LOOK WHO'S CALLING THE FASCIST BROWN
The leaders of world politics and the media have found yet another person that they can berate to flaunt their moral superiority: Vladimir Zhirinovsky. The purpose of this piece is not to try to excuse any of the fascist's views, but to point out the hypocrisy with which the media and the politicians of the world act as if they are outraged by the man. In fact, Zhirinovsky is no worse than other politicians that enjoy the respect and approval of the world political mafia.
By Laure Akai
Recently it became clear that the politicians of the world were going to use Zhirinovsky for their own public relations gimmicks to try to separate themselves from fascism and to feign moral outrage at his statements. He was expelled from Bulgaria, denied entrance to Germany and to Australia, etc., etc.. President Clinton made it clear that during his purposed visit to Moscow in January he would not meet with the leader. Yet at the same time he will visit Boris Yeltsin. Yeltsin has yet to condemn Zhirinovsky's politics. The reality of the situation is that Yeltsin and Zhirinovsky are two of a kind, except that Yeltsin has to manipulate the scenario and carry out a pernicious type of fascism to keep himself in power; for Zhirinovsky is was the overt form that got him elected. Of the two, one can even argue that it is Yeltsin and his people who pose a more serious threat of creating a fascist order in Russia.
First of all, it is important to point out that Yeltsin and his government stands for the predominance of the Russian people as the leading nationality in the territories of the former Soviet Union and that they have been trying to revive Russia's role as the leading military power in the region for some time. As the leaders of the former republics all know, the respect that they show for the national autonomy and separate economic development of these areas is mostly political showmanship. The recent CIS summit in Ashgabat had Yeltsin pushing for special status for Russians living in the former republics. Yet his response to foreigners living in Russia has been decisively punitive; as many as 100,000 people were deported from Moscow after the coup for being foreign, many being brought to war torn areas. Visiters to Moscow and Leningrad must pay a fee for every day they stay in the city and must get work permits and pay 40% taxes. People are checked for their papers according to their skin colour. If anything of the sort would happen to Russian's living in the former republics, this would be practically a declaration of war and we would most likely see immediate military intervention. The idea is clear: as the leading nation, we have the right to live peacefully wherever the hell we want; we can take what we want from you, but won't tolerate people we formerly dominated using the "wealth" that belongs to the Russian people.
Nursultan Nazarbayev critized Andrei Kozyrev for trying to drum up Russian separatism during his election campaigning in Kazakhstan by promising special support for Russians in the country. He felt that he had set the mood that led to votes for Zhirinovsky in the region. The difference between Kozyrev and Zhirinovsky is that Zhirinovsky would like (at least he says) to take back Kazakhstan (as an inferior nation) for use by Russia while Kozyrev would rather use more subtle political mechanisms to keep part of Kazakhstan for Russia, and to try to guide it into their sphere of influence. The latter realises that in the long run, such agressive methods of conquest and domination are not as benificial as others as military agression of the type Zhirinovsky preposes can lead to some negative reaction (if the oppressed people have any friends with big sticks) and rebellion amongst the local population. Kozyrev and his cabal save their necks by pretending that they have no vested interests in subordinating different countries to Russia, but this is exactly what they hope to achieve. Various economic policies have been put into effect to try to devastate areas such as the Ukraine in order to get them to go along with Russia's policies. Russia has sent in troops and promises to send troops on various campaigns. Economists promise to rebuild the military industrial complex to help the Russian economy and Grachev promises that the military will not be cut down as promised and looks foward to its renewed "prestige". They are now aspiring to the American political model of domination where effective control of an area can be rendered without military intervention and where any military intervention will find some mythical policing/racist-humanitarian justification.
The word in Moscow is that Yeltsin helped to bring Zhirinovsky to power (see Ivan Papugai's article in this issue). This is one possibility. In any case, I find it amusing that certain politicians in the world are so offended by Zhirinovsky. Bill "send back the Haitians" Clinton, refuses to meet with the man because he doesn't respect sovreign nations. Rumania, itself not "the model of democracy" cannot imagine a bigger insult than the fact that Zhirinovsky said it wasn't a real nation but a bunch of "Italian gypsies". (Given the treatment of gypsies in the area, one can guess that the essence of the insult was being compared to gypsies.) Germany is afraid of allowing Zhirinovsky into the country. Would be nice if their government took such decisive action against their own nazis. As far as I know, Germany has the most racist citizenship laws in Europe. These people have a lot of nerve to act morally superior than Zhirinovsky; they all have been party to various crimes against humanity, have all implented racist and chauvinist policy and all have somehow supported people who are just as bad as he in various corners of the world.
The fact that Zhirinovsky has met with popular dissaproval and condemnation by the media and many world leaders while much of what he talks about already goes on uninterrupted in the world probably shows that these other leaders are perhaps more dangerous because of the tacit approval given to their policies. Zhirinovsky, who now looks like the most likely future leader of the country, might actually get nowhere because of threats from the "international community". Then on the other, is the living conditions of Russians continue to deteriorate as they have, the Russians will wage war in spite of them.
MORE ON RUSSIAN ELECTIONS
The question most people are asking in regards to the recent elections in Russia is - was it all a mistake? Did the people really know who they were voting for when they voted for Zhirinovsky or were they fooled? It's really hard for some people to believe that the Russian people, themselves with a long history of suffering from fascist and authoritarian ideology, would want this sort of order for their country. I think it's long time for these people to wake up and smell the coffee.
First of all, anybody who has studied the deveolpment of fascism and knows Russia at all can see that all the preconditions for a surge in fascist ideology have been here for the last two years. You have a nation which was brought up believing that its people have a special place of predominance in the world. From the Orthodox Church's Third Rome theory to the Comintern's Third International, the Russian people were supposedly charged with a special purpose in life: to lead humanity into salvation. In the Soviet Union's closed off little fantasy world, the Russian's were the most advanced, cultured people on the face of the earth and foreigners (especially from the "capitalist countries" ) were viewed with suspicion. Then suddenly the Soviet myth was "exploded", but in fact only partly. The parts about the specialness and superiority of the Russian people were bound to stay in the public psyche. But as a nation, great Russia was offended; all of a sudden people were being told that there is mass incompetence in many fields of social life. People should be retrained, redirected from the "free world" and their economic experts. In countries where Russians once felt themselves superior, they are not wanted. People in surrounding countries complain about the "poor Russians" who try to go there, about how they are mostly drunks, criminals and prostitutes who are a wart on their nice prosperous societies. In places where Russians were settled, (one can say where Russia was "extended") local authorities demand or expect Russians to use their language; they would have never thought to learn it in the first place. (Doesn't everybody appreciate having to learn the language of Pushkin?) Many governments are ready to give certain neighbouring countries treatment unbefitting to a former colony. Russian prestige in on the decline.
At the same time that Russian prestige is on the decline, Russians, including the so-called "intelligentsia" (so-called because they're not actually at all that intelligent; it is a class of people who earn money by using their brains somehow), are busy trying to revive pride in the Russian nation. These calls for revival however are often closely connected to fascist ideas. (In fact you can see that the same type of escape to the glorious cultural past had strong symbolic power in Nazi Germany, fascist Italy and a number of other places.)
The bad economic situation also had contributed to the rise of fascism, for obvious reasons. There is some basis to the popular idea that the destruction of the Russian economy was largely caused by intervention by foreign interests; the conclusion the fascists draw (and many of their national communist allies) is that these foreigners are evil, not to be trusted, and that only the Russian people can save each other. There is a large appeal of socialist ideology of a sort, namely nationalist socialist ideology, which proposes well being for all good nazis. Like Germany after WWI, the reconquering of lost lands is high on many people's list of priorities. (It was Russia who developed that industry, Russians who build those factories and who worked there and now they want to steal all the wealth for themselves and cut us off from it.)
And the scapegoats are pretty much in place. It seems very likely that futher military interventions and attempts at annexation will happen in the areas of the Caucasus and Central Asia. They have the pretexts: that these areas are under conflicts that they are too stupid and barbarian to solve, that most of the people from these areas are criminal and "uncivilized", that these areas might come under Turkish agression or become the victims of their territorial ambitions. Things like this are heard in the media all the time.
It should be no surprise to people that Zhirinovsky made such a strong showing. The government itself has been supporting racist, nationalist (and sexist) policy for quite some time now. Incredible things are said in the media. Zhirinovsky is simply saying what the people say. When you have fascist material being sold on the streets openly for some time, with no reaction from the public, this says something. (Technically it's illegal to sell this but ask what happened when we made an action against people selling fascist literature. It was the anti-fascists who were arrested and berated by the press, including the most popular newspaper in Russia!) There are fascists all over the place and they have the support of much of the population, of law enforcement officials, of part of the military and even part of the mainstream press. But nobody wanted to tell you this; the media was too busy serving up its ideological bullshit about economic reforms and the future of democracy in this country.
So now the people voted. We can debate about how much this was a protest vote against Yeltsin and try to guess why people voted they did, but what's really important was that the real militant fascists and communists had boycotted the election, and that there is even a more extreme segment of the population who distrust Zhirinovsky, who, as I have heard repeatedly, (even from teachers at my school) "is not only a Jew, but a Polish Jew- the worst kind". Zhirinovsky of course was much closer in ideology to the so-called "moderate wing" of Russian politics. (In fact during the campaign, fascist-type commercials were always being run by people like Sergei Shakrai and much seemed to actually revolve aroung nationalist themes; even discussion of the economy was tinged with them and eventually were subordinated to them.) So what about the so-called "sane segment of the population", who were busy apologizing to Western TV consumers for the stupidity of their compatriots?
The segment of the population which is not effected by this nationalist and fascist mania is unfortunately small and thusfar has been apathetic. They are mostly tired of politics and have grown up never knowing a tradition of civil society. This total lack of citizen's initiatives in politics is so striking that even the staunchly pro-business "Moscow Times" has realized its devasting effect on Russian society; the most important thing that they could think of to wish for the New Year was not a speed up to economic reforms, or economic recovery, but "a civil society where grassroots political movements force gray-suited bureaucrats out of power". (December 30,1993)
It is important to note that it never even takes a majority to get political consent to start fascist campaigns. All you need to have is a firm base of desperate, fanactical people and a population which thinks mostly the same way and is not bent on agression and will not get together to wipe out fascist ideology. They cannot even begin to think about what ideas need to really be attacked because they harbour these ideas as well; they cannot make a connection between their own thoughts and outright fascism because they do don't understand how deep it runs. Wiping out Zhirinovsky's fascism is nothing- it is really just the tip of the iceberg, just the part we see. What is really enormous is the large mass of fascist, racist and nationalist ideology submerged in hypocritical political policies and pernicious forms of expression, which is naturally the part that is the basis for the ugly face of fascism which we know see so obviously before us. The form of Zhirinovsky's fascism is so overt that it can be understood in no other way, thus many wll be able to see that he is a fascist and will reject him as the symbolical representation of this ideology, but will not be able to completely reject the ideology in and of itself. Thus it is bound to take other forms and find other representatives. Unfortunately, those that have some understanding of the situation are few and far between.
"Russischer Durchbruch" - Gegenkultur und Neue Rechte in RuSlandMoskau, 19. Dezember, nur 6 Tage nach der Wahl: Im Haus der Kultur "Maxim Gorki" findet eine Veranstaltung ganz besonderer Art statt. In einer "nonkonformistischen Aktion" (so die Veranstalter
Alleine der Name dieses Festivals "Russkij Proryv" (Russischer Durchbruch) deutet die StoSrichtung - im Russischen bedeutet die Wahl von russkij im Gegensatz zu rossiskij den (gedanklichen) AusschluS der Den vorhin genannten "dritten" Weg auch in der "nonkonformistischen" Kultur zu finden bzw. zu definieren, war erkldrtes Ziel der Veranstalter: "Im allgemeinen BewuStsein herrscht das Stereotyp, nach dem zwei sich gegenseitig ausschlieSende Kunstrichtungen existieren, deren Vertreter sich selbst die Namen "avangardistisch" und "traditionalistisch" geben. Wir haben vor, dieses Stereotyp zu zerstfren und eine gesonderte dritte Position einzunehmen. ... Die jahrhundertelang sich herausgebildeten religifs-kulturellen Traditionen RuSlands sollen ihren Ausdruck in modernen, dem Zeitgeist entsprechenden Formen unter Anwendung neuester Technologien und Kommunikationsmitteln finden." Worum es in Wirklichkeit aber in erster Linie geht, wird aus dem folgenden Zitat, ebenfalls aus der Presseerkldrung, deutlich: "In einer Zeit, die den Wahrheitsbegriff und den Begriff des absoluten Wertes in Zweifel gezogen hat; in dieser Periode in der die Kioskkultur in unserem Land eingefbhrt wurde, verkbnden wir den Nonkonformismus als Lebens- und Schaffensstil." Es geht also darum, absolute Wahrheiten und Werte a'la "Elementy", d.h. die Einteilung der Welt in Gute und Bfse wieder neu und ewig zu definieren. Wie aber anders als bber Glauben ist dies mfglich? So spielt Irrationalitdt und Religion eine zentrale Rolle in den Publikationen der Neuen Rechten.
Was Viele hier in Moskau nach wie vor nicht verstehen, ist, daS eine Gruppe wie "Groschdanskaja Oborona" (Zivile Verdeidigung) an dieser Aktion teilnehmen konnte. Ihr plakativer Gebrauch des Anarchiezeichens, vielmehr aber ihre antisowjetischen ("Vso idjet po planu"- Alles lduft nach Plan) und antifaschistischen ("Obschestvo Pamjat" - Gesellschaft Pamjat) Lieder sowie das persfnliche Schicksal ihres Sdngers Jegor Letov, der selber Opfer sowjetischer Repressionen (Zwangspsychatrie) wurde, lie+en starke Zweifel aufkommen, daS G. O. so einfach, ohne irgendwelche Provokationen an dem "Russischen Durchbruch" teilnehmen wbrden.
Doch das UnfaSbare wurde Wirklichkeit - friedlich auf dem Podium vereint saSen wdhrend der Pressekonferenz unter anderem Prochanow (Chefredakteur Den), Dugin (Chefredakteur Elementy), Neumoew (Sdnger der Rockgruppe "Instrukzija po wyschiwanju"- Instruktion zum berleben - erkldrter Antisemit) sowie Jegor Letov.
Auf die Frage, warum er, Letov, an dieser Veranstaltung teilnehme, entgegnete dieser, er wdre noch nie Demokrat gewesen, heute sei er linksradikaler Kommunist. Sein Lieblingspolitiker sei Anpilow, National-Kommunist, einer der fbhrenden Verteidiger des WeiSen Hauses, der zur Zeit deswegen im Gefdngnis sitzt. Letow duSerte sich erfreut darbber, daS alle "Unsrigen", d.h. Kommunisten und Nationalisten in dieser Veranstaltung zusammenkamen. Die verzweifelte Frage eines offensichtlichen Fans - "Jegor was willst Du eigentlich, was ist geschehen? Du warst doch immer Du selbst und gegen alle! - beantwortete dieser: "Hfr meine Lieder an, in ihnen ist alles enthalten. Ich habe mich nicht gedndert, ich verteidige meine Werte."
Zum eigentlichen Konzert kam es dann doch nicht mehr. Die Halle des Kulturhauses war viel zu klein, um den Hunderten von agressiven und zumeist auch betrunkenen Punks Platz zu bieten, die einzig und allein gekommen waren, um Groschdanskaja Oborona zu sehen. Der Abend endete in einer mehrstbndigen StraSenschlacht zwischen enttduschten Fans und OMON, die Trdnengas einsetzte und scharf in die Luft schoS. Es wurden bber 60 Personen verhaftet und 10 verletzt, darunter 5 Polizisten. Bleibt am SchluS neben der treffenen Titelzeile der Tageszeitung "Sevodnja" - "Zivile Verteidigung"( = G. O.) rettet nicht vor OMON - nur noch hinzuzufugen, daS es keine ernsthaften Versuche gab, das Konzert zu verhindern oder wenigstens einen 6ffentlichen Boykott zu initiieren.
M. M.
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