The network of state organisations responsible for dealing with foreign ‘compatriots’ includes yet another Moscow institution with a tragic history.
It all began quite innocently. In 1990, an exhibition was organised in Moscow by ‘YMCA-Press’, the oldest anti-Soviet Russian publishing house in Paris. This was a sign of the sudden advent of ideological freedom. In 1991, with the blessing of the publishing house’s director, Nikita Struve, the exhibition evolved into ‘Russky Put’ (The Russian Way), a joint venture with ‘YMCA-Press’ dedicated to organising the publishing house’s reading rooms in various cities across Russia.
A new phase began in 1995. The ‘Russian Diaspora’ library and archive opened in Moscow. Its founders were the Paris-based Russian publishing house ‘YMCA-Press’, the Alexander Solzhenitsyn Russian Public Foundation and the Moscow City Government. It must be assumed that from that moment onwards, the organisation’s activities came under the ideological control of the Moscow City Government. In 2005, a new building for the library and foundation, constructed by the Moscow City Government, was opened. In 2009, by a decision of the Moscow City Government, the library and foundation was renamed the ‘Alexander Solzhenitsyn House of the Russian Diaspora’. In 2015, Putin announced at the 5th World Congress of Compatriots the start of construction of the Museum of the Russian Diaspora, which opened in 2019.
As stated on the organisation’s website, ‘The House of the Russian Diaspora systematically carries out projects of informational and cultural cooperation with international non-governmental organisations and foundations, Russian cultural centres in countries both near and far abroad, organisations of compatriots abroad, descendants of Russian emigrants, and research centres specialising in Slavic and Russian studies. In the field of cultural and educational projects, the study and preservation of the heritage of Russian emigration, and the promotion of Russian culture abroad, our partners include the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture, the Federal Agency for the Commonwealth of Independent States, Compatriots Living Abroad and International Humanitarian Cooperation (Rossotrudnichestvo), and the International Council of Russian Compatriots. In its work to preserve and expand the standing of the Russian language worldwide, the House works closely with the International Association of Teachers of Russian Language and Literature, national associations of Russian studies scholars, and educational institutions in foreign countries.”
In other words, as Putin’s regime transformed into a repressive dictatorship, the library of anti-Soviet literature was transformed into an ideological institution, very much of the Soviet type, mimicking cultural and academic activity whilst cooperating with the Russian security services and other agencies of influence.
The director of the House, Viktor Moskvin—a former deputy director of the Library of Foreign Literature in Moscow who had spearheaded the transformation process from the very beginning— in addition to his other titles, is a member of the Government Commission on Compatriots Living Abroad, a member of the Public Council under Rossotrudnichestvo, a member of the Council of the Moscow Regional Branch of the Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society, and a member of the Council of the Russian Historical Society.
The Government Commission on Compatriots and Rossotrudnichestvo have been discussed above. The Imperial Orthodox Palestinian Society (which will be discussed in detail below) is a pseudoscientific organisation – yet another front for the security services – operating abroad and headed by Sergei Stepashin, a former Prime Minister of Russia and former Director of the FSB.
The Russian Historical Society, established in 2012, is also a pseudo-scientific and pseudo-civil society organisation, whose main task is to falsify history and develop new ‘Putinist’ history textbooks. It is headed by Sergei Naryshkin, Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service.