Counterrevolutionary Myth of Yakov Byashkov: The History of Anti- Bolshevik Ideology in the Russian East in 1918 (I)

Abstract. This article introduces the revealed fragments of the political and mythological novel by Yakov Vladimirovich Byashkov – member of the anti-Bolshevik movement in the Russian East. The literary work of Byashkov is a bright and distinctive narrative of the East Russian counterrevolution. It reflected a complex of ideas typical of a wide range of versions of counterrevolutionary ideology and propaganda. Using the main motif of supernatural prophetic knowledge as a technique allowing to overcome the rationalism, the author provides a reader with the sequential set of “white” ideologems. Politically charged gnosticism formed the metaphysical basis of anti-Bolshevik mindset. Bolshevism was accused of fierce terror, which should be followed with proportionate response of similar cruelty. These ideas were accompanied by the belief in restoration of the transfigured monarchy and proclamation of a mystical leader cult. Byashkov is represented as an unusual figure in the ideological landscape of counterrevolution, as a pioneer of the reactionary “orientalism”, the author looking for foundations of counterrevolutionary worldview. Mythologemes that Yakov Byashkov actualized in the course of this search managed to outlast the Kolchak’s dictatorship.

Keywords: Civil War, counterrevolution, “White” movement, ideology, monarchism, right wing radicalism, Mongolia, Lavr Kornilov, Alexander Kolchak, Yakov Byashkov.