The United Nations as an Institute of Global Governance: A View of Russian Emigrants (Mid-1940s - Early 1950s)

The authors analyze approaches to the United Nations Organization as the global governance institute in the writings of Russian emigre circles. The analysis of the approaches of Russian emigration groups to the international organization of peace and security allows identifying the range of views on the UN and the rate of its public support in the early years of the UN existence. Research is based on the study of the leading periodicals of the Russian diaspora, documents from the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace (Stanford, USA), the Bakhmeteff Archive of Russian and East European Culture (New York, USA) and the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation (Moscow, Russia). The article focuses on the analysis of Russian political emigration's approaches to the key issues of the world politics at the early stage of the Cold War. Russian emigration experts attentively observed the developments in relations between the former Allies, some had great expectations about the United Nations, others criticized its structure and functions. After the Second World War, Russian emigration became more disintegrated. Anticommunist emigrants centered in the United States and usually followed a very conservative and critical approach, expecting nothing from international institutions and the United Nations Organization. Some emigrant factions that held the "patriotic line" quite often repeated the official Soviet position on the United Nations activities and criticized the United States for its policy. But the majority of Russian emigrant experts were very skeptical about the UN potential in the maintenance of international peace and security. The weakness of the organization was predetermined by its inability to compel to make peace and prevent conflicts between the superpowers. The article particularly covers the Russian emigrants' controversial attitude to the issue of veto power as the core mechanism of the UN Security Council. Russian emigrants criticized the Soviet Union's "abuse of veto power", blaming the USSR for the United Nations' inefficiency to react to global problems. The authors also trace the evolution of different emigrant groups' approaches to the Korean war, 1950-53. They show that the anticommunist groups of Russian emigrants followed a much more irreconcilable line than the political elites of the Western countries. Such groups opposed any agreements with the Soviet Union, believing that the actions of Soviet diplomacy deserved a tough reaction from the UN and the world community. In fact, many of them pushed the West to the escalation of hostilities, despite the risk of a global military confrontation and the use of weapons of mass destruction. Russian emigration groups perceived the United Nations through the prism of a bipolar confrontation. They believed that the UN had a limited political influence but emphasized its ideological significance.

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