Today, the words "black hundred" are often associated among people with a caste of brutal killers who commit lawlessness and bring death and destruction. But this primordially Russian nationalist movement received its awesome name from the word "mob".
The name "black hundred" comes from the word "mob", that is, a simple, people, lower class, and the wearing of dark clothing, which has become an integral attribute of the movement, was dictated by the poverty of its adherents.
Even in the era of Peter the Great, hundreds of taxpayers were called black taxpayers, who, unlike representatives of the white hundreds, were burdened with a wide variety of duties, and even earlier, hundreds of black dignitaries dwellers from the lower classes.
Politics Outside the Classes
The Black Hundred, as an official organization that appeared at the beginning of the 20th century, had serious differences from other political movements, because under its leadership it brought together representatives of any classes, from famous figures of science and culture, ending with ordinary peasants. Officially, it was registered in 1905, and its members were called the Black Hundreds and attributed themselves to the successors of the militia movement, created under the leadership of Minin and Pozharsky. The Black Hundred united several organizations of a purely monarchical nature, which is why the Black Hundred was declared illegal in 1917, and its members joined the so-called white movement, emigrated, or eventually crossed the banner of the USSR.
