Narodno-trudovoĭ soi︠u︡z.

Biographical/Historical Note

Right-wing Russian émigré organization.

From the guide to the Narodno-trudovoĭ soiuz declaration, 1935, (Hoover Institution Archives)

The NTS (Narodno-Trudovoj Sojuz [National Alliance of Russian Solidarists]) was established by Russian émigré students in European universities in 1930. They wished to oppose the Bolshevik ideology and its inhuman methods in Russia and the passivity of the older émigrés.

The organization aimed to be an internal Russian oppositionary force. Their final goal was to overthrow Soviet Communism and to establish freedom and democracy. They wished to penetrate Russia with ideas (they spread their first leaflets in 1935) and with men (in 1932 the first NTS members illegally crossed the Russian border).

Despite endless obstruction by the Germans, during the war most of the NTS members crossed into German-occupied Russia and by 1943 had established 120 NTS groups in 54 Russian towns. At the end of the war more than 200 NTS members were in German concentration camps, one-third of whom were to be "liberated" by Soviet troops only to exchange Hitler's camps for Stalin's.

Out of the chaos of the end of the war NTS emerged with an extensive base of supporters both inside and outside Russia, with a definite understanding of the need to replace the Communist system of terror with a radically different one.

From the guide to the Narodno-Trudovoj Sojuz papers, 1951-1968, (Manuscripts and Archives)