THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AND ITS IMPACT ON THE IDEA OF BALKAN UNION (1918–1933): NATIONAL VS. INTERNATIONAL
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AND ITS IMPACT ON THE IDEA OF BALKAN UNION (1918–1933): NATIONAL VS. INTERNATIONAL

Summary/Abstract: The paper explores and analyzes the influence of the Russian Revolution in developing and promoting the concept and idea of a Balkan union or Balkan (con)federation from 1918 until 1933. It emphasizes the fact that the idea of a Balkan federation was very often associated with a broad multilateral cooperation and peace consolidation and perceived as a sort of antipode to irredentist and ethnocentric ideas in the Balkans. Additionally, the paper examines the ideas of political organizations promoting the Balkan unity, especially of their most prominent representatives: Aleksandar Stamboliyski, Boris Sarafov, Anastas Kocarev, Alexandros Papanastasiou and others. In accordance with these, the paper outlines the activities of the Balkan Committee and Balkan Communist Federation, as a part of the Comintern. The aim of the paper is to explain the political dichotomy among the political left in the Balkans, and its indecisive ideological overextension between the call for resolving the national question and the need for supranational association at the forefront of internationalism, in addition to its other various inconsistencies.

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