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A Godmother of Russian Émigré Right-Wing Terrorism: Elizaveta Shabelskaya-Bork’s Satanists of the Twentieth Century (1911) (2023-2024)

10.58367/NECY.2025.3.10.351-375

Publication: 10.58367/NECY.2025.3.10
Field of study: Cultural Studies, Literature
Summary:

In my research, I analyze how the turn‑of‑the‑century mixture of antisemitism and esoteric interests provided a blueprint for Russian émigré right‑wing terrorist activities in 1920s. My case study is Elizaveta Shabelskaya‑Bork’s novel Satanists of the Twentieth Century (1911) – an enthusiastic reactualization of this novel’s material in the twenty‑first century points to a line of continuity from its ideological utilization in 1920s and 1930s to Russian post‑communist right‑wing fundamentalist circles, drawing inspiration from the nationalist antisemitic discourse of the previous century. As a point of departure, I research the ideological, political, and terrorist cooperation between Russian right‑wing émigrés and right‑wing Germans after World War I, in particular, the organization “Aufbau” (Reconstruction). Further, I contextualize the influence that Satanists of the Twentieth Century had on Russian émigré right‑wing representatives, in particular on its author’s godson, Petr Shabelsky‑Bork. I analyze ideological foundations of the novel, paying particular attention to its central theme of the Jewish‑Masonic clandestine religion of satanism. Shabelskaya‑Bork’s ideological foundations can be defined thus as a blend of Russian Orthodox fundamentalism, virulent antisemitism, and the fin‑de‑siècle ambivalent fascination with non‑traditional religious practices.

Keywords: right‑wing terrorism, conspiratorial writing, esoterism, antisemitism

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