ABSTRACT
The Far Eastern Republic (FER) could be interpreted as a Bolshevik hoax aimed at ending the Japanese intervention in the region, but it was neither carefully organized nor seamlessly implemented. As a product of confluences between nationalisms and regionalisms, however, the FER became a manifestation of regional intellectual traditions and sporadic politics of the imperial transformation. The Bolsheviks appropriated the left-liberal imperial nationalism of their political opponents, which was articulated during the First Russian Revolution and especially in the State Duma of the Russian Empire. The liberals, moderate socialists, and later moderate nationalists aspired to reconstruct the Russian empire, and the Bolsheviks seemed to offer some elements of the once-envisioned reforms. Their nationalism was state-centered, selectively inclusive in social and ethnic terms, even though the Russians still occupied a central place in the new imperial hierarchy. Finally, it was progressive – even though the Bolsheviks skipped representative democracy, they still aspired to build socialism. However, the Bolshevik takeover launched the first massive political emigration. It included not only the Bolsheviks’ conservative opponents, but also many progressive-minded intellectuals who criticized the Soviet political rule and the devolution of initially idealist Bolsheviks into yet another autocratic clique.
