Most people today associate the “Black Hundred” with the image of a hefty, illiterate man, for whom there is no greater joy than to beat a student, intellectual or Jew, in general, a “progressive part of humanity.” The efforts of left-liberal and then Soviet propaganda were not in vain. But even in the “Small Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language” by P. E. Stoyan (Pg., 1915) opposite the words Black Hundred or Black Hundred stood - “ Russian monarchist, conservative, ally».
“Black Hundred” is an original Russian social term, used in chronicles and documents since the 12th century. In pre-Petrine Rus', those classes that bore the “tax,” that is, paid taxes, were called black. There was nothing shameful about the Black Hundreds of that time. On the contrary, the Nizhny Novgorod Black Hundred, gathered around Kozma Minin, saved Moscow and all of Russia from the Poles.
In this historical sense, the term “Black Hundred” fell out of use by the 18th century. But at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries it begins to be ironically applied to various monarchist groups and, above all, to the Union of the Russian People created in 1905 (another part of the Black Hundred movement arose from the popular movement for sobriety).
The main point of the program of the Union of the Russian People read: “Convincingly professing that the good of the motherland lies in the autocratic unity of the Tsar with the people, the Union notes that the modern bureaucratic system, which has obscured the bright personality of the Russian Tsar from the people and has appropriated to itself part of the rights that were the original property of the Russian autocratic power , led our fatherland to severe disasters and therefore is subject to radical change... through the establishment of the State Duma, as a body that creates a direct connection between the sovereign will of the Tsar and the legal consciousness of the people.”
Paragraph 5 talks about the Russian nationality and its position in Russia: “The Russian nationality, the gatherer of the Russian land, which created a great and powerful state, has primary importance in state life and in state building.
Note 1. The Union does not distinguish between Great Russians, Belarusians and Little Russians.
Note 2. All institutions of the Russian state are united in a strong desire to steadily maintain the greatness of Russia and the predominant rights of the Russian people, but on the strict principles of legality, so that the many foreigners living in our fatherland consider it an honor and blessing to belong to the Russian Empire and do not feel burdened "by your addiction."
However, for Jews, joining the Union was impossible “even if they converted to Christianity” (paragraph 15, note 2).
Note that the Black Hundreds never called for the murder of anyone - neither for political nor for religious reasons. Pogroms attributed to them— a fake of Bolshevik (and generally left-wing) agitation (suffice it to say that the main pogroms took place at a time when Black Hundred organizations actually did not exist; in 1906 there were three pogroms, but all in the Kingdom of Poland, where the Black Hundreds did not have serious influence). However, they waged an irreconcilable struggle against the Revolution and, in particular, this organized resistance did not allow the turmoil of 1905-1907 to smash the Russian state to smithereens.It is usually believed that from 1905 to 1909, from 12 to 18 people died every day at the hands of revolutionaries — officials, gendarmes, officers, civilians. According to the data cited in his book “The Fight for Truth” by attorney P. F. Bulatzel (shot by security officers in 1919), only from February 1905 to November 1906, 32,706 people from the common people were killed and seriously wounded, not counting civil servants and military personnel. Here is a “usual” terrorist act for that time: on May 14, 1906, in the afternoon on Cathedral Square in Sevastopol, a bomb killed 8 people, including 2 children, and at least 40 were seriously injured. The Duma, represented by the socialists and cadets, demanded an amnesty for the terrorist.
It is no coincidence that the revolution of 17 was already being prepared as an ordinary conspiracy— the left has not forgotten the lesson of popular resistance.
Procession of the Moscow branch of the Union of Russian People along Red Square And
The revolutionaries, in turn, responded to the Black Hundreds with fierce hatred and rabid terror. In particular, V.I. Lenin from his distant Geneva demanded in October 1905: “The units of the revolutionary army must immediately study who, where and how the Black Hundreds are composed, and then not limit themselves to preaching alone (this is useful, but this alone is not enough), but also act with armed force , beating the Black Hundreds, killing them, blowing up their headquarters, etc., etc.”
And the Bolshevik militants tried their best. Only in March 1908, in the city of Bakhmach, Chernigov province, a bomb was thrown at the house of the chairman of the local Union of the Russian People, in the city of Nizhyn the house of the union chairman was set on fire, and the whole family was killed, in the village of Domyany the chairman of a department was killed, and in Nizhyn two department chairmen were killed.
Who were the people who made up the face of the Black Hundred movement, whom Ilyich called on to beat and blow up?
Part — these were the same workers whose lives the Bolsheviks were supposedly so concerned about improving. In Kyiv, the Union of Russian Workers was created under the chairmanship of the worker Kleonik Tsitovich (shot by security officers in 1919), which united over 3,000 people in its ranks. In Ekaterinoslav, a department was created at the Bryansk Society plant, which consisted of over 4,000 people. On behalf of the St. Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP (b), an armed attack was carried out on the Tver teahouse, where workers of the Nevsky Shipyard, who were members of the Union of the Russian People, were gathering. First, the Bolshevik militants threw two bombs and then shot people running out of the tea shop with revolvers. Two workers were killed and 15 wounded.
Tradesmen and other city dwellers also joined the Black Hundreds en masse. During the winter and spring of 1905 alone, Black Hundred organizations arose in more than 60 cities, and by the end of 1907, almost 3,000 branches of the Union of the Russian People had opened. According to estimates by the Police Department, there were about 500 thousand Black Hundreds. The Black Hundreds themselves numbered up to three million like-minded people in their ranks. Apparently, this was the most massive organization of the Russian people in its entire history. For comparison: the Octobrists numbered about 80 thousand people in their ranks, the Cadets - up to 70 thousand; Social Revolutionaries - about 50 thousand; Social Democrats (of all persuasions and trends) - about 30 thousand people.
The top of the Black Hundred movement were, without exaggeration, the best people in Russia, of whom Russian science and culture are proud. Here are a few names off the top of my head. The comrade (that is, deputy) of the chairman of the Main Council of the Union of the Russian People was an outstanding philologist of his time, Academician Sobolevsky. The Black Hundred organizations included 32 bishops, among them the future Patriarch Tikhon and Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky, who in his youth was close to Dostoevsky and was the prototype of the image of Alyosha Karamazov.
St. John of Kronstadt and his application to join the Union of the Russian People
In the list of members of Black Hundred organizations we will also find the creator of the first folk instrument orchestra in Russia Andreev, one of the greatest physicians Professor Botkin, the great actress Savina, the world-famous Byzantine scholar Academician Kondakov, talented poets Konstantin Sluchevsky and Mikhail Kuzmin, excellent painters Konstantin Makovsky and Nicholas Roerich, the outstanding book publisher Sytin, the historian Ilovaisky, from whose books all of Russia studied, the famous scientist Michurin, the commander of the cruiser “Varyag” Rudnev, as well as Dostoevsky’s widow, Anna Grigorievna. The drawing of the Banner of the Russian Monarchist Party was made by the icon painter Guryanov and the famous artist V. M. Vasnetsov.
Badge of the Union of the Russian People
It is hardly possible to call these people the scum of society.
It seems that Fyodor Mikhailovich himself, if he had lived until this time, would have joined the Black Hundreds. After all, he took the side of the butchers who beat the students who came to Okhotny Ryad with revolutionary slogans. A simple truth: the more often extremists get punched in the face, the calmer life is for ordinary citizens.
Union of the Russian People, mass patriotic organization. It emerged in October 1905 in St. Petersburg to fight the revolutionary movement, the Jewish and liberal-Masonic underground. The founder of the Union is a doctor A. I. Dubrovin (Chairman of the Main Council). The Union united the most conscious, nationally-minded part of the Russian people - townspeople, landowners, and intelligentsia.
Outstanding public and government figures, scientists, writers, and artists took part in the patriotic activities of the “Union of the Russian People.” Among them is the king himself Nicholas II , St. John of Kronstadt and future Patr. Tikhon , archim. Anthony (Khrapovitsky), Archpriest Ioann Vostorgov , Archpriest Mikhail Alabovsky, archimandrite. Pochaev Lavra Vitaly (Maksimenko), archim. M. Gnevushev; statesmen (ministers, members of the State Council and State Duma)...
Union of the Russian People (Stepanov, 2008)
THE UNION OF THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE (URN), the largest Black Hundred organization created in the present day. XX century to fight the revolution under the slogan “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Russian Nationality.”
The RNC was created in October - November 1905 at the height of the revolution. The inspiration for its creation was Ig. Resurrection Missionary Monastery near St. Lyuban near St. Petersburg Arseny (Alekseev), who in his memoirs about the events of Oct. 1905, immediately preceding the establishment of the RNC, emphasized that the Union was created by the direct and unequivocal command of the Mother of God. The first treasurer of the RNC, merchant I.I. Baranov, in his testimony to the Extraordinary Investigative Commission of the Provisional Government, stated that the first organizational meeting took place on October 22. 1905 on the feast of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God (the memory of the liberation of Moscow from the Poles in 1612) in his apartment...
Black Hundreds (KPS, 1988)
BLACK HUNDS - participants in military organizations of an extremely monarchical nature in Russia in 1905-1907, the so-called “Black Hundreds” *, created with the support of the government and, in contact with the police, carried out pogroms and bandit attacks on revolutionary workers, democratic intelligentsia and their organizations. They became especially widespread during the years of the Stolypin reaction (1908-1912). The name has become a household word to describe representatives of extremely reactionary movements and organizations.
Brief political dictionary. M., 1988, p. 457.
Union of the Russian People (Orlov, 2012)
"UNION OF THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE" - a mass organization of Black Hundreds, uniting representatives of conservative circles (landowners, urban petty bourgeoisie, clergy, declassed urban elements, part of the intelligentsia, workers and peasants). Founded in October 1905 by A. I. Dubrovin (chairman of the Main Council), V. M. Purishkevich, V. A. Gringmut and others. The Union was patronized by Nicholas II. The union program was aimed at protecting the existing system in Russia: strengthening the autocracy and its unity with the people on the basis of an advisory body (Zemsky Sobor); preservation of a united and indivisible Russia; inviolability of private property, including landownership; maintaining the dominant position of Russians and the Russian Orthodox Church; great-power chauvinism, anti-Semitism, etc...
Bulletin of the Russian Assembly
"Bulletin of the Russian Assembly", weekly magazine, organ Russian Assembly(PC). The first issue was published on January 27, 1906. The editor-publisher of the magazine was initially a hereditary honorary citizen. A.K. Puryshev, member of the Council and treasurer of the PC. The magazine was published weekly, except for the summer months, and contained mainly information about the current activities of the PC. In order to increase the effectiveness of the journal PC Council 4 Jan. 1907 asked the new Chairman of the Council, the famous publicist Prince, to head it. M. L. Shakhovsky. On February 2, 1907 (No. 4), the prince became the new editor-publisher of the magazine.
Astrakhan People's Monarchist Party
Astrakhan People's Monarchist Party (ANMP), one of the most numerous and active regional Black Hundred organizations. The party was organized on November 13, 1905. The program defined its goals as follows: “1) To prevent Russia from disintegrating. 2) Protect the Tsar. 3) Stop the turmoil. 4) To support among the people the feelings that have been inherent in them since time immemorial: devotion to the Throne and the Holy Orthodox Church and not to allow them to be mocked. 5) Maintain among the people the consciousness of the high importance of military service.
Ufa Tsarist People's Russian Society
Ufa Tsarist People's Russian Society, monarchical organization. Appeared on 11 Feb. 1906. The political program was adopted by analogy with the Astrakhan People's Monarchist Party and the Kazan Tsar's People's Society: “In the unity of the Autocratic Tsar with the free people - the strength and greatness of a single indivisible Russia.” At the founding meeting of the society, a loyal telegram was sent in which the monarchists asked the Emperor to preserve his Autocracy and not to exclude from the code of laws the words sanctified by God: “Unlimited Monarch.”
Ufa Patriotic Society of Workers
Ufa Patriotic Society of Workers and Other Employees of the Railway Workshops at the Ufa Station, a monarchist organization. Arose in the wake of political activity in October. 1905 to counteract the revolutionaries who organized a strike in the Ufa railway workshops. Patriotic workers, forcibly removed from work for several weeks, soon managed to unite in December. 1905, together with the authorities, they thwarted an attempt by militants to seize control of the workshops using weapons. 1 Jan 1906 Ufa Governor A.S.
Initially, the words “Black Hundred” and “Black Hundreds” sounded almost like offensive nicknames. So at the beginning The 20th century was dubbed people with conservative, extreme right-wing views. But then the Black Hundreds themselves rethought these words. They began to remind everyone that in XVI-In the 17th century, the urban common people were called the Black Hundred.
“Yes, we are Black Hundreds! Kuzma Minin’s Black Hundred saved Russia!” - they now said with pride. For the intelligentsia, of course, the word “Black Hundred” still sounded like an insult.
The origins of the Black Hundreds
The first Black Hundred organization - the Russian Assembly - arose in January 1901. It was a small literary-aristocratic circle headed by Prince Dmitry Golitsyn. The circle set itself mainly cultural tasks: studying Russian folk life, preserving the purity of Russian folk speech, etc.
At first, the authorities were even going to ban this organization, suspecting sedition, but then they changed their attitude towards it. Minister of Internal Affairs Vyacheslav Pleve became a patron and honorary member of the society.
The Black Hundreds considered the society of pre-Petrine Rus' to be the healthiest. They saw in him a kind of ideal of unity and harmony of all classes. What disrupted this social harmony? The introduction of alien, foreign influence starting with Peter I. The famous “window cut into Europe” played a fatal role. One of the leaders of the Black Hundreds, journalist Vladimir Gringmut noted that Peter ordered Russia to “forget the original Russian traditions, rush in pursuit of European customs and institutions indiscriminately, not distinguishing in them the precious gold from the deceptive tinsel.”
As a result, a “mediastinum” grew up between the tsar and the people - bureaucracy with its own interests, alien to the people. The program of the most famous Black Hundred organization that emerged later, the “Union of the Russian People” (SRN), said: “The “Union of the Russian People” recognizes that the modern bureaucratic system, carried out in the vast majority of cases by godless, wicked half-educated and re-educated people, has obscured the bright image of the Tsar from people."
The intelligentsia also fought against the bureaucracy. But the Black Hundreds believed that the intellectuals themselves wanted to stand “between the sovereign and the people” and replace the people’s interests with their own. One of the proclamations of the capital's RNC in 1905 called: “Peasants, townspeople and working people! Listen to what the gentleman is up to. Gentlemen sit in city dumas and zemstvos, and in big cities there are lawyers, professors, students, teachers, burnt-out landowners, noble merchants and other gentlemen who call themselves the intelligentsia... Do not recognize it as the authorities and the government, tear it to pieces, remember that you are in the state strength, there are a hundred million of you, but there won’t be even five intelligentsia. It’s enough to put up with this intelligent trash...”
The Black Hundreds were equally critical of the bourgeoisie. In 1907, in the Black Hundreds newspaper “ Russian banner“It was noted: “Our home-grown bourgeoisie is not national, and it was born with us with a corrupted core. The Russian bourgeoisie, lacking original freshness, became infected with the rottenness of the West... Our bourgeoisie will always remain as alien to the people as it is at the present time.”
The Black Hundreds saw a way out for society in a return to “the original principles: Autocracy, Orthodoxy, Nationality.” The power of the sovereign should express the interests not of individual classes, they believed, but of the entire nation as a whole. To do this, it must be free from all kinds of “constitutions and parliaments.”
As for Orthodoxy, the Black Hundreds saw the main misfortune of the church in its subordination to the state. The clergy merged with the bureaucracy, the church turned into an appendage of the state. The root of this evil also goes back to Peter’s reforms, they believed. Many Black Hundreds advocated the restoration of the patriarchate in Rus', as it was in the pre-Petrine era.
Finally, the Black Hundreds considered their most important task to be protecting the Russian people from all kinds of “foreign influences.” They put forward the slogan “Russia is for Russians!” The Black Hundreds considered the Jewish one to be the most dangerous of the “foreign influences.” They ultimately advocated the wholesale eviction of Jews from Russia to their “own state.”
The first Black Hundred organizations remained small salon circles; a turning point in the development of the movement occurred in 1905.
After the Tsar's manifesto of October 17, 1905, which granted freedom, a wave of demonstrations swept across the country. The revolutionaries celebrated their first victory and called for more. This was accompanied by a symbolic destruction of the attributes of the monarchy. Demonstrators burned portraits of Nicholas II, smashed his busts, and collected money for the “funeral of the Tsar.”
Of course, all this deeply hurt the monarchical feelings of part of the population. The presence of Jews and other “foreigners” among the revolutionaries caused especially hostile talk.
For example, in Kyiv, after the appearance of the Tsar’s manifesto, a revolutionary crowd seized the building of the City Duma and tore up portraits of Nicholas II and his ancestors in the meeting room. Some student came out onto the Duma balcony with a portrait of the Tsar. He made a hole in the canvas, stuck his head through and shouted to the crowd: “Now I am the sovereign!” Revolutionary speakers spoke from the Duma balcony. Journalist Vasily Shulgin recalled: “Whether it happened by accident or on purpose - no one would ever know... But during the height of the speeches about the “overthrow,” the royal crown, fixed on the Duma balcony, suddenly fell off or was torn off and, in front of a crowd of ten thousand, crashed onto the dirty pavement. The metal rang pitifully against the stones... And the crowd gasped. The words ran through her in an ominous whisper: “The Jews threw off the royal crown...”.”
On the same day, many people immediately had the idea to respond to the revolutionary uprisings with spontaneous “patriotic demonstrations.” As V. Shulgin recalled, four readers came to the editorial office of the newspaper “Kievlyanin” on October 18, 1905: a worker, an artisan, a merchant, and an official. He relayed the conversation to the editorial office like this:
“What right do they have! - the shopkeeper suddenly became terribly angry. - You worship a red rag - well, to hell with you! And I worship the tricolor. Both fathers and grandfathers worshiped. What right do you have to prohibit me?
Mr. Editor, we also want, like them, a demonstration, a manifestation... Only they are with the reds, and we are with the tricolors...
Let’s take the portrait of the Emperor and go around the whole city... That’s what we want... We’ll serve a prayer service and go in a religious procession...
They are with red flags, and we are with banners...
They tear up the royal portraits, and we, so to speak, will publicly restore them...”
It was decided to gather at the walls of churches for “patriotic processions” everywhere. They began with church services. Hundreds of thousands of people attended such demonstrations across the country. They carried Russian flags, icons, and portraits of the Tsar. They celebrated partly the manifesto on October 17, partly the anniversary of the accession to the throne of Nicholas II (October 21). Some people shouted that it was necessary to beat the troublemakers - students and Jews.
Having started with a simple procession, events developed progressively. Some demonstrators stopped passers-by and demanded that they take off their hats in front of the portrait of the sovereign. Those who did not want to bare their heads had their hats knocked off. Of course, this caused retaliatory outrage, and stones were often thrown at the demonstrators. In Ivanovo-Voznesensk, the Bolshevik V. Morozov, in response to a demand to remove his hat, called Nicholas II a bastard, shot at the portrait and shot two demonstrators. For this he was severely beaten, arrested and sentenced to hard labor.
They shot at Black Hundreds in other cities as well; for example, in Odessa, bombs were thrown at demonstrators, and one of the throwers, anarchist Yakov Breitman, was blown up and killed. Sometimes street fights broke out between revolutionaries and Black Hundreds. Such incidents almost everywhere developed into pogroms directed against “intellectuals and foreigners,” mainly Jews.
In some places, demonstrators simply smashed shop windows and windows of houses owned by Jews with stones. But most often this was accompanied by robbery: the crowd broke into houses and threw property into the street. Any attempt at self-defense aroused the indignation of the crowd and entailed numerous casualties.
They said that the tsar himself allowed the punishment of the “seditious people.” The following characteristic case took place in Tomsk. The procession approached the store, and one of the demonstrators loudly asked the royal portrait: “Do you have permission to destroy, Your Majesty?” “I allow,” answered the man carrying the portrait...
V. Shulgin described the picture of the pogrom this way:
“This was the street along which the “pogrom” took place.
What is this? Why is she white?...
Fluff... Fluff from feather beds.
A terrible street... Disfigured pathetic Jewish huts... All the windows are broken... In some places the frames are broken... All these shacks seem to be blinded. Between them, eyeless, covered in fluff and dirt - all the pathetic junk of these houses, mangled, broken... Chairs, sofas, mattresses, beds, curtains, rags... half pressed into the dirt, broken plates... - everything that was in these shacks, mangled , trampled underfoot...”
Within two weeks of the manifesto, street riots occurred in more than a hundred cities. According to historian S. Stepanov, 1,622 people died and 3,544 people were injured. The victims included both Jews and Russian “troublemakers” - students, intellectuals. Of those killed and wounded whose nationality is known, Jews made up 50%, Russians and other Slavs - about 44%.
"Union of the Russian People"
In October 1905, the Black Hundred movement for the first time grew into a mass movement and spread throughout the country. In November, the largest Black Hundred organization emerged - the Union of the Russian People (URN). The first issue of her newspaper “Russian Banner” was published.
Ally".
The social basis of these organizations consisted of heterogeneous elements: landowners, representatives of the clergy, large and petty urban bourgeoisie, merchants, peasants, workers, burghers, artisans, Cossacks, police officials who advocated the preservation of the inviolability of autocracy on the basis of Uvarov’s formula “Orthodoxy, Autocracy, Nationality” . The period of special activity of the Black Hundreds occurred in -1914.
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The origins of the ideology of the Black Hundreds originate in the Slavophil movement. Many of its provisions were intertwined with the official monarchist doctrine, the platform of the nationalists, and in some cases with the Octobrist program. The Black Hundreds opposed themselves to Marxism and did not recognize the materialist understanding of history [ ] .
In the economic sphere, the Black Hundreds advocated a multi-structure system. Some Black Hundred economists proposed abandoning the commodity backing of the ruble.
Some of the Black Hundred ideas - both programs of organizations and topics discussed in the Black Hundred press - assumed a conservative social structure (there were significant disputes over the admissibility of parliamentarism and generally representative institutions in an autocratic monarchy), and some curbing of the “excesses” of capitalism, as well as the strengthening social solidarity, a form of direct democracy.
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Black Hundreds
- The Black Hundreds trace their origins to the grassroots Nizhny Novgorod militia of the Time of Troubles, led by Kuzma Minin, who “stood for the house of the Most Holy Theotokos and the Orthodox Christian faith, took up arms against the destroyers of the Russian land for the sake of saving the father’s faith and the fatherland from destruction” (In Russia, XIV-XVII centuries "black" were the land plots of the black-growing peasants and tax-paying urban population. In historical sources "black" lands are opposed "white" lands that were in the possession of feudal lords and the church).
- The Black Hundred movement came out at the beginning of the 20th century under the slogans of defending the Russian Empire and its traditional values of “Orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality.”
The first Black Hundred organization was the “Russian Assembly”, created in 1900.
A significant source of funding for the Black Hundred unions were private donations and collections.
According to a number of scientists, the participation of famous figures in Black Hundred organizations was subsequently significantly exaggerated. Thus, Doctor of Philosophy, Professor Sergei Lebedev believes that
Modern rightists... like to increase this already long list at the expense of those figures of Russian culture who were not formally members of the Black Hundred unions, but did not hide their right-wing views. These include, in particular, the great D. I. Mendeleev, artist V. M. Vasnetsov, philosopher V. V. Rozanov...
The “Black Hundred” of 1905-1917 are several large and small monarchist organizations: “Union of the Russian People”, “Union of the Archangel Michael”, “Russian Monarchical Party”, “Union of the Russian People”, “Union of the Fight against Sedition”, “Council” United Nobility", "Russian Assembly" and others.
The Black Hundred movement at various times published the newspapers “Russian Banner”, “Zemshchina”, “Pochaevsky Listok”, “Bell”, “Groza”, “Veche”. Black Hundred ideas were also preached in the major newspapers Moskovskie Vedomosti, Kievlyanin, Grazhdanin, and Svet.
Among the leaders of the Black Hundred movement, Alexander Dubrovin, Vladimir Purishkevich, Nikolai Markov, and Prince M.K. Shakhovskoy stood out.
Role in pogroms
Members of the Black Hundred carried out raids (with unofficial government approval) against various revolutionary groups and pogroms, including against Jews.
Researcher of the “Black Hundred”, historian Maxim Razmolodin, believes that this issue is debatable and requires further study.
Black Hundred organizations began their formation not before, A after the first, most powerful wave of pogroms. Doctor of Historical Sciences, historian of the Black Hundred movement Sergei Stepanov writes that in the subsequent period, the combat squads of the “Union of the Russian People” and other extreme right-wing organizations became a weapon of Black Hundred terror. Maxim Razmolodin argues that as the activities of the Black Hundred organizations unfolded, the wave of pogroms began to subside, which was pointed out by many prominent figures of this movement and recognized by political opponents.
Black Hundred organizations were most active in regions with a mixed population (in the territory of modern Ukraine, Belarus and in 15 provinces of the “Pale of Jewish Settlement”), where more than half of all members of the Union of Russian People and other Black Hundred organizations were concentrated. After the organization of the Black Hundred movement, only two major pogroms were recorded. Both of them took place in 1906 on the territory of Poland, where the Russian Black Hundreds had no influence. The leaders of the Black Hundred movement and the charters of organizations declared the law-abiding nature of the movement and condemned the pogroms. In particular, the chairman of the Union of the Russian People, A.I. Dubrovin, in a special statement in 1906, defined pogroms as a crime. Although the fight against “Jewish dominance” was one of the foundations of the movement, its leaders explained that it should not be waged by violence, but by economic and ideological methods, that is, mainly by increasing discrimination against Jews. Razmolodin claims that the Black Hundred newspapers, despite their general anti-Semitic orientation, did not publish a single direct call for a Jewish pogrom.
However, Sergei Stepanov argues that policy documents and actual activities were very different from each other. There are facts indicating the active propaganda of anti-revolutionary violence by the Black Hundreds. J. D. Klier and Shlomo Lambroso quote the words of M. Dubrovin, spoken before 300 members of the Odessa organization RNC:
The extermination of rebels is a sacred Russian cause. You know who they are and where to look for them... Death to the rebels and the Jews! .
Terror against the "Black Hundred"
Radical socialist parties launched a campaign of terror against the Black Hundreds. The leader of the Social Democrats, V. I. Lenin, wrote in 1905:
Detachments of the revolutionary army must immediately study who, where and how the Black Hundreds are composed, and then not limit themselves to preaching alone (this is useful, but this alone is not enough), but also act with armed force, beating the Black Hundreds, killing them, blowing up their headquarters etc.
On behalf of the St. Petersburg Committee of the RSDLP, an armed attack was carried out on the Tver teahouse, where workers of the Nevsky Shipyard, who were members of the Union of the Russian People, were gathering. First, two bombs were thrown by Bolshevik militants, and then those running out of the tea shop were shot with revolvers. The Bolsheviks killed two and wounded fifteen people.
Revolutionary organizations carried out many terrorist acts against members of right-wing parties, mainly against the chairmen of local departments of the Union of the Russian People. So, according to the police department, only in March 1908, in one Chernigov province in the city of Bakhmach, a bomb was thrown at the house of the chairman of the local union of the RNC, in the city of Nizhyn the house of the chairman of the union was set on fire, and the whole family was killed, in the village of Domyany the chairman of the department was killed, two department chairmen were killed in Nizhyn.
Weakening and end of the Black Hundred movement
Despite massive support among the urban bourgeoisie and the sympathy of the Russian Orthodox clergy and influential aristocrats, the Russian radical right movement remained underdeveloped from its very appearance on the Russian public scene for the following reasons:
- The Black Hundred movement failed to convince Russian society of its ability to offer a positive program according to the then demands for political ideology; the explanation of all the problems and ills of society by the subversive activities of the Jews seemed overly one-sided even to those who did not sympathize with the Jews;
- The Black Hundred movement failed to offer an effective alternative to the liberal and revolutionary, radical left ideas that had won wide circles of the intelligentsia in Russia;
- Continuous splits and internal strife in the Black Hundred movement, accompanied by numerous scandals and mutual accusations (including serious criminal offenses) undermined public confidence in the movement as a whole; for example, the most famous figure in the right-wing movement, Fr. John Vostorgov was accused by right-wing political competitors of poisoning right-wing political figure P. A. Krushevan, killing his own wife out of a desire to become a bishop, and stealing funds from monarchist organizations;
- A strong public opinion has formed that the Black Hundred movement is secretly financed from secret sums of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and all conflicts in the movement are caused by the struggle for individuals’ access to these sums;
- The latter's participation in the murders of Duma deputies M. Ya. Herzenstein and G. B. Yollos had an unfavorable impact on public opinion about the Black Hundreds; as well as accusations brought by former Prime Minister Count S. Yu. Witte of attempting to kill him by blowing up a house;
- The activities of the deputies of the right faction in the Third State Duma, primarily V. M. Purishkevich and N. E. Markov the 2nd, were provocative, shocking in nature and were accompanied by numerous scandals that did not contribute to the formation of respect for these political figures; A. N. Khvostov’s activities as Minister of Internal Affairs ended in a loud scandal associated with his alleged attempt to organize the murder of G. E. Rasputin and subsequent quick resignation.
Despite certain political successes, after the Russian Revolution of 1905, the Black Hundred movement was unable to become a monolithic political force and find allies in the multi-ethnic, diverse Russian society. But the Black Hundreds managed to turn against themselves not only influential radical left and liberal centrist circles, but also some of their potential allies among supporters of the ideas of Russian imperial nationalism.
Some competition with the Black Hundred movement came from the All-Russian National Union and the associated nationalist faction in the Third Duma. In 1909, the moderate-right faction merged with the national faction. The new Russian national faction (in common parlance “nationalists”), unlike the right, managed to position itself in such a way that their votes, together with the Octobrists, formed a pro-government majority in the Duma, while the government had no need for the votes of the right. The right-wing deputies compensated for the insignificance of their faction’s votes during the voting with aggressive, provocative behavior, which further turned the faction members into political outcasts.
Notes
- Sharova V. L. Right-wing radical ideology in Russia: origins and continuity // Political and philosophical yearbook. - M.: Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2008. - Issue. 1 . - P. 121.
- S. Stepanov “The Black Hundred”
- Black Hundreds- article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia.
- S. A. Stepanov. "The Black Hundred. What have they done for the greatness of Russia? // M.: Yauza-press, 2013
- Bizyukin S.S. Economic views of the right-wing monarchist (Black Hundred) movement in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century // View from the third millennium: Collection of abstracts. Ryaz. state ped. University named after S. A. Yesenina - Ryazan, 2003.
- Information about the organization on the Chronos website
- Ideology of right radicalism of the early 20th century
- Kulikov S.V. Emperor Nicholas II during the First World War. SPb. 2000. P. 285
- Siberian trade newspaper. No. 83. April 12, 1907. Tyumen
- Black Hundreds
- Black Hundreds
- Razmolodin M. L. Some thoughts about the so-called. "Jewish pogroms" (undefined) . Chronos website. Retrieved April 11, 2012. Archived May 15, 2012.
- Black Hundred Terror 1905-1907
- Lambrozo S., Klier J.D. Pogroms: Anti-Jewish Violence in Modern Russian History. - Cambridge University Press, 1992. - P. 224. - ISBN 978-0-521-40532-4.
- Wed: The Times, October 9, 1906; In their monograph, J.D. Klier and Shlomo Lambroso refer to the next day's issue of the Times, October 10, which published the end of the "Russia" article. Dubrovin's name is a correspondent for the London " Times" mentioned again in the article " Russian Black Hundred" dated March 8, 1911.
- Lenin. Tasks of the units of the revolutionary army
- The first militant organization of the Bolsheviks. 1905-1907 - M., 1934. - P. 221.
- Circular of the Police Department dated March 8, 1908 // Political police and political terrorism in Russia (second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries): Collection of documents. - M.: AIRO-XXI, 2001. -
Black Hundreds were members of Russian patriotic organizations of 1905-17, who adhered to the positions of monarchism, anti-Semitism, and These organizations used terror against the rebels. The Black Hundred parties participated in the dispersal of rallies, demonstrations, and meetings. Organizations supported the government and carried out pogroms against Jews.
It is quite difficult to understand this movement at first glance. The Black Hundred parties included representatives of organizations that did not always act together. However, if we focus on the most important thing, we can see that the Black Hundreds had common ideas and directions of development. Let us briefly introduce the main Black Hundred parties in Russia and their leaders.
Major organizations and leaders
The "Russian Assembly", created in can be considered the first monarchical organization in our country. We will not take into account its predecessor, the “Russian Squad” (this underground organization did not last long). However, the main force of the Black Hundred movement was the “Union of the Russian People,” which emerged in 1905.
It was headed by Dubrovin. In 1908, Purishkevich disagreed with him and left the RNC. He created his own organization, the Union of Archangel Michael. A second split occurred in the RNC in 1912. This time the confrontation arose between Markov and Dubrovin. Dubrovin has now left the Union. He formed the ultra-right Dubrovinsky "Union of the Russian People". Thus, 3 monarchist leaders came to the fore: Markov (RNC), Purishkevich (SMA) and Dubrovin (VDSRN).
The main Black Hundred parties are those listed above. You can also note the "Russian Monarchical Union". However, the representatives of this party were the Orthodox clergy and nobles, so this association was small and not of significant interest. Moreover, after some time the party split. Part of the organization went to Purishkevich.
Origin of the word "Black Hundreds"
The word "Black Hundreds" comes from the Old Russian word meaning the townsman tax population, divided into military-administrative units (hundreds). Representatives of the movement we are interested in were members of Russian monarchist, right-wing Christian and anti-Semitic organizations. "Black Hundred" is a term that has become widely used to refer to far-right anti-Semites and politicians. Representatives of this movement put forward individual, absolute power as a counterweight to democracy. They believed that Russia has 3 enemies that need to be fought. This is a dissident, an intellectual and a foreigner.
Black Hundreds and teetotalism
The Black Hundred party was formed in part to combat drunkenness. These organizations never denied teetotalism. At the same time, it was believed that drinking beer in moderation was an alternative to vodka poisoning. Some of the Black Hundred cells were even formed in the form of temperance societies, reading societies for the people, tea houses and even beer houses.
Black Hundreds and the Peasantry
The Black Hundreds are a party whose program of action has not been properly developed, with the exception of a call to beat Jews, intellectuals, liberals and revolutionaries. Therefore, the peasantry, which had virtually no contact with these categories, remained almost unaffected by these organizations.
Pogroms of intellectuals and Jews
The Black Hundred parties placed their main emphasis on inciting ethnic and national hatred. The result of this was pogroms that swept across Russia. It must be said that the pogroms began even before the development of the Black Hundreds movement. The intelligentsia did not always avoid the blow that was aimed at the “enemies of Russia.” Its representatives could easily be beaten and even killed in the streets, often on a par with Jews. It didn’t even help that a significant part of the organizers of the Black Hundred movement consisted of conservative intellectuals.
Not all pogroms, contrary to popular opinion, were prepared by the Black Hundred parties. In 1905-07, these organizations were still quite small. However, the Black Hundreds were very active in areas where the population was mixed (in Belarus, Ukraine and 15 provinces of the so-called “Pale of Jewish Settlement”). More than half of all representatives of the Union of Russian People, as well as other similar organizations, were located in these regions. The wave of pogroms began to subside more quickly as the activities of the Black Hundreds developed. Many prominent figures in these parties have pointed this out.
Funding of organizations, newspaper publishing
Government subsidies were an important source of financing for the Black Hundred unions. Funds were allocated from the funds of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in order to control the policies of these associations. At the same time, the Black Hundred parties also collected donations from private individuals.
At different times, these organizations published the newspapers “Pochaevsky Listok”, “Russian Banner”, “Groza”, “Bell”, “Veche”. The Black Hundred parties of the early 20th century promoted their ideas in such large newspapers as Kievlyanin, Moskovskie Vedomosti, Svet, and Citizen.
Congress in Moscow
The organizations held a congress in Moscow in October 1906. It elected the Main Council and united all the Black Hundreds, creating the “United Russian People”. However, their merger did not actually happen. The organization ceased to exist a year later.
It must be said that the constructive ideas of the Black Hundreds (both topics discussed in the press and programs of organizations) assumed the creation of a conservative society. There has been considerable debate about the need for parliamentarism and representative institutions in general. The Black Hundreds are a party whose program was outlined only in general terms. Therefore, as well as for a number of other reasons, these organizations turned out to be unviable.
Black Hundred parties: program
The theory of "official nationality" was at the core of the program of these organizations. She was nominated by S.S. Uvarov, Minister of Education, back in the 1st half of the 19th century. This theory was based on the formula “Orthodoxy, autocracy, nationality.” Autocracy and Orthodoxy were presented as originally Russian principles. The last element of the formula, “nationality,” was understood as the people’s commitment to the first two. Black Hundred parties and organizations adhered to unlimited autocracy in matters of the internal structure of the country. They even considered the State Duma, which appeared during the revolution of 1905-07, to be an advisory body under the tsar. They perceived reforms in the country as a futile and impossible undertaking. At the same time, the programs of these organizations (for example, the RNC) declared freedom of the press, speech, religion, unions, meetings, personal integrity, etc.
As for the agricultural program, it was uncompromising. The Black Hundreds did not want to make concessions. They were not satisfied with the option of partial confiscation of landowners' lands. They proposed selling state-owned empty lands to peasants, as well as developing credit and rental systems.
Murder of cadets
The Black Hundred parties of the early 20th century during the revolution (1905-07) mostly supported the policies pursued by the government. They killed two members of the Central Committee of the Cadet Party - G.B. Iollos and M.Ya. Herzenstein. Both of them were their political opponents: they were liberals, Jews and former State Duma deputies. Professor Herzenstein, who spoke out on the agrarian issue, aroused particular anger among the Black Hundreds. He was killed on July 18, 1906 in Terijoki. Members of the Union of Russian People were convicted in this case. These are A. Polovnev, N. Yuskevich-Kraskovsky, E. Larichkin and S. Alexandrov. The first three were sentenced for complicity and given 6 years each, and Aleksandrov received 6 months for not reporting the impending crime. Alexander Kazantsev, the perpetrator of this murder, had himself been killed by that time, so he did not stand trial.
Black Hundreds are losing influence
The Black Hundreds are a party that, after the revolution, failed to become a unified political force, despite some successes. Its representatives were unable to find a sufficient number of allies in the multi-structured, multi-ethnic Russian society. But the members of this movement turned against themselves the radical left parties and liberal centrist circles that were influential at that time. Even some of the potential allies in the form of supporters of imperial nationalism also rebelled against them.
Frightened by the episodic violence and radical rhetoric of the Black Hundreds, the great powers who were in power saw ethnic nationalism as almost the main threat to the state. They were able to convince Nicholas II, who sympathized with the “allies,” as well as court circles of the need to turn away from this movement. This further weakened the Black Hundreds in the political arena on the eve of the events of 1917. The First World War also contributed to the weakening of this movement. Many activists and ordinary members of Black Hundred organizations volunteered for it. The movement that interests us did not play a significant role in the revolution of 1917. The Black Hundreds are a party whose remnants were mercilessly destroyed after the victory of the Bolsheviks, who saw nationalism as a threat to the Soviet system.
The ban on organizations and the fate of their members
Black Hundred organizations were banned after the February Revolution. They remained only partially underground. Many prominent leaders during the Civil War joined the white movement. Once in exile, they criticized the activities of Russian emigrants. Some prominent representatives of this movement eventually joined nationalist organizations.
