Russians on the Right at End of Imperial Times Saw Federalism as Salvation of the Romanov Monarchy, Bekbulatov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Oct. 3 – One of the tragedies of those in the Russian Federation who believe in federalism as an essential component of their country’s future is that for most of them, the only models they have are either Soviet or foreign, because they do not recognize that decentralization and federalism had long traditions in the Russian Empire itself.

            That has allowed the Putin regime to demonize federalism as either Leninist or a foreign import and has kept the principles of federalism from gaining the kind of defenders they would certainly have if Russians (and some in the West as well) were aware that before 1917, federalism had supporters not only on the left but also on the right.

            Those traditions were explored in detailmore than a half a century ago by Georg von Rauch in his, Russland: Staatliche Einheit und nationale Vielfalt (Munich, 1953). But unfortunately, that study, unlike the German historian’s other works on Russia, remains untranslated into either Russian or English and thus has not had the impact it should.

            In a brief article for the Tallinn-based regionalist portal, historian Semyon Bekbulatov helps to correct this gap by pointing the federalist ideas that were promoted by Russian physicist Dmitry Medvedev and Sergey Sharapov, one of the organizers of the right-wing Union of the Russian People (region.expert/fed-history/).

            He notes that both men but especially Sharapov limited their federalism approach to economic issues, anticipating both the Soviet approach and more recent calls for the formation of regions based on economics rather than politics, and that the latter viewed federalism not as a threat to the unlimited power of the Russian autocracy but as a means of protecting it.

            In a 1902 book, first published in Berlin and only later in Russia, Sharapov urged that the empire be divided into 18 oblast (Mendeleyev had favored its division into 19) which would be run by regional dumas. Twelve of these would be predominantly ethnic Russian, and six non-Russian.

            The leader of the Union of the Russian People said that he was inspired by the ideas of federalism as manifested in the United States but with one key difference. In the Russia he hoped for, there would be “a monarch with unlimited powers instead of a president elected every four years” as in the US.

            Bekbulatov also discusses federalist ideas found among Russians on the liberal side of the political spectrum. Many of those involved in promoting these ideas both in Russia and in Ukraine were members of the significantly named Masonic order that was created in Russia in 1912, the Grand Orient Lodge of the Peoples [plural!] of Russia.

            One can only hope that this article will inspire more attention to what is, as Bekbulatov himself says, a much-neglected page in Russian history that may have far more importance for the present and future than anyone could now imagine.