The Russian Fascists

Beskrivelse af fascistiske bevægelser blandt russiske emigranter, som efter revolutionen i 1917 i deres eksil søgte at kompensere for deres magtesløshed ved at hengive sig til desperate fantasier.

First Published in 2001. This study presents a thorough analysis of facism, its manifestations in Russian political and cultural history, and facist tendencies and movements in contemporary Russian society.

Beskrivelse af fascistiske bevægelser blandt russiske emigranter, som efter revolutionen i 1917 i deres eksil søgte at kompensere for deres magtesløshed ved at hengive sig til desperate fantasier.

The Putin regime and its propagandists have long claimed to be fighting the heirs of Nazi Germany. From its crackdown on domestic dissent to its aggression on the international stage, the Kremlin has regularly smeared its adversaries as fascists and fascist collaborators. Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which Putin claimed would achieve its 'denazification', brought this propaganda to a new level of intensity. This book shines a spotlight on the disturbing reality behind Putin's anti-fascist posturing. It shows how his regime mobilised neo-nazis as proxies during Russia's descent into authoritarianism. Using court records and extensive media and internet sources, it analyses the relationship between the Kremlin and Russkii Obraz, a neo-nazi organization that became a major force on Russia's radical nationalist scene in 2008-10. It shows how Russkii Obraz’s rise was boosted by the regime’s policy of ‘managed nationalism,’ which mobilised radical nationalist proxies against opponents of authoritarianism. In return for undermining moderate nationalists and pro-democracy activists, Russkii Obraz received official support and access to public space. This collaboration became politically hazardous for the Kremlin because of Russkii Obraz's neo-Nazi ideology and its connections to BORN, a terrorist group responsible for a series of high-profile killings. When security forces captured the ringleader of BORN, they precipitated the destruction of Russkii Obraz, but veterans of the organisation went on to play a prominent role in Russia's attack on Ukraine in 2014.

In Is Russia Fascist?, Marlene Laruelle argues that the charge of "fascism" has become a strategic narrative of the current world order. Vladimir Putin's regime has increasingly been accused of embracing fascism, supposedly evidenced by Russia's annexation of Crimea, its historical revisionism, attacks on liberal democratic values, and its support for far-right movements in Europe. But at the same time Russia has branded itself as the world's preeminent antifascist power because of its sacrifices during the Second World War while it has also emphasized how opponents to the Soviet Union in Central and Eastern Europe collaborated with Nazi Germany. Laruelle closely analyzes accusations of fascism toward Russia, soberly assessing both their origins and their accuracy. By labeling ideological opponents as fascist, regardless of their actual values or actions, geopolitical rivals are able to frame their own vision of the world and claim the moral high ground. Through a detailed examination of the Russian domestic scene and the Kremlin's foreign policy rationales, Laruelle disentangles the foundation for, meaning, and validity of accusations of fascism in and around Russia. Is Russia Fascist? shows that the efforts to label opponents as fascist is ultimately an attempt to determine the role of Russia in Europe's future.

Will Russia's fragile and flawed democracy meet the same fate as interwar Germany's Weimar Republic? That is the question that prompts this meticulous analysis of fascism, its manifestations in Russian political and cultural history, and fascist tendencies and movements in contemporary Russia. The author devotes chapters to the many Russian political parties, movements, and organizationst that have been labeled (or mislabeled) as fascist. He critically examines each in terms of program, leadership, and organizational effectiveness. Against the background of the current climate of opinion and events in Russia, he concludes with a careful attempt to weigh the pospects for a fascist outcome.

The history of the Russian fascist movement in Harbin, Manchuria during the 1930s has become increasingly relevant to our understanding of modern Russia. As a railway junction and an important centre of the Jewish Diaspora, the city of Harbin became a focus of Russian emigration to Manchuria in the early 1930s, partly because of its proximity to the resource-rich Manchurian plains. In this multicultural and cosmopolitan setting the first Russian fascist groups were established. Based on an analysis of Russian civil society, Fascism in Manchuria sheds light on the impact of the newly-founded All-Russian Fascist Party on the Russian emigre community, employing the concept of 'dark' civil society. Suzanne Hohler demonstrates how fascist involvement in local civil society increasingly determined public opinion, examining the power of the military organizations, the symbols and style of the fascist organizations, the cult of the leader as well as the 'public-relations' activities of the fascist organizations and of the so-called Russian Club. In this context the book provides not only insights into the history and ideology of the far eastern branch of Russian fascism and its transnational connections, but also touches upon a variety of issues of daily life in the city, issues such as education, drug addiction and hooliganism among Russian youth, the local YMCA, the famous Kaspe kidnapping and the rise of anti-Semitism. Fascist literature from Harbin is being republished in today's Russia, and Fascism in Manchuria provides an important historical context for the thinking and motives which drive the Russian right."

Testament of a Russian Fascist contains the collected writings of the obscure and fascinating figure of Konstantin Vladimirovich Rodzaevsky, the leader of the long extinct All-Russian Fascist Party. Born in 1907, Rodzevsky lived through a turbulent time, going through the Russian Revolution as an adolescent and escaping the USSR at the age of eighteen to Manchuria, nominally under Chinese control at the time. There, he and numerous other Russians lived in exile, watching with horror across the border at the transformation of their motherland under the Soviet Union. In his writings, Rodzaevsky offers a rare insight into the mindset and ideology of the Russian far-right during the interwar era and presents a historical account of what he sees as a force that destroyed Russia and, with the Russian people in chains, seeks to dominate the entire world. Drawing on his personal experiences as well as historical events, Rodzaevsky traces the roots of the dark power that first took over the West and then Russia and explores the potential of a global fascist revolution. This book is not just a piece of journalism or even a political manifesto, but it also delves into the personal struggles and tragedies of Rodzaevsky's life and the Russian people, showcasing the complex motivations that drove him to embrace fascism as the future for his people. Antelope Hill Publishing is proud to present Testament of a Russian Fascist translated for the first time into English. Relevant to this day, the obscure memory of Rodzaevsky sheds light on the complex and unique relationship between fascism and Russia.