National-Bolshevik Party
Encyclopedia
The National Bolshevik Party (NBP, , also known as Natsbol) was a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n political party
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

. Its political program is National Bolshevism
National Bolshevism
National Bolshevism is a political movement that claims to combine elements of nationalism and Bolshevism. It is often anti-capitalist in tone, and sympathetic towards certain nationalist forms of communism and socialism...

. The NBP is a prominent member of The Other Russia
The Other Russia
The Other Russia , sometimes cited as Another Russia, is an umbrella coalition that gathered opponents of former President of Russia Vladimir Putin...

 coalition of opposition parties. There are also smaller NBP groups in other countries.

In Russia, the organization has been banned, and has never been officially registered as political party. Since being banned, its membership has declined. The NBP's preferred political activity has consisted of direct action
Direct action
Direct action is activity undertaken by individuals, groups, or governments to achieve political, economic, or social goals outside of normal social/political channels. This can include nonviolent and violent activities which target persons, groups, or property deemed offensive to the direct action...

 stunts, mostly against prominent political figures.

Its official organ is the journal Limonka
Limonka (newspaper)
Limonka is a Moscow-based newspaper. Limonka is the official organ of the National Bolshevik Party. Limonka was founded by Eduard Limonov and it was first published in 1994. The name is a play of words on Limonov and is idiomatic Russian for grenade...

(Лимонка). The name is a play of words on Limonov
Eduard Limonov
Eduard Limonov is Russian writer and political dissident, and is the founder and leader of radical National Bolshevik Party. An opponent of Vladimir Putin, Limonov is one of leaders of Other Russia political bloc.-Early life:...

and is idiomatic Russian for grenade
Grenade
A grenade is a small explosive device that is projected a safe distance away by its user. Soldiers called grenadiers specialize in the use of grenades. The term hand grenade refers any grenade designed to be hand thrown. Grenade Launchers are firearms designed to fire explosive projectile grenades...

. It was forced to change its name after the authorities banned it for "promoting extremism and hatred". The main editor of Limonka for many years was Alexei Tsvetkov (Алексей Цветков).

Political programme

The National Bolshevik Party advocates the creation of a Russian-dominated empire
Empire
The term empire derives from the Latin imperium . Politically, an empire is a geographically extensive group of states and peoples united and ruled either by a monarch or an oligarchy....

 that would include all of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, as well as northern and central Asia. It is vehemently opposed to American foreign policy, and believes that a Eurasia
Eurasia
Eurasia is a continent or supercontinent comprising the traditional continents of Europe and Asia ; covering about 52,990,000 km2 or about 10.6% of the Earth's surface located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres...

n empire would be an essential counterbalance to capitalist
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...

 global domination. However, when Aleksandr Dugin
Aleksandr Dugin
Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin is a politologist and one of the most popular ideologists of Russian expansionism, nationalism, and fascism, with close ties to the Kremlin and Russian military. He was the leading organizer of National Bolshevik Party, National Bolshevik Front, and Eurasia Party...

 left the NBP to create his own party called Eurasia, the NBP lessened the emphasis on a geo-political agenda in favor of a national one, concentrating on the defence of Russian minorities in the former Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....

 republics, and on opposition to the political regime in Russia. Limonov denounced Dugin's conservatism
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...

 and submissiveness to the regime.

The NBP has replaced its aggressive Eurasianist and imperialist nationalism with a Russian territorial nationalism
Territorial nationalism
Territorial nationalism assumes that all inhabitants of a particular nation owe allegiance to their country of birth or adoption. A sacred quality is sought in the nation and in the popular memories it evokes...

. It has criticized Lithuania
Lithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...

 and Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...

 for degrading Russian-Soviet World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 veterans and memorials, and for legislation that banned Soviet symbols such as the hammer and sickle and the red star, which placed them on par with the swastika
Swastika
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...

 and other Nazi imagery.

It is highly critical of the government of Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...

, and considers state institutions such as the bureaucracy
Bureaucracy
A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...

, the police and the courts to be corrupt and authoritarian.

History

The NBP has been led by Eduard Limonov
Eduard Limonov
Eduard Limonov is Russian writer and political dissident, and is the founder and leader of radical National Bolshevik Party. An opponent of Vladimir Putin, Limonov is one of leaders of Other Russia political bloc.-Early life:...

 since its founding in 1992 as National Bolshevik Front
National Bolshevik Front
National Bolshevik Front has been used as a name for three separate strands of National Bolshevism. The name initially applied to the Russian National Bolshevik Party of Eduard Limonov when it was founded in 1993...

, as an amalgamation of six minor groups. Aleksandr Dugin
Aleksandr Dugin
Aleksandr Gelyevich Dugin is a politologist and one of the most popular ideologists of Russian expansionism, nationalism, and fascism, with close ties to the Kremlin and Russian military. He was the leading organizer of National Bolshevik Party, National Bolshevik Front, and Eurasia Party...

 was amongst the earliest members, and was instrumental in convincing Limonov to enter the political arena. The party first attracted attention in 1992 when two members were arrested for possessing grenades, although Limonov argued that they had been planted. The incident achieved little, apart from giving the NBP some publicity for a boycotting campaign they were organising against Western goods.

In 1992, the NBF joined the National Salvation Front
National Salvation Front (Russia)
The National Salvation Front was a broad coalition of communist, socialist and ultra-nationalist movements against the reforms in Russia. The front was organized on 24 October 1992...

 coalition, which was supported by Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

 Jean-François Thiriart
Jean-François Thiriart
Jean-François Thiriart was a Belgian far right politician.-Youth:Initially a Socialist, Thiriart eventually adopted a form of non-Marxist, Nationalist Socialism....

. 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
Vladimir Zhirinovsky
Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky is a Russian politician, colonel of the Russian Army, founder and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia , Vice-Chairman of the State Duma, and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe....

which attacked the leader of their former allies, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia
Liberal Democratic Party of Russia
The Liberal Democratic Party of Russia , Liberal'no-Demokraticheskaya Partiya Rossii is a political party in Russia. Since its founding in 1991, it has been led by the charismatic and controversial figure Vladimir Zhirinovsky...

, by stating that "a Jew masquerading as a Russian nationalist is a sickness, a pathology" (Zhirinovsky having a Jewish background). Since this aborted alliance, the NBP attempted to reach a new deal with Russian National Unity
Russian National Unity
Russian National Unity or All-Russian civic patriotic movement "Russian National Unity" , is a far right, fascist political party and paramilitary organization based in Russia and operating in states with Russian-speaking populations. It was founded by the ultra-nationalist Alexander Barkashov...

 in 1999, but this came to nothing.

Although these early actions show some alignment and sympathy with nationalists groups, a split occurred in the NBP in the 2000s which changed this to an extent. Opposed to the Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...

 regime in Russia, Limonov has somewhat liberalized the NBP, and joined forces with leftist and liberal groups in Kasparov's United Civil Front
United Civil Front
United Civil Front is a social movement in Russia founded and led by chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov. It is part of The Other Russia, an opposition coalition active in Moscow...

 to fight Putin.
NBP members took over the Ministry of Health in Moscow on August 2, 2004 in order to protest the cancellation of social benefits in Russia. This was followed by an attempt to occupy Putin's office in December of the same year, although it was put down, and 30 arrests were made.

The NBP was liquidated by a lower court
Lower court
A lower court is a court from which an appeal may be taken. In relation to an appeal from one court to another, the lower court is the court whose decision is being reviewed, which may be the original trial court or an appellate court lower in rank than the superior court which is hearing the...

 in June 2005, but the Russian Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the Russian Federation
The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation is the court of last resort in Russian administrative law, civil law and criminal law cases. It also supervises the work of lower courts. Its predecessor is the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union....

 overturned the ban on August 16, 2005. In November 2005, the Russian Supreme Court upheld a ban on the National Bolshevik Party on the grounds that it violated the law on political parties, by calling itself a party without being registered as such.

A group of NBP followers disagrees with Limonov's new strategy of seeking political alliances with pro-Western and pro-market liberal-democratic forces. They call themselves NBP bez Limonova (NBP without Limonov) or simply National Bolsheviks, because they regard themselves as the real followers of National Bolshevism, accusing Limonov of betraying party's original ideas in order to gain personal visibility. In August 2006, an anti-Limonovist faction of the NBP that is more right-wing, anti-liberal, anti-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 Bolshevik Revolution. In 2007, the NBP took part in the Dissenters March
Dissenters March
The Dissenters' March was a series of political opposition protests that took place on 16 December 2006, in Moscow, on 3 March 2007, in Saint Petersburg, on 24 March 2007, in Nizhny Novgorod, on 14 April 2007, for the second time in Moscow and on 15 April 2007, again in Saint Petersburg, on 18 May...

 and subsequent demonstrations against the government. The NBP was outlawed again on 19 April 2007.

The group has continued to organise however and in May 2011, NBP activists attacked the Embassy of Serbia in Moscow
Embassy of Serbia in Moscow
The Embassy of the Republic of Serbia in Moscow is the diplomatic mission of Serbia in the Russian Federation. It is located at 46 Mosfilmovskaya Street in the Ramenki District of Moscow Current Ambassador of Serbia to Russia is Jelica Kurjak....

.

International groups

Several much smaller groups known as the National Bolshevik Party exist in countries such as Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

, Moldova, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

, Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...

, Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...

, Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...

, Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...

, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

, Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...

, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

. They are often made up of Russian immigrants.

In Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...

, a Pentecostal
Pentecostalism
Pentecostalism is a diverse and complex movement within Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal experience of God through the baptism in the Holy Spirit, has an eschatological focus, and is an experiential religion. The term Pentecostal is derived from Pentecost, the Greek...

 church in Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...

 was vandalised in 2006 with the NBP emblem drawn on its walls. The NBP is not, however, officially registered in the country. This followed a similar incident at the Latvia
Latvia
Latvia , officially the Republic of Latvia , is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by Estonia , to the south by Lithuania , to the east by the Russian Federation , to the southeast by Belarus and shares maritime borders to the west with Sweden...

n embassy in the city the previous year. NBP members have held office in Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...

, Latvia. This Latvian branch has variously been led by Konstantin Mihailuk and Vladimir Linderman. Although it has made some noted publicity stunts, it is largely marginal in Latvia. Two Russian party members were detained in May 2007 while attempting to illegally cross the border between the two countries.

In Latvia NBP is active in anti-capitalist demonstrations and in blockades against SS
15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Latvian)
The 15th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS was formed in the Waffen SS's drive for manpower in the wake of Operation Barbarossa; Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941...

 veterans' parades during Latvian Legion Day
Latvian Legion Day
Latvian Legion Day is a day on March 16, when front soldiers of the Latvian Legion, part of the Waffen SS, are commemorated...

.

In Lithuania, National Bolsheviks had 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
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...

, with Transnistria
Transnistria
Transnistria is a breakaway territory located mostly on a strip of land between the Dniester River and the eastern Moldovan border to Ukraine...

 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 is largely based in the east of the country is active in anti-UPA and anti-NATO demonstrations. During the Orange Revolution the Ukrainian NBP decided not to support Yanukovych or Yushchenko.

External links

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