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Russian National Bolshevism: Old Program, New Era
Outdated thinking is challenging the future
National Bolshevism is a syncretic political movement and ideology committed to combining radical nationalism and Bolshevik Communism. Despite the key role of intellectuals in the development of this ideology in the 1920s, in Russia/USSR National Bolshevism had deep folk roots and was partly based on a mass cultural archetype.
This article mainly focuses on the social roots of Russian National Bolshevism, its historical examples and its contemporary consequences. Despite the similarities between this movement and radical left-wing nationalism in Europe, particularly in Germany, Russia historically had its own peculiarities.
The main objective of Soviet (and Russian) National-Bolshevism has always been to uncover, to bring to the surface the most archaic chthonic forces of the popular element and to make them participants in the political struggle. To politicize what belongs not to politics but to archaeology is the key element in the success of such a program. This involves revealing the darkest sides of human nature, mobilizing and channeling the destructive energy of the masses.
The Russian Revolution and Civil War of 1917–1922, as well as Stalin’s totalitarian modernization of the 1930s, were classic examples…