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National Bolshevik Party Национал-большевистская партия | |
|---|---|
| Abbreviation | NBP, Nazbols |
| Leader | Eduard Limonov |
| Founders |
|
| Founded | 1 May 1993; 32 years ago (1993-05-01) |
| Legalised | 16 August 2005; 20 years ago (2005-08-16)[4] |
| Banned | 7 August 2007; 18 years ago (2007-08-07)[5] |
| Succeeded by | The Other Russia National Bolshevik Front[6] |
| Headquarters | Bunker NBP, st. Maria Ulyanova, 17, bldg. 1,Moscow |
| Newspaper | Limonka |
| Membership |  56,500+ (March 2007est.) |
| Ideology | National Bolshevism |
| Political position | Syncretic[n 1] |
| Coalition | National Salvation Front[a] The Other Russia[b] |
| Colours | Red White Black |
| Anthem | "Гимн НБП"[10][11] (lit. 'Anthem of the NBP')[c] |
| Party flag | |
 Other flag: | |
| Website | |
| eng.nbp-info.ru | |
TheNational Bolshevik Party (Russian:Национал-большевистская партия, НБП,romanized: Natsional-bolshevistskaya partiya,NBP) operated from 1993 to 2007 as aRussian political party with a political program ofNational Bolshevism. The NBP became a prominent member ofThe Other Russia coalition of opposition parties.[12] Its members are known as Nazbols (Russian:нацболы).[13]
There have been smaller NBP groups in other countries. Its official publication, the newspaperLimonka, derived its name from the party leader's surname and from the idiomatic Russian word for agrenade. The main editor ofLimonka was for many years, Aleksey Volynets. Russian courts banned the organization and it never officially registered as a political party. In 2010, its leaderEduard Limonov founded a new political party, calledThe Other Russia of E. V. Limonov.[14]
The NBP believes in theNational Bolshevik ideas that arose during theRussian Civil War, such as those fromNikolai Ustryalov, who came to believe thatBolshevism could be modified to servenationalistic purposes. His followers, theSmenovekhovtsy, who then came to regard themselves as National Bolsheviks, borrowed the term fromErnst Niekisch, who was a German politician initially associated withleft-wing politics and later the National Bolshevik ideology.[7]
The NBP has denied any links tofascism, stating that all forms ofantisemitism,xenophobia, andracism were against the party's principles.[15] The NBP has historically defendedStalinism, although later on the party said it did not wish to re-create that system.[15] The party is described as a mixture offar-left andfar-right ideology, including among its membersSovietism' nostalgics as well asskinheads, with thehammer and sickle (which replace theswastika) in a white circle on a red background as party's flag.[16]
On 29 November 2004, participants of the general congress of the NBP adopted a new party program. According to the program, "the main goal of the National Bolshevik Party is to change Russia into a modern, powerful state, respected by other countries and peoples and beloved by its own citizens" by ensuring the free development of civil society, the independence of the media, and social justice.[17] The NBP was highly critical ofVladimir Putin's government and argued that state institutions, such as the bureaucracy, the police, and the courts, were corrupt and authoritarian.[18]
Since its formation, the National Bolshevik Party had relationships with Russiancounterculture.[19] National Bolsheviks often usedshock aesthetics from thepunk subculture in their propaganda.[20][21] NBP attracted a significant number of artists, punk musicians and rock bands.[22][23]
Some Western critics commented on its heavy use of totalitarian and fascist symbols and what they called its "national-patriotic demagoguery",[9] and academics have described the group asneo-fascist.[24] In the Russian media, the National Bolshevik Party was usually referred to as a far-left youth movement; however, some critics (including ex-members) allege that the NBP is an organisation dedicated to carry out acolour revolution in Russia.[25][26][27]
The symbols of the National Bolshevik Party are a combination of Soviet, Nazi, and Imperial Russian symbols; the party nonetheless denied any link to fascism and Nazism.[15]
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The popular motto, "Russia is Everything, the Rest is Nothing!" («Россия — всё, остальное — ничто!»), served as a powerful encapsulation of the movement's ultranationalist worldview. This slogan expressed the party's absolute prioritization of Russian identity, culture, and sovereignty over all foreign influences or globalist ideals. It reflected the NBP's ideological synthesis of nationalism and revolutionary socialism, framing Russia as a sacred entity whose interests were paramount, while dismissing the outside world as irrelevant or hostile.
The Russian National Bolsheviks adopted the provocative greeting "Yes, Death!" («Да, смерть!») as a symbolic rejection of bourgeois values and a dramatic expression of revolutionary zeal. This slogan encapsulated the party's militant ethos and its embrace of political martyrdom and struggle, reflecting its fusion of radical leftist and ultranationalist ideologies. As Stephen Shenfield notes in Russian Fascism: Traditions, Tendencies and Movements, the greeting served as a stark emblem of the NBP's nihilistic defiance and ideological extremism.[28]
In 1992,Eduard Limonov founded the National Bolshevik Front (NBF) as an amalgamation of six minor groups.[29]Aleksandr Dugin was among the earliest members and was instrumental in convincing Limonov to enter politics. The party first attracted attention in 1992 when two members were arrested for possessinggrenades. The incident gave the NBP publicity for a boycott campaign they were organizing against Western goods.[30] The NBF joined forces with theNational Salvation Front, which was a broad coalition of Russiancommunists andnationalists.[31]
The FNS was one of the leading groups involved in the1993 Russian constitutional crisis, and Limonov participated in theclashes near the White House in Moscow on the side of the Anti-Yeltsin opposition.[32] When others within the coalition began to speak out against the NBF, it withdrew from the alliance.[33] On 1 May 1993, Limonov and Dugin signed a declaration of founding the NBP.[34] On 28 November 1994, Limonov founded the newspaperLimonka, the official organ of the NBP.
In 1998, Dugin left the NBP as a result of a conflict with other members of the party.[35] This led to the party moving further left in Russia's political spectrum, and led to members of the party denouncing Dugin and his group as fascists.[9] Dugin later established theEurasia Party, that endorses a significantly more radical nationalist and socially conservative view of National Bolshevism.[36]
Limonov and some National Bolsheviks were 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,[37] the government accused Limonov of planning to start an armed insurgency inKazakhstan.[38]
After the arrest of the leader, members of the party started activities (including direct action stunts) against Putin's government.[39] In 2002, members of the NBP participated in a common demonstration of far-left forces in a Moscow a demonstration called Anticapitalism-2002.[40] National Bolsheviks clashed withriot police.[41] In 2003, Limonov was released fromLefortovo Prison.[42]
Since 2004, the NBP has formed alliances with other opposition forces, both far-left and right-wing. In 2004, Limonov signed the declaration titled "Russia without Putin."[43] In August 2006, an anti-Limonovist faction of the NBP that was right-wing formed theNational Bolshevik Front.[44]
The NBP became a prominent member ofThe Other Russia coalition of opposition parties.[12] In 2007, the NBP members took part in aDissenters' March and other subsequent demonstrations against the government.[45]
The NBP was banned by a Russianlower court in June 2005; theRussian Supreme Court overturned that ban on 16 August 2005. In November 2005, the Russian Supreme Court upheld a ban on the party on the grounds that the NBP called itself a political party without being registered as such.[citation needed] On 7 August 2007, the Russian Supreme Court confirmed the decision of the Moscow City Court of 19 April to ban the party[46] as an extremist organization.[47]
In 2009, NBP members took part inStrategy-31, a series of civic protests in support of the right to peaceful assembly.[48][49] In July 2010, the National Bolsheviks founded a new political party,The Other Russia of E. V. Limonov.[14]
The NBP often used non-violentdirect-action stunts, mostly against prominent political figures.[39][50]
On 24 August 1999, the NBP occupied a tower of the Club of Military Seamen in Sevastopol onUkraine's Independence Day. Some of the operatives were sentenced to prison.[51][52] During thePrince Charles' tour of theBaltic states in 2001, a member of the Latvian branch of the NBP hit Charles' face with a flower in an act of protest against thewar in Afghanistan.[53][54] During the2002 Prague summit, National Bolsheviks threw tomatoes atGeorge Robertson to protest against the extension ofNATO andAmerican imperialism.[55]
On 3 March 2004, National Bolsheviks occupied theUnited Russia headquarters in Moscow and protested against government policy.[56] On 22 June 2004, National Bolsheviks occupied Germany's Trade Embassy in Moscow on the anniversary of theGerman invasion of the Soviet Union. They hung a banner with an inscription "Never forget! Never forgive!"[57] On 2 August 2004, a group of National Bolsheviks occupied the office of the Health and Social Development Ministry building in Moscow to protest against the social benefits reform.[58] Police arrested most of the participants, and on 12 December 2004, seven National Bolsheviks were each sentenced to five years in prison.[59] On 14 December 2004, NBP members occupied the presidential-administration visitors' room to protest against government policy. Police arrested thirty-nine National Bolsheviks, with many of them being sentenced to prison.[60]
On 25 September 2006, National Bolsheviks occupied the Ministries of Finances building in Moscow to protest against liberal economic policy.[61][62][63]
The National Bolshevik Party founded branches across thepost-Soviet states. Relatively strong branches of the party existed inLatvia,Ukraine, andBelarus. Several small groups often made up of Russian immigrants that are named National Bolshevik Party have existed in countries across Europe and North America.[64] Most of them did not have official registration.
Latvia's NBP has had members hold office inRiga,[65] and has executed notable publicity stunts, but it remains largely marginal there.[66] The Latvian branch has been led byVladimir Linderman andBenes Ayo.[67][68][69][70][71] In 2003, Linderman was accused of storing explosives and of calling for the overthrow of the political system.[72] He left Latvia and moved to Russia. In 2005, during the visit ofGeorge W. Bush in Latvia, local national Bolsheviks and theVanguard of Red Youth organized meetings "against American imperialism". Police broke up a demonstration and arrested its participants.[73][74] The Latvian NBP was also active in anti-capitalist demonstrations and in anti-Nazi blockades duringRemembrance Day of the Latvian Legionnaires.[75][76]
Largely based inEastern Ukraine, the NBP initially joined forces with another small parties and signed a "Declaration of the Kiev Council of Slav Radical Nationalists" together withUkrainian nationalists.[77] Later, Ukrainian national Bolsheviks were active in demonstrations against Ukrainian nationalists on the anniversary of the founding of theUkrainian Insurgent Army.[78] National Bolsheviks also organized actions against the rapprochement ofUkraine–NATO relations.[79] During theOrange Revolution, the Ukrainian NBP decided to not support any side. National Bolsheviks also formed armed troopinterbrigades and participated in thewar in Donbas.[80][81]
In September 2021, theEuropean Court of Human Rights found that there was a violation of Article 11 of theEuropean Convention on Human Rights on account of the dissolution of the NBP association in 2004 and on account of the refusal to register the NBP political party, and awarded €10,000 jointly to the children of Limonov and four of his followers.[82]
Until banning of the NBP in 2007
Former[edit] | Deceased[edit] |
By other authors
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