Black Hundreds

Black Hundreds
Чёрная сотня
Ideology Ultranationalism (Russian),
Monarchism,
Antisemitism
Anti-communism
Political position Far-right
Colors Black, Yellow
Supporters of the Black Hundreds marching during the 1905 Russian Revolution.
A Black Hundred procession, 1907

The Black Hundreds (sometimes The Black Hundred), also known as the black-hundredists (Чёрная сотня, черносотенцы in Russian, or Chornaya sotnya, chernosotentsy), was an ultra-nationalist movement in Russia in the early 20th century. It was a staunch supporter of the House of Romanov and opposed any retreat from the autocracy of the reigning monarch.[1] The Black Hundreds were also noted for extremist Russocentric doctrines, xenophobia, anti-semitism and incitement to pogroms.[2]

Pre-formation

"Svyashchennaya druzhina" (Священнaя дружинa, or The Holy Brigade) and "Russkoye sobraniye" (Русское собрание, or Russian Assembly) in St. Petersburg are considered to be predecessors of the Black Hundreds. Starting in 1900, the two organizations united representatives of the conservative intellectuals, government officials, clergy and landowners. A number of black-hundredist organizations formed during and after the Russian Revolution of 1905, such as:

and others.

Predecessors

Members of the Black Hundreds organizations came from different social strata - such as landowners, clergymen, the high and petty bourgeoisie, merchants, artisans, workers and the so-called "declassed elements". The Sovet ob’yedinyonnogo dvoryanstva (United Gentry Council) guided the activities of the black-hundredists; the tsarist regime provided moral and financial support to the movement. The Black Hundreds were founded on a devotion to Tsar, church and motherland, expressed previously by the motto of Tsar Nicholas I: "Orthodoxy, Autocracy, and National Character" (Pravoslavie, Samoderzhavie i Narodnost). Despite certain program differences, all of the black-hundredist organizations had one goal in common, namely their struggle against the revolutionary movement. The black-hundredists conducted oral propaganda: in churches by holding special services, and during meetings, lectures and demonstrations. Such propaganda provoked antisemitic sentiments and monarchic "exaltation" and caused numerous pogroms and terrorist acts against revolutionaries and certain public figures, performed by the Black Hundreds' paramilitary groups, sometimes known as "Yellow Shirts".[3]

Popularity and power

The Black Hundred movement published newspapers, such as Znamya (The Banner) or Russkoye znamya (Russian Banner), Pochayevsky listok (The Pochayev Page), Zemschina, Kolokol (Bell), Groza (Thunderstorm), Veche and others. Many rightist newspapers, such as Moskovskiye vedomosti (Moscow News), Grazhdanin (Citizen) and Kievlyanin (Kievan), published their materials as well. Among the prominent leaders of the Black Hundred movement were Alexander Dubrovin, Vladimir Purishkevich, Nikolai Markov, A. I. Trishatny, Pavel Krushevan, Pavel Bulatsel, Ivan Vostorgov, M. K. Shakhovskoy, Saint John of Kronstadt, Hieromonk Iliodor, Bishop Hermogen, and others.

Incitement to violence

Anti-"Black Hundred" satire. A certificate: "The bearer of this document is neither a student nor a member of the intelligentsia, and is thus not fit for beating" issued by the "Chief Directorate of Black Hundred"

When two Duma delegates, Grigori Borisovich Iollos (Poltava province) and Mikhail Herzenstein (b. 1859, d. 1906 in Terijoki), both from the Constitutional Democratic Party, were assassinated by members of the Black Hundreds, their press organ Russkoe Znamya declared openly that "Real Russians assassinated Herzenstein and Iollos with knowledge of officials", and expressed regret that "only two Jews perished in the crusade against revolutionaries."[4] The black hundred were known to have used violence and torture on anyone they believed was a threat to the Tsar.

The Black Hundred and the Ukrainian question

The Black Hundreds denied the existence of a Ukrainian nation, defined Ukrainians as Russians,[5] and attracted the support of ethnic Ukrainian Russophiles who considered themselves Russian.[6] The Black Hundred movement actively campaigned against what it considered to be Ukrainian separatism, as well as against promoting Ukrainian culture and language in general, and against the works of Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko in particular.[7] In Odessa, the Black Hundreds shut down the local branch of the Ukrainian Prosvita society, an organization that was dedicated to spreading literacy in the Ukrainian language and Ukrainian cultural awareness.[6]

All-Russian congresses

The black-hundredists organized four all-Russian congresses with the purpose of uniting their forces. In October 1906, they elected the so-called glavnaya uprava (a kind of board of directors) of the new all-Russian black-hundredist organization "Ob’yedinyonniy russkiy narod" (Объединённый русский народ, or Russian People United). After 1907, however, this organization disintegrated and the whole Black Hundreds movement became weaker with membership rate steadily decreasing. During the February Revolution of 1917, the remaining black-hundredist organizations were officially abolished. After the October Revolution, many leaders and regular members of these organizations fought against the Soviet authorities, although overall their participation was much lower than that of more moderate forces of the White movement.

After emigrating abroad, black-hundredists became the main right-wing critics of the White movement. They blamed the movement for not emphasising monarchism as its key ideological foundation, and being run under the influence of liberals and Freemasons. One former member of the Black Hundreds, Boris Brasol (1885–1963), later emigrated to the United States and befriended Henry Ford, who gave Brasol a job on The Dearborn Independent. Brasol also helped in the production of The International Jew.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Norman Cohn, Warrant for Genocide, pp. 61, 73, 89, 120–2, 134, 139, 251.
  2. ↑ A People Apart: The Jews in Europe, 1789–1939, by David Vital, Oxford University Press, 1999 (pp. 576, 582, 665).
  3. ↑ Compare: Allensworth, Wayne (1998). The Russian Question: Nationalism, Modernization, and Post-Communist Russia. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 127. ISBN 9780847690039. Retrieved 2015-12-01. The Black Hundreds' militants were organized into paramilitary groups, one of which took the name of 'Yellow Shirts,' anticipating the Brown and Black Shirts of Germany and Italy.
  4. ↑ "A LIST OF EVENTS IN 5670 AND NECROLOGY" (PDF). American Jewish Yearbook. AJC Archives. Retrieved August 22, 2016. July 1, 1909, tO June 30, 1910, Issue 1910–1911
  5. ↑ Jacob Langer. (2007) Corruption and the Counterrevolution: The Rise and Fall of the Black Hundred History Dissertation, Duke University. pg.19
  6. 1 2 Encyclopedia of Ukraine. Black Hundreds University of Toronto, Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies.
  7. ↑ Украинская Жизнь. — М., 1912. — № 5 — С. 82.
  8. ↑ How Russia Shaped the Modern World by Steven G. Marks. Princeton University Press, 2003 (pp. 172–4)

Further reading

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