Black Hundred: The Rise of the Extreme Right in Russia

by Walter Laqueur

Laqueur, a leading authority on Russia and fascism, is currently associated with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and with the Journal of Contemporary History . He warns of a growing extreme right-wing presence in Russia, backed by the old communist establishment, traces its origins and manifestations, and considers the implications for Russia and the world of its current strength. Annotation copyright Book News, Inc. Portland, Or.

Genres: Russia, History, Politics

318 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1993

About the author

Walter Ze'ev Laqueur was an American historian, journalist and political commentator. Laqueur was born in Breslau, Lower Silesia, Prussia (modern Wrocław, Poland), into a Jewish family. In 1938, he left Germany for the British Mandate of Palestine. His parents, who were unable to leave, became victims of the Holocaust.

Laqueur lived in Israel from 1938 to 1953. After one year at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, he joined a Kibbutz and worked as an agricultural laborer from 1939 to 1944. In 1944, he moved to Jerusalem, where he worked as a journalist until 1953, covering Palestine and other countries in the Middle East.

Since 1955 Laqueur has lived in London. He was founder and editor, with George Mosse, of the Journal of Contemporary History and of Survey from 1956 to 1964. He was also founding editor of The Washington Papers. He was Director of the Institute of Contemporary History and the Wiener Library in London from 1965 to 1994. From 1969 he was a member, and later Chairman (until 2000), of the International Research Council of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Washington. He was Professor of the History of Ideas at Brandeis University from 1968 to 1972, and University Professor at Georgetown University from 1976 to 1988. He has also been a visiting professor of history and government at Harvard, the University of Chicago, Tel Aviv University and Johns Hopkins University.

Laqueur's main works deal with European history in the 19th and 20th centuries, especially Russian history and German history, as well as the history of the Middle East. The topics he has written about include the German Youth Movement, Zionism, Israeli history, the cultural history of the Weimar Republic and Russia, Communism, the Holocaust, fascism, and the diplomatic history of the Cold War. His books have been translated into many languages, and he was one of the founders of the study of political violence, guerrilla warfare and terrorism. His comments on international affairs have appeared in many American and European newspapers and periodicals.

(Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Richard Laznik · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb review of the history of right wing extremist groups in Russia in the latter part of the 20th century. (Published in 1993). It charts the movement through the 70s, 80s and early 90s in particular, while discussing the antecedents of the movement back to the later Tsarist period.

This is the third book by Laqueur that I’ve read and I really like the matter-of-fact language he uses generally and the occasional cutting barb he sinks into both the left and the right in this book. I am constantly amazed by the fact that he was clearly fluent in English, German, Russian, Hebrew and French.

First rate historian (IMO) and having discovered him only in recent years, very sad to hear he passed away late in 2018.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastically thorough, extensively foot noted, well written, and perspicacious. I love a book that constantly has me looking up words I didn’t know before. Laqueur was brilliant and I want to read more of his works.

[Kriegslok · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting attempt to document the emergence of the extreme new right in post Soviet Russia. A good historical overview of the influences on new right thinking and ideology and its strange and not so strange bedfellows.