Extremism and xenophobia in electoral campaigns in 1999 and 2000
Vladimir Pribylovsky
NATIONAL PATRIOTS WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE ELECTION FOR THE THIRD STATE DUMA
1. Scope and Essence of the Term “National-Patriots”
The term “national-patriots” used surface from time to time in the periodicals of the so called “white emigration” during the period of 1920-ies – 1950-ies. For example, Semyon Frank defined Pushkin’s convictions as “national-patriotic”, clarifying meanwhile that for him “national-patriotic” signified “state-patriotic”.
It seems most feasible that in the language of the Soviet-Russian Period the term “national-patriots” or “national patriots” appeared independently of the aforementioned emigrants’ usage. That term appeared in the middle or late eighties as a euphemism for such word as “nationalistic” or “nationalists” (whose Soviet usage has an exclusively negative connotation). Furthermore, that term was initially applied to Russian ethnic nationalists more frequently than to Russian state nationalists.
That approach in general corresponded to the traditional Russian-language meaning of the words “nation”, “national” and “nationalist”, that always implied belonging to a certain ethnos, just like in German (where “nation” means a large ethnos or a stage in the development of an ethnos) but different from English or French (where “Nation” means a state, as opposed to an ethnic group within a state, and “nationality/nationalite” means citizenship as opposed to ethnic origins).
Initially, the term “national-patriots” used to be reserved primarily for the ethnic nationalists from the milieu of the organization “Pamyat” (‘Memory’) and Nash Sovremennik (Our Contemporary) Magazine. Then, in the 1990-ies, the meaning of the word “national-patriots” expanded. Such terms as “national-patriotic” and “national-patriots” began to be used in a broader sense, both in reference to Russian ethnic nationalists, Russian state nationalists, and sometimes, even though less frequently, in reference to the state nationalists of other post-Soviet countries.
Hence, in this report, we are using the given term in the expanded meaning described above. (It is quite unfortunate, nevertheless, that as a result of the journalists’ overuse or, so to speak, abuse of that term, its original rather narrow internal purport got smeared and, in the end, the so convenient and compact designation for the ethnic nationalists lost its univocalness.
In addition to being divided into two categories – i.e. ethnic nationalists and state or empire nationalists (taking into consideration the existence of mixed and ideologically ambigenous nationalist organizations), Russian nationalists are also being divided on another scale – e.g. on the scale of their perception of state property and private property, and their perception of communism and market. In other words, nominally speaking, – they are divided into “the leftists” and “the rightists”, ranging from national-Bolsheviks to Nazis and monarchists-fascists (including the moderate national-etatists (state nationalists) in the center and .a number of mixed organizations).
2. National-Patriot Organizations that Manifested their Intention to Participate in the Election or Made Attempts to Participate in the Election
All in all, the Ministry of Justice granted admittance to the Duma election of 1999 to 139 “All-Russian political public associations (parties, movements, organizations). The selection criterion for admittance was registration (re-registration) of charter documents processed during the year prior to the election and comprising compulsory indication of the “political” character of the association and its “All-Russian” (country-wide) diffusion.
According to the Ministry of Justice, associations are considered “All-Russian” (country-wide) in case they have branches in over 50% of the existing subjects of the Russian Federation (i.e. in 45 subjects of the RF at least).
Out of the 139 associations that have been granted admittance to the elections, the following 26 associations belong to the national-patriotic part of the specter:
1. Vozrozhdenie [Revival] of Valery Skurlatov (movement)
2. Vozrozhdenie Derzhavy
[Revival of the Power] of Victor Kobelev and Eduard Baltin (movement)
3. Dvizhenie v podderzhku armii
(Movement in Support of the Army) of Victor Ilyukhin and Albert Makashov
4. Derzhava
[The Power] of Konstantin Zatulin (movement)
5. Dukhovnoe nasledie
[Spiritual Heritadge] of Alexei Podberezkin (movement)
6. Za Veru, Tsarya i Otechestvo
[For Faith, Tsar and Motherland] (Father Nikon Belavenets)
7. Kongress russkikh obschin
[Congress of Russian Communities] of Dmitry Rogozin
8. Liberalno-demokraticheskaya partiya Rossii
[Liberal Democratic Party of Russia] of Vladimir Zhirinovsky
9. Narodny soyuz
[People’s Union] of Vladimir Lukyanov (party)
10. Partiya dukhovnogo vozrozhdeniya Rossii
[Party of Russia’s Spiritual Revival] of Lyubov Zhirinovskaya
11. Partiya svobodnikh predprinimatelei
[Party of Free Businessmen] of Alexander Kozyrev (Zhirinovsky’s party member)
12/13. Pravoslavnaya partiya Rossii [Russian Orthodox Party of Russia] of Herman Sterligov (and its actual double – the movement “Slovo i delo” [“Word and Action”]
14. Rossiisky obschenarodny soyuz [Russian Union of All People] of Sergei Baburin
15. Rossiisky soyuz svobodnoi molodezhi [Russian Union of Free Youth] of Gleb Pyataev
16. Rossiskoe obsh’enarodnoe dvizhenie [Movement of All Russian People] of Alexander Bazhenov
17. Rossiskoe patrioticheskoe narodnoe dvizhenie [Russian Patriotic People’s Movement] of Alexander Fedorov, former member of Barkashov’s party
18. Russkaya partiya [Russian Party] of Vladimir Miloserdov
19. Russkii obschenatsional’nii soyuz [Russian Nation-Wide Union] of Igor Artyomov
20. Slavyansky sobor Rossii [Slavic Council of Russia] of Stanislav Karpov (movement)
21. Soyuz [Union] of Georgy Tikhonov (movement)
22. Soyuz sootechestvennikov “Otchizna” [Union of Compatriots “Fatherland”] of General Boris Tarasov
23. Soyuz “Khristianskoe Vozrozhdenie” [Union “Christian Revival”] of Vladimir Osipov
24. Soyuznaya partiya vozrozhdeniya Rossii [Union Party of Revival of Russia] Victor Bogatov, former member of Zhirinovsky’s party
25. “Spas” [Redeemer] of Zhirinovsky’s party-members Vladimir Davidenko and Evgeny Loginov (movement)
26. Front natsional’nogo spaseniya [National Salvation Front] of Valery Smirnov
Furthermore, Stanislav Terekhov’s Soyuz ofitserov [Union of Army Officers] and Victor Anpilov’s Trudovaya Rossiya [Russia of Labor] can be characterized as partly national-patriotic (in the national-Bolshevik version). Still, it would be more correct to relegate these two organizations to the left (pro-Communist) part of the specter together with G. Zyuganov’s CPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation), in spite of the fact that G. Zyuganov himself is more of an ethnic nationalist, almost a monarchist, that a Communist. [From hereon, for the reader’s convenience, all the organizations above with the exception of “Spas” shall be referred to by their English names only (comment of the translator).]
2.1.
Six associations out of the twenty-six mentioned above are purely ethno-nationalist:
1. Alexander Fedorov’s Russian Patriotic People’s Movement
2. Vladimir Miloserdov’ Russian Party
3. Igor Artyomov’s Russian Nation-Wide Union
4. Stanislav Karpov’s Slavic Council of Russia (movement)
5. Vladimir Osipov’s Union “Christian Revival”
6. “Spas” [Redeemer] of Vladimir Davidenko
Thirteen associations are, on the other hand, closer to the state-nationalist/empire-nationalist orientation (even though, usually there can be found some more or less pronounced presence or tinge of nationalism both in their respective ideologies and in the compound of their respective groups of leaders). These thirteen associations are as follows:
1. Valery Skurlatov’s Revival (movement)
2. Victor Kobelev and Eduard Baltin’s Revival of the Power (movement)
5. Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s Liberal Democratic Party of Russia
6. Vladimir Lukyanov’s People’s Union (party)
7. Lyubov Zhirinovskaya’s Party of Russia’s Spiritual Revival
8. Party of Free Businessmen of Alexander Kozyrev (Zhirinovsky’s party member)
9. Sergei Baburin’s Russian Union of All People
10. Gleb Pyataev’s Russian Union of Free Youth
11. Georgy Tikhonov’s Union (movement)
12. General Boris Tarasov’s Union of Compatriots “Fatherland”
13. Victor Bogatov/Vladimir Vasiliadi’s Union Party of Revival of Russia
The following four associations are mixed, both from the point of view of ideology and from the point of view of membership (in the proportion close to fifty-fifty):
1. Victor Ilyukhin and Albert Makashov’s Movement in Support of the Army
3. Dmitry Rogozin’s Congress of Russian Communities
4. For Faith, Tsar and Motherland (Father Nikon Belavenets)
2.2.
The following six associations belong to the “left” (pro-Communist) category:
1. Victor Ilyukhin – Albert Makashov’s Movement in Support of the Army;
2. Alexander Bazhenov’s Movement of All Russian People;
3. Vladimir Miloserdov’ Russian Party
4. Gorgy Tikhonov’s Union (movement)
5. General Boris Tarasov’s Union of Compatriots “Fatherland”
6. Valery Smirnov’s National Salvation Front
The following seven associations belong to the “right” category (i.e. to religious fundamentalists, conservative monarchists and fascists):
1/2.Herman Sterligov‘s Russian Orthodox Party of Russia/Word and Action (fundamentalists, right conservatives)
3. For Faith, Tsar and Motherland of Father Nikon Belavenets (monarchists, monarcho-fascists)
4. Alexander Fedorov’s Russian Patriotic People’s Movement (Nazis)
5. Igor Artyomov’s Russian Nation-Wide Union
6. Vladimir Osipov’s Union “Christian Revival”
7. “Spas” (movement) of Vladimir Davidenko (radical right conservatives and radical fundamentalists)
The following thirteen associations belong to the “center” category – i.e. in between the “left” and the “right”:
1. Valery Skurlatov’s movement Revival
2. Victor Kobelev – Eduard Baltin’s movement Revival of the Power
3. Konstantin Zatulin’s movement The Power
4. Alexander Podberezkin’s movement Spiritual Heritage
5. Dmitry Rogozin’s Congress of Russian Communities
6. Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s Liberal Democratic Party of Russia
7. Vladimir Lukyanov’s party People’s Union
8. Lyubov Zhirinovskaya’s Party of Russia’s Spiritual Revival
9. Alexander Kozyrev’s Party of Free Businessmen
10. Sergei Baburin’s Russian Union of All People (which, on the other hand, can be also relegated to the “left” or to the “leftist center”)
11. Gleb Pyataev’s Russian Union of Free Youth
12. Stanislav Karpov’s movement Slavic Council of Russia
13. Victor Bogatov – Vladimir Vasiliadi’s Union Party of Revival of Russia
2.3.
In addition to the properly registered associations that have been allowed to participate in the election under their own names, there is also a great number of associations that do not have the “All-Russian” status and were registered as regional or inter-regional.
Furthermore, there are also some All-Russian associations that had been registered as “public” associations (not “political”) at some point and did not manage to re-register their documents with the inclusion of the word “political” by the corresponding dead-line (as opposed to the “All-Russian Public Movement CPRF that succeeded in re-registering as “political”). There are also some associations that are either not registered at all or lost their registration.
All of those associations were not included in the list of 139 associations eligible to participate in the election. Still, they voiced their intent to participate in the election within informal unions (in other words, in the frame of other associations’ lists, which is not restricted by Law) and in the frame of the majoritarian single-mandated electoral districts in the capacity of independent candidates nominated by groups of electors (which is also permitted by Law).
Out of the national-patriotic associations lacking the necessary status or registration, the following have made attempts at participating in the election:
Kuban’ Regional Movement “Otechestvo”
[“Motherland”] of Nikolai Kondratenko (national-Bolsheviks)
Union of Cossacks
(Russian abbreviation: SK) of Ataman Alexander Martynov
Russian National Unity
(Russian abbreviation: RNE) of Alexander Barkashov (Nazis)
National-Bolshevik Party
(Russian abbreviation: NBP) of Eduard Limonov
People’s National Party
(Russian abbreviation: NNP) of Alexander Ivanov Sukharevsky (monarcho-fascists)
Russian Patriotic Party
(Russian abbreviation: RPP) of Boris Mironov
Slavic Union of Russia
(Russian abbreviation: SSR) of Alexander Duvanov
The Black Hundred
of Alexander Shtilmark (monarcho-fascists)
Russian Home
of Nikolai Leonov – Alexander Krutov
National Front
(Russian abbreviation: NF) of Ilya Lazarenko (Nazis, skin-heads)
League of Defense of Russia’s National Assets
(Russian abbreviation: LZDDR) of Alexander Savostyanov (Slavic-Arian racists)
Russian Aim
(group of skin-heads) of Semyon Tokmakov
Empire Party of Russia
of Alexei Lampsi
Islamic Committee of Geidar Jemal
(Islam fundamentalists, Islam fascists)
And a number of other groups
3. Associations and Blocks whose Lists are attested by the Central Election Committee
Out of the twenty-six associations that had been given access to the election, the following nine associations submitted their lists to the Central Election Committee (Russian abbreviation: TsIK) and had them attested by the Committee:
1. Movement in Support of the Army
2. Spiritual Heritage
3. For Faith, Tsar and Motherland
4. Liberal Democratic Party of Russia of Vladimir Zhirinovsky
5. Russian Union of All People
6. Russian Patriotic People’s Movement
7. Russian Party
8. “Spas”
9. National Salvation Front
The Central Election Committee rejected the lists of Herman Sterligov’s association Russian Home (former “Word and Action” – not to confuse with the Russian Home (sic!) of Nikolai Leonov – Alexander Krutov) due to the fact that the organization had re-registered its documents under the new name less than a year before the election’s date.
The following seven associations eligible for participation in the election are among official founders of election blocks with attested electoral lists:
1. Party of Russia’s Spiritual Revival (Russian abbreviation: PDVR) – “Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s Block”
3. Movement of All Russian People (Russian abbreviation: ROD) – Block “Movement of Patriotic Forces – Russian Deed”
4. Union of Compatriots “Fatherland” – Block “Russian Deed”
5. Union “Christian Revival” (Russian abbreviation: SKhV) – “Russian Deed”
6. Congress of Russian Communities (Russian abbreviation: KRO) national-left-centrist block “Congress of Russian Communities and Yuri Boldyrev’s Movement”
7. Movement “Union” – radical Communist “Stalin’s Block for the Soviet Union”
Two of the eligible associations entered election blocks in the capacity of collective members (i.e. constituents) of other associations or entered election blocks informally (by means of their leaders entering the lists):
1. The Power (2 candidates) – centrist block “Motherland – The Entire Russia” (via Yuri Luzhkov’s “Motherland” where The Power is collective member. The Union Party of Revival of Russia also became the “Motherland” s collective member but was not given a place on the list of “Motherland – The Entire Russia”.) (As concerns the cognominal not registered organization – see bellow.)
2. Slavic Union of Russia (3 candidates) – left-centrist block “Peace, Labor, May”
At least fifteen associations that either have no proper status and/or registration or lost the right to participate in the election under their own names entered election associations or blocks on informal grounds by means of putting their candidates on eligible organizations’ lists. These associations are as follows:
1. Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (Russian abbreviation: LDPR) – list of “Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s Block”;
2. Russian National Unity (RNE) – list of “Spas” association;
3. Russian Patriotic Party (RPP) – list of “Spas” association;
4. League of Defense of Russia’s National Assets (LZDDR) – list of “Spas” association;
5. Russian Aim – list of “Spas” association;
6. People’s National Party (NPP) – list of association “For Faith and Motherland”;
7. National Front (NP) – -- list of association “For Faith and Motherland”;
8. The Black Hundred – list of block “Russian Deed”;
9. Empire Party of Russia – list of association “National Salvation Front”;
10. Islamic Committee of Geidar Jemal – list of the Movement in Support of the Army;
11. Vsevelikoye Voysko Donskoye ("Great Army of Don") of Nikolai Kozitsyn – list of the Movement in Support of the Army;
12. Kuban’ “Motherland” – list of election association “Russian Union of All People” (ROS) of Baburin and CPRF of Zyuganov;
13. Inter-Regional Movement “Russian Home” – list of Baburin’s association ROS (changed two partners prior to teaming up with Baburin – i.e. Bazhenov – Korzhakov’s “Russian Deed” and Sterligov’s “Word and Action”/”Russian Home”, each of whom unsuccessfully attempted to use the name “Russian Home”);
14. Union of Cossaks – centrist block “Motherland – The Entire Russia” (via “Motherland” where Ataman Martynov is on Board);
15. Movement “The Power” of Alexander Pronin – Andrei Metelsky. “The Power” (not registered and not accepted by the Ministry of Justice wing of “The Power” that split off from Zatulin’s “The Power”) – list of left-centrist “Block of General Andrei Nikolaev and Academician Svyatoslav Fedorov”.
4. National-Patriotic Associations and Blocks whose Lists are Registered by the Central Election Committee
Out of the twenty-eight election associations and blocks, whose federal lists have been registered by the Central Election Committee, seven blocks and associations (i.e. three election blocks and four election associations) belong to the national-patriotic part of the political specter:
1. Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s Block;
2. Block “Russian Deed” (RD) of Alexander Bazhenov;
3. Block “Congress of Russian Communities and Yuri Boldyrev’s Movement”;
4. Movement in Support of the Army (DPA) of Victor Ilyukhin – Albert Makashov;
5. Russian Union of All People (ROS) of Sergei Baburin;
6. Spiritual Heritage (DN) of Alexei Podberezkin;
7. “Spas” of Vladimir Davidenko – Alexander Barkashov.
The lists of the other five blocks and associations are intersticed only with a relatively insignificant number of candidates from national-patriotic organizations:
1. Stalin’s Block “Russia of Labor, Army Officers for the USSR” (“Union”; also, the orientation of some of the members of the “Union of Army Officers” and “Russia of Labor” can be considered more national-patriotic than Communist);
2. Election Block “Peace, Labor, May” (Slavic Council of Russia, Slavic Union of Russia);
3. Election Block “Motherland – The Entire Russia” (“The Power”, Union of Cossacks)
4. “Block of General Andrei Nikolaev and Academician Svyatoslav Fedorov” (“The Power-2” of A. Metelsky);
5. Communist Party of the Russian Federation (Kuban’ “Motherland” of Kondratenko; furthermore, some of the members of the CPRF, including G. Zyuganov, leader of the association, are closer to national-patriotic than to Communists).
Out of the twelve national-patriotic associations and blocks (nine associations and three blocks) whose lists had been attested by the Central Election Committee), five associations did not manage to register their lists due to different reasons. These five associations are as follows:
1. Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR)
2. National Salvation Front (FNS)
3. For Faith and Motherland (ZviO)
4. Russian Patriotic People’s Movement (RPND)
5. Russian Party (RP)
The Central Election Committee refused to register the lists of LDPR and FNS due to a number of formal violations: primarily, submission of incorrect data on the property and assets by the candidates of LDPR and submission of a rather dubitable number of signatures by the candidates of FNS.
ZviO, RPND, and RP, on the other hand, had violated the deadline for submission of their associations’ respective financial accounts, in light of which their lists simply were not accepted for registration.
The list of “Spas” movement, headed by the leader of the not registered Nazi organization “Russian National Unity” Alexander Barkashov, successfully registered with the Central Election Committee. On November 15, 1999 the Zamoskvoretsky District Court of the city of Moscow is to consider the claim of the Ministry of Justice to void the registration of the movement “Spas” in light of the fact that “Spas” has no actual branches in more than 50% of the subjects of the Russian Federation[1]. If the Court rules in favor of the claimant, the Central Election Committee shall void the registration of the list of “Spas”, thus excluding “Spas” from the number of the election’s participants.
Perspectives
Out of the seven associations and blocks, whose lists were registered by the Central Election Committee, only Vladimir Zhirinovsky’s Block and (maybe but quite doubtfully) Ilyukhin – Makashov’s Movement in Support of the Army (DPA) actually have a chance of overcoming the mandatory 5% barrier.
As concern the majoritarian electoral districts, they shall definitely bring to the new Duma a number of candidates of DPA, Baburin’s ROS and probably some candidates of KRO and DN.DN’s leader Alexander Porberezkin who counted upon the support of “Motherland – The Entire Russia” in his own majoritarian electoral district, shall not probably make it due to the fact that "Motherland" and "Apple" support A.Minkin in that district.
Moreover, a number of national-patriotic activists shall make it to the new Duma via the lists of Zyuganov’s CPRF and Anpilov’s Stalin’s Block.
If the registration of the list of Davidenko – Barkashov’s “Spas” is not void, “Spas” still does not have a chance of success with the 5% barrier. (Massive anti-“Spas” campaign, however, can become counter-productive and increase the potential results of “Spas”/RNE from 1-2% to 3-4%.)
[1] The claim of the Ministry of Justice has purely political grounds. It is motivated by the public indignation over the fact that the straightforward Nazis of the RNE were allowed to participate in the election. (Over 50% of the 139 associations that were registered and given access to the election have no actual branches in more than one half of the subjects of the Russian Federation either. Besides “Spas”, there are 7-8 organizations in a very similar situation that have nevertheless made it through the filter of attestation and registration.)
From the point of view of pure political tactics, that claim is noticeably belated – it has been known all the way since April 20, 1999 (e.g. since the day of dissemination of the “Declaration of the National Block) that the movement “Spas” (in alliance with Valery Skurlatov’s duly registered movement “Revival” within the might-have-been National Block) was intending to include A. Barkashov and his supporters in the election list.