Toward a Constitutional Monarchy or a Dictatorship? The Progressive Nationalists, the Far Right, and the Monarchy, July 1914–February 1917

Revolutionary Russia. 2023. Vol. 36. No. 2. P. 254–275.

Mikhail N. Loukianov

The advocates of opposing versions of Russian conservatism during the First World War, Progressive Nationalism and the Far Right, saw the tsar’s figure as a symbolic expression of state power, and not its real carrier. Instead, state power was seen as being in the hands of the government, which could be either supported or opposed, depending upon its policies. The conservatives’ participation in public politics influenced their political creed. They embraced the idea of a limitation of the monarch’s influence in making political decisions, transferring the major role in this process to public officials, which were considered autonomous political figures in spite of their appointment by the tsar.

Keywords: First World War, Russian conservatism, far right, Progressive Nationalism