A Transnational History of Right-Wing Terrorism: Political Violence and the Far Right in Eastern and Western Europe since 1900

295 Pages·2022·8.016 MB·English

by  Johannes Dafinger, Moritz Florin

A TRANSNATIONAL HISTORY OF
RIGHT-WING TERRORISM
A Transnational History of Right-Wing Terrorism offers new insights into the history of
right-wing extremism and violence in Europe, East and West, from 1900 until the
present day.It is the first book to take such a broad historical approach to the topic.
Thebookexploresthetransnationaldimensionofright-wingterrorism;networksof
right-wingextremistsacrossborders,includinginexile;thetradingofarms;theconnec-
tionbetweenright-wingterrorismandotherformsoffar-rightpoliticalviolence;aswell
astheroleofsupportiveelementsamongfellowtravelers,thestatesecurityapparatus,and
political elites. It also examines various forms of organizational and ideological inter-
connectedness and what inspires right-wing terrorism. In addition to several empirical
chaptersonprewarextreme-rightpoliticalviolence,thebookfeaturesextensivecoverage
ofpostwarright-wingterrorismincludingtherecentresurgenceinattacks.
Thisbookwillbeofgreatinteresttostudentsandscholarsofright-wingextremism,
fascism,Nazism,terrorism,andpoliticalviolence.
Johannes Dafinger is an Assistant Professor of Contemporary History at the
University of Salzburg, Austria.
Moritz Florin is a Lecturer at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany.
Routledge Studies in Fascism and the Far Right
Series editors:
Nigel Copsey, Teesside University, UK and Graham Macklin, Center for Research on
Extremism (C-REX), University of Oslo, Norway
This book series focuses upon national, transnational and global manifestations of
fascist,farrightandright-wingpoliticsprimarilywithinahistoricalcontext butalso
drawing on insights and approaches from other disciplinary perspectives. Its scope
also includes anti-fascism, radical-right populism, extreme-right violence and ter-
rorism, cultural manifestations of the far right, and points of convergence and
exchange with the mainstream and traditional right.
Titles include:
The Germanic Tribes, the Gods and the German Far Right Today
Georg Schuppener
The Right-Wing Critique of Europe
Nationalist, Souverainist and Right-Wing Populist Attitudes to the EU
Edited by Joanna Sondel-Cedarmas and Francesco Berti
Imagining Far-right Terrorism
Violence, Immigration, and the Nation State in Contemporary Western Europe
Josefin Graef
A Transnational History of Right-Wing Terrorism
Political Violence and the Far Right in Eastern and Western Europe since 1900
Edited by Johannes Dafinger and Moritz Florin
For more information about this series, please visit: www.routledge.com/
Routledge-Studies-in-Fascism-and-the-Far-Right/book-series/FFR
A TRANSNATIONAL
HISTORY OF RIGHT-
WING TERRORISM
Political Violence and the Far Right
in Eastern and Western Europe
since 1900
fi
Edited by Johannes Da nger and Moritz Florin
Coverimage:©Scherl/SüddeutscheZeitungPhoto.Assassinationattempton
KingAlexanderIofYugoslaviainMarseille,1934
Firstpublished2022
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AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Names:Dafinger,Johannes,editor.|Florin,Moritz,editor.
Title:Atransnationalhistoryofright-wingterrorism:politicalviolence
andthefarrightinEasternandWesternEuropesince1900/editedby
JohannesDafingerandMoritzFlorin.
Description:Abingdon,Oxon;NewYork,NY:Routledge,2022.|
Series:Routledgestudiesinfascismandthefarright|
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
Identifiers:LCCN2021045961(print)|LCCN2021045962(ebook)|
ISBN9780367612108(hardback)|ISBN9780367613365(paperback)|
ISBN9781003105251(ebook)
Subjects:LCSH:Terrorism--Europe--History.|Right-wing
extremists--Europe--History.|Politicalviolence--Europe--History.|
Transnationalcrime--Europe--History.|Europe--Politicsandgovernment.
Classification:LCCHV6433.E85T732022(print)|
LCCHV6433.E85(ebook)|DDC363.325094--dc23/eng/20211208
LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2021045961
LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2021045962
ISBN:978-0-367-61210-8(hbk)
ISBN:978-0-367-61336-5(pbk)
ISBN:978-1-003-10525-1(ebk)
DOI:10.4324/9781003105251
TypesetinBembo
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements viii
List of contributors x
1 Right-wing terrorism in historical perspective: An introduction 1
Johannes Dafinger and Moritz Florin
SECTION1
In search of origins: Right-wing terror(ism) in an era of
war and revolution 17
2 Terrorist entanglements: Socialist perspectives on state and
right-wing violence in the late Russian Empire 19
Vitalij Fastovskij
3 Oppression, terror, and “split delegitimization”: The troubled
relationship between the conservative authoritarian state and its
right-wing critics in Hungary between 1919 and 1945 42
Béla Bodó
4 Terror and antisemitic student violence in East-Central Europe,
1919–1923 70
Roland Clark
5 Section commentary: Right-wing extremism, the question of
power, and multiple entanglements 91
Felicitas Fischer von Weikersthal
vi Contents
SECTION2
Right-wing terrorism and fascism 97
6 Did the Polish Minister of the Interior have to be killed? The
activities of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists in the
1930s 99
Magdalena Gibiec
7 Marseilles 1934: The death of the King 115
Mario Jareb
8 Trading in arms, trading in terror: The Cagoule and right-wing
terrorism in France 129
Gayle K. Brunelle and Annette Finley-Croswhite
9 Section commentary: The transnational space of fascism and
terrorism 149
Ángel Alcalde
SECTION3
Recent trends in right-wing terrorism: Eastern and
Western Europe 157
10 “Glocal militancy”? Transnational links of German far-right
terrorism 159
Daniel Koehler
11 “Of hobbits and tigers”: Right-wing extremism and terrorism
in Italy since the mid-1970s 174
Tobias Hof
12 Transnational violence and the German connection: National
resistance and autonomous nationalists in the Czech Republic 197
Ina Fujdiak and Miroslav Mareš
13 “Praise the saints”: The cumulative momentum of transnational
extreme-right terrorism 215
Graham Macklin
14 Identifying extreme-right terrorism: Concepts and
misconceptions 241
Gideon Botsch
Contents vii
15 Section commentary: Researching transnational right-wing
terrorism: challenges and trajectories 258
Fabian Virchow
Index 267
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Firstandforemost,wearegratefultotheauthorsoftheindividualchaptersofthis
book for their contributions, for their engagement with our core ideas, for their
commitment and patience during the editorial process, and for the productive
collaboration. We would also like to thank all the speakers and discussants at the
conference “Towards a Transnational History of Right-Wing Terrorism: New
Perspectives on Violence and Assassinations by the Far Right in Eastern and
Western Europe since 1900” that took place in Erlangen in November 2019.
Their insights and the lively debate during the conference not only highlighted the
relevanceofthetopicunderdiscussion,butalsohelpedusredefineourcorequestions
and theses for the present volume. For a variety of personal and professional reasons,
not all participants were able to contribute a text to this volume. Nevertheless, their
ideas and suggestions were helpful and valuable, and we have done our best to do
justice to all of them in our introduction. In the course of the editorial process, a
numberofcolleaguesreaddraftsofchapters,providingcommentsandinsights,andwe
wouldliketothankthem,too.
Igor Biberman and Darja Philippi-Frost helped with the organization of the
conference at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, while Jahn Hermann,
Sophia Hönicka and Boris Zaitsev assisted us with copy-editing the notes and
index.BernhardRitterputalotofeffortintothedesignoftheflyerandtheposter
for the conference. Many thanks to all of them! We would also like to thank our
language editors, Allan Auld and Lucais Sewell, who worked hard, with speed and
accuracy, to ensure the texts are as readable and fluent as possible.
Theconferenceandthevolumewouldnothavebeenpossiblewithoutinstitutional
support. The conference was co-organized and generously funded by the German
AssociationofEastEuropeanStudies(DeutscheGesellschaftfürOsteuropakunde).In
particular, we would like to thank Executive Director Gabriele Freitag, and head of
the history section Julia Obertreis, who provided their backing for the project
Acknowledgements ix
throughout. In addition, the conference was supported financially by the German
Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), and the Dr. German
SchweigerFoundation,Erlangen.WearealsoverygratefultotheUniversityAlliance
Erlangen-Nuremberg (Universitätsbund Erlangen-Nürnberg e.V.), the Luise Prell
Foundation and the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Klagenfurt (Fakultät
für Kulturwissenschaften der Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt) for supporting the
processoflanguageandcopy-editingofthecontributionstothepresentvolume.
We are delighted that Craig Fowlie, the Editorial Director for Social Science at
Routledge,approacheduswiththeproposaltoincludethisvolumeintheRoutledge
Fascism and the Far Right book series. We would like to thank him and the series
editors,NigelCopseyandGrahamMacklin,forthisopportunity.Ourthanksalsogo
toHannahRichatRoutledgewhoguidedusthroughthepublicationprocessandto
AndySoutter,ourcopy-editor.
Editing such a volume is a collaborative process, and we are grateful for the
engagementandeffortthat alltheauthors have putintothis.Theediting hastaken
place at a time that was partly shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic but also by
repeated news of right-wing terrorist acts throughout the world. This has lent a
sense of urgency to the process that is somewhat unusual for a historical project.
Together with our authors, we hope this volume can contribute to a historically
informed debate on the threat that right-wing extremist violence and terrorism
continue to pose in Europe and beyond.