Kazem-Bek and the Young Russians' Revolution

In: Slavic review: interdisciplinary quarterly of Russian, Eurasian and East European studies, Band 39, Heft 2, S. 255-268

Abstract

Historians of Stalinism have noted that Stalin received praise from unlikely sources in the Russian emigration. A pertinent case in point is the enthusiastic commendation by Aleksandr L'vovich Kazem-Bek (1902-77), a self-styled neomonarchist, and his émigré party called the Mladorossy (Young Russians). The subject of this article is the career of this would-be Führer of the émigré radical Right. My objective, however, is not only to describe a significant historical aspect of the emigration but also to bring to light a case where Stalinism won converts from a movement of hypertrophied and openly fascist Russian nationalists. Recent scholarly attention to the history of the emigration, long a neglected chapter in histories of post-1917 Russia, has inspired this exploration into the politics of the emigre radical Right and its special appeal to the émigré "sons," the bitterly disillusioned second generation in exile.