Utopia's Discontents: Russian Émigrés and the Quest for Freedom, 1830s-1930s

by Faith Hillis

In April 1917, Lenin arrived at Petrograd's Finland Station and set foot on Russian soil for the first time in over a decade. For most of the past seventeen years, the Bolshevik leader had lived in exile, moving between Europe's many "Russian colonies"--large and politically active communities of émigrés in London, Paris, and Geneva, among other cities. Thousands of fellow exiles who followed Lenin on his eastward trek in 1917 were in a similar predicament. The returnees plunged themselves into politics, competing to shape the future of a vast country recently liberated from tsarist rule. Yet these activists had been absent from their homeland for so long that their ideas reflected the Russia imagined by residents of the faraway colonies as much as they did events on the ground. The 1917 revolution marked the dawn of a new day in Russian politics, but it also represented the continuation of decades-long conversations that had begun in emigration and were exported back to Russia.

Faith Hillis examines how émigré communities evolved into revolutionary social experiments in the heart of bourgeois cities. Feminists, nationalist activists, and Jewish intellectuals seeking to liberate and uplift populations oppressed by the tsarist regime treated the colonies as utopian communities, creating new networks, institutions, and cultural practices that reflected their values and realized the ideal world of the future in the present. The colonies also influenced their European host societies, informing international debates about the meaning of freedom on both the left and the right. Émigrés' efforts to transform the world played crucial roles in the articulation of socialism, liberalism, anarchism, and Zionism across borders. But they also produced unexpected--and explosive--discontents that defined the course of twentieth-century history.

This groundbreaking transnational work demonstrates the indelible marks the Russian colonies left on European politics, legal cultures, and social practices, while underscoring their role during a pivotal period of Russian history.

Genres: History, Russia, Nonfiction

360 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2021

Reviews

[Alexandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

i like the more personal style of writing and the anecdotes - they create a more human picture of the intellectual context of russian radicalism abroad. four stars as I think hillis underplays the connections that continued to exist between émigré communities and their homelands to bolster up the argument. also, the opening line of the book was quite grating... i get needing to make big claims with your writing but sheesh. nevertheless, a very worthwhile read for anyone who wants to get a longer timeline of the intellectual history of the Russian revolution.

[Dimitrii Ivanov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well-written, well-argued, well-focused study of how Russian and 'Russian' political emigre colonies shaped the revolutionary movement, and its perceptions in the outside world. Some of the things - including emigre skloki and the malign role played by Russian secret-service agents masquerading as journalists - are still with us. Very minor reasons to complain - e.g. description of Savinkov in 1918 as an SR, or his death as execution. Very readable.

[gillyweed · Rating 5 out of 5]

Writing a pilot script about the radical melodrama of the Russian émigrés for HBO IMMEDIATELY tbh

[Dylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

only read the first few chapters for a grad class on russian emigrés - particularly anarchists - in the late nineteenth century and I loved this! definitely want to read the rest later

[Xiaxi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some interesting ideas and facts presented about the nature of emigre networks and their influence on Russian Marxism. But it is clear that Faith Hills is grasping at the straws to describe how this results in Bolshevism's supposed inherent tendency towards unchecked authoritarianism. Her descriptions of the Cheka's executions, trials and arrests are written without mention of any of the many attempts at counter-revolution conducted by the SRs and Mensheviks. She conveniently lets us believe that these parties were still Marxist parties working towards revolution, rather than ones planning bomb plots against the Bolshevik CC and agitating for war on the German border by starting armed skirmishes (the SRs - the Left SRs no less). Similarly with Kronstadt, it is described as a "revolutionary movement akin to the Paris Commune", which is then lobbed together with Kollontai's Workers' Opposition. It's especially ridiculous when you find out that the Kronstadt rebellion's slogan of "Soviets without Bolsheviks" really meant "Soviets without Jews". The leader was a literal white Admiral come on.