The Ideology of the Neo-Nazis in Russia
Like the old Nazism, Russian neo-Nazism combines ethnic nationalism, the idea of the Aryan race, its biological and cultural superiority over other races, the idea of racial antisemitism (Semitic race is seen as the antipode and main enemy of the "Aryan"), anti-communism and anti-democratism. The cult of Adolf Hitler is significant, and swastika, or its various modifications, remain the main symbols.
One of the largest Russian nationalist-extremist parties until the late 1990s was the neo-Nazi social-political movement Russian National Unity (RNE) of Alexander Barkashov, founded in 1990. In late 1999, RNE made an unsuccessful attempt to run for the State Duma. Barkashov viewed "true Orthodoxy" as a fusion of Christianity and paganism, advocating a "Russian God" and an allegedly related "Aryan swastika". He wrote about the Atlanteans, the Etruscans, the "Aryan" civilization as the direct predecessors of the Russian nation, their centuries-long struggle with the "Semites", the worldwide Jewish conspiracy, and the Jewish domination of Russia. The symbol of the movement was a modified swastika.
The ideology of Russian neo-Nazism is closely related to the ideology of Rodnovery (Slavic neo-paganism). In some cases, there are also organizational ties between neo-Nazis and neo-pagans. Thus, one of the founders of Russian neo-paganism, former dissident Alexey Dobrovolsky (pagan name - Dobroslav) shared the ideas of National Socialism and transferred them to his neo-pagan doctrine. According to the historian, Dobrovolsky picked up the idea of the swastika from the work of Nazi ideologist Hermann Wirth (the first leader of Anenerbe). Dobrovolsky declared the eight-armed "kolovrat", consisting of two overlapping swastikas, considered in Slavic neo-paganism to be the ancient Slavic sign of the Sun, a symbol of an uncompromising "national liberation struggle" against the "Judean yoke". According to Dobrovolsky, the meaning of the "kolovrat" completely coincides with the meaning of the Nazi swastika.
A former Komsomol activist Ilya Lazarenko [ru] became one of the founders of the Union of Russian Youth. In 1992-1994 he was the head of the neo-Nazi youth movement called "Front of National Revolutionary Action" that evolved from the Union, and declared its allegiance to Orthodox Christianity. He published the newspapers Our March (1992-1993) and People's Construction (1993-1996). In March 1996, criminal proceedings were instituted against Lazarenko and he was the first person convicted of inciting ethnic hatred. While under investigation, Lazarenko broke with the Orthodox faith and, founded the neo-Nazi Navi Society [ru] (also known as the "Holy Church of the White Race") in Moscow on Hitler's birthday in 1996. He did so under the ideological influence of the founder of esoteric Hitlerism, Miguel Serrano In October 1994 Lazarenko became the leader of the youth neo-Nazi National Front party. The Navi Society was based on the worship of two supposedly Slavic gods, Yav and Navi, and practiced dress uniforms and rituals similar to Ku Klux Klan. The doctrine of the "church" was a combination of the ideas of Slavic neo-paganism with Indo-Aryan and Zoroastrian beliefs. Lazarenko identified "white people" exclusively with Russians. The main attribute of the movement's supporters were armbands with swastikas; others included Novgorod crosses (identical to Celtic crosses) with inscribed swastika, runic inscriptions, a ram's skull and Siegfried's sword. One of its goals was the extermination of people characterized by physical deformity. In 2005 Lazarenko repented and returned to the Orthodox Church.
Rodnovery is a popular religion of Russian skinheads. These skinheads, however, do not usually practice their religion. During the trial for the skinhead organization Schultz-88 [ru] in the second half of 2005, the brochure "Paganism as the spiritual and moral basis of Russian national-socialism" by Dobrovolsky and the neo-pagan magazine The Wrath of Perun were mentioned. Members of the neo-Nazi group called the Combat Terrorist Organization of Nevograd (BTO), disbanded by the police in 2006, considered themselves Slavic Rodnovers. They published self-published magazines with a racist-neo-pagan orientation, where they developed the idea of creating a "new Nordic race". They called for a "pagan revolution", which they aimed to make closer by hunting on people of "non-Slavic appearance".
In the 1990s, a number of neo-Nazi rock bands appeared in Russia. One of the most popular rock bands among skinheads is Kolovrat, founded in 1994. The band members share the ideas of the coming triumph of the "white world" and call for the "Aryans" to wage a race war. Other popular groups include Vandal and T. N. F. (Terror National Front), who record songs to the verses of the popular poet S. Yashin. Yashin, glorifying the "white race" and the "Aryan" idea. Similar groups exist in the regions - "Vantit" in Voronezh, "Faterland" in Samara, "Horst Wessel" and NS FRONT in Volgograd. Some of them adhere to the "Aryan style of music". The founder of the band DK Sergey Zharikov [ru] wrote about the unconditionally pagan character of rock culture, supported the national idea and messianism. Referring to the works of B. A. Rybakov, he argued that pagan ideology was most suitable for the struggle for the independence of the Russian land. Zharikov became the publisher of the neo-Nazi magazine Ataka, which focuses heavily on neo-pagan ideas. Such rock bands represent the Russian variety of a neo-Nazi music movement that developed in England and Germany from the early 1980s among the right-wing skinhead culture.
Wagner Group
The Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary group notable in the Russo-Ukrainian War has been accused of Neo-Nazism.
The group is believed to have been named after Dmitry Utkin who was the military commander of the unit and had call sign “Wagner”, apparently chosen after Richard Wagner, the favourite composer of Adolf Hitler. Utkin was openly a Neo-Nazi.[86] Members of the Wagner Group have been observed spray painting swastikas and SS lightning bolts, and Dmitry Utkin who was widely considered Wagner’s operational commander, had tattoos featuring Nazi ″SS″ epaulets.
However, Erica Gaston, a senior policy adviser at the UN University Centre for Policy Research, stated that while the alleged founder has "sympathies to far-right groups and there's probably some in the general recruitment that also have those sympathies, predominantly, it's not an ideological group but a mercenary network "linked to the Russian security state".
One of the largest Russian nationalist-extremist parties until the late 1990s was the neo-Nazi social-political movement Russian National Unity (RNE) of Alexander Barkashov, founded in 1990. In late 1999, RNE made an unsuccessful attempt to run for the State Duma. Barkashov viewed "true Orthodoxy" as a fusion of Christianity and paganism, advocating a "Russian God" and an allegedly related "Aryan swastika". He wrote about the Atlanteans, the Etruscans, the "Aryan" civilization as the direct predecessors of the Russian nation, their centuries-long struggle with the "Semites", the worldwide Jewish conspiracy, and the Jewish domination of Russia. The symbol of the movement was a modified swastika.
The ideology of Russian neo-Nazism is closely related to the ideology of Rodnovery (Slavic neo-paganism). In some cases, there are also organizational ties between neo-Nazis and neo-pagans. Thus, one of the founders of Russian neo-paganism, former dissident Alexey Dobrovolsky (pagan name - Dobroslav) shared the ideas of National Socialism and transferred them to his neo-pagan doctrine. According to the historian, Dobrovolsky picked up the idea of the swastika from the work of Nazi ideologist Hermann Wirth (the first leader of Anenerbe). Dobrovolsky declared the eight-armed "kolovrat", consisting of two overlapping swastikas, considered in Slavic neo-paganism to be the ancient Slavic sign of the Sun, a symbol of an uncompromising "national liberation struggle" against the "Judean yoke". According to Dobrovolsky, the meaning of the "kolovrat" completely coincides with the meaning of the Nazi swastika.
A former Komsomol activist Ilya Lazarenko [ru] became one of the founders of the Union of Russian Youth. In 1992-1994 he was the head of the neo-Nazi youth movement called "Front of National Revolutionary Action" that evolved from the Union, and declared its allegiance to Orthodox Christianity. He published the newspapers Our March (1992-1993) and People's Construction (1993-1996). In March 1996, criminal proceedings were instituted against Lazarenko and he was the first person convicted of inciting ethnic hatred. While under investigation, Lazarenko broke with the Orthodox faith and, founded the neo-Nazi Navi Society [ru] (also known as the "Holy Church of the White Race") in Moscow on Hitler's birthday in 1996. He did so under the ideological influence of the founder of esoteric Hitlerism, Miguel Serrano In October 1994 Lazarenko became the leader of the youth neo-Nazi National Front party. The Navi Society was based on the worship of two supposedly Slavic gods, Yav and Navi, and practiced dress uniforms and rituals similar to Ku Klux Klan. The doctrine of the "church" was a combination of the ideas of Slavic neo-paganism with Indo-Aryan and Zoroastrian beliefs. Lazarenko identified "white people" exclusively with Russians. The main attribute of the movement's supporters were armbands with swastikas; others included Novgorod crosses (identical to Celtic crosses) with inscribed swastika, runic inscriptions, a ram's skull and Siegfried's sword. One of its goals was the extermination of people characterized by physical deformity. In 2005 Lazarenko repented and returned to the Orthodox Church.
Rodnovery is a popular religion of Russian skinheads. These skinheads, however, do not usually practice their religion. During the trial for the skinhead organization Schultz-88 [ru] in the second half of 2005, the brochure "Paganism as the spiritual and moral basis of Russian national-socialism" by Dobrovolsky and the neo-pagan magazine The Wrath of Perun were mentioned. Members of the neo-Nazi group called the Combat Terrorist Organization of Nevograd (BTO), disbanded by the police in 2006, considered themselves Slavic Rodnovers. They published self-published magazines with a racist-neo-pagan orientation, where they developed the idea of creating a "new Nordic race". They called for a "pagan revolution", which they aimed to make closer by hunting on people of "non-Slavic appearance".
In the 1990s, a number of neo-Nazi rock bands appeared in Russia. One of the most popular rock bands among skinheads is Kolovrat, founded in 1994. The band members share the ideas of the coming triumph of the "white world" and call for the "Aryans" to wage a race war. Other popular groups include Vandal and T. N. F. (Terror National Front), who record songs to the verses of the popular poet S. Yashin. Yashin, glorifying the "white race" and the "Aryan" idea. Similar groups exist in the regions - "Vantit" in Voronezh, "Faterland" in Samara, "Horst Wessel" and NS FRONT in Volgograd. Some of them adhere to the "Aryan style of music". The founder of the band DK Sergey Zharikov [ru] wrote about the unconditionally pagan character of rock culture, supported the national idea and messianism. Referring to the works of B. A. Rybakov, he argued that pagan ideology was most suitable for the struggle for the independence of the Russian land. Zharikov became the publisher of the neo-Nazi magazine Ataka, which focuses heavily on neo-pagan ideas. Such rock bands represent the Russian variety of a neo-Nazi music movement that developed in England and Germany from the early 1980s among the right-wing skinhead culture.
Wagner Group
The Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary group notable in the Russo-Ukrainian War has been accused of Neo-Nazism.
The group is believed to have been named after Dmitry Utkin who was the military commander of the unit and had call sign “Wagner”, apparently chosen after Richard Wagner, the favourite composer of Adolf Hitler. Utkin was openly a Neo-Nazi.[86] Members of the Wagner Group have been observed spray painting swastikas and SS lightning bolts, and Dmitry Utkin who was widely considered Wagner’s operational commander, had tattoos featuring Nazi ″SS″ epaulets.
However, Erica Gaston, a senior policy adviser at the UN University Centre for Policy Research, stated that while the alleged founder has "sympathies to far-right groups and there's probably some in the general recruitment that also have those sympathies, predominantly, it's not an ideological group but a mercenary network "linked to the Russian security state".
26-30, F
