Worker and Peasant Questions in the Journalistic Legacy of N.D. Obleukhov

This article summarizes the experience in the broadcasting and promoting among the general population the views expressed by the Russian conservative thought during the early 20th century on acute social problems, including the worker and peasant questions. As one of the most striking examples, N.D. Obleukhov’s article “Tsarist autocracy as a bulwark of public freedom and equality”, which was published in December 1915 in three issues of the right-wing daily newspaper “Russkoe Znamya” (‘Russian Banner’), is analyzed. The obtained results reveal that the beliefs of the rightwing Russian monarchists were based to a certain degree on democratic ideas, such as the demand for extensive public self-government to control the establishment and development of new internal class organizations, particularly those for workers and peasants, as well as for the abolition of the privileges of the ruling class. According to this system, the “tsarist autocracy” appears to be the only force capable of truly protecting the interests of the working people, while the proponents of the constitution, including social democrats, directly or indirectly promote the interests of the bourgeoisie. Furthermore, N.D. Obleukhov proposed some tactics to preserve and further advance monarchical ideas among workers and peasants – they were limited to “permissible and quite legitimate ways” without armed struggle. N.D. Obleukhov’s article thus shows that the Russian monarchists held a controversial position on the eve of the revolution: on the one hand, they opposed the administrative authorities and the ruling elite of that time, but, on the other hand, they grew distant from the common people because of their radical revolutionary ideology. 

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