Ivan Lukyanovich Solonevich (, 13 November 1891 — 24 April 1953) was a Russian philosopher, historian, writer, editor, publisher, publicist and conservative political activist. A member of the

White movement The White movement,. The old spelling was retained by the Whites to differentiate from the Reds. also known as the Whites, was one of the main factions of the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922. It was led mainly by the Right-wing politics, right- ...

during the

Russian Civil War The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...

and later of the anti-Soviet underground in

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, Solonevich was persecuted and jailed. He spent 1920s and early 1930s as a sports official, photographer and journalist, all the while looking for the opportunity to leave the country. After several failed attempts he finally succeeded in 1934 and spent the rest of his life in emigration, first in

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, then

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(where he founded the newspaper ''Nasha Strana'', ''Our Country'') and

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

. In September 1932, the Solonevichs attempted to escape from the Soviet Union through

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. Due to a serious illness, Solonevich had to give up escaping. The second attempt at a group escape from the

USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, prepared in May 1933, failed due to

appendicitis Appendicitis is inflammation of the Appendix (anatomy), appendix. Symptoms commonly include right lower abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, fever and anorexia (symptom), decreased appetite. However, approximately 40% of people do not have these t ...

of his son Yuri. Four months later, in September 1933, Solonevich made a third attempt at a group escape from the Soviet Union, but due to the participation of an

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

informant in the group, the entire group was arrested. For attempting to escape, Ivan Solonevich, his brother Boris and Ivan’s son Yuri were accused of organizing a counter-revolutionary community, campaigning against

Soviet power The political system of the Soviet Union took place in a federal single-party soviet socialist republic framework which was characterized by the superior role of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the only party permitted by the C ...

, espionage and preparing to escape abroad. Ivan and Boris were sentenced to labor in the

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

camps Camps may refer to: People *Ramón Camps (1927–1994), Argentine general *Gabriel Camps (1927–2002), French historian *Luís Espinal Camps (1932–1980), Spanish missionary to Bolivia *Victoria Camps (b. 1941), Spanish philosopher and professor ...

for 8 years, and Ivan’s son Yuri was sentenced to 3 years. Solonevich made his fourth attempt to escape on July 28, 1934 from imprisonment in a BBK labor camp of the

White Sea-Baltic Canal White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wavelen ...

and, together with his son Yuri, successfully crossed the Finnish border. The escape of the Solonevichs caused a great resonance among the Russian emigration. Concerned about the possible consequences of the Solonevichs' anti-Soviet activities in emigration, NKVD officers began active work to discredit the brothers. In 1936, the Solonevichs received visas and left for Bulgaria. At the beginning of 1937, the NKVD began preparations for the elimination of Ivan Solonevich. In February 1938, Solonevich's wife Tamara and his secretary, were killed by an assassin's bomb, likely intended for Solonevich. After the death of his wife Tamara due to the threat of new assassination attempts, Ivan Solonevich received a visa to Germany and in March 1938 he and his son left Bulgaria. Ivan Lukyanovich Solonevich was rehabilitated in the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

on July 20, 1989 by the military prosecutor's office of the

Leningrad Military District The Order of Lenin Leningrad Military District () is a military district of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. The district was awarded the Order of Lenin in 1968. In 2010, it was merged with the Moscow Military District, the Northern ...

.Victims of political terror in the USSR.
Database of the Memorial Society. Solonevich authored several acclaimed books on Russian monarchy (''The Assassins of the Tzar'', 1938; ''The Myth about Nicholas the Second'', 1949) and political repressions in the USSR (''Russia in Concentration Camp'', 1935). His best-known work is ''People's Monarchy'' (1951) in which he fully developed his doctrine of monarchy being the only viable and historically justified political system for Russia.Dragunsky, Deni

(Ivan Solonevich had Told the Truth About Soviet Labour Camps 35 Years Before Solzhenitsyn)

Bibliography

Translations

*Die Verlorenen. — 5. Auf. — Essen: Essener-Verlag, 1937. (German) * (English) * (English) *Het "proletarische" paradijs Russland een concentratiekampf. — Den Haag: W. P. Van *Stockum & Zoon N. V, 1937. (Dutch) *Rosja w obozie koncentracyjnym. — Lwow: Nakladem Sekretariatu *Porozumiewawczego Polsckich Organizacyi Spolecznych we Lwowie, 1938. (Polish) *Rusko za mřížemi — Praha: Prapor Ruska, 1936. (Czech) * Russija u konclogoru / Urednik dr. J. Adric. — Zagreb: Knjiznica dobrich romana, 1937. * Иван Солоњевич. Народна монархиjа/Превод Зоран Буљīuћ. – Београд: Центар за изучавање Традициjе «Укрониjа», 2014 (Serbo-Croatian)

References

External links

The Works by Solonevich
at Lib.ru, the online Moshkov library
The Last Knight of the Empire
2014 film by Sergey Debizhev (YouTube, 1 h 20 min) {{DEFAULTSORT:Solonevich, Ivan 1891 births 1953 deaths People from Ciechanowiec People from Belsky Uyezd (Grodno Governorate) Russian fascists Russian nationalists Russian monarchists Russian political prisoners People of the Russian Civil War Soviet defectors Soviet escapees Escapees from Soviet detention Soviet rehabilitations White Russian emigrants to Germany 20th-century Russian journalists Burials at The British Cemetery Montevideo