The Political and Legal Thought of Pavel N. Miliukov during the Civil War in Russia, 1917–1920

This article analyses the political and legal thought of Pavel Nikolayevich Miliukov (1859–1943) during the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1920 on the `national question' and the post-revolutionary political system. Despite Miliukov being one of the main politicians of the Constitutional Democratic Party, the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Provisional Government, and ultimately one of the main representatives of the Russian emigration in the 1920s and 1930s, many aspects of his activities from 1917 to 1920 (such as in Ukraine in 1918 or in the UK in 1919–1920) remain under-researched. During this period, Miliukov proved to be not only a politician but also one of the most active and interesting political thinkers within the White Movement. He developed a comprehensive argument on the need to rebuild the Russian state as a unitary entity as close to pre-1914 borders as possible and, despite his liberal, constitutionalist views up to 1917, on the pragmatic necessity for a strong, militarized and centralized executive power during civil war conditions. He was also one of the first politicians to develop a coherent narrative on Bolshevism as a `universal phenomenon' and thus a threat to the development of humanity beyond the Russian Empire.