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==NBP banned== |
==NBP banned== |
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[[File:NBP Odintsovo.jpg|thumb|left|National Bolsheviks attack a polling station in [[Odintsovo]], [[Moscow Oblast]] during [[Russian legislative election, 2007]] protesting their ban<ref>[http://gzt.ru/incident/2007/03/12/183011.html По факту нападения "лимоновцев" на избирательный участок возбуждено уголовное дело] [[Gazeta.ru]] [[12 March]] [[2007]] </ref>]] |
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In November 2005, the Russian Supreme Court upheld a ban on the National-Bolshevik Party on the technical ground that it violated the law on political parties by calling itself a party without being registered as such.<ref>[http://en.rian.ru/russia/20051115/42096057.html RIA Novosti - Russia - UPDATE: Russian Supreme Court upholds ban on National Bolshevik Party<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> The party had already suffered several government crackdowns, including a raid on their offices on [[17 June]] (after which three party members slashed their wrists in protest) and the setting up of [[Nashi (Ours)]] [Russian - "our boys", "the good guys", whom NazBols often call "Nashisty" - a cross "Natzisty", Nazis, and "Fashisty," fascists], a government-sponsored movement that has since carried out attacks against the NBP. When formed, Nashi declared that the NBP was its number one enemy.<ref>M. Vladimirova, 'Danger: Official 'Anti-Fascists' at Work', ''[[Searchlight (magazine)|Searchlight]]'', June 2005, p. 25</ref> The decision was overturned by the Supreme Court of Justice on August 16 2005, and the [[Communist Party of the Russian Federation]] is now actively seeking to exclude them from events (having previously tolerated NBP supporters at rallies). The party has since seen somewhat of a decline in membership, with a number of units working with the growing [[Movement Against Illegal Immigration]].<ref>M. Vladimirova, 'The Movement Against Illegal Immigration - A Fascist Growth Area', ''[[Searchlight (magazine)|Searchlight]]'', June 2006, p. 30</ref> |
In November 2005, the Russian Supreme Court upheld a ban on the National-Bolshevik Party on the technical ground that it violated the law on political parties by calling itself a party without being registered as such.<ref>[http://en.rian.ru/russia/20051115/42096057.html RIA Novosti - Russia - UPDATE: Russian Supreme Court upholds ban on National Bolshevik Party<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> The party had already suffered several government crackdowns, including a raid on their offices on [[17 June]] (after which three party members slashed their wrists in protest) and the setting up of [[Nashi (Ours)]] [Russian - "our boys", "the good guys", whom NazBols often call "Nashisty" - a cross "Natzisty", Nazis, and "Fashisty," fascists], a government-sponsored movement that has since carried out attacks against the NBP. When formed, Nashi declared that the NBP was its number one enemy.<ref>M. Vladimirova, 'Danger: Official 'Anti-Fascists' at Work', ''[[Searchlight (magazine)|Searchlight]]'', June 2005, p. 25</ref> The decision was overturned by the Supreme Court of Justice on August 16 2005, and the [[Communist Party of the Russian Federation]] is now actively seeking to exclude them from events (having previously tolerated NBP supporters at rallies). The party has since seen somewhat of a decline in membership, with a number of units working with the growing [[Movement Against Illegal Immigration]].<ref>M. Vladimirova, 'The Movement Against Illegal Immigration - A Fascist Growth Area', ''[[Searchlight (magazine)|Searchlight]]'', June 2006, p. 30</ref> |
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Revision as of 11:47, 18 February 2009
National Bolshevik Party | |
---|---|
Leader | Eduard Limonov |
Founded | 1992 |
Headquarters | Moscow |
Ideology | National Bolshevism (a form of Third Positionism) |
International affiliation | Unknown |
Website | |
www.NPB-Info.com |
The National Bolshevik Party (Majority) (Russian: Национал-большевистская партия, НБП) (also known as Nazbol) is a Russian political party dedicated to the ideology of National Bolshevism. Although the Party was liquidated by a lower court in June 2005, the Russian Supreme Court overturned the ban in August, just two months later. However, the party remained barred from election registration.[1] NBP is a prominent member of "The Other Russia" coalition of opposition parties. It was outlawed again on 19 April 2007.[2]
Development of the NBP
The party has been led by Eduard Limonov since its founding in 1992 as National Bolshevik Front when it was formed by the amalgamation of six minor groups. [3] Aleksandr Dugin was amongst the earliest members and was instrumental in convincing Limonov to enter the political arena. The party first attracted attention in 1992 when two members were arrested for possessing grenades, although Limonov argued that they had been planted. The incident achieved little, apart from giving the NBP some publicity for a boycotting campaign they were organising against Western goods. [4]
The NBP joined with other groups in 1992 as a member of the National Salvation Front coalition, which was supported by Belgian fascist Jean-François Thiriart. [5] When others within the group began to speak out against the NBP, it withdrew from the alliance.[6] The resulting fall-out lead to the NBP producing a one-off document entitled Limonov vs. Zhirinovsky which attacked the leader of their former allies in the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia by stating that 'a Jew masquerading as a Russian nationalist is a sickness, a pathology' (Zhirinovsky having a Jewish background). [7] Since this aborted alliance the NBP attempted to conclude a new deal with Russian National Unity in 1999 but this ultimately came to nothing. [8] Although these early doings show some alignment and sympathy with fascist and even Nazi groups, a split occurred in the NBP in the 2000s which changed this to an extent. Opposed to the Putin regime in Russia, Eduard Limonov has somewhat liberalized the NBP, and joined forces with leftist and liberal groups in Kasparov's United Civil Front to fight Putin. Since then, the NBP promotes a free socialist inner society on Russian territory, combined with aggressive foreign policy to defend and promote Russian interests abroad. Statements have been issued opposing antisemitism, xenophobia, and racism as being contradictory to national bolshevik views. The NBP aggressively denounces Russian National Unity, racist Skinheads, and other Nazi and Fascist organizations in Russia, increasingly labeling it as a member of leftist coalitions with groups like AKM and Kasparov's organization instead of the far right. A relatively small number of hard-line nationalist NBP members, supported by Dugin split off to form the more right-wing, anti-liberal, anti-left, anti-Kasparov aggressive nationalist NBF, or National Bolshevik Front. In recent Q and A on the internet on the website nazbol.ru the NBP has made sincere attempts to sever any ties with fascism, nazism, and racism.
At present, the party membership is around 15,000, with regional departments throughout Russia and a headquarters in Moscow. The party is known for attracting young people on the margin of society, from delinquents to vanguard intellectuals and artists.
Political programme
Template:Third Position The party believes in the creation of a grand empire that will include the whole of Europe and Russia, as well as Northern/Central Asia to be governed under Russian dominance. The party is vehemently opposed to American foreign policy and sees the creation of this 'Eurasia' as an essential counterbalance to Capitalist global domination. However, when Dugin left the NBP to create his own party "Eurasia" the NBP diminished the importance of its geo-political agenda in favor of a national one, concentrating on the defense of Russian minorities in the former USSR republics and the opposition to the political regime in Russia. As for Dugin, Limonov denounced his conservatism and submissiveness to the regime.
On the national arena, the party is highly critical of the government of Vladimir Putin and considers state institutions such as the bureaucracy, the police and the courts to be corrupt and authoritarian. In return the Russian authorities often employ repressive methods against the NBP, although they have not officially proclaimed it to be an extremist organization. The party sees Vladimir Putin as Russia's main enemy and in order to seek alliances with all anti-Putin forces, including once despised liberal parties like Yabloko or former prime minister Kasyanov, is ready to set aside its traditional extremist social and national stances. Aggressive eurasianist and imperialist nationalism has been replaced by a Russian territorial nationalism, combined with support for Russian minorities abroad. Recent work in this field has centered on the case of Vladimir Abel. a Russian (some say Jewish) man on trial in Latvia for what are claimed to be falsified charges in regards to explosives and extremism. The Baltic states of Lithuania and Estonia have also been criticized for degrading Russian-Soviet World War II veterans and memorials, and for legislation that banned Soviet symbols such as the hammer and sickle and red star, which placed them on par with the swastika and other Nazi imagery (the NBP dislikes Nazis). Aggressive, Stalinist and Strasserist slogans such as "Stalin Beria Gulag!" (prominent in the early 1990s) have been abandoned as, somewhat ironically NBP members are now themselves interred in prisons of Guin, the modern equivalent (not nearly as extreme, of course) of the old Soviet Gulag system. These cries have been replaced with calls for freedom, something that has become the central point of modern NBP activism.
Activities
Since the NBP was refused registration as an official party, its preferred political activity has consisted of direct action stunts, mostly against prominent political figures. One of its most famous direct actions consisted of taking over the Ministry of Health in Moscow on August 2, 2004 in order to protest the cancellation of social benefits in Russia. This was followed by an attempt to occupy Putin's office in December of the same year, although it was put down, and 30 arrests were made. [9]
The NBP's official organ is the journal Limonka (Лимонка). The name is a play of words on Limonov and is idiomatic Russian for grenade. It was forced to change its name after the authorities banned it for "promoting extremism and hatred". The main editor of Limonka for many years was Alexei Tsvetkov (Алексей Цветков).[10]
On November 7, 2006, police detained 27 Nazbol members after an office break-in on the eve of the celebration of the Bolshevik Revolution.[11] In 2007, the NBP took part in the Dissenters March and subsequent demonstrations against the government [12].
NBP banned
In November 2005, the Russian Supreme Court upheld a ban on the National-Bolshevik Party on the technical ground that it violated the law on political parties by calling itself a party without being registered as such.[14] The party had already suffered several government crackdowns, including a raid on their offices on 17 June (after which three party members slashed their wrists in protest) and the setting up of Nashi (Ours) [Russian - "our boys", "the good guys", whom NazBols often call "Nashisty" - a cross "Natzisty", Nazis, and "Fashisty," fascists], a government-sponsored movement that has since carried out attacks against the NBP. When formed, Nashi declared that the NBP was its number one enemy.[15] The decision was overturned by the Supreme Court of Justice on August 16 2005, and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation is now actively seeking to exclude them from events (having previously tolerated NBP supporters at rallies). The party has since seen somewhat of a decline in membership, with a number of units working with the growing Movement Against Illegal Immigration.[16]
International groups
A series of much smaller groups known as the National Bolshevik Party, often made up of Russian immigrants, can be found in Latvia, Moldova, Sweden and Ukraine. Their influence is much smaller than their Russian counterpart. There are also small NBPs, made up mostly of Russian immigrants, in the United States, Canada, Israel, and various European countries.[17]
Some of the main NBP organisations outside Russia include:
Belarus
In Belarus a Pentecostal church in Minsk was vandalised in 2006 with the NBP emblem drawn on its walls. The NBP is not, however, officially registered in the country.[18] This followed a similar incident at the Latvian embassy in the city the previous year[19].
Latvia
The NBP has organised in Latvia and has held offices in Riga[20] This Latvian branch has variously been led by Konstantin Mihailuk and Vladimir Linderman. Although it has made some noted publicity stunts it is largely marginal phenomenon in Latvian politics[21]. Two Russian party members were detained in May 2007 whilst attempting to illegally cross the border between the two countries.[22]
Lithuania
In Lithuania National bolsheviks had appered at 2005 year in Visaginas and Klaipeda. One of the most meaningful action was the one against the reform in the education. [23]
Moldova
The Moldovan National Bolshevik Party was refused registration as a political party in 2005 and so registered as non-governmental organization, with Transnistria as its main centre of activity[24].
Ukraine
The NBP organises in Ukraine and in 1996 they joined a number of other small parties in signing a 'Declaration of the Kiev Council of Slav Radical Nationalists' in an initiative led by the Ukrainian National Assembly[25]. The Ukrainian NBP, which is largely based in the east of the country, broke sharply from this movement, now known as the UNA-UNSO, during the run-up to the Orange Revolution. Whilst the UNA-UNSO lent its support to Viktor Yushchenko the NBP, with its close ties to Russia, declared in favour of Viktor Yanukovych.[26]
Dissident groups
A consistent group of NBP followers disagrees with Limonov's new strategy of seeking political alliances with pro-Western and pro-market liberal-democratic forces. They call themselves NBP bez Limonova (NBP without Limonov) or simply National Bolsheviks, because they regard themselves the real followers of National Bolshevism, accusing Limonov of betraying party's original ideas in order to gain personal visibility. In August 2006, an anti-Limonovist faction of the National Bolshevik Party formed the National Bolshevik Front.[27]
Footnotes
- ^ RIA Novosti - Russia - Court upholds registration ban against National Bolshevik party
- ^ "Russia court outlaws radical political party", Reuters (The Globe and Mail), April 19, 2007.
- ^ M.A. Lee, The Beast Reawakens, 1997, p. 314
- ^ M.A. Lee, The Beast Reawakens, 1997, p. 320
- ^ M.A. Lee, The Beast Reawakens, 1997, p. 321
- ^ M.A. Lee, The Beast Reawakens, 1997, pp. 328-9
- ^ M.A. Lee, The Beast Reawakens, 1997, p. 329
- ^ M. Vladimirova, 'National Bolshevik Party Ban Could Herald Wider Political Repression', Searchlight, August 2005, p. 24
- ^ J. Raymond, 'Far Right Bids to Set Agenda', Searchlight, February 2005, p. 27
- ^ чбчймпо: мЙФЕТБФХТОБС ЦЙЪОШ нПУЛЧЩ: 1 - 15 ЖЕЧТБМС 1998 З. - иТПОЙЛБ
- ^ RIA Novosti - Russia - Police detain 27 National Bolsheviks in office break-in attempt
- ^ Police Clash With Anti-Kremlin Protesters, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, March 32007
- ^ По факту нападения "лимоновцев" на избирательный участок возбуждено уголовное дело Gazeta.ru 12 March 2007
- ^ RIA Novosti - Russia - UPDATE: Russian Supreme Court upholds ban on National Bolshevik Party
- ^ M. Vladimirova, 'Danger: Official 'Anti-Fascists' at Work', Searchlight, June 2005, p. 25
- ^ M. Vladimirova, 'The Movement Against Illegal Immigration - A Fascist Growth Area', Searchlight, June 2006, p. 30
- ^ http://eng.nbp-info.ru/409.html
- ^ 'National Bolsheviks Accused of Vandalizing Beleaguered Pentecostal Church'
- ^ 'Far-left group attacks Latvian embassy in Minsk'
- ^ Stephen D. Shenfield,'Russian Fascism: Traditions, Tendencies, Movements', p. 190
- ^ N. Muizneiks, 'Latvia' in C. Mudde, Racist Extremism in Central and Eastern Europe, pp. 101-128
- ^ 'Latvia’s security services fear arrival of large number of weapons ahead of May 9'
- ^ http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/2353/eredr3.jpg Flyer of Lithuanian National Bolsheviks
- ^ Antisemitism and Racism in Moldova
- ^ Ukraine
- ^ R. Pankowski & N. Sineaeva, 'Fascists Exploit Political Turmoil', Searchlight, January 2005, pp. 24-5
- ^ http://www.nationalvanguard.org/printer.php?id=9967
External links
- Template:En icon Actual official web-site
- Template:Ru icon Actual official web-site
- Template:En icon National Bolshevik Party website
- Template:Ru icon National Bolshevik Party website
- Template:Ru icon Limonka online
- Template:En icon National Bolshevik Party banned in Russia NOVOSTI - "Court upholds registration ban against National Bolshevik party" April 13, 2006, Retrieved April 27, 3006
- Template:Ru icon Article by Anna Politkovskaya -1
- Template:Ru icon Article by Anna Politkovskaya -2