The National Bolshevik Party, NBP, is one of the most famous radical organizations in post-Soviet Russia. It emerged in the early 1990s. The founders of the party include Eduard Limonov, Alexander Dugin and Yegor Letov. Officially recognized as an extremist organization, it exists under the name “Other Russia” and in the form of a few fragments.

The NBP was created in 1993 as a party with an ideology combining far-left and far-right ideas. The “Declaration on the Creation of the National Bolshevik Party” speaks about this:

“The political struggle in Russia has reached a critical point. The phase of resistance has exhausted itself, therefore the traditional opposition (only emotional, only Protestant) has exhausted itself. The period of resistance is over, the period of national uprising begins.

The new stage requires new methods, new forms and new instruments of political struggle. Therefore, we consider it necessary to create a radical political and ideological structure of a new, unprecedented type, designed to adequately respond to the challenge of History. Let there be National Bolshevism!

What is National Bolshevism? The fusion of the most radical forms of social resistance with the most radical forms of national resistance is National Bolshevism.”

The idea of ​​​​creating a party that unites ultra-right and ultra-left ideology belongs to the famous writer Eduard Limonov and philosopher Alexander Dugin. In 1998, Dugin left the NBP and is currently the leader of the International Eurasian Movement.

In 1994, the NBP began publishing the party newspaper Limonka, which later became the mouthpiece of the so-called “countercultural” opposition and a postmodern literary project. In addition to the newspaper, the NBP was the organizer and inspirer of the “countercultural” project “Russian Breakthrough”. The Russian Breakthrough is considered the culmination of the Russian counterculture movement of the 1990s.

At the same time, the NBP began to carry out political actions. The NBP protested against the liberal idea, the main slogan of this period of its existence became: “Let's complete the reforms like this: Stalin! Beria! GULAG!

Since 1996, the NBP has annually celebrated “Russian Nation Day” on April 5 (in honor of the anniversary of the historical victory of Alexander Nevsky). The National Bolshevik Party was registered under No. 473 by the Department of Justice for the Moscow Region on September 8, 1993, and re-registered on January 23, 1997 as an interregional public organization. On March 26 and July 4, 1998, changes and additions to the charter of this organization were registered.

After Dugin left, the party's political positions shifted noticeably to the left. Among the National Bolsheviks, young people aged 16-25 of various social status predominated, from the unemployed to university teachers. The main condition for membership in the organization was radical disagreement with the current course of the government and the President of the Russian Federation.

On March 10, 1999, in the Central House of Cinematographers, Egor Gorshkov and Dmitry Bakhur threw rotten eggs at director Nikita Mikhalkov. On June 28, 1999, the Presnensky Court of Moscow sentenced both to two and a half years probation and amnestied them.

In 2001, party leader Eduard Limonov was arrested on terrorism charges and convicted of illegal possession of weapons. Until Limonov's release from prison in 2003, the actual leadership of the party was exercised by Anatoly Tishin.

On December 7, 2003, in Moscow, at polling station No. 107, Limonovites threw an egg at Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov. Protest participants Natalya Chernova and Alexei Tonkikh were accused of hooliganism, then the case was dropped. In 2003, the number of National Bolsheviks increased to 10,000 people. Vladimir Linderman was promoted to the leadership of the NBP. In 2004, a new program was adopted at the V Party Congress.

On May 1, 2005, the St. Petersburg branch of the NBP held an unauthorized march, during which activists managed to overcome three riot police cordons. In June 2005, after the storming of the special forces of the GUIN, the main headquarters of the party in Moscow was closed. On November 15, 2005, by decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, the Interregional Public Group “NBP” was liquidated.

On August 2, 2006, the leader of the National Bolshevik Party, Eduard Limonov, filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights regarding the refusal of the Federal Registration Service (FRS) to officially register the NBP as a political party, qualifying this refusal as “an act of state suppression of the political opposition in the Russian Federation.” The Federal Reserve, in its refusal in January 2006, indicated that there was no quorum at the founding congress of the NBP, and its program “contains signs of nationality, expressed in indicating the goals of protecting the rights of the Russian and Russian-speaking population,” which violates Art. 9 of the Law “On Political Parties”.

On April 19, 2007, the Moscow City Court, in accordance with Art. 7 and 9 of the Federal Law “On Combating Extremist Activities” recognized the public organization “National Bolshevik Party”, which operates without forming a legal entity, as extremist and banned its activities on the territory of the Russian Federation.

Currently, actions are taking place in defense of Article 31 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation (the right of the people to peacefully and unarmedly hold mass events), the so-called “Strategy-31” proposed by the leader of the National Bolsheviks Eduard Limonov.

Some former members of the banned NBP continue their political activities as part of the Other Russia party, which is why many of them are prosecuted under Article 282.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (organizing the activities of an extremist organization and participating in such activities).

On April 23, a rally was held in Moscow against repressions for “extremism” on the Internet. The topic is important: in order to become an “extremist” in Russia, it is not at all necessary to be an emissary of the “Right Sector” (banned on the territory of the Russian Federation) or to conduct aggressive campaigning for the glory of ISIS (also banned on the territory of the Russian Federation). It’s enough to repost an archival photo or poster or like the “wrong” video.

According to the most optimistic estimates, about 15 people came out to the rally. Perhaps the main reason for the failure of the event lies in its organizers - the Other Russia party, and in the recent past - the NBP. It is not very clear how the banner of struggle against the repressive apparatus can be raised by a movement that simultaneously supports an armed invasion of a neighboring country and the prevention of an “internal Maidan.”

Vladimir Titov, who was formerly a member of Limonov’s National Bolshevik Party, is confident that the transformation of “violent and uncompromising boys and girls,” “special forces and the vanguard of the opposition” into the next Nashists became a natural stage in the evolution of a force, the myth of which always ran ahead of reality.

Eddie: from great to funny

The basis of the NBP myth is Limonov. More precisely, Limonov's myth.

The mythological Limonov is a bright figure. “Son of a soldier”, “Kharkov hooligan Savenko”, a simple working guy with a subtle soul, a poet-nugget, a dissident, a heroic emigrant, a brilliant publicist, an invincible polemicist, a great writer who cruelly and wisely dissects reality. “Atillo the long-toothed”, the overthrower of the old world and the herald of the new world. “Fought in five wars,” was imprisoned on charges of a coup d’état, withstood the press and returned to the fight. And, of course, the hero-lover, the favorite of women.

Reality is very different from the mythological image. As a matter of fact, Eduard Limonov is the author of one novel. The same one. Without it, he would have become a third-rate journalist at best. The legendary weapon of the Negro Chris brought the Kharkov youth Savenko into literature. “A strong, foul-smelling, magnificent brawler” (as Polina Dashkova put it in the novel “The Image of the Enemy”) provided him with what more talented and persistent people pay huge amounts of money to PR agencies for: fame and recognition.

True, it soon became clear that the fame of “Edichka, who sucked the black man” caused certain inconveniences. Probably, if it were possible to “return everything back,” Limonov would have burned the first drafts of “Edichka,” and many of his other masterpieces, where he had the imprudence to boast about his achievements in the field of same-sex love. But the past cannot be returned. You can only try to change your image and hope that everyone will get used to your new image, forgetting the old one.

Therefore, Limonov began to sculpt himself a Superman mask. It turned out funny. Narcissism combined with testosterone deficiency produced unexpected results. Let’s just remember the story “An Ordinary Fight,” where Eddie inflates a brawl between drunks to the scale of a battle of the titans: “You were hoping for a limited clash, for a limited war, yes... The war will be until the last nuclear warhead, until the last Kalashnikov cartridge, until the last breath of oxygen in atmosphere!" It is obvious that Limonov himself actually sees this event as a prototype of a galactic war. But a rude and impolite reader will chuckle and say something like: “Look how excited the fagot is!”

In the early 1990s, Limonov, as a correspondent for the “people's patriotic” press (Den, Soviet Russia), visited local conflicts. This gave him reason to proudly declare that he had “fought in five wars.” Everyone stared enthusiastically at the photos where Superman diligently posed with a machine gun or a machine gun. People who understood laughed. The fact is that Limonov was not just a correspondent (you never know how many stringers travel to hot spots at their own risk): in the republics for an hour that arose from the ruins of the former Yugoslavia, many perceived him as an authorized representative of the Russian state.

The overthrow of Yeltsin was seen by many as quite probable - including the Yeltsinists themselves. The “people's patriotic” opposition seemed to be the real center of power. And in the revolutionary republics, the “official” representative of the Russian opposition was quoted as an envoy of the “parallel Russian government”

It is important to remember here that in the early 1990s there was no firm government in Russia. Vice-President Rutskoi and the majority of the Supreme Council soon moved into opposition to Yeltsin. The “National Salvation Front” calmly, in a businesslike manner, discussed the details of the overthrow of the “temporary occupation regime.” Alexander Barkashov trained a small private army. But even in the real army, a considerable number of officers were dissatisfied with what was happening in the country. The overthrow of Yeltsin was seen by many as quite probable - including the Yeltsinists themselves. The “people's patriotic” opposition seemed to be the real center of power. And in the revolutionary republics, the “official” representative of the Russian opposition was regarded as an envoy of the “parallel Russian government.” Limonov speaks about this with touching naivety in his book “SMRT”:

“Radko Mladic was mistaken then: he mistook me, a Russian emigrant with a French passport, for an emissary from Russia. The result of this misunderstanding was a three-hour conversation. Mladic told me that they needed MI-24 helicopters and, it seems, SS-300 anti-missile systems, if they already existed. Maybe they were SS-200s? They also needed fuel for the tanks; the Serbs did not have enough smuggled fuel.”

It’s funny that Limonov is in no hurry to dispel Mladic’s delusion: they say, excuse me, friend of the general, I sympathize with your just struggle, but I have no opportunity to help. I am a simple journalist, and not a colonel of the General Staff in civilian clothes, sent to you on a secret mission... Instead, our hero puffs out his cheeks importantly for three hours, like Kisa Vorobyaninov, realizing that the “emissary from Russia” will be allowed to go where a simple “sprat” will not be allowed pen." And the host will take proper care of the safety of the distinguished guest. And Limonov always valued the safety of his carcass extremely highly. After he was beaten a little in the fall of 1996, he stopped appearing on the streets without bodyguards from among the party members (which, however, did not save him from a piece of patriotic shit on May 1, 2008).

Radicals from the closet

The bright-hearted intelligentsia called Limonov’s party a “unique phenomenon.” In fact, the NBP-DR is a third-rate political by-product. And the fact that at a certain point in time it was successful in Russian media does not characterize our society in the best way.

Just as Limonov was and remains a writer of one novel, so the NBP, and later “The Other Russia”, is a party of one person. And, accordingly, she is doomed to copy his vices, mistakes and miscalculations.

As you know, Limonov’s goal was to prove to the world that he was not an infantile neurotic, but the Great and Terrible. He had no other idea, no philosophy of his own, even the most primitive and contradictory one. Therefore, the NBP had neither an ideology nor a program; it was constantly tossed from Nazism to Trotskyism, from Stalinism to Wahhabism.

Limonov, like many old scoops, is afraid of the computer, masking his fear and misunderstanding with disdain. As a result, the NBP missed the formation of the Internet community in Russia, and to this day its online presence is extremely poor.

Admired by his own intelligence, Eduard Limonov made several serious mistakes in his political career. For example, the height of stupidity was the statement of support for Yeltsin before the 1996 elections. The presidential staff had not dreamed of such allies for a hundred years; the authorities hastened to distance themselves from the scumbags playing at communo-fascism. But relations with the “national-patriotic” community went wrong for a long time. Limonov’s biggest screw-up, which predetermined his place in the corner for the marginalized, was his departure from Zhirinovsky at the end of 1992. Limonov clearly underestimated the political potential of the leader of the Liberal Democrats and overestimated his own. The “National Radical Party” of several LDPR dissidents soon crumbled, but I didn’t want to go to Zhirik with a guilty head. The political storm at the turn of the decade turned many heads; the success stories of politicians and businessmen, which no one knew about six months ago, made them want to repeat them. Limonov and a group of like-minded people decided to found a new party - the same NBP.

And from the first days, this supernova, the most revolutionary and unique batch, reeked of the smell of a closet. The term “national Bolshevism” was coined in 1921 by emigrant Nikolai Ustryalov. For some time, the Kremlin’s foreign agents tried to promote the myth of the “national degeneration” of the Bolshevik government among emigrants, although without much success. Even the Russian intelligentsia, genetically predisposed to illusions, saw that there were no signs of “national degeneration” of the international bandit Soviet of Deputies. National Bolshevism was happily forgotten for decades, until a few slackers needed a catchy name for their party.

“Limonka” evoked a response only among the marginalized from the marginalized: punkish non-Nazis, philosophizing assholes, red-brown Zionists and black fighters for the Russian language in Latvia.

It turned out even funnier with the flag. For the first time we see a combination of a red field, a white circle and a black hammer and sickle in the 1986 film “Sid and Nancy”. Perestroika has just begun in the USSR, Eddie is not yet thinking about the career of the most terrible fascist and is looking forward to French citizenship. But - the most important thing! - in reality, Sid Vicious did not wear anything like that: he teased people with a T-shirt with the NSDAP banner. However, the filmmakers decided that the Hitler flag on the skinny torso of the late youth idol could lead to problems - from lawsuits to a bomb from Beitar or Kach. Therefore, the swastika was replaced with a hammer and sickle. Seven years later, Limonov and Dugin picked up the used props and made them the banner of “the most radical and uncompromising party.”

Speaking about the NBP, it is impossible not to say a few words about the newspaper “Limonka”, especially since in the first years the party’s activities were limited to the publication and distribution of the newspaper. Wonderful intellectuals did not skimp on compliments for this “unique countercultural project”, “a caustic and honest newspaper of the young and evil” (such compliments could fill several pages). But no one could give an answer: why did the circulation of such an excellent newspaper in better times not exceed 13,500 copies? This is despite the fact that “Limonka” was distributed throughout Russia, as well as in Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, Kazakhstan... The answer is simple: the newspaper was of no interest to readers. Its information value was zero, its analytical component was below par. However, the modern speeches of the Kiselyovs, Mamontovs, Leontyevs and Markovs in terms of intellectual power are very reminiscent of the column “How to understand” or “The Word of the Leader” of the defunct National Bolshevik leaflet: for complete identity, only teenage swearing is missing.

“Limonka” has never had what ensures the survival of any media - the target audience. From the point of view of pensioners and the impoverished Soviet intelligentsia, the National Bolsheviks' newspaper was too informal, and the ideological turmoil was frankly frightening. On the contrary, for young informals, “Limonka” was too politicized, so it did not work as a countercultural fanzine: fans, skins, punks and metalheads preferred more fun reads - “The Iron March,” for example. More socialized youth rated Cool, Molotok and Ptyuch. “Limonka” evoked a response only among the marginalized from the marginalized: punkish non-Nazis, philosophizing assholes, red-brown Zionists and black fighters for the Russian language in Latvia. However, if the party eventually received attention and serious repressions, then “Limonka” was humiliatingly ignored. A couple of times the regime pretended to ban the newspaper; The Limonovites formally changed the name and calmly continued to produce “Limonka” with the same logo. In 2007, the newspaper died quietly and unnoticed.

Luzhkov's contents

Another myth associated with Limonovites is their so-called independence. Allegedly, Limonov’s party never ran to bow to anyone, did not take from anyone, did not obey anyone, etc. Unlike... In a word, a continuation of the fairy tale about sincere boys who were sick in their souls for the people’s happiness. In fact, Limonov's party was deeply prostituted from the very beginning.

At the turn of 1994–1995, the NBP (more precisely, Limonov, Dugin and a very small support group) received from the Moscow Property Committee a basement at 2nd Frunzenskaya, building 7, room 4. The “Bunker” (as it was called) was used as a retail outlet, warehouse propaganda paper and flags, a place for holding meetings, lectures, concerts and similar events, and from the beginning of the 2000s as a shelter for professional National Bolsheviks. Of course, he was also declared cult and legendary. But I propose to take a break from the punk heroics and think about this: Limonov’s people owned the “bunker” for free, that is, since 1996 they have not paid anything at all.

“It became unbearable for us to pay the rent,” recalls the leader himself, “and after a while our relations with the Moscow Property Committee became complicated. We even found ourselves pitted against each other in the Arbitration Court in 1997. However, their side soon withdrew their claim against us.”

It is not clear what is more in these lines: stupidity or arrogance. In Moscow, real wars are going on over real estate; for some business entities, the dispute ends in acute lead intoxication, or at best, in time. And Limonov’s party is located in a spacious basement almost in the historical center of the capital, within walking distance from the Frunzenskaya metro station - and has been sitting there for almost ten years! And when they show nothing instead of rent, the Moscow Property Committee good-naturedly “withdraws its claim,” although it has every right to kick out the defaulters. Later, the NBP went into public hysteria several times: “We are being evicted, everyone is defending the bunker!” But in the end the Limonovites shake out from the occupied basement only in March 2004.

Limonovites threw food at the powers that be, hooliganized near foreign embassies, and even suggested that the Russians “turn on a killer” for Yeltsin. But they never allowed themselves a single attack against Yuri Luzhkov.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to guess that the hooligan kids had authoritative patrons. Who these patrons were is a special question. In Russia, there is a tradition of resolving important issues behind the scenes, agreements are concluded at the level of verbal agreements, documents that can shed light on the dark spots of history disappear only to emerge in a cleaned up form (like photographs of Stalin with the old Bolsheviks, which disappeared one after another - from life and with photo). Therefore, it is impossible to unambiguously name who moved the Limonov brethren into the “bunker,” but one can make a guess. At that time, Yuri Luzhkov, a very purposeful, authoritative and strong-willed comrade, was mayor of Moscow. The simple-minded image was set off by an extraordinary mind, a bulldog's grip and serious ambitions. He actively supported Yeltsin at critical moments in 1993 and 1996, but he never really hid the fact that he was not averse to taking the number one post.

It would seem, what does Luzhkov have to do with it - or more precisely, why does he need some noise-headed overgrown people? Well, firstly, tame radicals (and formally independent of city authorities) are suitable for causing petty mischief to competitors. Secondly, out of a crazy lordly whim. The new Russians kept crocodiles and monkeys, but the master of Moscow kept terrible extremists. Look, aren't they so cute?

If anyone remembers, Limonov’s supporters threw food at the powers that be, hooliganized near foreign embassies (and in neighboring countries), and even suggested that Russians “turn on a killer” for Yeltsin. But they never allowed themselves a single attack against Yuri Mikhailovich. (Much later, Limonov inadvertently barked something at Luzhkov, speaking on Ekho Moskvy, for which he was sentenced to a substantial fine, but those were different times.) And the expulsion of the National Bolsheviks from the bunker occurred in 2004 - in the era of “developed Putinism,” when the liberties and ambitions of the regional barons came to a complete and final end. Coincidence? Don't think.

However, it is much more interesting than dismantling Limonov’s relationship with the Moscow mayor’s office to consider the connections of incorruptible radicals from the NBP with the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation.

Statistical and preventive branch of the FSB

In the dashing 1990s, no one, in general, offended the NBP. Neither the mafia, nor skinheads, nor Caucasians, nor “authorities”. Problems began with Vladimir Putin coming to power. RUBOP harshly pressed the Limonovites not only for harmless “direct actions,” but also “just so that they would not be forgotten,” and the FSB shepherded them almost like real terrorists. However, if you dig deeper, the relationship between the National Bolsheviks and the “office” turns out to be very ambiguous.

In February 2000, Limonov asked for a meeting with high-ranking security officer Vladimir Pronin and bluntly offered his services. He proposed using the NBP to organize provocations against the “unfriendly” neighbors of the Russian Federation.

“Vladimir Vasilyevich,” I said, “you don’t need to eavesdrop on us, develop us, you need to be friends with us. Let's work together. There are areas where the state cannot interfere, it is impossible to lose prestige, to raid embassies, to organize demonstrations here and there, even in Latvia, even in Ukraine, but we can do this! Let the state officially censure us; we will be an expression of the anger of the Russian people.”

To this day I believe that my proposal was reasonable. At one time, what I proposed to him was done by the KGB special department.”

Comrade Pronin accepted Limonov’s patriotic impulse without enthusiasm. A little over a year later, Limonov will be arrested in connection with the preparation of an armed uprising in the north-eastern regions of Kazakhstan, will serve less than two and a half years and will emerge covered in the glory of an unbending fighter. Russians are a compassionate people (most often not for the sake of business); for their passion, Limonov was forgiven for “Edichka”, her bastard character, and her cannibalistic fantasies.

Of course, the majority did not focus on the unsightly details of the “Altai case” (this is the name given to Limonov’s prison epic). But in vain. If you collect them, a very interesting picture emerges.

The failed invasion of the “NBP militants” into Kazakhstan was prepared in such deep secrecy that since the summer of 2000, all the crows and magpies have been screaming about it. The leader and his entourage kept saying, as if by accident, that in Altai, near the Russian-Kazakh border, preparations were underway for something great and terrible. The scenario of the supposed “uprising” was set out in the NBP-info bulletin No. 3, published for the next congress; the newsletter was considered closed, but in fact anyone could read it. Moreover, Limonov’s people even handed over the secret plan for the uprising to FSB director Nikolai Patrushev. As the party legend says, the recipient received this manuscript in a bathhouse.

The leader of the National Bolsheviks sat in the comfortable Lefortovo pre-trial detention center, and then in the “red” colony, and did not encounter energetic methods of inquiry and pressure in the cell. While suffering in dungeons, he wrote several books, which were successfully published and sold to retail chains.

It looks like the Soviet cartoon “Robbery by...”, when the whole street knows that Mario is going to rob a bank: “Limonov is preparing a war! Armed invasion of Kazakhstan!” However, the “authorities” turn a blind eye to the militant preparations of the Limonovites. The times then were, by today's standards, vegetarian, but preparing a rebellion in a neighboring state is no joke. What a local war is and what it entails was known only too well in Russia 2000.

The arrest, short prison term and trial in the “Altai case” are just a song. The leader of the National Bolsheviks sat in the comfortable Lefortovo pre-trial detention center, and then in the “red” colony, and did not encounter energetic methods of inquiry and pressure in the cell. While suffering in dungeons, he wrote several books, which were successfully published and sold to retail chains. During the trial, he played a revolutionary poet, denouncing the unjust government with the support of his loyal comrades and an excited public. Of course, there were several traitors who slandered the leader and covered themselves with indelible shame. One of them, Artyom Akopyan, was even heroically advised by the Limonovites to commit suicide (this was the extent of the retribution from the terrible revolutionaries). But, despite the futile attempts of the minions of tyranny, after the arrest of the leader the party did not crumble, but grew in muscle.

And the NBP was headed by Anatoly Tishin during this heroic period. Among his other exploits in the field of struggle for the triumph of National Bolshevism, there is testimony on the same “Altai case”:

“In March 2000, I witnessed the departure of members of the NBP to the border areas of the Russian Federation with Kazakhstan in order to conduct geographical reconnaissance in the territory of these areas. Specifically, these are Eduard Limonov, Alexander Burygin, Nikolai Gavrilov, Artyom Akopyan and Egor Gorshkov. This reconnaissance served as a preparatory part for the further implementation of the NBP “Second Russia” project. This project included an armed invasion of NBP members into the territory of Northern Kazakhstan for the so-called protection of the Russian population living there from the authorities of this state...

From that moment until now, the chairman of the NBP, E. Limonov, and other party activists, among whom were Mikhail Shilin, Sergei Aksyonov, Artyom Akopyan and other regional representatives of the NBP, with whom I am not personally acquainted, have repeatedly made trips to the border regions of the Russian Federation with Kazakhstan, at what time - I don’t know, but I know for sure that they were there. During my trips, they called me back from the city of Novosibirsk, the city of Yekaterinburg and other cities of Russia. In one of the conversations with Shilin, after his next such trip, I learned that he and Akopyan illegally crossed the state border of Russia and Kazakhstan, during which they visited the Kazakh customs post, where they noted the presence of weapons among the customs officers at the post, as well as the city of Ust-Kamenogorsk, the purpose of visiting this city is not known to me. In addition, during one of his trips, Limonov selected two apiaries for the future secret placement of NBP activists in Altai...

Subsequently, activities to implement the “Second Russia” project were coordinated through the release of closed NBP-info bulletins (No. 4 and 5), which, in particular, described the procedure for recruiting new NBP members to be sent to Northern Kazakhstan for the so-called armed struggle against the authorities of Kazakhstan and methods this fight."

These excerpts from the criminal case were published by another well-known former security officer, Maxim Gromov.

In 2004, the National Bolsheviks made quite a risky fuss on the day of Putin’s inauguration, and then during the “seizures” of offices in the Ministry of Health and Social Development and the reception office of the Presidential Administration. As a result, criminal cases were initiated, and many received real sentences.

Actually, after these testimonies, a fat point should have been put in the history of the NBP. The great leader, his associates and half of his associates (except for those who actively cooperated with the investigation, like Tishin) would have gone to prison for periods of three to 15 years, and those who remained free would have flinched for a long time at every call on the front door. But even if the repressions had turned out to be less large-scale and the party had survived, Silence would definitely have nothing to do with it. He didn't just betray his comrades. His testimony is an almost ready-made indictment and verdict.

However, in our schizophrenic reality, Limonov received a child's sentence for complicity in the purchase of machine guns, and Tishin spent all these more than two years as an... O. the head of the party, and then he was not ostracized.

Perhaps the presence of a “notarized informer” in the NBP was part of an unspoken agreement between Limonov and the security officers. A symbol of submission, understandable to initiates.

The office adhered to the principle “Don’t offend Eddie!” and later, when Limonov, either offended by the authorities for not allowing him to play toy soldiers in Kazakhstan, or believing in the imminent Russian Maidan, leased the party to the “disgraced oligarchs” and opposition liberals. In 2004 alone, the National Bolsheviks made quite a risky fuss on the day of Putin’s inauguration, and then during the “seizures” of offices in the Ministry of Health and Social Development and the reception area of ​​the Presidential Administration. As a result of the “capture of the Ministry of Health and the Administration of the Presidential Administration,” criminal cases were initiated, and many Limonovites received real sentences. However, not even a hair fell from the leader himself, whose leadership and guiding role in these exploits is somehow ridiculous to deny. Could the security officers have pulled Limonov into one of these cases? It's easy if you want.

Yakov Shustov, a former party activist and member of the Limonka editorial board, clearly wrote about why this did not happen:

“What is NBP? And the NBP is a statistical and preventive branch of the FSB. The same product of selection of Lubyanka Michurinsk residents as MOCR or SZRIS. The people in the Federal Service are serious and busy. There is no time to keep an eye on everyone with cockroaches in their heads. And here is the initiative man Edya with the NBP project. Potential troublemakers themselves flock there like midges to the flame of a lonely candle. A special questionnaire was published in each issue of Limonka. Fill it out, send it, and you’ve already been counted. With passport details, addresses, passwords, appearances and geraniums on the windowsill. All this was recorded and sent to the Ministry of Justice for registration every year. The Ministry of Justice refused to register the party, but who said that the dossiers on NBP members were not sent to the right place? Next, from the available “foundation shakers,” the most passionate ones, or greyhounds in Russian, were selected. They were entrusted with some kind of “revolutionary task”. Preposterous enough to pose any threat, but criminal enough to warrant a prison sentence. The troublemakers are sitting there, suspicious under the hood.”

The myth of the National Bolsheviks

Although the influence of Limonov’s party in Russian politics was within the limits of statistical error, the National Bolsheviks enjoyed a certain popularity in the Russian media. True, the political achievements of the NBP have nothing to do with it. It’s just that the literary freak Limonov is a higher-rated character than some Barkashov or Anpilov. In addition, the National Bolsheviks, unlike most Stalinists and Nazis, did not burst with hatred towards national and sexual minorities. By the way, in the ranks of the party there have always been extremely many representatives of minorities - both ethnic and gender. Therefore, in the liberal media (and until recently all major media were liberal) the Limonovites were described rather kindly.

In general, the myth of the National Bolsheviks was created in the early 2000s by young journalists, boys and girls born in the 1980s, who gladly reported on the National Bolsheviks’ “direct actions.” This was the customary name for art provocations, performances, masquerades and happenings organized by the Enbackment. Later, the APD tactics were mastered by young liberals, leftists, and pro-Kremlin youth, but at the dawn of the millennium, the creative developments of the American Yippies were new in Russia. Young reporters made a name for themselves by describing toy terrorist attacks by ignorant extremists. This ensured the media success of the Limonovites.

True, not for long. It soon became clear that clowning was an insurmountable intellectual and political ceiling for them. But people generally tend to embellish reality, and the post-Soviet intelligentsia is most susceptible to this disease. So the angry, overgrown slackers turned into ideological defenders of the Motherland and freedom. A small group without an ideology has become a “real European radical party” and “the vanguard of the opposition.” And an elderly bisexual with an inferiority complex and a penchant for political prostitution turned out to be a herald of democracy.

Then the situation changed, and the amusing revolutionaries turned into caricatured obscurantist guardians - to the extreme amazement of the Russian intelligentsia. As they say, this has never happened before, and here it is again.

20 years wasted

On April 5, 2016, fifty Limonovites walked around Moscow in a sullen group. Approximately the same number of their brothers in mind gathered in St. Petersburg. The Moscow march was led by FSB informant Anatoly Tishin, who shouted aggressive slogans into a megaphone, calling for war with the whole world. Behind the conquerors of the universe, “Eshniks” and riot police lazily trudged along. They were bored.

This was the main national holiday, the so-called “Russian nation day”.

It's funny that the first such demonstration took place exactly 20 years ago. These 20 years were wasted for the Limonovites. Hundreds of issues of the newspaper and tons of leaflets: bundles of them are still rotting in the closets of grown-up EnBEP "Gauleiter" officers. Performances with throwing food products, “capturing” towers and offices. Beatings from the police and Nazis, several hundred “political prisoners,” two dozen corpses. Throwing between the allies, who with enviable consistency kicked Limonov and his company. In the last two years - “help for the rebel Donbass”, boastful tales about hundreds of destroyed “ukrofashists”, hysterical calls for repressions against the “bourgeoisie”, Putinophilia in the terminal stage... Everything has gone down the drain. The result is several dozen restless young men and women of late youth, who did not realize that they had wasted their lives. But for some reason I don’t feel sorry for them.

The capital of Mother Russia, Triumfalnaya Square, 31st. The territory is cordoned off by members of the National Bolshevik Party (hereinafter referred to as NBP). Most party members are from the generation of the mid and late 80s, the “Pepsi generation,” but there are also much younger ones. The banners of the movement flutter above the heads of the young people: “imperial” hammer and sickle, stylized as red, black and white fascist symbols. Wildness for a typical post-Soviet man in the street, “the phenomenon of mutually exclusive paragraphs” or simply a paradox for a politician, historian or philosopher. At a distance from his “adepts”, the leader of this militant pack, considerably aged, but not inferior to his comrades, Eduard Limonov, is fussing about. Young fighters against the regime chant: “Yes – Death!” Soon the feast of independent minds is interrupted by the quite predictable appearance of the police. Representatives of law enforcement agencies do not arrive at the scene of the unfolding battles empty-handed: the “gendarmes of the second special regiment” do not forget to seize the legendary “democratizers,” that is, rubber batons. Some will be put behind bars for 15 days, others will get away with only bruises and, having crossed the threshold of their own home, will rush to plan a response street performance. Another action of “dissenters”, a typical performance of radical youth. “We’re making noise, brother, we’re making noise”,” the sparkling words of the classic involuntarily come to mind. It’s hard to believe, but once upon a time the NBP was a coalition of gifted and talented individuals who broke away from the general mass of the creative intelligentsia of the 90s and had extremely non-standard and avant-garde views on the world and politics in particular. When did the NBP turn from a kind of “perestroika” bohemia into an extremist and now banned movement? Let's talk about this in more detail, along the way turning to the biographies of the founding fathers of the party, occasionally making a forced excursion into the past.

At that moment, when the idea of ​​​​creating a single association only began to ferment in the minds of the oppositionists, Eduard Limonov exceeded fifty dollars. By that time, he had already gained a foothold in the mass consciousness solely as the brightest representative of postmodern Russian literature and a very extravagant and extraordinary figure.

It’s difficult to call Limonov’s (real name Savenko) adolescence romantic and cloudless. At the age of seventeen, the future revolutionary dissident joins the main proletarian galaxy of Soviet society and becomes a kind of “jack of all trades”: he works part-time as a loader, builder and high-rise installer. At the same age, he discovered his “gift of writing” and entered the Kharkov Pedagogical Institute, simultaneously publishing in small regional publications. By the mid-70s, Limonov emigrated to the United States and got a job at the New York newspaper “New Russian Word”. In his writing endeavors, the newly minted journalist denounces “decaying” capitalism and exposes the underside of the bourgeois way of life. As one would expect, his person comes under close attention from the authorities, and major publications declare a boycott of his harsh and “inconvenient” opuses. Despite the first wave of attacks and general misunderstanding, Limonov manages to achieve the publication of his first novel entitled “It’s me, Eddie.” In his debut work, the author does not try to restrain himself within the framework of censorship, to lock up the rebellious caustic word that breaks out. On the contrary, Limonov is not afraid to traumatize his reader. Shock therapy is used: here you have profanity, outright swearing, which peppers most of the novel, and naturalistic descriptions of explicit scenes, including sodomy, in which the writer continues the traditions of the beatniks. “Edichka” brought its author both international fame (the book was published more than once in English and French) and another biting argument for the enemies. The mention of this “incorruptible” work soon turned into a commonly used cliché, conveniently fitting into a single canvas of incriminating information. Limonov himself calls for viewing the novel from a socio-political point of view, and it is not forbidden to separate the image of Eddie - the lyrical hero and reasoner - from the personality of the author.

If Limonov’s worldview intersected with certain views in the early stages of its development, it was only with the ideology of communism. In 1980, he lived for some time in Paris, where he became close to the leaders of the PCF and published in the magazine "Revolution", the main printed organ of the Parisian communists. In France, Limonov manages to settle down and even obtain citizenship. But, sacrificing peace and his own safety, he returns to the already “bursting at the seams” USSR to cheer up the public, lead the army of newly minted revolutionaries and add his own mite to the unfolding coup d’etat.

In their endeavors, Eduard Limonov and Alexander Dugin couldn't help but cross paths. Along with fiery patriotism, they were also united by a hostile attitude towards Western trends, which were only approaching our country at that time. They were also outraged by the gratuitous loss of culture, spirituality and original Russian traditions, as well as the gradual and inevitable rapid transformation of Russian society into a pro-European one. If six months later the first will participate in the defense of the White House, then the second will plunge headlong into exposing the “world empire of evil,” a malicious American entity.

Alexander Dugin, whose facial expressions reveal traces of the hardships and hardships he has experienced, joins the party, as they say, as a seasoned soldier who has already seen a lot in a quarter of a century. He is interested in the history of the Third Reich, the occult and Crowleyanism, in the early 90s he worked with declassified KGB documents and is tirelessly engaged in journalism: in particular, he hosts the program “Secrets of the Century”, which was shown by Channel One. In the near future, he will have a brilliant career as a teacher at Moscow State University, the preparation of scientific works on the topic of Russian conspiracy theories and active political activity. Being a sociologist and philosopher, Dugin develops new political concepts and becomes something of an ideological wing of the party. By the way, he is the one behind the authorship of the NBP abbreviation. If we put aside the status of a scientist for a moment, then instead of a serious image of a philosopher and teacher, we will find ourselves with the same conceptualist and joker, like the rest of the trinity. Suffice it to recall the case told by Yegor Letov: “We once lived with Kuryokhin - Dugin, me and Nyurych. One day we wake up, I go to open the window, and Dugin, thoughtful, asks: “But where is Omsk?” They answer him: “In the south of Siberia, where else,” to which he unexpectedly declares: “What if the Kazakhs poisoned the wind? Come on, close the window immediately: the wind is poisonous! I know they have reed people, and in the middle of Balkhash there is a huge island where a giant, gigantic cat lives, which they all worship.".

(from left to right: Dugin, Limonov and Letov)

On May 1, 1993, the first mention of the National Bolshevik Party appears. If Limonov acts as a speaker, a public figure, then Dugin acquires the status of an ideologist of the newly-minted organization. The task pursued by Alexander Gelievich is to come to a rational solution, a compromise, discarding the obsolete division into left and right, combining their ideas together. The list of planned reforms also includes the return of breakaway countries and the reunification of the Soviet Union into a single tandem: the presence of a hammer and sickle on the official party flag is not accidental. At the same time, the official party press was opened - the newspaper "Limonka", designed to bring the political and intellectual manifestos of National Bolshevism to the masses. Together with Limonov and Dugin, he gets his first party card Egor Letov, and then Sergey Kuryokhin, during his lifetime he never received an official document confirming his membership.

Despite the fact that Letov and Kuryokhin were fundamentally different musicians, one thing brings them together: both are no longer with us. In less than two years, Sergei will die from a rare and incurable disease - heart sarcoma. Although Egor will live to see the “zeros”, the night of February 19, 2008 will be his last. Each of them was an artist of his own independent judgments. If the first was inclined to the standard four-verse song format, then the second was attracted by innovation, he liked to violate existing canons. Letov belonged to the opposition, he was a rebel and a rebel. All of his music-making within the Civil Defense group can be regarded as one long soundtrack for the next march of “dissenters”. Kurekhinskaya's performance Popular Mechanics"is a whole show that combines cinema, elements of choreography, and direct contact with the public, simultaneously affecting all existing senses.

By the mid-nineties, Kuryokhin met Alexander Dugin, and at the same time began to become interested in politics and retrained as a television and radio host. He would create the legendary Soviet meme, once declaring that “ Lenin – mushroom and radio wave", interview the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Zyuganov and one of the first to talk about the existence of the “foreign” underground, the “English musical underground,” sharing with listeners his own recordings of such “wild beasts” as “ Psychic TV», « Coil" And " Current 93" Until his fatal death, the insidious hoaxer will lead the people around him by the nose. He played with them, made fun of them and pranked them. Even Kuryokhin’s death will be covered with a slight veil of mystery: as if he had completed the tasks ordained from above, completed his earthly mission and left this mortal world.

In 1995, the last and largest appearance on the stage of “Pop Mechanics” was organized. Under the influence of Dugin, the event takes the form of a tribute, becoming an evening in memory of the writer and mystic Aleister Crowley. The actors perform naked. Two are chained to rotating crosses. A subtle mockery of both Crowley himself and religion in general. Kuryokhin himself looks like an alien because of his unusual silver attire. As “intermissions” there are speeches by Dugin, reading excerpts from the works of the occultist. Alas, the show was not properly immortalized on film: all that was left was amateur filming of what was happening. “We quickly got along, everything was terribly interesting to him. I liked him extremely much, and we were friends until his death. Since I was then in the NB format, Kuryokhin was also in this format. True, he had no interest in either the party or National Bolshevism, but he was interested in me. It was a sincere interest in how people get interested in chess, Buddhism or figure skating. This is what happened to Kuryokhin. This probably did not affect his work, except for the last “Pop Mechanics 418”, which we planned together. There Kuryokhin's lightness turned into metaphysical horror. But he liked it", - Dugin laments about the amazing creative union, casually mentioning a joint performance.

Less than a year later, Kuryokhin was forced to be hospitalized. Limonov will try to play on the resulting hype: carefully sneaking up and waiting for the time, in the manner due to him, he will offer Sergei membership, crowningly handing over his party card. Needless to say, Dugin, who in those days often visited his friend who was fading before his eyes, having learned of Limonov’s vile intentions, would resolutely refuse to carry out the order: “As for the notorious membership card No. 418, which was allegedly given to Kuryokhin shortly before his death, I still have it. I did not pass it on; Kuryokhin was never a member of the NPB. I didn’t hand over the ticket because Sergei was in the hospital and Limonov, with his characteristic selfish rudeness, wanted to do PR for his party.”.

Shortly after the death of Sergei Kuryokhin, Dugin decided to leave the party. His departure will seriously shake the party's established policies. A split was inevitable: Alexander Gelievich dreamed of creating an intellectual and reasonable movement, a club of avant-garde artists. With Limonov’s support, the rationally thinking organization turned into a party of “scarred juvenile neurasthenics: “As soon as Limonov was left alone on the farm and left, for example, for St. Petersburg, the NBP instantly turned into half-bohemian, half-hooligan bedlam. Limonov brought clowns in the makeup of Hitler from Arbat to the basement on Frunzenskaya, got grenade tattoos on his aging yellow skin, posed without pants for glossy magazines and taught this obscenity to young men and girls as a kind of purely Limonov wisdom. I arrived and saw complete collapse. Gradually restoring the intellectual atmosphere. And the spirit of scientific paradoxism.” Soon, in one of his interviews, looking at the outrages and chaos going on, Dugin will remember: “I have always been against the word “party” in the name of the NBP. Limonov wanted to show off personally, to create a party of “Limonovites.” My participation in the first stages gave “NB” success. I think that historians will judge to what extent and what in the NBP is from “NB” and what is from “P”.”. For his part, Alexander Gelievich is making an attempt to form his own autonomous movement. Thus, the International Eurasian Union is born, during the creation of which the philosopher tried to avoid the mistakes once made by Limonov: “The guys are going to do a great job. They are inspired by my ideas, but they do not coordinate their steps with me. Sometimes I am horrified by the results, sometimes I am happy. But at the same time, I didn’t leave them completely. Because I am responsible for them. Now ESM is becoming a mass youth movement. And this creates new risks. It is important to avoid vulgarity, simplification of the subtle theory of Eurasianism, and the danger of slipping into some primitive clichés. Eurasianism is “empire plus friendship of peoples.” And here both terms are extremely important. Maintaining this balance, I understand, is difficult. But it is necessary. Having given the Young Eurasians complete autonomy, I still bear a large share of responsibility for them. But the most important thing is that Eurasianism is gradually becoming an organic social subject, a collective being. And at some point the idea that is embodied in me will transfer to this creature. And then he will live his own life.”.

Letov's political activity weakened even earlier. During the 1996 election campaign, he would finally fade into the background, ceasing to play a key role in the life of the NBP. Of course, he will still have time to appear in the next party photograph taken two years later, but this will no longer have any significance. Moreover, according to Dugin, Letov, who managed to quarrel even with the infinitely friendly, delicate and avoiding sharp corners Kuryokhin, had an ambiguous and hot-tempered temperament.

The helm rightfully passes into the hands of Limonov. From this time on, the positions of the National Bolsheviks began to converge with the liberals, to whom the National Bolsheviks were initially hostile. There is an energetic influx of fresh forces: more and more young people are counting themselves among the thousands of people in the army of the National Bolshevik Party. Together with the young maximalists, militant sentiments are formed within the party. I can’t help but remember Kuryokhin’s prophetic phrase, which was soon retold by Dugin and became a bleak forecast: “he said that if Limonov insisted on his own, then in a few years he would become the head of a bright extremist party, meaningless, unpromising, but noisy. That's how it happened.".

Let's start small: on March 10, 1999, in the Central House of Cinematographers, they throw rotten eggs at the director Nikita Mikhalkova. The hooligans will be detained and even sentenced to two and a half years in prison, but the impudent antics of the “angry teenagers” will not stop there. By the beginning of the 2000s, activists took the first “direct actions”: on August 2, 2004, the National Bolsheviks seized the office of the Minister of Health and Social Development Zurabov, and a few months later, the reception office of the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation. In the media, the bold move will be compared to the Decembrist uprising of 1825. Thirty-nine participants will be charged with illegally retaining power. Limonov was detained back in 2001 and, on charges of illegal possession of firearms, was put behind bars for two years. After his release from prison, he will position himself as a “status person” who has survived hardships and experienced the existence of prison life.

The rulers will continue to watch these “innocent” tricks of self-affirming youth for a long time, until they ban the NBP in the “seventh” year as a dangerous extremist movement. In fact, it still exists, but as a coalition of the newly formed “Other Russia”, distinguished by a softer, “centrist” political program. He also intends to run for president and decisively puts forward his candidacy in the elections of the “twelfth” year. If the current president wins again, he will not be afraid to challenge the decision of the election commission in court. Limonov is not afraid of deliberate contract murder or merciless reprisals against him. You can understand it: youth, and with it the best time of life, is already behind us. Time to die for freedom, to suffer death on the battlefield as a true rebel, remaining true to his ideals right up to the tombstone. However, if not he, then someone else will continue to shake the monolithic and indestructible arches of the totalitarian system, disguised as the outer shell of a prosperous and well-ordered pro-European democracy.

December 31, 2010. The eve of the “world” New Year. Despite the upcoming celebration, a traditional procession of radical youth is planned on Triumphal Square. Leninsky Prospekt. 15:40 Moscow time. Eduard Limonov, who was about to leave, notices an unusual commotion: an energetic congress of various special forces is taking place in the courtyard of his house. The exit routes are completely cut off. The clock counts down every moment spent in inactivity. Missing an upcoming event is unacceptable. There is only one thing left: leave the shelter and come what may. After five steps, the “gendarmes” approach, become interested, and ask “where we are going.” A predictable development of events, this was to be expected. When trying to find out the reason for the detention, the captain, according to Limonov, replies: “They want to have a preventive conversation with you about preventing participation in unauthorized rallies”. It is not possible to hold a “conversation” after the rally. First, he will be taken to the Lomonosov police station, where they will issue a prepared verdict: “for hooliganism and public swearing”. He will celebrate the New Year behind bars. During his stay in prison, while in a special detention center, the oppositionist will meet Boris Nemtsov, "totally out of place in this prison decor with its tropical tan", who was also caught for holding “unauthorized rallies.”

There were four of them. Each of them was a deeply gifted person, an artist in his field. Limonov was not satisfied with the position of the “kitchen thinker” and he went on the offensive: he began to call on young people for open confrontation, and he himself led this newfound army, turning into a restless teenager who played war games. The aggressiveness of the pragmatic warrior was alien to these romantics, and two of them evaded forced violence, scattering along their life paths: Letov would not live to see spring, and Dugin would rise up the career ladder. Genius-Kurekhin will be taken away by God himself, so that he does not inadvertently turn into a pathetic caricature of himself - it is better to go out at once than to quietly decay. It is up to us, the fresh generation of a thinking society standing on the threshold of a new century, to answer the question of whether these “four” were able to realize their plans and influence Russian life.

Xenophobia in the subculture of this formation is of very great importance. The subculture is characterized by a pronounced predominance of the aesthetic component.

There is information about the “M.O.N.O.L.I.T. summit” that took place in St. Petersburg.

The activities of the M.O.N.O.L.I.T group bear clear signs of extremism. There were public calls: “Kill the WWII veteran!” and “Kill the old man - he is your biological enemy!”

OTHER EXTREMIST ORGANIZATIONS

National Bolshevik Party

Introduction

On June 29, 2005, the Moscow Regional Court liquidated the Interregional public organization "National Bolshevik Party".

On August 7, 2007, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation recognized as legal the decision of the Moscow City Court of April 19, 2007 recognizing the Interregional public organization “National Bolshevik Party” (NBP) as extremist and banning its activities.

Currently, the NBP is recognized by the courts as an extremist organization and its activities are prohibited.

National Bolshevik Party of Russia

The interregional public organization "National Bolshevik Party" (NBP) was registered by the Department of Justice of the Moscow Region Administration on January 23, 1997 (on September 8, 1993, the charter of the NBP was registered by the same Department of Justice; on June 4, 1998, the latest changes and additions to the charter of the organization were registered) and, according to accounting materials, unites 47 regional branches.

After an unsuccessful attempt by NBP functionaries to re-register as an all-Russian socio-political association in November 1998, a number of articles of an extremist nature were published in the Limonka newspaper. Thus, in the article “On November 14, the 2nd Extraordinary All-Russian Party Congress will take place in St. Petersburg” (“Limonka”, # 104, p. 1). Limonov addresses the then Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation P.V. Krasheninnikov: “... Mr. Minister, you have a huge political responsibility, if you do not open the door to elections for us, we will have to take a different path: the path of Lenin, Mussolini, red brigades and Rafovites. And I cannot and will not want to hold my people..."

Members of the party are called "National Bolsheviks" - short for "National Bolsheviks".

The printed organ is the newspaper “Limonka”. A number of regional publications are published, including the Smerch newspaper in St. Petersburg.

The party greeting is “Yes, death!”

The party salute is a raised right hand with a clenched fist (as opposed to the far right, which raises its hand with an open palm).

The party banner is a black hammer and sickle in a white circle on a red cloth.

The party anthem was written by composer Nikolai Kropalov. There is also the “NBP marching march”, written by Dmitry Shostakovich, the grandson of the famous Soviet composer.

In June 1994, E. Limonov, together with the leader of the rock group “Civil Defense” Yegor Letov, initiated a joint statement on the unification of radical right and left extremists. Besides Letov, Limonov and Dugin, only nationalist Alexander Barkashov signed the statement. Radical communists and anarchists refused to sign the statement. They managed to attract major figures of the youth counterculture to work in the party: avant-garde composer Sergei Kuryokhin and punk singer, communist Yegor (Igor) Letov. Because of their participation in the project, the main base of the NBP was subsequently made up of artistic bohemians and punks - fans of the Civil Defense group.

The NBP declared its goal to carry out a “Russian revolution”, combining national (establishment of Russian power) and social (achievement of property and economic

justice) revolution. E. Limonov sees the social base of the NBP in “socially dissatisfied youth (rockers, anarchists, fascists, businessmen, etc.).”

St. Petersburg branch of the NBP. Criminal-skinhead period

The St. Petersburg branch of the NBP appeared in 1994. There were about 15 people. Members of the NBP in St. Petersburg took part in communist rallies and sold the party newspaper “Limonka” near Gostiny Dvor. A year after the creation of St. Petersburg, the NBP collapsed.

In 1996, the National Bolshevik Party in St. Petersburg, according to the new head of the regional branch of the NBP A. Grebnev, “unfortunately, was not a party.” It included 15-25 students who did not hold pickets or actions, but simply “drank in the party bunker.” Having become the chairman of the NBP in St. Petersburg, he carried out more than 60 actions within 2 months. The result of his actions, in his opinion, was that “finally there was a party.”

Members of the NBP regularly participated in communist demonstrations, marching in separate columns under their own banners.

One of the main activities of the party was painting walls with NBP slogans and posting leaflets. The most common inscriptions: “Limonov”, “NBP”, “Kill Khach!”, “Eat the rich!” Slogans were invented at meetings. Grebnev provided paint for inscriptions and glue for posting leaflets at each party meeting.

The NBP took part in the creation of Youth Unity, which claimed to be the youth division of the Unity party (Bears). The direct organizer of the “Youth Unity” - a mimic was Vitaly Zhukov, the head of the NGO “New City”. At that time, the leader of the St. Petersburg NBP, Andrei Grebnev, became a member of the Organizational Council of the NGO “New City”, the coordinator for social and youth policy, and the current head of the St. Petersburg NBP, Andrei Dmitriev, became the coordinator for science, geopolitics and philosophy.

The Youth Unity organization (mimicrant) received a legal entity, but Unity refused to recognize them as its division. There was a series of press appearances about this. “Youth Unity” (mimicrant) had municipal deputies supporting it in the Frunzensky and Admiralteysky districts.

The leader of the St. Petersburg-Lo regional branch of the NBP, Andrei Grebnev, at that time was known as the leader of one of the prominent skinhead formations in St. Petersburg, without any religious orientation. He was a very odious person. In an interview with Andrei Grebnev for the Strela newspaper in 1998, he explained that he considered himself a terrorist. Andrei said that he believes he is Pol Pot in a past life, and if the NBP comes to power, the first thing they will do is blow up the Hermitage.

A. Grebnev was directly involved in digging up weapons from the sites of former battles, as part of the groups of “Black Pathfinders” (or, as they called them, “traffers”). He was involved in a number of criminal cases.

On October 27, 1999, a Korean Kim was beaten by a group of skinheads in St. Petersburg. Among those arrested in hot pursuit was the head of the regional branch of the NBP, Andrei Grebnev. On October 10, 2000, the trial took place. Grebnev, skinheads Rumyantsev and Razin were found guilty. Grebnev received a suspended sentence.

External attributes

During the “Grebnev” period, the “National Bolsheviks” tried to dress in black clothes: leather jackets (if funds allowed), rough boots (“hikings”). Military style clothing is also very common. Things were purchased mainly in second-hand stores. Many shaved their heads bald (a la skinhead). This was not necessary, but a short haircut was considered preferable to long hair.

Clothes are usually dirty and threadbare (like punks). During rallies and other holidays, red, white and blue armbands with a hammer and sickle in the middle are worn on the sleeves. They also wear badges - a red, white and blue circle with a hammer and sickle in the middle. The faces of the National Bolsheviks, including girls, are often decorated with bruises and scratches - the consequences of drunken fights. It is also recommended to get a tattoo on the left forearm - an image of a grenade - “lemon”.

Radical opposition period

Until the spring of 2001, the leader of the St. Petersburg branch of the party was Andrei Grebnev, but in March 2001 he was removed and went to the “Freedom Party” of Yu. Belyaev.

Here is what E. Limonov writes about this shift in his book “The Book of Water”:

“The head of the NBP organization Andrei Grebnev, a poet, a crazy guy (I still appreciate you, Andryukha, even though we removed you from the post of head of the NBP in St. Petersburg, you are too crazy for this).”

The management of the NBP branch passed into the hands of the coordinating council and temporary director

- Sergei Trofimenko. In August 2001, Sergei Grebnev (brother of A. Grebnev) became the head (Gauleiter) of the St. Petersburg NBP.

Subsequently, Andrei Dmitriev became the head of the LO-S-Pb branch of the party.

IN 2003 at the congress The St. Petersburg branch of the NBP received an NBP membership certificate to the deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Leningrad Region for the 21st district, V.N. Leonov.

Following the change in the leadership of the party, the directions and forms of its activities changed dramatically. The actions of the St. Petersburg branch of the NBP began to have an oppositional character.

Judging by the nature of radical actions in Russia, a change in the nature of the NBP’s activities from criminal-radical to moderate-radical occurred not only in St. Petersburg, but throughout the country.

However, soon the NBP actions began to take place according to the classic scheme of Greenpeace direct action actions in compliance with all ethical standards of such events. Moreover, the norms of Western Greenpeace, since in Russia Greenpeace does not practice throwing eggs, mayonnaise or ketchup at high-ranking opponents.

IN At present, the leaders of the NBP have chosen harsh calls for violence (expressed, however, in the form of insinuation, and not subject to anti-extremist legislation) and theatrical public insults of major officials in forms that do not pose a danger to their life and health as the main strategy of their activities.

Vladimir Nikolaevich Leonov, deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Leningrad Region for the 21st district, had a very noticeable influence on the rejection of illegal forms of activity of the St. Petersburg NBP.

Since 2003, the St. Petersburg National Bolsheviks have chosen the so-called “mayonnaise terrorism” as one of the main forms of their activity - throwing ketchup, mayonnaise, etc. at their political opponents during mass events. objects that are not dangerous to humans, or being hit in the face with bouquets of flowers. At the same time, there is a cessation of the orientation of the St. Petersburg branch of the NBP towards near-skinhead right-wing radical groups.

IN At the same time, starting in 2006, the NBP began active cooperation with neo-fascist organizations. The NBP publicly supports the actions of the DPNI and indiscriminately criticizes anti-fascists.

After the legal ban on the activities of the NBP as an extremist organization, the National Bolsheviks did not stop their opposition activities.

LET'S SUMMARY WHAT WE'VE BEEN SAID

Until the spring of 2001, activities The St. Petersburg branch of the NBP can be called

criminal-skinhead period. And subsequently - radical opposition political.

By resolution of the Moscow City Court of April 19, 2007, the Interregional Public Organization The National Bolshevik Party (NBP) was declared extremist and its activities were banned.

1. Who is the creator National Bolshevik Party?

2. What did the NBP do at different periods of its activity?

DEVILO WORSHIPERS

The subculture of devil worshipers has an extremist nature due to the vandalism practiced by its adherents. This is how they differ from Satanists.

Slang names for devil worshipers among Satanists are “SOTONists” and “catcatchers.” The distinctive features of the subculture of devil worshipers are:

The presence of “dark” - near-Satanist ideology and Satanist symbols (inverted crosses, skulls, etc.).

Vandalism (destruction, damage, or the application of extraneous inscriptions and drawings to graves and crypts in cemeteries), or ritual cruelty to animals.

IN In 2003, studies were carried out of inscriptions and drawings left by teenage groups in old cemeteries St. Petersburg, as well as correspondence between informal movements on the Internet. This made it possible to clarify the state and structure of the movements of devil worshipers in St. Petersburg.

External attributes are no different from Satanists.

The following formations of devil worshipers in various informal movements were identified:

Classic devil worshipers

The movement was not formed. There are small groups that are not connected to each other. There are no single leaders. There are also no uniform locations. Sometimes they organize noisy protests in cemeteries where animals are abused.

Groups are formed, as a rule, from early teens living near old or abandoned cemeteries. Teenagers draw activity and other subcultural elements from horror films.

IN process of planned inspections of cemeteries St. Petersburg and its environs, traces of the activities of this type of devil worshipers were identified in the Smolensk and Kazan (Pushkin) cemeteries.

Satan roleplayers

IN the period before 2000, the “energy” branch of the role movement was a non-aggressive small wing. However, subsequently, in this environment there was a strong shift in moral norms towards Satanism. At the same time, formations arose“Satan role-players” and devil worshipers based on role groups. By 2004, this trend had already ousted traditional devil worshipers from the city scene. Many new ideological acts of desecration of graves and crypts in cemeteries were committed by this particular category of persons. The main features are the presence of fantasy elements in pentagrams and other near-Satanistic drawings: dragons, names of “dark forces” from Tolkien’s novel “The Lord of the Rings,” etc. The most typical example is the desecration of a crypt at the Novodevichy cemetery with a dragon in a pentagram and the inscriptions “Melkor is with us” and “Ave Satan!”

IN In the first half of 2004, attempts were revealed to massively involve children and adolescents in groups of devil worshipers (anti-Christians) under the guise of holding the game “Sabbath” - a reconstruction of the satanic ritual of Walpurgis Night (on the night of May 30 to May 1).

This wing is currently classified as extremist due to the desecration of graves and crypts in cemeteries, which falls under the criteria of vandalism.

"Hyper-fascists", "hyper-Satanists"

They represent a hybrid of devil worshipers and neo-Nazis. Until 2002, they printed their voluminous magazine “Sotsirkh susii” (an inverted spelling of “Jesus Christ”) in the printing house. Until 2002, direct calls for the burning of churches were published.

LET'S SUMMARY WHAT WE'VE BEEN SAID

Devil worshipers differ from Satanists by the presence of illegal activities, mainly vandalism in cemeteries.

There are three branches of devil worshipers: classic devil worshipers, Satan roleplayers and “hypersatanics”.

TEST AND SELF-TEST QUESTIONS

1. How are devil worshipers different from Satanists?

2. What is associated with the appearance of devil worshipers?

This video is from May 27, 1994. The group "Civil Defense" performs the song "And the Battle Continues Again" at the national communist rock event "Russian Breakthrough" at the Krylya Sovetov Sports Complex in Moscow. The time was different then, and something from the festival was shown on Channel 1 as part of “Program “A””. In the video, the camera repeatedly focuses on the flags of the National Bolshevik Party hanging in the hall - a red banner with a white circle and a black hammer and sickle in a circle. By the way, at the same festival introduction said co-founder (together with Dugin) of the NBP Eduard Limonov.

Here's what Wikipedia writes about the NBP flag:

In particular, according to critics, the style of NBP symbols is similar to the style of symbols of the Third Reich: the NBP flag is similar to the banner of the Third Reich, with the exception of the symbol of the Soviet Bolsheviks - the hammer and sickle, located in the place where the swastika was located on the flag of the Third Reich. In this regard, the hammer and sickle on the National Bolsheviks flag is often called a “stylized swastika.”

The combination of red, white and black colors gives good contrast in visual perception.

Of course, the flag that evokes direct associations with the flag of the Third Reich was not chosen by Limonov and Dugin by chance. Such symbolism is a good way to attract attention and political trolling, although such words were not yet known in 1994. However, the NBP flag has an official explanation without any reference to the Third Reich.

A similar element of trolling is used by Orthodox monarchist Konstantin Kinchev at “Alice” concerts, hanging red banners with a white circle and a black letter “A” inscribed on the stage. Naturally, he is also asked relevant questions, but he answers that “everyone reacts to the extent of their depravity” and Kinchev has a “sharply negative attitude” towards Nazism.

Whether we are spoiled or not, be that as it may, indeed, now any flag in the format “red cloth, white circle, something black in a circle” evokes direct associations with Nazi symbols and raises corresponding questions.

In 1945, in the Soviet Union, a state that defeated fascism, they either cared less about who might have what associations, or, indeed, people were less corrupted.

On August 12, 1945, a parade of athletes was held in Moscow. And among other symbols they carried flags of the above-described format:

Perhaps, indeed, at that time it did not evoke any associations with the Third Reich, although many residents of the USSR could see Nazi flags in real life, and not in the movies.

Here's the parade itself:

Look, the spectacle is colorful. And the corresponding fragment with the flag is at 8:50.