Arthur Moeller van den Bruck on the “young” Ukrainian nation, or why the current of “Conservative Revolution” is not about restoration, as well as why Russophilia of this editor of Dostoevsky’s Complete Works in German is not at the expense of the identities of Eastern European nations within “Panslavism.” Written in the footsteps of Woodrow Wilson’s statement on the right of nations to self-determination (Moeller also considered the Americans as a young people). He was also particularly sympathetic to the Finnish and the Bulgarian causes.
P.S. Once again, to the question of how reliable is Alexander Dugin’s reception of Conservative Revolution…
PPS. Yes, this is the same guy who wrote the historiosophic work “The Third Reich” (1923) which was later usurped and distorted by…
In Russia itself, among the great Slavic nations in which Russianism is henceforth individualized, the Ukrainians, as the most gifted and dynamic, are most likely to act as a young nation: they possess the gathering power which Kiev once had and which returns to Gogol’s land now. The Catholic Lithuanians, on the other hand, and even more so the Orthodox Belarusians, fell behind in a dim and neglected condition from which only the sprouts of national awareness emerged. But they too, like all these young peoples, will gradually rise up to the potential of young nationalities, will someway take part in historical life and, each in their place, will attain their political meaning. It will take long: but it will be all the quicker and safer if Germany can do what Russia did not want to think about, and what Pan-Slavism has always counteracted: if it helps them.
– Arthur Moeller van den Bruck “The Right Of Young Nations” (1919)
Original: “In Rußland selbst, unter den großen Slawennationen, in denen das Russentum sich nunmehr individualisiert, besitzen die Ukrainer als die begabtesten und beweglichsten am ehesten die Aussicht, als junge Nation zu wirken: besitzen die sammelnde Kraft, die Kiew schon einmal besaß und die nun zur Landschaft Gogols zurückkehrt. Die katholischen Litauer dagegen, und mehr noch die orthodoxen Weißrussen blieben in einem dumpfen und vernachlssigten Dasein zurück, aus dem sich erst Anfänge einer nationalen Bewußtwerdung heraushoben. Aber auch sie, wie alle diese jungen Völker, werden allmählich zu den Möglichkeiten jungen Volkstums emporsteigen, werden irgendwie am geschichtlichen Leben teilnehmen und, ein jedes an seiner Stelle, zu ihrer politischen Bedeutung gelangen. Es wird erst in langen Zeitläufen geschehen: aber es wird um so schneller und sicherer geschehen, wenn Deutschland tun kann, woran Rußland nicht denken wollte, und wogegen der Panslawismus immer handelte: wenn es ihnen hilft.” – Arthur Moeller van den Bruck “Das Recht der jungen Völker” (1919)
