radical nationalists: true till death?did occur, they failed to raise the level of revolutionary fervour
locally, or in the country as a whole.
One solution could be to seek support from the significant share
of the citizenry who, while not fully ideologically committed,
are nevertheless inclined towards racism and violence. However,
these people have not yet allowed themselves to be mobilised in
sufficient numbers. On Paratrooper Day (2 August), for example,
every year the usual hooligan violence is accompanied by several
attacks clearly motivated by racism, but the ultra- right have not
managed to derive any advantage from this.
Greater potential may lie in organised football hooligans. Ultra-
right ideas and racist tendencies are widespread among them, and
their gangs are well- organised structures, surpassing communi-
ties of Nazi skinheads and similar groups in terms of ‘fighting
strength’. But the football hooligans have kept apart from ultra-
right organisations: they value their independence and apoliti-
cal nature, and do not particularly respect nationalists as street
fighters. Of course, many fans are involved in various nationalist
groups in a personal capacity, and there are some fairly ideo-
logically minded, racist groups of fans. Moreover, many ‘Russian
fans’ may unite against fans of clubs from the North Caucasus,
but this does not mean that they are managed by radical national-
ists (Tarasov 2010).
For a while, at the end of 2010, it seemed as if this may change.
The death of an ultra- right Spartak fan, Egor Sviridov, in a street
fight mobilised both the ultra- right and the fans. The result was
the 11 December demonstration on Manezhnaia Square, which
swiftly degenerated into attacks on passers- by and pitched battles
with OMON. The mass participation of fans, and the fact that
these battles under the very walls of the Kremlin resulted in a
draw, raised hopes that larger meetings would soon gather and
the ‘white revolution’ would finally come to pass. Young groups
of autonomous Nazis created an informal ‘11 December move-
ment’, which aimed to repeat the Manezhnaia scenario in the
hope that things may develop in that direction. That has proved
impossible, however: the police have maintained control over
Moscow – and the nationalists have not yet managed to mobilise
the fans en masse even once.