Russian radical right on the eve of the Great War as seen by the British historian: notes on “The radical right in late imperial Russia: dreams of a true Fatherland?” by George Gilbert (London; New York: Routledge, 2016)

George Gilbert looks at the Russian Right at the beginning of the 20th century as the Right radicals ready to use violence in order to overcome political opponents. During the Revolution of 1905, they managed to widen their political support from the lower classes basing their propaganda on extreme Russian nationalism. They identified themselves with Russian common people, being severely exploited by alien (either literally, or at least culturally and politically) landlords and capitalists, who were protected by heartless, greedy and unpatriotic bureaucracy. This political strategy brought success to the Right and helped them to preserve the Monarchy, though in a limited form. Anyway, after the Revolution, the political Right split. Some of them, especially the supporters of Dubrovin, continued following the radical line and opposed the reformist course of Stolypin, while more moderate elements identified themselves with it. Contradictions between former allies led to the conflicts among the Right and made impossible saving the monarchy in 1917. Gilbert exaggerates the degree of the radical shift in Russian conservatism in the early 20th century. Firstly, Russian conservatives demonstrated the readiness to oppose the Government policies as early as in the 19th century. Secondly, after the Revolution of 1905, relatively moderate Nationalists became an influential part of the Russian conservative milieu. The liberal-conservative Progressive bloc, organized in August 1915, became the final outcome of this trend to de-radicalization of Russian conservative politics after the Revolution of 1905. So, in the early 20th century, the right sector of Russian politics was a pull of contradicting ideological and political tendencies, and the radical Right were just one of them.