‘Angry Patriots’ of Today Resemble the Black Hundreds Activists in 1916, Pryanikov Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Apr. 18 – Not only are the so-called “Angry patriots” who are upset that the Kremlin is not engaged in even broader aggression in Ukraine than it is using language which resembles the Black Hundreds spokesman in the last months of the Russian Imperial regime, but like them, they are attacking the country’s defense minister, Pavel Pryanikov says.

            At the end of 1916, Black Hundreds activists denounced everyone around the tsar as a traitor who should be removed. Such attacks, the Russian commentator continues, “unexpectedly were supported by the liberals (Kadets) and the left because they were against a common enemy, the regime” (publizist.ru/blogs/117734/45634/-).

            That should be remembered, Pryanikov says, because “the extreme right played no less a role in the overthrow of the tsarist regime in February 1917 than did the liberals and the lefts.” If the Putin regime is overthrown, the same thing will be true once again, although at present many fail to see that possibility.

            The commentator notes that “in the very first days of the February revolution, approximately 140,000 members of various Black Hundreds groups did not come out to support the authorities but simply mixed in with the revolutionary crowd so that they could rob liquor stores.”

            As is well known, he continues, “everything changes in Russia every ten years but nothing changes in a century. The only difference now is that the regime isn’t trying to impose prohibition and the Black Hundreds can safely buy and drink their vodka” while behaving in much the same way otherwise.