“For Russia’s sake, everything is permitted.” The Russian radical right and legitimation of violence, 1900–1940

Abstract

The radical right in late-imperial Russia arose during the 1905 Revolution. The far-right professed the conservative state ideology “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality”; it was against parliamentarianism, liberalism, and socialism. Although rooted in conservative thought, the far right was radical in its populism, antisemitism and quest for mass appeal. The far-right parties sought to defend the existing order and resorted to violence, which they legitimised as self-defence against revolutionaries. After the 1917 revolution, various far-right figures went into exile and continued the struggle against the Bolshevik regime. This time, violence was legitimised as righteous revenge against the usurpers of the Russian homeland. The article deals with how the far right legitimised political violence. It points to the continuity in the use of violence, which was also related to the continuity of antisemitism. At the same time, however, it draws attention to shifts in the legitimisation of violence.