The Corps of the Imperial Army and Navy in Its Struggle for the Leadership of the Russian Military Emigration in China (1920s — Early 1940s)

2016

Известия Уральского федерального университета. Серия 2: Гуманитарные науки, Vol 18, Iss 3(154), Pp 250-265 (2016)

The desire of the anti-Bolshevik forces of the Russian emigration to avenge for the civil war they lost to the Bolsheviks highlighted the issue of consolidation of the remains of the White Army as well as creation of a unified command centre. They failed to achieve this unity. As a result there emerged two largest organizations uniting the former Russian military, i.e. the Corps of the Imperial Army and Navy (Rus. KIAF) and the Russian All-Military Union (Rus. ROVS). The article is devoted to some understudied issues of the formation, development, organization, and operation of the KIAF units in China between the 1920s and the early 1940s. The study is based on a number of little-known documents from central and regional archives of the Russian Federation and émigré periodicals. An important emphasis is made on the confrontation of the KIAF and the ROVS caused by their desire to dominate in the anti-Soviet struggle of the military emigration, as well as the reasons behind the failure in the activity of the Chinese KIAF units. Summarizing the results of the KIAF activities in China, the author points out the main causes of failures, namely, strategic miscalculations (the fact that they expected a considerable part of the Soviet population to still stand by the monarchist views and perceive the Red Army as a successor to the Imperial Army), personal ambitions and imperial patriotic romanticism of Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich, leading to a split in the monarchist movement and Russian military emigration, which led, in its turn, to unhealthy competition among anti-Bolsheviks, the absence of appropriate financial resources and serious deficiencies in the management of the Chinese KIAF units.

article

Russian

Ural Federal University Press, 2016.

российская эмиграция, Корпус Императорской Армии и Флота, легитимисты, Русский Обще-Воинский Союз, Китай, Маньчжурия., History (General) and history of Europe, Language and Literature