Maciej Zurowski is a music journalist and translator of German and Polish historical texts.
In 1926, 14.5 million Germans voted in a referendum to expropriate the toppled royal dynasties’ estates. The campaign brought rare unity on the German left — but also met with a reactionary backlash highlighting the dangers to Weimar democracy.
The Russian provocateur Eduard Limonov venerated “talented misfits” and claimed to offer a galvanizing cause for hopeless youths. But his politics were built on Russian revanchism — a “National Bolshevism” combining fascist imagery with a claim to restore Soviet grandeur.