Brown march

Victoria Averbukh, Rossiiskaya gazeta, № 76.

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“Fascism is already in Russia. And it will be more severe than in Germany because there, it reigned for 12 years, while we have been taught hatred and violence for more than 70 years.” This is what a famous writer Victor Astafev wrote. The extent with which neo-Nazis march on our streets is shocking. Who stands behind the new extremist organizations?

Only for white people

They call themselves the soldiers of the Third World War who have already entered the war. According to many experts, the only thing holding back the homegrown “brown” from large-scale, active actions is internal strife and disassembly within the organizations. They are not yet ready to act. They seem to have no problems with the rest.

No one can really say how many nationalist organizations there are in Russia today. 99% of these organizations consist of 3-5 people. Very often, the same person is a member of several organizations. According to the Central Internal Affairs Directorate, in Moscow alone, Nazi groups have at least three thousand active militants. In addition, about 30 thousand people who live in the capital are connected in one way or another with the ultra-right-wing extremist organizations. If we talk about unorganized youth gangs – “skinheads” or shaven-headed – there are more than 10 thousand of them in the capital.

Need to know by sight

– The extremist organization “Working Russia” headed by Anpilov is politically left-wing, – our expert, the President of Information Research Center “Panorama” Vladimir Pribilovski says. – The shatters of Russian National Unity, the People’s National Party, Eduard Limonov’s National Bolshevik Party are politically right-wing.

However, the most numerous and dangerous young nationalists are the skinheads. They are dangerous because they are organized according to the principle of the ” neighborhood” teams (i.e., in the neighborhood or in a vocational school) and they do not have a single leader. According to the researches conducted by the sociologists, there are currently no less than 35,000 “skins” in Russia who have united “to maintain the purity of the nation.” The first upsurge of the number of skinheads falls on the beginning of 1994. Back then, it was the “youth branch” of the Russian National Unity and other right-wing parties.

– “Skinheads” is a kind of ideology of the younger generation, – Valery Pribilovski says. – They draw in young people 14-16 years old while the leaders of skinheads are barely 20-23 years old. These young people are for the most part poorly educated; in the best case, they are vocational school students. And even then, the school or college is no longer a place of learning for them but rather a place of gathering for like-minded people. Like all teenagers who “play” various games, they attach significance to symbols. Hence, T-shirts which are popular with “skins” that bear number 88 (sequence number of two letters “H” in the German alphabet, which means “Heil Hitler”), number 14 (the symbol of a phrases in English that consists of 14 words: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children”) and number 18 (the numerical designation of the first letters of the name “Adolf Hitler”).

Currently, the largest organization “The Russian goal” headed by Semyon Tokmakov has 150 active militants. Semen Tokmakov, a native of Rybinsk, worked as a guard at the publishing house “Russian writer” and at leisure, he was writing poetry about the greatness of the Russian nation. Then her created his own program according to which “negros are evil” and must be “subjected to a special program of euthanasia.” He became “famous” in 1997, when together with other “skinheads” he beat a black guard of the US Embassy in Moscow in Filevsky Park. He was arrested. However, the young fighter against evil was quickly released.

For the first time, the Embassies of South Africa, Benin, Sudan and Nigeria sent a formal protest note to the Russian Foreign Ministry in connection with “skinheads’” terror in spring of 1998. The main victims of skinheads, besides Caucasians and Jews, are Africans, Indians, Nepalese, and Chinese. It was then that the authorities paid attention to the problem of young Nazis for the first time.

– Among the “skins,” there are many football fans, – Valery Pribilovski says. – Not in any way do I want to offend normal fans, but fans are a special, aggressive type of people who are also susceptible to the provocation. “Skins” and fans do not particularly go to the matches but rather to the scuffles after them.

“Spartak” fans –  “the spiders” with singular branches called “Hooligans” and “Gladiators” – are most famous among the most radical fans. Skinhead “Warriors” are fighting for the honor of CSKA, Moscow “Dynamo” is “defended” by the fan group “Dynamite,” while “Zenith” is “defended” by “Nevsky Front.”

Yet, adult politicians do not forget about the youth either. Active promotion is led by People’s National Party and the National Front of Ilya Lazarenko (otherwise called the “Holy Church of the White Race”). The musician Spider, once quite popular, (his name is Sergei Troitsky) is the leader of the “Great Russia.” Several frightening campaigns were conducted under the leadership of the once famous musicians from the music group “Corrosion,” including one called “A campaign against the southern foreigners occupying the markets and their views provoking Muscovites who are not capable of keeping the stalls.” In his numerous interviews, Troitsky said that he had even approached the presidential administration with his program “A Russian is a friend and brother of another Russian.” However, he was not understood there. By the way, the difference between the “Great Russia” and other “ultra” groups is that in this group, nationalism is mixed with Satanism.

It is known that in the Moscow region, the number of Nazis is much higher than in the capital, which, incidentally, is quite understandable: if the youth in Moscow is still able to find entertainment, goods, discos, and other entertainment facilities, which are in excess here, most of that is absent in the regional centers and settlements. No wonder that the majority of young people detained by the police after riots in Yasenevo and Tsaritzyno were the residents of the Moscow region and not the Russian capital. National extremism in Russia is coming from the province.

The Business of “new storm troopers”

As is well-known, where there’s demand, there’s supply. “Skinheads” have their own special subculture. In newspapers and magazines which are often published semi-legally, they “sing” hymns to future saviors of the Earth from evil: “Guys are walking briskly along the Boulevard Ring, burning with their eyes through each person and each shadow on their way. Woe to him who is the eternal enemy of these” new storm troopers “- if you are a nigga or a slant, a wog or a Jew, a Ptyuch or a rapper, a series of heavy kicks on various parts of the body will be a payback for your appearance” (“Shturmovik”). Moscow skinheads are reading magazines “A number one haircut” and “Street Fighter;” those from St. Petersburg are reading “A Russian fist.” They have their own musical groups. In addition to “Corrosion of Metal” already mentioned above, the most famous music group today is “Kolovrat”.

The subculture brings very tangible income. For example, “Kolovrat” encourages its fans to buy new one-sided black T-shirts “Kolovrat. Russia” with a color image of a stylized cross and the band logo on the chest as well as on the right sleeve. Each T-Shirt costs “merely” 250 rubles.

In the capital, they have already formed their own “sites” where you can almost always buy extremist newspapers, magazines, music albums, badges and other paraphernalia. Videotapes with Nazi films bring good income as well. And of course “Mein Kampf” by Adolf Hitler and “The Myth of the XX century” by one of the main ideologists of Nazism Alfred Rosenberg are always in demand.

Recently, a new entertainment club with strict face-control opened in Moscow. At one time, there was a sign on its door “Only for white people.”

http://moscow.hrights.ru/etnic/data/etnic03_05_2002-13.htm