Nashism (Russian:нашизм) andNashists arepost-Soviet[1] Russian politicalneologisms derived from the word "наши" ("[those who are] ours", i.e., those of theingroup). The word is used to refer to various forms ofworldview based on the primacy of "ours" over the "outsiders" (comparable tola cosa nostra, "our thing"). Various Russianjournalists,politicians andpolitical scientists define this word differently, as described below. The words "nashists" and "nashism" have also been used in reference to theNashi political movement with the word "ours" in its title.
The word was first coined byAlexander Nevzorov, the anchor of the Russian TV program600 Seconds.[2] In January 1991 Nevzorov produced adocumentary and a controversial series of TV reports fromVilnius titledOurs (Nashi), about the actions of the Sovietspetsnaz during theJanuary Events, when the Soviet military forces attempted to crush the declared independence ofLithuania, in which Nevzorov was markedly sympathetic to Soviet actions.[3] As a freelance journalist Jules Evans wrote, reporting from the Soviet Union:
"the journalist Aleksander Nevzorov appeared on TV, standing in front of the demonstrators in Lithuania holding aKalashnikov. To the music ofRichard Wagner (a German), Nevzorov declared the birth of a new Idea – ‘Nashi’. “Nashi is a circle of people – let it be enormous, colossal, multimillions – to whom one is related by common language, blood, andmotherland.”[4]
In November 1991 Nevzorov established the People's Liberation Movement "Nashi", which he defined as "a united front of resistance to the anti-national politics of the current administration of Russia and other Union Republics of the former USSR". Its badge contained the contour of the USSR with the words "НАШИ" (ours) within.[5] Of prominent participants in the movement wasViktor Alksnis. Nevzorov's "Nashi" was short-lived. The naturally coined word "Nashists" in reference to the supporters of the "Nashi" movement immediately invoked the rhyme with the word "fascists", as a hint to the imperial position of the movement in support of the indivisibility of the Soviet Union, in particular, their justification of the use of military force to this end.
The pun "nashism/fascism" is often used by the political opponents of "Nashi". In particular, it was liberally used after the anti-Estonian manifestations of "Nashi" in relation to the events around theBronze Soldier of Tallinn. A popular anti-Nashi slogan is "Nashism Shall Not Pass!" ("Нашизм не пройдет!"[6]), an adaptation of the slogan "They shall not pass".
Andrei Illarionov describes the emergingcorporatism in Russia as power in hands ofSilovik power structures, the current incarnation ofChekism, whose ideology he defines by the word "nashism" ("ours-ism") in its most general sense: preferential treatment of "ours". In an article initially printed inKommersant and then reprinted several times in the West, he writes:[7]
"Ours-ism" does not know national or ethnic boundaries. The former chancellor of a foreign country [Gerhard Schröder] is made a member of the corporation and becomes "our man in Europe." Meanwhile, a Russian businessman [Mikhail Khodorkovsky] who created a company that brought billions into the national treasury turns out to be an "other" and is exiled to the depths of Siberia.
