MINELRES: SOVA: "The Black Hundred" Re-established in Russia

[minelres@lists.microlink.lv]

Original sender: Alexander Verkhovsky <mail2@sova-center.ru>


http://sova-center.ru

A 'restorative' congress of the Union of Russian People was held in
Moscow

On 21 November 2005, a 'restorative' congress of the Union of Russian
People was held in Moscow. The Union declared itself the successor of an
organization which existed in the early 20th century under the same
name, but was widely known as The Black Hundred. The new organization
elected the Chairman, sculptor Vyacheslav Klykov, a man of openly
ethno-nationalistic views.

A total of 800 people coming from 70 cities of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus,
Kazakhstan and Abkhazia attended the Congress and adopted the founding
documents of the newly formed organization - its Charter and
declarations on a wide range of issues. The overall attendance,
including guests, exceeded 1,000.

The congress was attended, in particular, by the Deputy Speaker of the
Russian Federal Duma Sergey Baburin ('Rodina' National Patriotic Union),
the Duma member from a different (Dmitry Rogozin's) 'Rodina'
[Motherland] Party Sergey Glazyev, and the Duma member from the Liberal
Democratic (Zhirinovsky) Party Nikolai Kuryanovich (famous for his
proposal of a bill about stripping Russian women marrying foreigners of
their Russian nationality for 'damaging the gene pool', as Mr.
Kuryanovich put it). 

The congress elected the governing bodies consisting mostly of veterans
of the Russian ethno-nationalist, Orthodox Christian, monarchy-oriented
movement that have been actively promoting their nationalist views since
late 80ies, and some - such as Vladimir Ossipov - since Soviet times.
Virtually all of them have been vocally anti-Semitic, and some have been
sued - though in most cases unsuccessfully - for publishing explicitly
xenophobic books and newspapers. 

In particular, the board of the Union includes Mikhail Nazarov - the
author of an anti-Semitic appeal to the public prosecutor demanding a
ban on all Jewish organizations in Russia; Konstantin Dushenov - the
publisher of the said appeal; Boris Mironov - a former co-chairman of
the National Power Party of Russia, who is currently wanted under
charges of incitation of ethnic hatred; Leonid Ivashov - a retired
General, leader of the Military Power Union bringing together retired
military officers with ethno-nationalist views, plus a panoply of
leaders of Orthodox Christian, monarchy-oriented, openly anti-Semitic,
ethno-nationalist groups.

The congress marked the first attempt, in a number of years, to build a
broad coalition of groups sharing this part of the political spectrum.
Until recently, internal differences and personal agendas kept potential
members of the coalition apart, but apparently, lengthy negotiations -
preparations for the congress took one year, since November 2004 -
helped the parties to overcome their
differences.

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