“We were aliens, but no longer outsiders”: the strategies of political adaptation of the Mensheviks in Germany in 1920s

Автор исследует стратегии политической адаптации меньшевиков в Германии и их вовлеченность во внутриполитические процессы Веймарской республики. В зависимости от участия в международном социалистическом движении, места внутри Социал-демократической партии Германии, положения в Заграничной Делегации берлинских меньшевиков можно поделить на интернационалистов, «изоляционистов» и «интеграционистов». Политику Заграничной Делегации в 1920-е гг. определяли интернационалисты Ю.О. Мартов, Ф.И. Дан и Р.А. Абрамович. Полноценная адаптация политэмигрантов в Германии была бы невозможна без содействия меньшевиков-«интеграционистов», имевших хорошие связи в немецкой социал-демократии. Один из старых лидеров меньшевиков А.Н. Потресов находился в берлинской эмиграции в изоляции. Он контактировал с «интеграционистами», но из-за политических разногласий не взаимодействовал с Заграничной Делегацией. The article is devoted to a history of Menshevism in German exile in the 1920s. The author studies three strategies of political adaptation in Weimar Republic: Internationalism, Integration, and Isolation. A chosen strategy depended on the participation in the international socialist movement, a position either within the Social Democratic Party of Germany, or the position adopted in the Foreign Delegation, a governing body of Mensheviks’ party abroad. The Foreign Delegation Policy in the 1920s was led by the internationalists Martov, Dan, and Abramovich. The adaptation of Mensheviks-internationalists in Germany would not have been possible without the assistance of “integrationists” who worked as the specialists and experts in German Social Democracy Party. One of the leaders of the Mensheviks A.N. Potresov found himself in isolation in German exile. He maintained contacts with some "integrationists", but because of acute political differences with Dan, Potresov stayed away from the Foreign Delegation. This division came to an end after the collapse of the Weimar Republic in 1933, when Mensheviks moved to the other states.

“The unity based on memories of former intimacy is an attempt to warm up at a went out fire…” The letters from V.M. Chernov to O.S. Minor and M.I. Klyaver

In the publication, O.V. Konovalova, V.I. Fedorova, A.P. Dvoretskaya presented letters 1931-1932 of the leader and theoretician of the party of socialists-revolutionaries V.M. Chernov to a prominent figure of the party O.S. Minor and a representative of Harbin socialists-revolutionaries organization M. I. Klyaver regarding the split of the Foreign delegation of the socialists-revolutionaries. They are preserved in the collection of VM. Chernov of the International Archives and Collections at the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam. The presented letters help to clarify VM. Chernov’s position on the key issues of the history of the SR party during the Russian revolution, Civil War, and emigration of the 1920s, and also shed light on the deep reasons for the split of the ZD AKP.

Correspondence of the Foreign Delegation of the Socialist-Revolutionaries Party with the Party Center in Soviet Russia (1921–1925) as a Historical Source

The article considers the correspondence of emigrants with the party center in Soviet Russia in 1920–1925 as a historical source. These materials are currently almost unknown to researchers and have not been introduced into scientific circulation. The purpose of the article is to describe the state of the problem research, key documentary publications and research by Russian and foreign authors. The importance of secret correspondence is noted as a source due to the availability of information that is not reflected in other materials. Systematic correspondence with overseas Socialist party centers in Russia began in 1921, the most active correspondence was in 1921–1922, 1923, while later the intensity of correspondence reduced. The greatest attention in correspondence was paid to cooperation of party work in Russia and in emigration, the press, quantity and geography of local subordinated organizations in Soviet Russia, program and tactical questions of the Socialists-Revolutionaries. The most discussed topics in 1922–1923, were the trial of leaders of Socialist-Revolutionaries in Moscow, the protection of foreign SRS defendants and counter-propaganda campaigns in European countries. Finally, the correspondence contains interesting information about the conflicts within the Bolshevik leadership, and the daily life of the population of Soviet Russia during the NEP period. The correspondence of the foreign delegation of the SR party with the leading party centers of Soviet Russia is a valuable and diverse historical source. These materials significantly complement our understanding of the Socialists-Revolutionaries in the first half of the 1920s. In addition, they contain important information about the political and socio-economic situation in Soviet Russia during this period.

Kabaka Mutesa and Venereal Disease: An Essay on Medical History and Sources in Precolonial Buganda

In an article in History in Africa about the Ganda monarch Mutesa, Richard Reid argued that Mutesa likely suffered from syphilis. In a chapter on Mutesa in a just published volume, John Rowe concluded that the disease from which Mutesa suffered was gonorrhea. While on the surface similar—both sexually transmitted, neither particularly desirable—the diseases are actually quite different. Popular biographies often offer gossip about individuals' medical histories, but there can be legitimate reasons to investigate the medical history of past leaders, two of which are pertinent here. First, the medical conditions from which they suffered may well have affected their lives and their decisions as leaders. Reid addresses this point, speculating that Mutesa's syphilis may have progressed to an extent that it affected him mentally. Reid suggests that this might help explain Mutesa's erratic behavior toward the latter years of his reign, as he shifted his favor from one court group and foreign delegation to another. Rowe raises a similar point about Mutesa's health and competing groups, although in a different way. Rowe shows how Mutesa's illness became a point of competition between foreign missionaries and indigenous religious specialists as each sought to win his favor by curing his lllness. Reid and Rowe also both mention the effect Mutesa's illness had on the perception of him as Kabaka. The Baganda equated the health and well-being of the Kabaka with the health of the kingdom, and Mutesa's extended illness and bedridden state would not have been a positive attribute.

Socialist Impressions of Revolutionary Russia, 1920

The response to the Bolshevik Revolution in Western Europe ranged from uncritical adulation, where Russia was viewed as a "red paradise," to bitter hostility, where the new regime was believed to be headed by mindless and heartless fanatics who were propagating fraticide and terror. Such conflicting convictions were formed without very much reliable information about revolutionary Russia, expecially after Soviet Russia left the war and was blockaded by the Allies. Expectably, the opinions that existed corresponded to political persuasion rather than copious evidence. It was not until mid-1920, after the war had ended and the blockade lifted, that westerners were able to observe revolutionary Russia in a more thorough and leisured fashion. Moreover, the Bolshevik regime had by this time assumed a more discernible character; after almost three years of rule, the Bolsheviks could more plausibly be charged with some responsibility for conditions in Russia. Of particular interest are the observations and experiences of those revolutionary western socialists who traveled to Russia at this time, representing parties or other groups that hoped in some way to link their efforts up with those of the Bolsheviks; to become, in other words, part of the communist movement, though they were uncertain what this would mean, and their relations with the Bolsheviks were still ambiguous. These socialists are particularly interesting because they were not yet committed, disciplined communists nor were they committed anticommunists, though they later became one or the other. Thus their impressions were relatively unclouded by pre-judgement or parti pris. They desired not only to observe the conditions of Russia after three years of social revolution but to meet the new rulers of Russia and to determine the prerequisites or conditions for membership in the Communist International, or Comintern, as it came to be called, which the Bolsheviks despite their blockaded isolation had established in the spring of 1919. The impressions of these early visitors can be pieced together into a fairly complete and vivid account through a variety of sources, including memoirs, diaries, stenographic accounts of public and private meetings in Russia, socialist newspaper reportage, and polemical pamphlets. Although obviously many frustrating lacunae remain, these accounts often complement one another, especially by comparing accounts from one foreign delegation to another. In this article I will concentrate on the overall impressions of western socialists as they traveled through Russia and met leading Bolsheviks. In a companion article, I will investigate the many surprises and disillusionments of these early visitors as they attempted to negotiate entry into the new International.

From Criticism to Research: The 'Textual' in the Academy

When the first joint workshop on cultural research between the University of Western Sydney’s Centre for Cultural Research (CCR) and the Department of Cultural Studies at Hong Kong’s Lingnan University (LU) began in July 2002, I had to admit to a little uncertainty in opening the proceedings. It was a novel experience for me to speak in Sydney as a member of a foreign delegation, and I spent an anxious moment wondering how to pitch my remarks: should I be telling old friends from UWS about what we do at Lingnan, or introducing new friends from Hong Kong to the Sydney—no, the Parramatta-based environment where we would spend the next few days?