Eurasianists

The Eurasianists (Russian: "Евразийцы, Evraziitsy") was a political movement in the Russian emigre community in the 1920s. The movement posited that Russian civilization does not belong in the "European" category (somewhat borrowing from Slavophile ideas of Konstantin Leontyev), and that the October Revolution of the Bolsheviks was a necessary reaction to the rapid westernization of Russian society. The Evraziitsi believed that the Soviet regime was capable of evolving into a new national, non-European Orthodox Christian government, shedding off the initial mask of proletarian internationalism and militant atheism (which the Evraziitsi were totally opposed to).

The Evraziitsi criticised the anti-Bolshevik activities of organizations such as ROVS, believing that the emigre community's energies would be better focused on preparing for this hoped for process of evolution. In turn, their opponents among the emigres argued that the Evraziitsi were calling for a compromise with and even support of the Soviet regime, while justifying its ruthless policies (such as the persecution of the Russian Orthodox Church) as mere "transitory problems" that were inevitable results of the revolutionary process.

The key leaders of the Evraziitsi were Prince Nikolai Trubetzkoy, P.N. Savitsky, P.P. Suvchinskiy, D.S. Mirsky, P. Arapov, and S. Efron. Philosopher Georges Florovsky was initially a supporter, but backed out of the organization claiming it "raises the right questions", but "poses the wrong answers". A significant influence of the doctrine of the Evraziitsi can be found in Nikolai Berdyaev's essay "The Sources and Meaning of Russian Communism".

Several organizations similar in spirit to the Evraziitsi sprung up in the emigre community at around the same time, such as the pro-Monarchist Mladorossi and the Smenovekhovtsi.

Several members of the Evraziitsi were affected by the Soviet provocational TREST operation, which had set up a fake meeting of Evraziitsi in Russia that was attended by the Evraziitsi leader P.N. Savitsky in 1926 (an earlier series of trips were also made two years earlier by Evraziitsi member P. Arapov). The uncovering of the TREST as a Soviet provocation caused a serious morale blow to the Evraziitsi and discredited their public image. By 1929, the Evraziitsi had ceased publishing their periodical and had faded quickly from the Russian emigre community.

The ideology of the movement was partially incorporated into a new movement of the same name after the fall of the Soviet Union, when the Eurasia Party was founded by Alexander Dugin.

References

* (1994) The Mission of the Russian Emigration, M.V. Nazarov. Moscow: Rodnik. ISBN 5-86231-172-6

See also

*Neo-Eurasianism
*Eurasia Party
*National Alliance of Russian Solidarists
* [http://www.mochola.org/russiaabroad Russia Abroad: A comprehensive guide to Russian Emigration after 1917] also some Ustrialov's papers in the [http://www.mochola.org/russiaabroad/rusemig_library.htm Library]