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Self and Mission in Russia Abroad: How Russian Intellectuals Created

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Self and Mission in Russia Abroad: How Russian Intellectuals Created Self and Mission in Russia Abroad: How Russian Intellectuals Created Existential Meaning in Exile, 1919-1939 By Daniela Munteanu Submitted to Central European University Department of History In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Supervisor: Professor Karl Hall Second Reader: Professor Marsha Siefert CEU eTD Collection Vienna, Austria 2021 Statement of Copyright “Copyright in the text of this thesis rests with the Author. Copies by any process, either in full or part, may be made only in accordance with the instructions given by the Author and lodged in the Central European Library. Details may be obtained from the librarian. This page must form a part of any such copies made. Further copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the written permission of the Author.” CEU eTD Collection Abstract In the aftermath of the October Revolution and Civil War, the White Army, accompanied by politicians, intellectuals, civilian staff and their families, left Russia. The Russians settled across Europe, the Balkans, Asia and Latin America to form an émigré community that lasted from 1919 to 1939 and has since been known as Russia Abroad. When, by the mid-1920s, it became clear that the Bolsheviks were stronger than anticipated and that the emigration might linger longer than expected, the Russian emigrants committed to conserve Russianness and promote Russian culture while in exile. They managed to create a sense of belonging and common identity across the whole world through their publishing projects. They created and published hundreds of newspapers, journals and books that crossed political and geographical borders to form an “imagined community” stretching across dozens of cities in the world. The Russian emigrants conserved their Russianness and the Russian national culture within a certain conceptual framework that informed their opinions, arguments and judgement. In this thesis I reconstruct this conceptual framework within which the Russians made sense of Russia´s recent past and their new circumstances, created their identities and looked for existential meaning. This framework was itself formed of concepts and in this thesis I research three of them in particular: lichnost´ (individuality), tvorchestvo (creativity) and missi͡ia (mission) – concepts central to Russian intellectual thought. Drawing on past meanings, lichnost´, tvorchestvo and missi͡ia were reconceptualised in unprecedented circumstances, when the Russians had no country or citizenship, no political CEU eTD Collection agency or valuable belongings, no recognized profession or glorious reputation to count on. It was on the pages on those multiple journals and during those long evenings on Montparnasse that the Russian intellectuals had to revise their lichnosti, create existential meaning and find a way to serve Russia even from abroad. It was on these pages and during these evenings that the Russians created that conceptual framework within which they then thought, dreamt and wrote. In emigration, lichnost´ was the creative subject-agent of history, the site of struggle against Bolshevism and conservation of Russianness. Tvorchestvo was the activity, the creation and creativity of Russian emigrants as Russian by soul and culture in the name of Russia. It was in tvorchestvo that they maintained their Russianness and promoted Russian culture. This was, in fact, the essence of their missi͡ia – to serve Russia while in exile by engaging in literary and philosophical production. One day these works, imbued with freedom that the Russian emigrants had learnt while in exile in the West, were supposed to enter Russia and accompany its revival. By the late 1980s, works published in emigration started to make their way into USSR to inform the intellectual thought there. In this thesis I research the conceptual framework within which the émigré thoughts and ideas were created, a framework that also suggests a reading key of the Russian émigré thought. CEU eTD Collection In Lieu of Acknowledgements There were many people along the way who believed, encouraged and cheered me up. I say “thank you” to all those who made this thesis and year possible: to Aniko, who held our hands and made the impossible real; to Robin for his patience in making sense of my long paragraphs; to Prof. Matthias Riedl for listening to us all, for his empathy and help; to Prof. Tolga Esmer for encouraging my shy but daring prose; to Prof. Laszlo Kontler, for directing me towards a methodology that unveiled questions and answers, and then more questions again; to Prof. Marsha Siefert for kindly agreeing to be my second reader; and to my supervisor Prof. Karl Hall for his patience and guidance, and for his help in dissecting the intricate Russian thought; to Oana, Oleksii, Samira and Maria for the wine testing and the jokes; to Simona for teaching me to see the good, toss the evil and embrace love; to Luciana for teaching by example to follow the dream, for helping me pack, unpack and pack again books, shoes and memories; to Arianna and her family for making this transition to Vienna smooth and fun; to Valeria and Arianna again for the weekends away, the late night talks, and for being always there to cheer me up; to Natalie, Annette and Nadine, my rock in the past ten years, who shared my fears and joys, and did me justice against all, real or imaginary, evils; and finally to my family: to my brother Mihai, who enjoys listening to his sister talking, whatever she is talking about, so fast and with such enthusiasm, that sometimes he is afraid she is going to choke; and to my loving parents, Ecaterina and Gheorghe, who, through ups and downs, made space and time for me to dream high, who taught me respect for the human being, its dignity and diversity, tenets to which this thesis is a tribute. To you all and many others I say “thank you.” CEU eTD Collection Had I written this thesis in a city other than Vienna, this would have been a different research with a different beginning and a different ending. But I thought these thoughts and wrote these words on a multicultural Viennese street, noisy by day and quite by night (those lockdown nights) by a window with a view on the hills. And I am grateful. 1 Dedication To all those who left or had to leave, who roam and look for meaning, and only find it in that constant motion, without ever ceasing to yearn for belonging. CEU eTD Collection 2 Table of Contents 1 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 6 1.1 Literature Review ........................................................................................... 11 1.2 Methodology .................................................................................................. 14 2 The “imagined community” of Russia Abroad ..................................................... 18 2.1 Imagined Community ..................................................................................... 23 2.2 The Heroes ..................................................................................................... 27 3 Lichnost´ in Paris ................................................................................................... 36 3.1 Russian Paris .................................................................................................. 38 3.2 Russian Montparnasse .................................................................................... 44 3.3 Lichnost´ in Russian Intellectual Thought ..................................................... 45 3.4 Lichnost´ in Emigration .................................................................................. 50 3.5 Eurasianist Lichnost´ ...................................................................................... 53 3.6 The Defiant Young Lichnost´ ......................................................................... 59 3.7 Children against Parents ................................................................................. 64 3.8 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 70 4 Russian Tvorchestvo in Russian Berlin and Beyond ............................................. 72 4.1 Russian Berlin ................................................................................................ 74 CEU eTD Collection 4.2 Russian Tvorchestvo ...................................................................................... 77 4.3 Tvorchestvo in Emigration ............................................................................. 79 4.4 Tvorchestvo between the Old and Young Generations .................................. 84 3 4.5 Tvorchestvo in the Name of Russia and Existential Meaning ........................ 87 4.6 The Condition of Tvorchestvo in Emigration ................................................. 92 4.7 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 96 5 Missi͡ia in Prague ................................................................................................... 99 5.1 Russian Prague ............................................................................................. 101 5.2 Russian Messianism ..................................................................................... 106 5.3 Missionism in Emigration ............................................................................ 109 5.4 The Messianism of the Young
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