Eduard Limonov | |
|---|---|
 Limonov in 2016 | |
| Born | Eduard Veniaminovich Savenko (1943-02-22)22 February 1943 Dzerzhinsk, Gorky Oblast, Soviet Union |
| Died | 17 March 2020(2020-03-17) (aged 77) Moscow, Russia |
| Occupation | Writer, poet, essayist, publicist, leader ofThe Other Russia, former leader of theNational Bolshevik Party, editor ofnewspaper Limonka |
| Citizenship | Soviet (1943–74) Stateless (1974–1987) French (1987–2011) Russian (1992–2020) |
| Alma mater | Kharkiv National Pedagogical University |
| Period | 1958–2020 |
| Genre | Novel, poetry, short story, autobiography, political essay |
| Literary movement | Postmodernism (Russian postmodernism) |
| Notable works | It's Me, Eddie His Butler's Story A Young Scoundrel Memoir of a Russian Punk The Book of Water |
| Partner | Anna Rubinshtein Yelena Shchapova Natalya Medvedeva (1983–1995) Yekaterina Volkova |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | |
| limonov-eduard | |
Eduard Veniaminovich Limonov[a][b] (né Savenko; 22 February 1943 – 17 March 2020) was a Russian writer, poet, publicist,political dissident and politician.
He emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1974, but returned to Russia in 1991, where he founded theNational Bolshevik Party. The party was banned in the country in 2007 and superseded byThe Other Russia. In the 2000s, he was one of the leaders ofThe Other Russia coalition of opposition forces.[1]
Limonov was born inDzerzhinsk,Gorky Oblast, Soviet Union.[2] His father was born in theVoronezh Oblast while his mother was born in the Gorky Oblast.[3] Limonov's father—then in the military service – was in astate security career and his mother was ahomemaker.[4] In the early years of his life his family moved toKharkov in theUkrainian SSR, where Limonov grew up. He studied at theH.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University.[5]
By Limonov's own account, he began writing "very bad" poetry at the age of thirteen and soon after became involved intheft andpetty crime as an adolescent hooligan.[4] Limonov adopted hispen name for use in literary circles during this time.[4]
In December 1973, KGB ChairmanYuri Andropov labeled Limonov a 'staunchanti-Soviet.'[6]
In 1966,[7] together with his first wife, Anna Moiseevna Rubinstein, (their marriage was not registered officially)[8][2] he first came to Moscow, earning money sewing trousers (Limonov "dressed" many in the intelligentsia; sculptorErnst Neizvestny and poetBulat Okudzhava among others), but later returned to Kharkov.[7]
Limonov moved toMoscow again in 1967, marrying a fellow poet,Yelena Shchapova, in aRussian Orthodox[4] ceremony in 1973.[8] During his period in Moscow, Limonov was involved in theKonkret poets' group and sold volumes of hisself-published poetry while doing various day jobs. Having achieved a degree of success in this manner by the mid-1970s, and he and his wife emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1974.[4] The exact circumstances of Limonov's departure are unclear and have been described differently. Reportedly, the KGB secret police gave him a choice either to become an informant, or leave the country.[9]
Although neither he nor Shchapova were Jewish, the Soviet Union issued permission for the couple to emigrate to Israel, but soon after the couple arrived in the United States.[4] Limonov settled inNew York City, where he and Shchapova soon divorced.
Limonov worked for a Russian-language newspaper as a proofreader and occasionally interviewed recent Soviet emigrants.[4] Like Eddie, the immigrant protagonist of Limonov's first novelIt's Me, Eddie, Limonov was drawn topunk subculture andradical politics. Limonov's New York acquaintances includedStudio 54'sSteve Rubell and aTrotskyist group, theSocialist Workers Party.[10] As protagonist Eddie finds out as a consequence, the latter is a political target of theFBI.[11] Limonov was himself harassed by the FBI.[12] As he later recounted, the FBI interrogated dozens of his acquaintances, once asking a friend about "Lermontov" inParis when he had resettled in France.[13]
I did not find the freedom to be a radical opponent of the existing social structure of the country which pompously calls itself the 'leader of the free world,' but neither did I notice it in the land which represents itself as the 'future of all humanity.' The FBI is just as zealous in putting down American radicals as the KGB is with its own radicals and dissidents. True, the methods of the FBI are more modern. . . . The KGB is, however, studying the techniques of its older brother and modernizing its methods.[13]
The first chapter ofIt's Me, Eddie, was published by an Israeli Russian-language journal.[4] Finished by 1977, it was consistently rejected by publishers in the United States and only brought out a few years after becoming an instant success in France in 1980.[4] In interviews, Limonov says this was because the book was not written with an anti-Soviet tone as was other Russian literature admired in the United States.[4]
In New York, Limonov also discovered another side of theAmerican Dream. After being a dissident, he lived a poor life due to his low income. He managed to afford a room in a miserable hostel and spent time with homeless persons, some of whom he had casual sexual intercourse with, as related in ‘’It's me, Eddie’’, published in France under the titleLe poète russe préfère les grands nègres. He then found a job as a butler for a millionaire on the Upper East Side. This period of his life led him to write autobiographical texts, includingHis Butler's Story.
Finally, disillusioned with the country he termed "a damned outhouse bereft of spirit or purpose on the outskirts of civilization", Limonov left America for Paris with his loverNatalya Medvedeva in 1980, where he became active in French literary circles. He swore to never return to the United States, and never did. Having remainedstateless for thirteen years, he was grantedFrench citizenship in 1987.[13][2] Limonov and Medvedeva got married in 1982; the pair split up by 1995.[2]
In 1991, Limonov returned to Russia from France, restored his citizenship,[2] and became active in politics.
Limonov was an active supporter ofSerbia in the wars that followed the breakup ofYugoslavia.Paweł Pawlikowski's filmSerbian Epics includes footage of him meeting withRadovan Karadžić, then theBosnian Serb president and later a convictedwar criminal, on the front lines ofSarajevo in 1992. The film also shows Limonov participating in a sniper patrol and firing a few rounds with a machine gun on the outskirts of the besieged city.[14][15][16][17] When asked about the incident in 2010, Limonov said he had been shooting at a target range and that Pawlikowski added an extra camera angle to make it appear he had fired into a populated area. This explanation has been challenged.[18]
On another occasion, Limonov said that he "celebrated his 50th birthday inKninska Krajina ... by firing from a Russian-made heavy gun atCroatian Army headquarters."[19] During the 1990s, he supported Bosnian Serbs in the Yugoslav wars; andAbkhaz andTransnistrian secessionists againstGeorgia andMoldova, respectively.[10] Limonov was also initially an ally ofVladimir Zhirinovsky and was named as Security Minister in ashadow cabinet formed by Zhirinovsky in 1992.[20] However Limonov soon tired of Zhirinovsky, accusing him of moderateness and of approaching the president and consequently split from him, publishing the book "Limonov against Zhirinovsky" (1994).
In 1993, together with figures likeAleksandr Dugin andYegor Letov, he founded theNational Bolshevik Party which started to publish a newspaper calledLimonka (the Russian nickname for the lemon-shapedF1 hand grenade; also a play on his pen name Limonov).[21] In 1996, aRussian court judged in a hearing that the NBP paperLimonka had disseminated illegal and immoral information: "in essence, E. V. Limonov (Savenko) is an advocate of revenge and mass terror, raised to the level of state policy." The court decided to recommend issuing an official warning to Limonka, to investigate the possibility of examining whether Limonov could be held legally responsible, and to publish its decision inRossiiskaia gazeta.[22] After that, a criminal case was launched against him on charges of incitement of ethnic hatred.[2] On theUkrainian Independence Day 24 August 1999, Limonov along with 15 other supporters from the top of the city's clock tower inSevastopol publicly called to review the status of the city and not to ratify the Treaty about Friendship and Cooperation between Russia and Ukraine by the State Duma.[23]
Limonov was jailed in April 2001 on charges ofterrorism, the forced overthrow of the constitutional order, and the illegal purchase of weapons. Based on an article published inLimonka under Limonov's byline, the government accused Limonov of planning to raise an army to invadeKazakhstan. After one year in jail, his trial was heard in aSaratov court, which also heard appeals from RussianDuma membersVladimir Zhirinovsky,Alexei Mitrofanov andVasiliy Shandybin for his release. He maintained that the charges were ridiculous and politically motivated, but was convicted and sentenced to four years imprisonment for the arms purchasing, while the other charges were dropped.[24] He served almost two years before being paroled for good behavior.[25][2] He wrote eight books while in jail.[2]
In 2006, Limonov married the actressYekaterina Volkova.[2] They had a son, Bogdan, and a daughter, Alexandra. They split up in 2008.
On 19 April 2007, the Moscow City Court banned the National Bolshevik Party as extremist. The decision was upheld by the Supreme Court.[26]
Limonov continued his political activities as one of the leaders ofThe Other Russia,[2] along with liberal, nationalist and communist politicians. He took part in various protests and was one of the organizers of theDissenters' Marches.[2] In particular, on 3 March 2007, Limonov was detained by police in the very beginning of the rally the firstSaint Petersburg Dissenters' March;[27] on 14 April 2007, Limonov was arrested again after an anti-government rally inMoscow;[28] on 31 January 2009 was detained again in Moscow.[29]
In July 2009, he helped organise theStrategy-31 series of protests.[2]
Soon, Limonov split up with the liberal opposition. In July 2010, he and his followers establishedThe Other Russia political party, as the informal successor to the NBP.[30] It was denied official registration in 2010 and in 2019, after it got re-established without Limonov as formally part of its leadership.[31]
Starting in 2014, Limonov supported theannexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and the at the time unrecognizedDonetsk People's Republic andLugansk People's Republic, and encouraged Russians to take part in theRusso-Ukrainian War on the Russian side.[32][33][34][35] The Other Russia also created a militia called "Interbrigades" to support the separatist movement in Donbas; they took part in the battles for Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, and also were engaged in the protection of the leader of Limonov during his visit to the Luhansk region.[36]
He died on 17 March 2020, aged 77, in Moscow.[37] It was reported that Limonov had been battling cancer; complications from two surgery procedures such as throat problems, struggles withoncology, andinflammation were cited as the direct cause of his death.[38]
Limonov's works are known for their cynicism. His novels are also (to an extent, fictive) memoirs, describing his experiences as a youth in Russia and as an émigré in the United States.[citation needed]
Limonov's works were scandalous for the Russian public, once they began to be published in the USSR during the late perestroika era. Particularly noted isIt's Me, Eddie, which contained numerous pornographic descriptions of homosexual acts involving the narrator. The author later argued that such scenes were purely fiction; however, his fellow Russian nationalists were nevertheless appalled by such descriptions in Limonov's work. Thus, the Neo-Nazi leaderAlexander Barkashov remarked to a journalist ofKomsomolskaya Pravda concerning Limonov: "Если лидер педераст, то он родину продаст." ("If the leader is a pederast, he will betray the fatherland.")[39]
Russian film director and screenwriterAlexander Veledinsky's 2004 feature filmIt's Russian is based on Limonov's writings. In late 1990s and early 2000s, Limonov was a regular contributor to "Living Here" and later tothe eXile, both English-language newspapers in Moscow. These were the only known sources where Limonov wrote articles in English. When he joined as a contributor, he specifically asked the editors of the paper that they preserve his "terrible Russian-English style." Although most of his featured articles were political, he also wrote on many topics, including "advice for ambitious youngsters."[citation needed]
Limonov stated that his favorite poet wasVelimir Khlebnikov.[40] The Japanese writerYukio Mishima is noted, by some observers, as an influence on Limonov's writing.[41]
Eduard Limonov's life is related in detail byEmmanuel Carrère in his 2011 biographical novelLimonov[42] and in theAdam Curtis documentary seriesCan't Get You Out of My Head.[43] English actorBen Whishaw portrayed Limonov inLimonov: The Ballad, a film byKirill Serebrennikov based on Carrère's novel.[44]
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). osa.ceu.hu{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). Novaya Gazeta via English pravda.ru. 21 June 2003.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link). english.aljazeera.net. 15 April 2007.
