White Émigrés in the Plans of Britain and Japan to Destroy the Unified Soviet State in the 1920s – 1930s

Abstract

The paper analyses little-known facts of the British and Japanese policies on the Soviet Union in the 1920s – 1930s, which were aimed to destroy the country by breaking it up into smaller states. The purpose of this article is to identify the opinions of white émigrés on Britain’s and Japan’s anti-Soviet, anti-Russian policies. The scientific and practical significance of the study lies in identifying the persistent subversive activities of these countries against the USSR and the Russian Federation. The author’s conclusions are based on documents from the Central Archives of the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation. They were analysed on the basis of the general civilizational approach focusing on sociocultural phenomena and subjective factors, complemented by the formational approach, which allowed the author to navigate the large flow of historical events and individual phenomena. The paper points out the attempts to create a united anti-Soviet front in European states, primarily France, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. Other countries were also drawn into the orbit of such policies, Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia in particular. It is demonstrated that Britain and Japan sought to use White Guard émigrés as a battering ram. Anti-Soviet activities were often financed using funds invested in British and Japanese banks by the former tsarist government and the governments of the White movement during the Civil War in Russia. The current antagonistic policy of the “civilized West” is similar to that of the period under study, both in terms of goals and methods. The conclusion that ordinary white émigrés, most of whom were hostile towards Soviet power, did not want to destroy the unified Russian state or weaken its economic potential requires further reflection. The creatures of the Western countries with their belligerent plans were the few leaders of the White movement abroad.