Fyodor Viktorovich Vinberg
Encyclopedia
Fyodor Viktorovich Vinberg — Russian military officer, publisher and journalist.
in the family of a general, Vinberg studied in high school in Kiev and in the Alexander Lyceum
. From 1891-1892 he worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1893 he entered military service. Serving in the cavalry, he rose to the rank of colonel in 1911.
In the years before World War I
, he became involved in extreme right-wing politics, joining the The Union of Archangel Michael
and writing for right-wing publications.
During the First World War he commanded the 2nd Baltic cavalry regiment. He became personally acquainted with Tsarina Aleksandra for whom he developed a strong emotional attachment. There were even rumours of an affair. After the February Revolution
he left the army.
After the October revolution
he was imprisoned by the Bolsheviks for his role in an alleged plot to overthrow the provisional government
. He pleaded not guilty and pointed to the absurdity of such charges by the Bolsheviks, who had overthrown the Provisional government themselves. He was sentenced to one year's imprisonment by the revolutionary tribunal, but released in early 1918. There he met fellow rightwingers including Piotr Shabelsky-Bork
who became his friend and collaborator. In prison he kept notes, which he published later.
He made a dangerous journey to Kiev to fight with the White army, where he was arrested and rescued by German forces, accompanying them in their retreat. In 1919 he was in Berlin
, where he published the short-lived right-wing newspapers Prizyv ("The Call") and Luch Sveta ("A Ray of Light") magazine. In his magazine he republished the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
In the wake of the Kapp Putsch
of March 1920, Vinberg moved from Berlin
to Munich
. In 1921 he published in Russian a book Krestny Put (The Way of the Cross) translated into German as Via Dolorosa. There in 1922 as a leading member of the conspiratorial Aufbau Vereinigung
(Reconstruction Organisation) he had lengthy and detailed discussions with Hitler on ideological matters. Later that year, under suspicion for his involvement in the assassination of Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov
, he moved to France, where he died in 1927.
contempt for the masses. He was much influenced by the anti-Semitic speculations in Dostoyevsky’s Diary of a Writer
. He called for "Aryan
peoples" to unite against the "Jewish plan for world domination". For Russia he advocated a return to the strong authority of the Tsar, which he hoped to restore with German help, and that Orthodoxy should unite with Catholicism and learn from its methods in waging ideological war against the enemy, beginning by anathematising the Masons
and all of Satan's servants "at Easter Week in all the churches and and all the cathedrals of our homeland". Burbank comments- "...in other words a nation wide pogrom".
Walter Laqueur
describes his ideas as "a half-way house between the old Black Hundred
and National Socialism" and claims that Vinberg distinguished two kinds of anti-semitism
: the "higher", concerned with restrictive laws against the Jews, and the "lower", the brutal and homicidal behaviour of the lower classes, which was terrible but essential if the Jewish menace, recently responsible for communist revolution, is finally to be laid to rest.
Norman Cohn
says that "in all his writings Vinberg insists that one way or another the Jews must be got rid of". Although as a political programme his ideas could not be taken seriously he correctly foresaw the propaganda success of the Protocols in Germany.
According to Kellogg neither Vinberg nor his Aufbau colleagues publicly proposed "exterminating Jews along the lines of the National Socialist policy that became known as the Final Solution
". Nevertheless his apocalyptic language was so extreme that Laqueur concluded:- "Vinberg is quite emphatic about this, the only solution is total physical extermination." Richard Pipes writes: -"... it was Vinberg and his friends who first called publicly for the physical extermination of the Jews", giving Laqueur as reference.
Notwithstanding Laqueur’s conviction that his upper class ideas would have been of little interest or value to Hitler, Vinberg does appear to have been responsible for Hitler’s conversion to the idea of worldwide Jewish-Bolshevist
conspiracy. Also many of Rosenberg
’s own ideas were said to be have been lifted straight from his friend Vinberg's writings. Although his influence on Nazi thought declined following the failure of the Beer Hall Putsch
in 1923, and anti-Slav sentiment gained ascendancy in Nazi policy, Kellogg argues it revived with the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 and bears some responsibility for the horrors which ensued.
Biography
Born in KievKiev
Kiev or Kyiv is the capital and the largest city of Ukraine, located in the north central part of the country on the Dnieper River. The population as of the 2001 census was 2,611,300. However, higher numbers have been cited in the press....
in the family of a general, Vinberg studied in high school in Kiev and in the Alexander Lyceum
Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum
The Imperial Lyceum in Tsarskoye Selo near Saint Petersburg also known historically as the Imperial Alexander Lyceum after its founder the Emperor Alexander I with the object of educating youths of the best families, who should afterwards occupy important posts in the Imperial service.Its...
. From 1891-1892 he worked in the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 1893 he entered military service. Serving in the cavalry, he rose to the rank of colonel in 1911.
In the years before World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, he became involved in extreme right-wing politics, joining the The Union of Archangel Michael
Union of the Russian People
The Union of Russian People — a loyalist right-wing nationalist party, the most important among Black-Hundredist monarchist and antisemitic political organizations in the Russian Empire of 1905–1917....
and writing for right-wing publications.
During the First World War he commanded the 2nd Baltic cavalry regiment. He became personally acquainted with Tsarina Aleksandra for whom he developed a strong emotional attachment. There were even rumours of an affair. After the February Revolution
February Revolution
The February Revolution of 1917 was the first of two revolutions in Russia in 1917. Centered around the then capital Petrograd in March . Its immediate result was the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II, the end of the Romanov dynasty, and the end of the Russian Empire...
he left the army.
After the October revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
he was imprisoned by the Bolsheviks for his role in an alleged plot to overthrow the provisional government
Russian Provisional Government
The Russian Provisional Government was the short-lived administrative body which sought to govern Russia immediately following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II . On September 14, the State Duma of the Russian Empire was officially dissolved by the newly created Directorate, and the country was...
. He pleaded not guilty and pointed to the absurdity of such charges by the Bolsheviks, who had overthrown the Provisional government themselves. He was sentenced to one year's imprisonment by the revolutionary tribunal, but released in early 1918. There he met fellow rightwingers including Piotr Shabelsky-Bork
Piotr Shabelsky-Bork
Piotr Nikolaevich Shabelsky-Bork was a Russian officer active in anti-Semitic politics, who became a member of a Russian Nazi movement. He is best known for his 1922 murder of Vladimir Nabokov, father of the Russian-American novelist of the same name.Shabelsky-Bork was born in Kislovodsk to a...
who became his friend and collaborator. In prison he kept notes, which he published later.
He made a dangerous journey to Kiev to fight with the White army, where he was arrested and rescued by German forces, accompanying them in their retreat. In 1919 he was in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, where he published the short-lived right-wing newspapers Prizyv ("The Call") and Luch Sveta ("A Ray of Light") magazine. In his magazine he republished the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
In the wake of the Kapp Putsch
Kapp Putsch
The Kapp Putsch — or more accurately the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch — was a 1920 coup attempt during the German Revolution of 1918–1919 aimed at overthrowing the Weimar Republic...
of March 1920, Vinberg moved from Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
to Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
. In 1921 he published in Russian a book Krestny Put (The Way of the Cross) translated into German as Via Dolorosa. There in 1922 as a leading member of the conspiratorial Aufbau Vereinigung
Aufbau Vereinigung
Aufbau Vereinigung was a Munich based counterrevolutionary conspiratorial group formed in the aftermath of The German occupation of the Ukraine in 1918 and the Latvian Intervention of 1919, composed of White Russian émigrés and early German National Socialists...
(Reconstruction Organisation) he had lengthy and detailed discussions with Hitler on ideological matters. Later that year, under suspicion for his involvement in the assassination of Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov
Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov
Vladimir Dmitrievich Nabokov was a Russian criminologist, journalist, and progressive statesman during the last years of the Russian Empire. He was the father of Russian-American author Vladimir Nabokov.- Life :Nabokov was born in Tsarskoe Selo, into a wealthy and aristocratic family...
, he moved to France, where he died in 1927.
Ideas
Vinberg was a loyal Russian monarchist with an aristocraticAristocracy
Aristocracy , is a form of government in which a few elite citizens rule. The term derives from the Greek aristokratia, meaning "rule of the best". In origin in Ancient Greece, it was conceived of as rule by the best qualified citizens, and contrasted with monarchy...
contempt for the masses. He was much influenced by the anti-Semitic speculations in Dostoyevsky’s Diary of a Writer
A Writer's Diary
A Writer's Diary is a collection of non-fiction and fictional writings by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Taken from pieces written for a periodical which he founded and produced, it is normally published in two volumes: the first covering those published between 1873 and 1876, the second from 1877 and 1881....
. He called for "Aryan
Aryan
Aryan is an English language loanword derived from Sanskrit ārya and denoting variously*In scholarly usage:**Indo-Iranian languages *in dated usage:**the Indo-European languages more generally and their speakers...
peoples" to unite against the "Jewish plan for world domination". For Russia he advocated a return to the strong authority of the Tsar, which he hoped to restore with German help, and that Orthodoxy should unite with Catholicism and learn from its methods in waging ideological war against the enemy, beginning by anathematising the Masons
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
and all of Satan's servants "at Easter Week in all the churches and and all the cathedrals of our homeland". Burbank comments- "...in other words a nation wide pogrom".
Walter Laqueur
Walter Laqueur
Walter Zeev Laqueur is an American historian and political commentator. He was born in Breslau, Germany , to a Jewish family. In 1938, Laqueur left Germany for the British Mandate of Palestine. His parents, who were unable to leave, became victims of the Holocaust...
describes his ideas as "a half-way house between the old Black Hundred
Black Hundred
The Black Hundreds , also known as the black-hundredists was an ultra-nationalist movement in Russia in the early 20th century. They were a supporter of the House of Romanov and opposed any retreat from the autocracy of the reigning monarch...
and National Socialism" and claims that Vinberg distinguished two kinds of anti-semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
: the "higher", concerned with restrictive laws against the Jews, and the "lower", the brutal and homicidal behaviour of the lower classes, which was terrible but essential if the Jewish menace, recently responsible for communist revolution, is finally to be laid to rest.
Norman Cohn
Norman Cohn
Norman Rufus Colin Cohn FBA was a British academic, historian and writer who spent fourteen years as a professorial fellow and as Astor-Wolfson Professor at the University of Sussex.-Life:...
says that "in all his writings Vinberg insists that one way or another the Jews must be got rid of". Although as a political programme his ideas could not be taken seriously he correctly foresaw the propaganda success of the Protocols in Germany.
According to Kellogg neither Vinberg nor his Aufbau colleagues publicly proposed "exterminating Jews along the lines of the National Socialist policy that became known as the Final Solution
Final Solution
The Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...
". Nevertheless his apocalyptic language was so extreme that Laqueur concluded:- "Vinberg is quite emphatic about this, the only solution is total physical extermination." Richard Pipes writes: -"... it was Vinberg and his friends who first called publicly for the physical extermination of the Jews", giving Laqueur as reference.
Notwithstanding Laqueur’s conviction that his upper class ideas would have been of little interest or value to Hitler, Vinberg does appear to have been responsible for Hitler’s conversion to the idea of worldwide Jewish-Bolshevist
Jewish Bolshevism
Jewish Bolshevism, Judeo-Bolshevism, and known as Żydokomuna in Poland, is an antisemitic stereotype based on the claim that Jews have been the driving force behind or are disproportionately involved in the modern Communist movement, or sometimes more specifically Russian Bolshevism.The expression...
conspiracy. Also many of Rosenberg
Alfred Rosenberg
' was an early and intellectually influential member of the Nazi Party. Rosenberg was first introduced to Adolf Hitler by Dietrich Eckart; he later held several important posts in the Nazi government...
’s own ideas were said to be have been lifted straight from his friend Vinberg's writings. Although his influence on Nazi thought declined following the failure of the Beer Hall Putsch
Beer Hall Putsch
The Beer Hall Putsch was a failed attempt at revolution that occurred between the evening of 8 November and the early afternoon of 9 November 1923, when Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler, Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff, and other heads of the Kampfbund unsuccessfully tried to seize power...
in 1923, and anti-Slav sentiment gained ascendancy in Nazi policy, Kellogg argues it revived with the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941 and bears some responsibility for the horrors which ensued.
Publications
- Akhad-Kham, Asher Gint︠s︡berg.
- Taĭnyĭ vozhdʹ īudeĭskīĭ.: Perevod s frantsuzskago
- [of Miss L. Fry by Th. Vinberg, being an attempt to prove
- the "Protokoly Sīonskikh Mudret︠s︡ov"
- published in a work by S. A. Nilus
- to be a work by U. Ginzberg].
- by Leslie FryLeslie FryL. Fry was the pen name of Paquita Louise de Shishmareff, an antisemitic activist who is primarily known for her authorship of Waters Flowing Eastward, which asserts that Jews were to blame for both Capitalism and Bolshevism and had started World War I. She alleged that Freemasons were involved...
; Thedor Viktorovich Vinberg Berlin, 1922. - OCLC: 84780936
- Krestny Put (Via Dolorosa)- 1921