National Bolshevik Party

National Bolshevik Party
Leader	Eduard Limonov
Founded	1992
Dissolved	Banned in 2007; transformed into The Other Russia in 2010.
Headquarters	Moscow
Ideology	National Bolshevism Eurasianism
International affiliation	Unknown
Website
http://nazbol.info/
Politics of Russia Political parties Elections

The National Bolshevik Party (NBP, Russian: Национал-большевистская партия, НБП, also known as Nazbol, Russian: Нацболы) was a Russian political party. Its political program was National Bolshevism.^{[citation needed]} The NBP was a prominent member of The Other Russia coalition of opposition parties.^{[citation needed]} The organization was banned in Russia, and has never been officially registered as political party. In 2010, its leader founded a new political party, The Other Russia. There are also smaller NBP groups in other countries.

The NBP's preferred political activity consisted of direct action stunts, mostly against prominent political figures. Its official publication was the journal Limonka. Its name derived from the surname of the party's leader, Eduard Limonov, and is idiomatic Russian for grenade. The journal changed its name after the authorities banned it for "promoting extremism and calling on overthrowing the constitutional order".^{[citation needed]} The main editor of Limonka for many years was Alexei Vyacheslavovich Tsvetkov.

Ideology

Members of the National Bolshevik party at a protest rally in Moscow with a copy of the Limonka newspaper. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev.

The National Bolshevik Party advocated the creation of a Russian-dominated empire that would include all of Europe, as well as northern and central Asia. It was vehemently opposed to American foreign policy, and argued that a Eurasian empire would be a counterbalance to capitalist global domination.^{[citation needed]} When Aleksandr Dugin left the NBP to create his own party called Eurasia, the NBP lessened its emphasis on a geopolitical agenda in favor of a national one, concentrating on the defence of Russian minorities in the former Soviet Union republics, and on opposition to the political regime in Russia.^{[citation needed]} Limonov denounced Dugin's conservatism and submissiveness to the regime.^{[citation needed]} The NBP replaced its aggressive Eurasianist and imperialist nationalism with Russian territorial nationalism.^{[citation needed]}

The NBP historically defended Stalinism, although later on the party said it did not wish to re-create that system. The NBP was highly critical of the Vladimir Putin government, and argued that state institutions such as the bureaucracy, the police and the courts were corrupt and authoritarian. The NBP had denied links to fascism, stating that all form of antisemitism, xenophobia and racism were against the principles of the party.

History

National Bolsheviks attack a polling station in Odintsovo, Moscow Oblast during the Russian legislative election, 2007 to protest the ban of the NBP.

In 1992, Eduard Limonov founded the National Bolshevik Front as an amalgamation of six minor groups. Aleksandr Dugin was amongst 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 possessing grenades, although Limonov argued that they had been planted.^{[citation needed]} The incident gave the NBP publicity for a boycott campaign they were organising against Western goods.

In 1992, the NBF joined the National Salvation Front coalition. When others within the coalition began to speak out against the NBF, it withdrew from the alliance. The resulting fallout led the NBP to produce a document entitled Limonov vs. Zhirinovsky, which criticized the leader of their former allies, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, stating that "a Jew masquerading as a Russian nationalist is a sickness, a pathology" (Zhirinovsky having a Jewish background). Following the aborted alliance, the NBP attempted to reach a new deal with Russian National Unity in 1999, but this came to nothing.

Although these early actions showed alignment and sympathy with nationalist groups, a split occurred in the NBP in the 2000s which changed this to an extent. Opposed to the Vladimir Putin regime, Limonov somewhat liberalized the NBP and joined forces with leftist and liberal groups to oppose Putin.^{[citation needed]}

In 2001, Eduard Limonov was arrested with NBP members on charges of illegal purchasing of weapons. In 2003, Limonov was released from Lefortovo Prison. On August 2, 2004, NBP members occupied the Ministry of Health in Moscow in order to protest the cancellation of social benefits. This was followed by an attempt to occupy Putin's office in December of the same year, although that was put down, and 30 arrests were made.

The NBP was banned by a lower court in June 2005, but the Russian Supreme Court overturned that ban on August 16, 2005. In November 2005, however, 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.

In August 2006, an anti-Limonovist faction of the NBP that was more right-wing, anti-liberal, ant-left, anti-Kasparov and aggressively nationalist formed the National Bolshevik Front.

On November 7, 2006, police detained 27 NBP members after an office break-in on the eve of the celebration of the October Revolution. In 2007, the NBP took part in a Dissenters' March and subsequent demonstrations against the Putin government.

The NBP was outlawed again on 19 April 2007.^{[citation needed]}

In 2009, NBP members took part in Strategy-31, a series of civic protests in support of the right to peaceful assembly. In July 2010, members of the banned NBP founded the new political party The Other Russia. The NBP continued to organize, however, and in May 2011, NBP activists attacked the Embassy of Serbia in Moscow in solidarity with Ratko Mladić.

International groups

Several small groups named National Bolshevik Party have existed in countries including Latvia, Moldova, Sweden, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Serbia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Israel. They are often made up of Russian immigrants.

In Belarus, a Pentecostal church in Minsk was vandalised in 2006 with the NBP emblem drawn on its walls. The NBP was not, however, officially registered in the country. This followed a similar incident at the Latvian embassy in the city the previous year.

In Latvia, the NBP has had members hold office in Riga and has executed notable publicity stunts, but the party has been largely marginal in that country. The Latvian branch has been led by Konstantin Mihailuk and Vladimir Linderman.^{[citation needed]} One of the leaders of Latvian NBP was Ayo Benes. In 2006, the Latvian NBP was active in anti-capitalist demonstrations and in blockades against SS veterans' parades during Latvian Legion Day. In May 2007, two Russian NBP members were detained while attempting to illegally cross the border between the two countries.

In Lithuania, National Bolsheviks appeared in 2005 in Visaginas and Klaipėda. One of their most notable actions was against education reform.

The Moldovan NBP was refused registration as a political party in 2005, so it registered as a non-governmental organization, with Transnistria as its main centre of activity.

In Ukraine, the NBP joined other small parties in signing a Declaration of the Kiev Council of Slav Radical Nationalists in 1996, in an initiative led by the Ukrainian National Assembly. The Ukrainian NBP, which was largely based in the east of the country, was active in anti-Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) and anti-NATO demonstrations. During the Orange Revolution, the Ukrainian NBP decided not to support Viktor Yushchenko or Viktor Yanukovych.

Notable members

Current

• Eduard Limonov (writer)
• Zakhar Prilepin (writer)
• Vladimir Linderman (journalist and activist)
• Sergei Aksenov (journalist and activist)
• Aleksandr Averin (journalist and activist)
• Andrei Dmitriev (journalist and activist)

Former

• Aleksandr Dugin (philosopher)

Deceased

• Yegor Letov (singer)
• Aleksandr Nepomniachtchi (singer)
• Natalya Medvedeva (singer and writer)
• Aleksandr Dolmatov (activist)
• Yuriy Chervochkin (murdered activist)
• Sergey Kuryokhin (film actor, pianist)

External links

• National Bolsheviks
• National Bolshevik Party - old website
• National Bolshevik Party website (archived)
• NBP-INFO - National-Bolshevik blog
• Who Are the National-Bolsheviks? by Andrei Dmitriev
• Russia: National Bolsheviks, The Party Of 'Direct Action' from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
• Russian fascism: traditions, tendencies, movements by Stephen Shenfield