Vladimir Burtsev

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Vladimir Burtsev
Vladimir Burtsev

Vladimir L'vovich Burtsev (Russian: Владимир Львович Бурцев; November 17, 1862 – August 21, 1942), was a revolutionary activist, scholar, publisher and editor of several Russian language periodicals. He became famous by exposing a great number of agent provocateurs, notably Yevno Azef in 1908. Because of his own revolutionary activities and his harsh criticism of the imperial regime, including personal criticism of emperor Nicholas II, he was imprisoned several times in various countries. In the course of his life, Burtsev fought oppressive policies of Tsarism in the Imperial Russia, later totalitarianism of the Bolsheviks and later National Socialism led by Adolf Hitler.

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[edit] Early life (1862 - 1866)

Born in Fort Perovsky in a military family, in 1882 Burtsev was expelled from Saint Petersburg State University and in 1885 from Kazan State University for taking part in student disturbances. As a member of Narodnaya Volya, he was imprisoned for two years (for about a year in the Peter and Paul Fortress) and in 1886 exiled to Irkutsk region of Eastern Siberia.

[edit] Exile and publications (1888 - 1914)

In 1888 Burtsev managed to escape from the exile and emigrate to Switzerland. In 1889 he cofounded magazine Свободная Россия (Free Russia), but it survived only three issues. In 1897 Burtsev was imprisoned in Great Britain for 18 months for publishing magazine Народоволец (The Narodnaya Volya comrade). Upon his release, he went on to publish it in Switzerland which resulted in his permanent ban from that country.

In London he published two-volume book За сто лет (1800-1896) (Hundred Years (1800-1896)). He founded and published six issues of Былое (The Past) historical magazine. After Russian Revolution of 1905 Burtsev briefly illegally returned to Russia and founded the Russian version of the Былое magazine. In 1907 in the West Burtsev started publishing magazine Общее дело (Common Cause) continued foreign edition of Былое from the 7th issue.

By exposing numerous Tsarist agent provocateurs such as Yevno Azef, Burtsev gained the fame of counterintelligence expert and became known as "the Sherlock Holmes of the Revolution".

[edit] World War I and the Bolsheviks (1914 - 1921)

At the outset of World War I in 1914 he repatriated, was arrested at the border and again exiled to Siberia. Amnestied in 1915, he returned to Petrograd.

Burtsev strenuously opposed the Bolsheviks. In 1917 he accused Lenin and his comrades of being agents of Germany. In his article Either Us or the Germans and those with them ("Russian Freedom", July 7, 1917), he listed the major enemies of Russia:

  1. Bolsheviks, whose demagoguery puts their own goals above the interests of Russia
  2. Reactionary forces
  3. German agents and spies. The Bolsheviks are, and always have been, the agents of Wilhelm II.

On the day of the October revolution, he was arrested by the order of Leon Trotsky, which led some historians to count him as the first political prisoner in the USSR.

Despite their political differences and public disputes in the press, Maxim Gorky pleaded for Burtsev's release and in February 1918 he was indeed freed and left Soviet Russia. Burtsev spent the rest of his life as an emigre, first in Finland, Sweden and later in France. During the Russian Civil War, he supported the White Movement of Admiral Kolchak and General Anton Denikin. His numerous attempts to bring all anti-Bolshevik foces together under one ideological umbrella did not succeed.

[edit] Later life and death (1921 - 1942)

In 1921 he cofounded and was the chairman of the Russian National Committee.

Bookcover of Burtsev's The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: Proven Forgery
Bookcover of Burtsev's The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: Proven Forgery

In 1930s, Burtsev fought fascism and anti-Semitism. In 1934-1935 he was a witness in Bern process, exposing the Okhranka's role in creating the infamous fraud The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. In 1938 in Paris he published a book The Protocols of the Elders of Zion: Proven Forgery.

Burtsev died in poverty in Paris in 1942 from blood infection.

[edit] Publications

  • "Белый террор при Александре III" (1890?)
  • "Историко-революционный альманах"
  • "О войне" (1916)
  • Проклятие вам, большевики! Открытое письмо большевикам. - Стокгольм, 1918. 12 с.
  • В борьбе с большевиками и немцами. - Париж, 1919: Вып. 1. Статьи из газеты "Общее дело" (1917). 80 с.; Вып. 2.
  • Статьи из газет "Будущее" и "Общее дело" (1917). 30 с.
  • Борьба за свободную Россию: Из воспоминаний (1882-1924). Т. I. - Берлин: Гамаюн, 1924. 381 с.
  • Юбилей предателей и убийц (1917 - 1927). - Париж, 1927. 39 с.
  • В защиту правды. Перестанут ли клеветать? Дело генерала П.П. Дьяконова. Дело полковника А.Н. Попова и полковника И.А. де Роберти. Заговор молчания. - Париж: Общее дело, 1931. 32 с.
  • Боритесь с ГПУ! - Париж: Общее дело, 1932. 47с.
  • Браудо Александр Исаевич (1846-1924): Очерки и воспоминания. - Париж:
  • Кружок русско-еврейской интеллигенции в Париже, 1937. 151 с. (один из авторов).
  • «Протоколы Сионских мудрецов» - доказанный подлог. - Париж, 1938 (Переиздано в сборнике - М.: Слово, 1991).
  • Преступления и наказания большевиков. По поводу 20-летнего юбилея предателей и убийц. – Париж: Дом книги, 1938. 80с.

[edit] Editor and publisher

  • "Byloe" ("The past")
  • "Общее дело" (1909-1910)
  • "Будущее" (1911-1914).
  • "Общее дело", "Наше общее дело" (1918-1922, 1928-1933)
  • "Борьба за Россию" (1926-1931)

[edit] References

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