Russia

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 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 Rocchi04.12.2023

Before writing the articles on political trials in the Russian Empire and use of administrative orders and extraordinary laws to crush opposition, I must explain my methodology—how I research and write about different subjects in history. Most important is how I define terrorism. In this series we are looking at the how the Russian Empire […]

Tony Rocchi03.12.2023

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Political trials in the Russian Empire turned into battlegrounds between the government and educated society as represented by the political parties and movements. Socialist defendants and their liberal defense lawyers joined combat with prosecutors determined to present the revolutionaries as monsters seeking to destroy Russia. Defendants accused the government of committing crimes against the people […]

Tony Rocchi01.12.2023

Although the Russian government had severe policies against its real and imagined political opponents, it was not a police state. The government did not have the resources or the political will to become a police state. The image of the Russian Empire as a police state was built up from the 1800s by socialists and […]

Tony Rocchi29.11.2023

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Part 5 see here. Any discussion about the Russian government’s police and repressive policies toward its real and imagined political opponents must look at these policies in a broad context. Simply describing the government structure in the Russian Empire as a police state does not give us the full picture of how the government faced […]

Tony Rocchi28.11.2023

Part 4 see here. Tsar Nicholas II has received many contradictory interpretations. Popular publications in Russia today often idealize him and regard him as a martyr betrayed and killed by his own people. Tsar Nicholas II and his family are considered saints by the Russian Orthodox Church. However, the last tsar of the Russian Empire […]

Tony Rocchi15.11.2023

Part 3 see here. Terrorism was only one of several types of mass violence in the Revolution of 1905-1907. The other types included: the violence of mass protest movements, criminal violence, and government violence in suppressing the revolution. The massiveness and varieties of violence in mass protest movements in the Russian Empire reached proportions not […]

Tony Rocchi12.11.2023

Part 2 see here. Support from liberals and moderate socialists and ambivalent attitudes by conservatives enabled the massiveness and continuity of left-wing terrorism in Russia between 1901-1911. In its fight against terrorism and revolutionary violence, the government found few supporters. What happened was the mass criminalization of Russian educated society. The relevance of the liberal […]

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Russia

The Appeal of the People’s Will

The People’s Will — Myths and Realities

Russian Terrorism Foreshadows Terrorism in Europe

What is Terrorism?

Political Crimes in the Russian Empire

The Political Police of the Russian Empire

Terrorism and Other Types of Mass Violence in the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907: Part 6

Terrorism and Other Types of Mass Violence in the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907: Part 5

Terrorism and Other Types of Mass Violence in the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907: Part 4

Terrorism and Other Types of Mass Violence in the Russian Revolution of 1905-1907: Part 3

The Question of Science and God

Perestroika Architect Yakovlev And H-Bomb’s Father Sakharov

Melor Sturua As a Mirror of Soviet Elite’s Evolution: Part II

Exodus from Syria