Dmitri Dmitriyevich Vasilyev (Russian:Дми́трий Дми́триевич Васи́льев; 30 May 1945 – 16 July 2003) was a Soviet-Russian actor, monarchist, andultranationalist who was chairman ofPamyat from 1988 until his death in 2003.^[1]

Throughout his career, Vasilyev did not disclose his father's surname; when asked why he did so, he claimed that it was due to his aristocratic association, saying, "My mother did not take care of me so that I would perish." His grandfather was aCossack ataman who was killed by theBolsheviks during theRussian Civil War. Many other paternal relatives of his also suffered in theGulag system.^[2]

He first studied at theMoscow Art Theatre School, after which he was conscripted into theSoviet Army, where he served as a tanker. Vasilyev carried out his military service in Hungary.^[2] Following his military service, he returned to acting; he played the minor role ofPyotr Stolypin inSergei Gerasimov's final film,Lev Tolstoy.

Vasilyev was active inPamyat from 1984, when it was still an organisation of amateur historians. When it split the next year, he, along with his supporters, formed the National Patriotic Front "Memory", which would eventually be recognised as the primary successor organisation to the original Pamyat. However, the new Pamyat was no group of historians, but instead a far-right nationalist, monarchist, and antisemitic group.^[3] In 1992, Vasilyev was appointed "voivode" of Pamyat.

In terms of his political positions, Vasilyev was an ardent monarchist, supporting the restoration of theHouse of Romanov. He was considered to be a staunch antisemite, though he refused such accusations (due to Arabs being a Semitic group), and instead simply said that he was an anti-Zionist, claiming that Zionism was the desire of Jews to take over the world with the assistance offreemasons. Vasilyev also viewed communism and Judaism as related.^[4] From the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, he called himself a fascist openly, claiming thatAdolf Hitler andBenito Mussolini were not "true" fascists, and that the Russian Empire was an example of "true" fascism.^[5]

During the1993 Russian constitutional crisis, Vasilyev, unlike many other figures on the Russian far-right (including his former allyAlexander Barkashov), supported PresidentBoris Yeltsin over theSupreme Soviet andAlexander Rutskoy.^[6] Throughout the 1990s, he campaigned in multiple elections; in 1995, he ran for theState Duma, and in 1997, he sought election asMayor of Moscow. Neither of these campaigns would be successful, and he eventually stormed the offices ofMoskovskij Komsomolets, demanding an end to the printing of "immoral andRussophobic materials." In 1999, during theKosovo War, Vasilyev also supportedSlobodan Milošević, and called for Russia to intervene againstNATO forces, which werebombing Serbia at the time. After 1999, Vasilyev disappeared from the public sphere until his death.^[7]

Vasilyev had an interest in heraldry and classical music, particularlyPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky andRichard Wagner. He married, but would outlive his wife, eventually adopting her two children. His son, Sergei, is part of the Central Council of Pamyat. Following the collapse of the original Pamyat in 1985, Vasilyev claimed thatIlya Glazunov's most famous works were actually replicas of his own photographs.^[8] On 16 July 2003, Vasilyev died at his dacha in Kriushkino, a village in Yaroslavl Oblast, of a heart attack at the age of 58.^[7]

• Antisemitism in Russia
• 1945 births
• 2003 deaths
• People from Kirov, Kirov Oblast
• Russian fascists
• Russian monarchists

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