the new russian nationalismrecent years have shown that the most diverse groups of radical
nationalists, from the most marginal to the almost respectable,
are incapable of broadening their support base. They are simply
competing with one another for the same people. The methods
used to involve potential supporters – be it weightlifting, ‘Russian
runs’ or other such gimmicks – have all proven ineffectual.
It would be a mistake to think that radical nationalists do not
have enough prominent leaders. Their leaders are not bad at all,
and manage to satisfy the demands of those groups that pro-
moted them. What is lacking, then, is not ‘supply’ but ‘demand’
- not methods and leaders, but a new generation of grassroots
activists. When a new grassroots emerges, as happened at the
end of the 1990s and the early 2000s, it will doubtless promote
new leaders.
Judging by the experience of recent years, the majority of
today’s leaders – from the famous heads of the Russkie move-
ment to the leaders of local neo- Nazi gangs – have little chance
of promoting their ideas more widely. They are also not going to
change these ideas, which are firmly rooted in the Western tradi-
tion of ‘White Power’ and only partially in the Russian nationalist
tradition. They will have to leave the stage (gradually or suddenly,
depending on what happens), as did most of the ‘old’ Russian
nationalist leaders of the 1990s. True, many of these older leaders
have hung on to prominent positions to this day, and the genera-
tional change will not be total this time round either – but it may
be that the notably lower intellectualism of the radical nationalist
movement of the 2000s will not allow today’s leaders to adapt to
changes to the same extent as the previous generation.
Notes
- This chapter was prepared during the summer of 2014 and early
winter of 2015, in the heat of military hostilities; hence, it does not
address the entire period of this war. - This chapter assumes reader familiarity with the main actors and cir-
cumstances of the Russian nationalist movement. For further infor-
mation about many present- day organisations, see Kozhevnikova
and Shekhovtsov (2009).