Russia and Ourselves
 | |
| Author | Vidkun Quisling |
|---|---|
| Language | Norwegian |
| Publication date | 1930 |
| This article is part of a series on |
| Norwegian nationalism |
|---|
Russia and Ourselves (Norwegian: Russland og vi) is a book written by Vidkun Quisling. The text was first published as a series of articles in the newspaper Tidens Tegn the autumn of 1930, before it was published in book form at Christmas that same year.
Themes
[edit]The book deals with Soviet society in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution, and Quisling's fundamental anti-communist outlook played a central role. In *Russia and Ourselves*, he warned against a similar revolution in Norway orchestrated by the Labour Party or the Communist Party of Norway—an eventuality Quisling believed would plunge society into chaos and result in tens of thousands of deaths.[1]
Quisling biopic Oddvar Høidal ...writes that Russia and Ourselves "bolstered [Quisling's] growing reputation as the sworn enemy of Bolshevism in Norway." Høidal further writes that, although there was some substance to Quisling's criticism of the Soviet system, he made no attempt whatsoever to be objective; "for him, the aim was to paint the Soviet Union in the darkest possible colors."[2]
Historian Hans Fredrik Dahl ...describes *Russia and Ourselves* as "a peculiar text, undoubtedly one of the strangest intellectual documents of the Norwegian interwar period." Dahl considers Quisling's descriptions of agricultural policy and conditions in the Russian countryside to be sound, noting that "[Quisling's] critique is fluent and readable." At the same time, Dahl highlights the racial-biological explanatory models employed in the book, in which Quisling views the revolution as an assault by Finno-Slavic, Asian, and Oriental peoples upon an aristocracy "of essentially Nordic origin."[3] Quisling considered Marxism to be the most important obstacle to Norway's national reconstruction, and the Bolsheviks are described as "a conspiracy against Nordic-inspired European civilization".[4]
Translations into other languages
[edit]In the autumn of 1931, *Russia and Ourselves* was published in English. It was released by the renowned publishing house Hodder & Stoughton, likely because the publisher Hodder's Norwegian wife knew a friend of Quisling. The book was also published in Spanish as *Política de Oriente y Occidente* in 1935, having been translated by an admirer.[5]
There was early talks of a German edition as well, but this did not materialize until the Nazi-aligned publishing house Blix released it as *Russland und wir* during the occupation in 1942, translated by Eberhard Günther Kern. In the German edition, the text was somewhat revised, and the pro-British stance of the original was toned down. Several antisemitic phrases were also inserted; furthermore, when the future of Russia was discussed in the final chapter, earlier statements suggesting the country needed to be rebuilt using American and British capital were replaced with wording stating that this should happen "with Scandinavian and German labor assistance."[5]
References
[edit]- ↑ Dahl, Hans Fredrik, Hagtvet, Bernt og Hjeltnes, Guri. Den norske nasjonalsosialismen : Nasjonal Samling 1933-1945 i tekst og bilder. Oslo: Pax. p. 34-35. ISBN 8257407771.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ↑ Høidal, Oddvar. Quisling : en studie i landssvik. Universitetsforlaget. p. 48-49. ISBN 8200184013.
- ↑ Dahl, Hans Fredrik. Vidkun Quisling : En fører blir til. Oslo: Aschehoug. p. 151-154. ISBN 8257409049.
- ↑ "Nasjonalbiblioteket". www.nb.no. Retrieved 2026-07-26.
- 1 2 Dahl, Hans Fredrik. "Forord til nyutgivelsen 1996". Quisling, Vidkun: Russland og vi. Leseselskapet. p. XII-XIV. ISBN 8274430581.
