Change of Landmark Movement: the Bolsheviks not as Patriotic Jacobins

Abstract

The profoundness of the feeling that the Bolsheviks would never follow the patriotic road of the French Jacobins, and that Russia was on the eve of disaster or perhaps had already fallen could be seen in the ‘Change of Landmark’ movement (Smenavekh). Later, would-be participants came to believe that there was a strong dose of healthy nationalism in the Bolsheviks, which made them quite similar to the Jacobins, and the Bolsheviks were regarded as the most ardent nationalists among all the political players. They believed then that the Bolsheviks’ advent to power had been the means for the country’s move to its pinnacle.