Konstantin Rodzaevsky
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Konstantin Vladimirovich Rodzaevsky (Russian: Константин Владимирович Родзаевский) (August 11, 1907 – August 30, 1946) was the leader of the Russian Fascist Party, which he led in exile from Manchuria.
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[edit] Far Eastern Fascism
Born in Blagoveshchensk (across the Amur from China) in a family of the Siberian middle-class, he fled the Soviet Union for Manchuria in 1925. In Harbin, Rodzaevsky entered the law academy and joined the Russian Fascist Organization. On May 26, 1931, he became the Secretary General of the newly created Russian Fascist Party; in 1934 the Party amalgamated with the Russian Fascist Organization, Rodzaevsky becoming its leader. He modeled himself on Benito Mussolini, and also used the Swastika as one of the symbols of the movement.
Rodzaevsky collected around himself personally selected Bodyguards, and used symbolism of the former Russian Empire along with Russian nationalist symbols; like the Italian Blackshirts, the Russian Fascists wore black uniforms with black crossed belts; they were armed with weapons obtained from Japan's Imperial Japanese Army. They created an international organization of White émigrés with a central office in Harbin, the "Russian Far East Moscow", and links in twenty-six nations around the world. The most important of these international posts was in New York City.
[edit] Manchukuo
Rodzaevsky had around 12,000 followers in Manchukuo. During the 2,600nd anniversary of the founding of the Empire of Japan, Rodzaevsky with a select group paid his respects to Emperor Hirohito at the official celebration in the region.
The fascists installed a great swastika of neon light at their branch in Manzhouli (Manchouli), at least 3km from the Soviet border. It was kept on all day and night to provide a show of power against the Soviet government. Rodzaevsky awaited the day when, leaving these signs on the Russian border, he would lead the White Anti-Soviet forces, joining White General Kislistin and Japanese forces, into battle to "liberate" the Soviet Union. Their main military acts involved the training of Asano Detachment, the all ethnic-Russian special forces in the Kwantung Army, organized for carrying out sabotage against Soviet forces in case of any Japanese invasion of Siberia and Russian Far East areas; Japan was apparently interested in creating a White Russian state in Outer Manchuria.
[edit] World War II and execution
During World War II Rodzaevsky tried to launch an open struggle against Bolshevism, but Japanese authorities limited the RFP’s activities to acts of sabotage in the Soviet Union. A notorious anti-Semite, Rodzaevsky published numerous articles in the party newspapers Our way and The Nation; he was also the author of the brochure Judas’ End and the book Contemporary Judaisation of the World or the Jewish Question in the XX Century.
At the end of the war, Rodzaevsky began to believe that the Soviet regime under Joseph Stalin was evolving into a nationalist one. He gave himself up to Soviet authorities in Kharbin in 1945, with a letter that shows striking similarities with the doctrines of National Bolshevism:
- "I issued a call for an unknown leader, ... capable of overturning the Jewish government and creating a new Russia. I failed to see that, by the will of fate, of his own genius, and of millions of toilers, Comrade J V Stalin, the leader of the peoples, had become this unknown leader".
He returned to the Russia, where he was promised freedom and a job in one of the Soviet newspapers. Instead, he was arrested, tried and sentenced to be shot; he was executed in a Lubyanka prison cellar.
[edit] References
- The Russian Fascists: Tragedy and Farce in Exile, 1925-1945 by John J. Stephan ISBN 0-06-014099-2
