Tony Rocchi, Author at The CommentaTHOR

Tony Rocchi11.04.2024

The far-right Black Hundreds movement had its biggest mass appeal in the borderlands of the Russian Empire, rather than in the core ethnic Russian regions in the empire. Thousands of people in the nine Western Provinces, a transitional zone between the traditional Russian and Polish states, enthusiastically accepted the Black Hundreds message of <<Russia for […]

Tony Rocchi27.02.2024

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Far-right political terrorism occupies a virtually minimal place in the history of political terrorism in the Russian Empire between 1901-1911. The overwhelming majority of the 17,000 people killed or wounded in terrorist attacks were victims of left-wing terrorist groups. However, terrorism and other acts of violence committed by the Black Hundreds [черносотенцы] — members of […]

Tony Rocchi23.01.2024

Historians generally agree that the People’s Will [Народная Воля] suffered a major defeat because it did not overthrow the government after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II on March 1, 1881. At best, the assassination was a Pyrrhic victory because the successful assassination was accomplished at too great a cost for the People’s Will. The […]

Tony Rocchi08.01.2024

One of the darkest chapters in the history of the People’s Will [Народная Воля] was how some narodovol’tsy supported a wave of anti-Jewish pogroms [погромы] in 1881-1882 in the southern and southwestern provinces, now forming part of Ukraine. A pogrom is a mob attack direct against certain categories of people, considered evil alien elements by […]

Tony Rocchi24.12.2023

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The conspiratorial activity of the People’s Will [Народная Воля] gave birth to the conspiratorial activity of the loyalist Sacred Brotherhood [Святая Дружина]. Just as the narodovol’tsy [members of the People’s Will] saw themselves engaged in single combat with the autocracy, the druzhinniki [дружинники, members of the Sacred Brotherhood] saw themselves as engaged in single combat […]

Tony Rocchi17.12.2023

The People’s Will was a political secret society and a revolutionary terrorist conspiracy. Revolutionary Mystification and Deceit Political parties were illegal in Russia until the Revolution of 1905-1907 so the narodovol’tsy had no other choice but to form a secret society. In many ways, the People’s Will, especially its Executive Committee, was the culmination of […]

Tony Rocchi15.12.2023

The terrorists of the People’s Will [Народная Воля] became legends in their own time. Many of their admirers included Russian and foreign writers. Heroes in World Literature Among the foreign writers who admired the narodovol’tsy [members of the People’s Will] were Emile Zola, Victor Hugo, Guy Maupassant, Jules Verne, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle, and […]

Tony Rocchi13.12.2023

The People’s Will [Народная Воля] occupies a special and even honorable place in the history of Russian, European, and world terrorism. A Legendary Terrorist Organization Even historians who usually condemn terrorism often make an exception for the People’s Will. For example, American specialist Walter Laqueur wrote <<Sofiya Perovskaya and Vera Figner are symbols of one […]

Tony Rocchi11.12.2023

Political terrorism in the Russian Empire foreshadowed many trends in European terrorism especially in the late 20th to early 21st centuries. However, Russian terrorism differed sharply from many tendencies in European terrorism particularly after 1918 right up to the present. Many of these differences reflect the conditions in which terrorism emerged during different historical periods. […]

Tony Rocchi10.12.2023

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Many trends in terrorism in the Russian Empire foreshadowed trends in European terrorism in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Already during Europe’s <<Era of Dynamite>> from 1870-1914, terrorism in Russia between 1866-1911 was clearly different from terrorism in European countries. Russia and the European <<Era of Dynamite>> The massiveness of terrorism in Russia […]

Tony Rocchi

The Stronghold of the Black Hundreds in the Russian Empire

Revolution from the Right: Russia’s Black Hundreds

The People’s Will: Victory or Defeat?

The People’s Will and Russia’s Jews

One Conspiracy Creates Another Conspiracy

A Super Revolutionary Conspiracy

The Appeal of the People’s Will

The People’s Will — Myths and Realities

Differences Between Russian and European Terrorism

Russian Terrorism Foreshadows Terrorism in Europe

“Bulgakov — Get Out the Russian Chauvinist from Kyiv!”

Japan Reopens to Foreign Tourists

About the Dangers of Supplements

135 years ago Charlie Chaplin was born!