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Australia’s Early Russian-Language Press (1912–1919)

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The Transnational Voices of Australia’s Migrant and Minority Press

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media ((PSHM))

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Abstract

Between 1912 and 1919, at different times, seven fortnightly Russian newspapers, legal and illegal, circulated in Queensland, most of them as organs of the Brisbane Union of Russian Workers. This study will survey the available newspapers in the context of their time and treat the key personalities involved, most of whom had left Australia or been deported by the end of 1919: “Artem” Sergeeff, a Bolshevik and close ally of Lenin; Peter Simonoff, appointed Soviet consul in 1918; Alexander Zuzenko, leading anarchist, journalist, and instigator of the Red Flag procession; and Herman Bykoff, Zuzenko’s ally. The survey will be in three parts: first attempts (Artem and his allies 1912–1917); the press and revolution (Simonoff, Zuzenko, Klushin 1917–1918); and last gasp (Zuzenko, Bykoff 1919).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Abaza to Bentkovskii, June 13, 1914, in Alexander Massov, Marina Pollard and Kevin Windle, ed., A New Rival State? Australia in Tsarist Diplomatic Communications (Canberra: ANU, 2018), 316. Abaza cites a total of 12,000 Russians in Australia and New Zealand, with 1000 in New Zealand.

  2. 2.

    Ibid.

  3. 3.

    Artem (Sergeev, F.A.). Stat´i, rechi, pis´ma [Articles, Speeches and Letters] (Moscow: Izdatel´stvo politicheskoi literatury, 1983), 126.

  4. 4.

    Criminal Investigation Branch to Commissioner of Police, January 5, 1914. Queensland State Archives (QSA): A/45328 ID318868.

  5. 5.

    Zuzenko, Alexander, “Zakon klyka i dubiny” [The Law of the Fang and the Cudgel], no date. University of Queensland, Fryer Library, Poole-Fried Collection, 336, Box 8, Folder 10. In English in Kevin Windle, “Murder at Mt Cuthbert: A Russian Revolutionary Describes Queensland Life in 1915–1919,” AUMLA, 110 (2008): 53–71.

  6. 6.

    This chapter is based on primary sources to the extent that this is possible, resorting where they are unavailable to secondary sources.

  7. 7.

    Raymond Evans, The Red Flag Riots: A Study of Intolerance (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1988); Kevin Windle, Undesirable: Captain Zuzenko and the Workers of Australia and the World (Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2012).

  8. 8.

    Windle, “Murder at Mt Cuthbert,” 67.

  9. 9.

    Daily Standard, “Their Way. Riotous Ex Soldiers. Revolt against the Law,” March 25, 1919, p. 5.

  10. 10.

    Evans, The Red Flag Riots.

  11. 11.

    Louise Ann Curtis, “Red Criminals: Censorship, surveillance and suppression of the radical Russian community in Brisbane during World War I,” Doctor of Philosophy thesis, Griffith University, 2010.

  12. 12.

    Criminal Investigation Branch to Commissioner of Police, June 12, 1911. Queensland State Archives (QSA): 14812 ID86529.

  13. 13.

    Ekho Avstralii, July 25, 1912, quoted in A.I. Savchenko, “Bol´sheviki i rossiiskaia trudovaia emigratsiia v Avstralii 1907–1917 gg.” [The Bolsheviks and the Russian Workers’ Community in Australia 1907–1917]. In Nauchnaia konferentsiia po izucheniiu Avstralii i Okeanii, 19-aia: tezisy dokladov [Nineteenth Scholarly Conference on Australia and Oceania: Abstracts] (Moscow: Nauka, 1988), 158.

  14. 14.

    B. S. Elepov and S. A. Paichadze, Geopoliticheskii kharakter rasprostraneniia russkoi knigi: k postanovke voprosa [The Geo-political nature of the Dissemination of Russian Books: towards a framing of the question] (Novosibirsk: GPNTB SO RAN, 2001), 56.

  15. 15.

    The Russian titles Soiuz russkikh emigrantov and Soiuz rossiiskikh rabochikh, when translated, lose a significant distinction: russkii = ethnically Russian; rossiiskii = pertaining to the Russian state, having citizenship, but not necessarily of Russian ethnicity.

  16. 16.

    Aleksandr Savchenko, “Pervye russkie gazety v Avstralii,” [The First Russian Newspapers in Australia] Avstraliada, 15 (1998): 12.

  17. 17.

    Curtis, “Red Criminals,” 44, 106.

  18. 18.

    N. Il´in, Ekho Avstralii, August 23, 1912, p. 2. In another contribution, Il´in impugned his erstwhile mentor Tolstoi and his pacifist principle of non-resistance to evil. N. Il´in, “Neprotivlenie pered sudom vyshnim,” [Non-resistance before the highest court] Ekho Avstralii, July 18, 1912, pp. 2–3.

  19. 19.

    Sergeant O’Hara to Commissioner, Queensland Police, February 12, 1916. QSA: A/45329 ID317879.

  20. 20.

    P. Grei, Izvestiia SRE, November 29, 1913, p. 1.

  21. 21.

    Petr Utkin, “K russkim ot russkoi organizatsii,” Izvestiia SRE, November 29, 1913, pp. 3–4.

  22. 22.

    Sergei Alymov, “Pesn´ barabanov” [The Song of the Drums], Izvestiia SRE, November 29, 1913, p. 4.

  23. 23.

    A. M. Chernenko, Rossiiskaia revoliutsionnaia emigratsiia v Avstralii (1900–1917 gg.) [The Russian Revolutionary Emigration in Australia (1900-1917)], (Dnepropetrovsk: Dnepropetrovsk State University, 1978), 32–34.

  24. 24.

    P. Simonov, “Russkii rabochii i voina,” [The Russian Worker and the War], Izvestiia SRE, February 4, 1915, p. 1.

  25. 25.

    Abaza to Macdonald, December 7, 1915, QSA: A/45329 ID317879

  26. 26.

    For example, P. Simonoff, “Konskripshen i Giuz,” [Conscription and Hughes], Rabochaia zhizn´, December 5, 1917, p. 3.

  27. 27.

    On Steward’s career see Chris Cunneen, “Steward, Sir George Charles Thomas (1865–1920)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography (Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 1990) http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/steward-sir-george-charles-thomas-8657 (accessed November 20, 2019).

  28. 28.

    Steward to Secretary, PM’s Department, April 24, 1917, Suspected Persons – Russians. NAA: A1606 A35/1.

  29. 29.

    See Chernenko, Rossiiskaia revoliutsionnaia emigratsiia, 57; Curtis, “Red Criminals,” 44.

  30. 30.

    Soosenko to Prime Minister of Queensland, January 2, 1918. QSA: ID 862638, PRE/A578.

  31. 31.

    On Simonoff’s stormy career as unrecognised consul of the unrecognised Soviet state, see Kevin Windle, “Trotskii’s Consul: Peter Simonoff’s account of his years as Soviet representative in Australia (1918–1921),” Slavonic and East European Review 93 (2015): 493–524; idem, “Pervyi konsul Sovetskoi Rossii v Avstralii P. F. Simonov i ego druz´ia i nedrugi” [The First Soviet Russian Consul in Australia: P. F. Simonov, his friends and foes] 114, Klio, No. 6 (2016): 176–188; and Iurii Artemov, Russkaia revoliutsiia v Avstralii i seti shpionazha [The Russian Revolution in Australia and Espionage Networks] (St Petersburg: Aleteiia, 2017).

  32. 32.

    Censor’s Notes, Week ending May 29, 1918, QF1073. NAA: A6286 1/29.

  33. 33.

    Simonoff to Lagutin, July 18, 1918, QF1469. NAA: A6286 1/46.

  34. 34.

    Censor’s Notes, Simonoff to Lagutin, July 18, 1918, QF1469. NAA: A6286 1/46.

  35. 35.

    Zuzenko to Simonoff, August 8, 1918, QF1701. NAA: A6286 1/58. The censor observed that all involved were “agitators of the worst type” “spreading the poison amongst their fellow workers”.

  36. 36.

    Simonoff to Zaremba, September 10, 1918, QF1861. NAA: A6286 1/62.

  37. 37.

    “O tom, kak my uchimsia samoupravleniiu i kontroliu” [How We are Learning Self-Management and Control]. NAA: BP4/1, 66/4/2165. See Kevin Windle, “Unmajestic Bombast: The Brisbane Union of Russian Workers as Shown in a 1919 Play,” Australian Slavonic and East European Studies 19 (2005): 29–51.

  38. 38.

    “O tom,” 5. NAA: BP4/1, 66/4/2165. A. Z-ko = Alexander Zuzenko; M-ko = Matulichenko, one of Zuzenko’s several aliases.

  39. 39.

    For more detail on Listok, see Kevin Windle, “Listok Gruppy rossiiskih rabochikh: a 1918 Brisbane Russian Newspaper,” Australian Slavonic and East European Studies 32 (2018): 52–78.

  40. 40.

    See Windle, Undesirable, 38-39; and Windle, “Trotsky’s Consul”.

  41. 41.

    Tweed to Zuzenko, Censor’s Notes, October 19, 1918, QF2274. NAA: A6286 1/76. See also censor’s notes to Galch[enko] to Zuzenko, August 5, 1918, QF1540: “Zuzenko is a scholar and spoken of as a ready writer.” NAA: A6286 1/50.

  42. 42.

    Matulichenko, Week ending November 27, 1918, QF2441, NAA: A6286 1/81; Zuzenko to Tyutin, September 29, 1918, QF2019, NAA: A6286 1/68. The text and the censor’s notes do not specify which material was permitted and which was expunged.

  43. 43.

    Intelligence Report, 1st Military District (December 11, 1918), QF2538. NAA: A6286 1/86.

  44. 44.

    Article signed by Zuzenko, week ended October 2, 1918, QF1963. NAA: A6286 1/66.

  45. 45.

    Tweed to Zuzenko, Censor’s Notes, October 19, 1918, QF2274. NAA: A6286 1/76.

  46. 46.

    Knowledge and Unity, November 12, 1918, quoted in Raymond Evans, “Agitation, Ceaseless Agitation,” in Russia and the Fifth Continent: Aspects of Russian-Australian Relations ed. John McNair and Thomas Poole (St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1988), 144.

  47. 47.

    Civa Rosenberg, “To Our Australian Comrades,” Knowledge and Unity, December 31, 1918, p. 2

  48. 48.

    See Windle, Undesirable, 51–54.

  49. 49.

    The title The Ninth Wave comes from a Russian saying which describes the ninth wave as the most powerful and destructive.

  50. 50.

    Sgt Short to Commissioner, December 26, 1918. NAA: BP4/1 66/4/1817.

  51. 51.

    C. Kalinin, January 10, 1919, Censor’s notes, QF2941. NAA: A6286 1/100.

  52. 52.

    Ibid.

  53. 53.

    Bolotnikoff to Zuzenko, March 6, 1919, QF3368. NAA: MP95/1/0.

  54. 54.

    Arov to Bolotnikoff, March 11, 1919, QF3408. NAA: A6286 1/114.

  55. 55.

    “Rus´ avstraliiskaia, iz zapisnoi knizhki ‘trampera’,” vii, NAA: BP4/1, 66/4/2165. For an English version, see Kevin Windle, “Hades or Eden? Herman Bykoff’s Russian Australia,” Australian Slavonic and East European Studies 26 (2012): 24; also Kevin Windle, “A Crude Orgy of Drunken Violence,” Labour History 99 (2010): 167.

  56. 56.

    Gamanoff to Cherbakoff, March 2, 1919, MF2628. NAA: A6286 3/96.

  57. 57.

    “Peredovitsa” [Editorial], 2, NAA: BP4/1 66/4/2165.

  58. 58.

    “Nashi zadachi” [Our Tasks], 5. NAA: BP4/1 66/4/2165.

  59. 59.

    Soviet of Souse to Gooseff, March 6, 1919. NAA: A6286 1/112.

  60. 60.

    The typescript materials for No. 2 are held in the Central State Museum of Modern Russian History, Moscow (1913/Biu 313-12A).

  61. 61.

    For fuller treatment of Nabat, see Kevin Windle, “Nabat and its Editors,” Australian Slavonic and East European Studies 21 (2007): 143–164; Windle, “Crude Orgy,” and Windle, “An Anarchist’s Farewell,” Australian Slavonic and East European Studies 30 (2016): 87–112.

  62. 62.

    “Pis´mo t. Zuzenko” [Letter from Comrade Zuzenko], Nabat, [September 1919], p. 11.

  63. 63.

    Censor’s notes, Simonoff to Robertson, January 23, 1919, QF2951. NAA: A6286 1/100.

  64. 64.

    Dmitrii Volkogonov, Lenin: A new biography, trans. Harold Shukman (New York: Free Press, 1994), 82; Boris Bazhanov, “Pobeg iz nochi.” Kontinent, 8 (1976), 264.

  65. 65.

    “Rus´ avstraliiskaia,” xi; Windle, “Hades or Eden,” 23.

  66. 66.

    See Windle, Undesirable, 91–92.

  67. 67.

    “Razgrom S.R.R.” (The Crushing of the URW) Nabat, [September 1919], p. 4; Windle, “Crude Orgy,” 176.

  68. 68.

    “Peredovitsa,” NAA: BP4/1 66/4/2165.

  69. 69.

    See Windle, Undesirable.

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  1. School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Kevin Windle

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  1. University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD, Australia

    Catherine Dewhirst

  2. University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia

    Richard Scully

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Windle, K. (2020). Australia’s Early Russian-Language Press (1912–1919). In: Dewhirst, C., Scully, R. (eds) The Transnational Voices of Australia’s Migrant and Minority Press. Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-43639-1_4

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