Nikolai Vasilyevich Ustryalov (; November 25, 1890 – September 14, 1937) was a Russian politician and a leading pioneer of

National Bolshevism National Bolshevism, whose supporters are known as National Bolsheviks and colloquially as Nazbols, is a syncretic political movement committed to combining ultranationalism and Bolshevik communism. History and origins In Germany Natio ...

. His great-uncle was Nikolay Gerasimovich Ustryalov. Ustryalov and many of his followers were later charged with counter-revolutionary activity and executed during the

Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...

Early years

Ustryalov was born in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. He graduated in law from

Moscow University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

in 1913. Teaching at Moscow University, he was initially a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party.S.V. Utechin, ''Russian Political Thought: A Concise and Comprehensive History'', JM Dent & Sons, 1964, p. 253 Ustryalov belonged to a tendency of Slavophile intellectuals, although from early on he departed from his contemporaries by being less enthusiastic about the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and ...

than the likes of Sergei Bulgakov and Peter Berngardovich Struve. He started out as a supporter of the "Whites" in 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 saw service under the command of

Aleksandr Kolchak List of Russian admirals, Admiral Alexander Vasilyevich Kolchak (; – 7 February 1920) was a Russian navy officer and Arctic exploration, polar explorer who led the White movement in the Russian Civil War. As he assumed the title of Supreme Ru ...

. However Ustryalov changed his views towards a fusion of

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

with

Bolshevism Bolshevism (derived from Bolshevik) is a revolutionary socialist current of Soviet Leninist and later Marxist–Leninist political thought and political regime associated with the formation of a rigidly centralized, cohesive and disciplined p ...

, with the new

communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

presented as the best hope for re-establishing Russia as an international power. Martin A. Lee, ''The Beast Reawakens'', Warner Books, 1998, p. 316

Ideology

Amongst Ustryalov's written works were contributions to ''"The Problems of Great Russia"'' and ''"Morning of Russia"'', two pre-Bolshevik journals in which he called for unity amongst the

Slavs The Slavs or Slavic people are groups of people who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, and ...

and rejoiced in the overthrow of

Tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

ist rule. In exile he founded the journal ''"Okno"'' (Window) with other dissidents and in 1921 published his seminal collection of articles ''"

Smena vekh The Smenovekhovtsy ( rus, Сменовеховцы, p=smʲɪnəˈvʲexəftsɨ) was a political movement in the Russian émigré community, formed shortly after the publication of the magazine ''Smena Vekh'' ("Change of Signposts") in Prague in 192 ...

"'' ("Change of Landmarks"), in which he expounded his theories of nationalism and that gave rise to a weekly magazine, ''Smena vekh''. The main ideologue for the

Smenovekhovtsy The Smenovekhovtsy ( rus, Сменовеховцы, p=smʲɪnəˈvʲexəftsɨ) was a political movement in the Russian émigré community, formed shortly after the publication of the magazine ''Smena Vekh'' ("Change of Signposts") in Prague in 192 ...

as his followers became known, Ustryalov used written works such as ''In the Struggle for Russia'' (1920) and ''Under the Sign of Revolution'' (1925) to argue against the views of Struve. Claiming to be inspired by figures such as General Aleksei Brusilov and Vladimir Purishkevich, both of whom had said they would serve the Bolsheviks in the interests of Russia, Ustryalov called for a reconciliation with 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 ...

as it was only the Bolsheviks who could guarantee Russia's security.Utechin, ''Russian Political Thought'', p. 254 With the introduction of the

New Economic Policy The New Economic Policy (NEP) () was an economic policy of the Soviet Union proposed by Vladimir Lenin in 1921 as a temporary expedient. Lenin characterized the NEP in 1922 as an economic system that would include "a free market and capitalism, ...

Ustryalov saw a process of "normalisation" beginning in the Soviet Union and argued that increasingly the USSR was "like a radish" in that it was red on the outside but white on the inside. Ustryalov did not consider himself a communist, rejecting the ideology as a foreign import, but began to use the term "National Bolshevik" after discovering it in the writings of German dissident Ernst Niekisch. Despite his enthusiasm Ustryalov was dismissed as an enemy by

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

and lived in exile in

Harbin Harbin, ; zh, , s=哈尔滨, t=哈爾濱, p=Hā'ěrbīn; IPA: . is the capital of Heilongjiang, China. It is the largest city of Heilongjiang, as well as being the city with the second-largest urban area, urban population (after Shenyang, Lia ...

Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...

. Here he worked as an advisor at the China Far East Railway, (KVZhD). He was Dean of the Faculty of Law at Harbin from 1920 until 1924.

Return to the Soviet Union

With attitudes towards National Bolshevism having thawed under Stalin, Ustryalov was able to return to the Soviet Union in 1935.

Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...

regarded the forces that gathered around Ustryalov as not wanting Russia to return to a state of semi-colonial dependence on Western capitalism and therefore anticapitalist without being the least bit socialist. According to Trotsky, Ustryalov and his followers foresaw the conversion of the Soviet state into a normal bourgeois state, and believed that this state should be supported. Ustryalov's past as a White counted against him, however, and he struggled to find employment or even acceptance as a Soviet citizen in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. Eventually he was sent to a

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 ...

.Jeanne Vronskaya & Vladimir Chuguev, ''The Biographical Dictionary of the Former Soviet Union - Prominent People In All Fields From 1917 to the Present'', London: Bowker-Saur, 1992, , p. 561 In 1937, during the

, he was arrested on charges of espionage and " anti-Soviet agitation". On September 14, 1937, he was sentenced to death and executed on the same day.Hiroaki Kuromiya, ''Stalin'', Pearson Education, 2005, p. 138

References

External links

Mikhail Agursky - The Third Rome National Bolshevism in the USSR
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ustryalov, Nikolai 1890 births 1937 deaths Great Purge victims from Russia National Bolsheviks Politicians from Saint Petersburg Academic staff of Perm State University Russian Constitutional Democratic Party members Soviet academics Soviet fascists Soviet nationalists Soviet revolutionaries Executed writers Executed politicians Executed revolutionaries Academic staff of Harbin Institute of Technology