“Denikin views us certainly negatively having us done as a too much right-wing.”: All-russian national union in 1917-1920

The article deals with the activity of the All-Russian National Union (ARNU) in the Russian revolution and Civil war years. This final period of the history of the Russian nationalist party practically has not been studied until today, only in a few works (“Sketches of the Russian distemper” by A.I. Denikin, books and articles by G.Z. Ioffe, Ya.A. Butakov, S.M. San’kova) there are brief references to ARNU evidencing that it did not cease to exist immediately after decline of the Russian monarchy. Based on archival documents, press materials and memoirs, the author reconstructs the activity of ARNU in 1917 - 1920. In 1915, a group of progressive nationalsists withdrew from the parliamentary fraction of Russian nationalists resulting in the crisis of the whole “National union”. In the course of the 1917 February revolution ARNU and its leader P.N. Balashev were sitting on their hands. After the victory of the revolution ARNU was not banned but actually could not act openly through all 1917. Members of the party were under the necessity of either acting in private capacity or creating a new organization such as Slavic Gromada in Radomyshl. The activity of the party resumed in Ukraine in 1918. Some prominent figures of ARNU served Getman P.P. Skoropadsky, others actively participated in work of Kiev monarchist associations - Monarchist Bloc and “Our Motherland”. Herewith the leader of the party P.N. Balashev took a back seat, and in autumn of 1918 left at all Kiev for Yekatirinodar. A certain activation of ARNU took place in spring of 1919 in territories under control of the Volunteer Army. Governing party bodies took up residence in Kislovodsk where many public figures of the “ancient regime” were living. ARNU supported the Volunteer army, but its Commander-in-Chief A.I. Denikin viewed the party negatively considering it as too rightwing. Indeed, ARNU became addicted to the radical right-wing forces and gradually shifted towards the Black Hundreds. A result of a deeper embrace with the right radicals was the fact that one of the leaders of progressive nationalists V.V. Shulgin dissociated himself for good from ARNU. In autumn of 1919, when P.N. Balashev got the required funds, ARNU stepped up, an idea came up to hold the party congress in Rostov-on-Don, but the military defeat of the White movement hindered these plans. Last references to ARNU are related to February 1920. Summing up, we can make a conclusion that ARNU, which previously had one of the major fractions in the State Duma, in 1917 - 1920 led a miserable existence. Left without its “progressive” wing, “National Union” presented a dwarf political group which was then only one step removed from Black Hundreds organizations. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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