Teaching Comparative

A new bit of civil society in Russia

What caught my attention was this December 18th news in the Moscow Times:

Nashi Activists Converge on City

"An estimated 70,000 Kremlin supporters donning Santa suits converged on the capital Sunday to celebrate a key World War II victory...

"While the massive celebrations actually missed the 65th anniversary of the Battle of Moscow... they did coincide perfectly with a nearby, decidedly anti-Kremlin rally for slain liberal journalists..."



70,000 in Santa suits? Kremlin supporters? anti-Kremlin rally? Nashi?

So I went looking for more information.


Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported in March2005: Walking With Putin

"The pro-Putin youth movement Walking Together announced on 1 March that it has created a new youth movement called Nashi (Ours). According to a press release... which quotes Walking Together founder Vasilii Yakemenko, the goal of the new 'anti-fascist" movement is to put an end to the "anti-Fatherland union of oligarchs, anti-Semites, Nazis, and liberals.' Several Moscow-based newspapers reported the goal of the new group is actually a bit more specific: to eventually replace the party of power, Unified Russia...

"Moskovskii komsomolets on 24 February reported that it obtained documents outlining a 'grandiose plan for the creation of a new youth movement' whose goal is to save the motherland from colonization by the United States."


A couple weeks later, the Christian Science Monitor reported, New political force in Russia: youths

"Emerging youth groups protest Putin's 'managed democracy,' spurring pro-Kremlin groups to respond...

"Nashi, or 'Ours,' is an offshoot that promises to be more militant, more nationalistic - and more alert to protecting youths from 'fascists.' Dozens of Moving Together activists were on the streets of Moscow Monday, picketing what they called 'pornography' in a modern opera at the Bolshoi Theater..."


About the same time, the BBC reported that Pavel Dulman, in the newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, wrote that, 'Political youth movements are playing an increasingly active role in Russia, compensating for the lack of a strong opposition in mainstream politics...'

Dulman continued, 'Non-party youth movements are also growing in prominence and many see a Russian equivalent of the Georgian and Ukrainian revolutionary youth movements emerging from this sector. The creation of the pro-Putin youth movement Nashi, which has by far the greatest membership of all these groups, seems to be a response to this development...

'The anti-fascist Nashi movement, youth Yabloko, the National Bolsheviks, Oborona [Defence], the Youth Union for the Motherland - in the past 12-18 months they have come to occupy their own area of the news agenda, often playing the role of PR engines for their senior comrades...'"


And Leonid Ragozin wrote for the BBC, Russian youth on political barricades

"After peaceful democratic revolutions swept away old regimes in Ukraine and Georgia, there has been much speculation about whether the same could happen in Russia.

"But the Kremlin is alert to these plans, and as a counter-measure, it has blessed the creation of the Nashi ('Ours') youth organisation, to enter the battle for hearts and minds.

"One liberal youth activist has alleged that Nashi is preparing brigades of thugs to deter young people from joining pro-democracy groups..."


In July of 2005, the Washington Post reported, Preempting Politics In Russia

"...the Kremlin seeks to preempt political activism. Not long ago it masterminded its own youth movement... known as Nashi [which] draws on the Kremlin for support and resources. Nashi's leader said in an interview this month that since 'everyone knows that the Kremlin supports Nashi,' any businessman will readily give the organization money. Indeed, he said that 'to turn down our request for financing would be to take an unpatriotic stand.'

"What Nashi is up to, though, is rather vague. Recently some 3,000 of its activists were brought together at a summer camp (travel, food, entertainment and sports equipment provided) where they worked out and heard lectures by Kremlin propagandists calling upon them to be tough against Russia's enemies. On the other hand, Nashi's proclaimed goal is to become Russia's next generation of 'nationally oriented' civil servants and government managers, which should make membership in the new organization a good start for young careerists. It's a rather weird outfit, with undertones of Hitler Youth and the Soviet Komsomol, but it does serve to clarify one important fact: The Kremlin today has huge advantages over the Russian public in political initiative, funds, organizational capacity and other resources..."


In October 2006, the Russian news agency Interfax reported,

"The Nashi (Ours) youth movement organized a rally in support ofthe Russian ruble and against the U.S. dollar...

"Over 20 Nashi activists wearing top hats decorated with the colors of the U.S. flag and  robes made from dollar bill photocopies gathered... under the motto 'Don't buy dollars! Our currency is the ruble!'"


And in December 2006, BBC reported, Russian youths 'hound UK envoy'

"The UK embassy in Moscow has complained to the Russian foreign ministry about harassment of Britain's ambassador by a youth group with links to the Kremlin...

"Members of Nashi, which supports President Vladimir Putin, objected to Ambassador Anthony Brenton's attendance at an opposition conference in July.

"'We are picketing the residence of the ambassador,' said Vladimir Katasonov, a Nashi spokesman...

"Nashi, which says it is working to combat fascism in Russia, was launched in April 2005. It claims to have thousands of followers.

"Another of its stated goals is to thwart any pro-Western mass movements of the kind which took power in Georgia and Ukraine in recent years..."


And that gets us back to the Santa suited demonstrators later in December.

• Part of the explanation is the organizing of political parties.
• Another part is to prevent a Russian version of the "Orange Revolution."
• A further purpose of Nashi may well be, as its opponents suggest, to forcibly suppress protests against the Putin government.
• That kind of group might subvert or control the organization of violent nationalistic groups associated with Zhirinovsky's Liberal Democrats.

In any case, it would be worth paying attention (or asking students to pay attention) to Nashi as the next presidential election approaches.

posted by Ken Wedding @ 2:16 PM