Civil War, and later outside the USSR. Some finally endorsed Stalin as a real example of Russian fascism, a nationalist strong man for the ages, and supported Lenin against Trotsky, the Jew. This endorsement continued in the history of many of the far right in Russia. During the late 1960s nationalist 'Russophile' sentiments began to be allowed, as the Party and the rightists both opposed the internationalist stance and both hated the liberal intelligentsia.

After Soviet ‘glasnost’ was declared in the mid-1980s by Gorbachev, the rightists became public. Every festering reactionary group, individual and idea crawled out of the woodwork. The Russian Orthodox Church became somewhat powerful once again. Slavophiles (those who celebrate Slavic ethnicity) became organized. After the counter-revolution, open fascist groupings were public – something that happened in every other fallen bureaucratic workers' state. National-Bolshevism arose, combining neo-Stalinism with rightist nationalism.

Laquer discusses the forged anti-Jewish Protocols of Zion, which were smuggled into the USSR, along with several fake histories of Russia claiming it was pagan and Aryan initially. The right pushed Russian ethnicity and Russian patriotism, saying it was the greatest country in the world – something both the bureaucrats and the Russianists agreed on. The influence of religious conservatives like Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn provided heroes. The bureaucratic government promoted anti-Jewish attitudes with references to “Zionism.” But much of the discussion was not about Israel but about the nefarious doings of Jews within Russia. This was part of a campaign against the Samzidat liberals like Sakarov. Also involved was the surreptitious promotion by conservatives of a Jewish-Masonic (Judeo-Bolshevik) 'plot' to take over the world, which involved Bolshevik Jews like Trotsky, Sverdlov, Kaganovich and others. There was much familiar talk of the 'Marx-Rothschild alliance' … something that now becomes the 'Marxism-Soros' alliance.

Another contradiction presented as 'fact.'

'Westernism' and cosmopolitanism were also enemies. Conspiracy theories ran rampant. Pagan religion had a resurgence. Medievalism was encouraged against capitalism and communism. Conservative Cossacks and Tartars demanded power. After the counter-revolution in 1989 good Czarist liberals like Stolypin and Tsar Alexander II were resurrected and the White Armies openly praised. Nuclear war was declared to be a real option. Clowns like Zhirinovsky – a reactionary huckster similar to Trump - were given credence.

Laquer covers various rightist leaders, writers, organizations and their numerous splits. This includes the development of Pamyat – a successor to the Black Hundreds. At first they were a cultural organization interested in preserving churches, celebrating peasant and rural life and praising Russian generals and victories, but they also pushed the Protocols, Judeo-Masonic plots and Orthodoxy. Pamyat was later overtaken by more violent or modern rightists, like former member Dugin who was influenced by the Nouvelle Droite in France.  He first mentioned the 'new right' in 1990. The Orthodox Church had collaborated with the CP and celebrated Stalin's birthday for years, so their influence was weaker. There were a good number of priests that were KGB agents. They officiated at the inauguration of Yeltsin too, so they rode whatever donkey was available.

A continuing theme of the book is the collaboration between the Army, KGB and various rightist and National Bolshevik organizations, which definitely goes on to this day under a capitalist government and the FSB. Both lean to an authoritarian, nationalist government with theocratic undertones. Yet their politics are irrational contradictory notions like favoring the Tsar and Stalin; seeing Marx and Zionism as the same; supporting a 'people's monarchy' and advocating an oxymoron like 'national Bolshevism.' Only one side of these nonsense phrases can be true.

Laquer finishes with a discussion of the difference between good patriotism and toxic nationalism.  He is against internationalism.  He's ignored class and economics throughout the book, much like his enemies, the ultra-right. The nation is mainly a legal form used by the bourgeoisie to protect its rule. In the Russian case however, the Right moans the loss of the Baltics, “White Russia” (Bylorussia) and Ukraine. Their desire, much like other revaunchist governments, is to recover land 'lost.' This we see in the war in Ukraine, a war carried out by an autocratic government, which Laquer predicted in the book in 1993.

Prior reviews on this subject, use blog search box, upper left, to investigate our 15 year archive, using these terms: 'Russia,' 'fascism,' “national Bolshevism.'

And I bought it at May Day's used section!

Red Frog

October 23, 2022