National Bolshevik Party
National Bolshevik Party Национал-большевистская партия | |
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| Abbreviation | NBP, Nazbols, Limonovites |
| Leader | Eduard Limonov |
| Founders |
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| Founded | 1 May 1993 |
| Legalised | 16 August 2005[4] |
| Banned | 7 August 2007[5] |
| Succeeded by | The Other Russia National Bolshevik Front[6] |
| Headquarters | NBP Bunker, 17 Maria Ulyanova St., Building 1, Moscow |
| Newspaper | Limonka |
| Membership |  56,500+ (March 2007 est.) |
| Ideology | National Bolshevism National communism Neo-Stalinism[7] Neo-Sovietism Anti-Yeltsinism Anti-Putinism Anti-NATO Left-wing nationalism Russian nationalism Russian irredentism Eurasianism Soviet patriotism |
| Political position | Syncretic |
| Coalition | National Salvation Front (1992–1993) The Other Russia (2006–2010) |
| Colours | Red White Black |
| Anthem | "Гимн НБП"[8][9] (lit. 'Anthem of the NBP')[a] |
| Party flag | |
 Other flag: | |
| Website | |
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The National Bolshevik Party (Russian: Национал-большевистская партия, НБП, romanized: Natsional-bolshevistskaya partiya, NBP) was a Russian political party that operated from 1993 until it was banned in 2007. Its members were known as Nazbols (Russian: нацболы).[10]
Founded in 1993 by writer Eduard Limonov, political philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, and punk musician Yegor Letov, the NBP was seen as an attempt to unite left-wing and right-wing extremists on the same platform,[11] with Ilya Ponomarev characterising the party as having "used a bizarre mixture of totalitarian and fascist symbols, geopolitical dogma, leftist ideas, and national-patriotic demagoguery."[12] Dugin left the party in 1998, and from the early 2000s, the NBP focused on human rights activism as part of the anti-Putin movement in Russia, becoming known for its direct action tactics. In 2006, the NBP, alongside Garry Kasparov's United Civil Front and the Vanguard of Red Youth, formed The Other Russia coalition.[13]
In 2007, the NBP was declared an extremist organization by the Supreme Court of Russia and was banned. The NBP was, at the time, the only large-scale nationwide organization officially recognized by a court as extremist under the Law on Combating Extremist Activity.
There have been smaller NBP groups in other post-Soviet countries, as well as in the United States and Israel. The party's official publication, the newspaper Limonka, derived its name from Limonov's surname and from the idiomatic Russian word for a grenade. The main editor of Limonka was, for many years, Aleksey Volynets. In 2010, Limonov and other former members founded a new party, The Other Russia of E. V. Limonov.[14]
Ideology
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Party platform
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The NBP claimed inspiration from the National Bolshevik ideas that arose during the Russian Civil War, such as those of Nikolai Ustryalov, who came to believe that Bolshevism could be modified to serve nationalistic purposes. His followers, the Smenovekhovtsy, who then came to regard themselves as National Bolsheviks, borrowed the term from German politician Ernst Niekisch, who was initially associated with left-wing politics and later National Bolshevism. However, the NBP differed from their cited historical inspirations; while Ustryalov advocated for capitalism, the NBP instead agitated for nationalisation and a welfare state. According to scholar Marta Żakowska, the party's ideology "aligns more closely with recent leftist philosophical thought than with the historical projects it alludes to in its name".[15]
The NBP's ideology and style were initially modeled after Italian fascism[16] while the party simultaneously defended the Soviet Union's domestic policies, specifically those implemented under Stalinism, asserting that they were a means of preserving the country's "national and social justice."[17] The party was described by observers as a mixture of far-left and far-right ideology,[15] including among its members Soviet nostalgics as well as skinheads.[18]
According to the 1994 program, the global goal of National Bolshevism is the creation of an "Empire from Vladivostok to Gibraltar based on the Russian civilization," and the essence of National Bolshevism lies in "a withering hatred for the anti-human system of the trinity: liberalism/democracy/capitalism. A man of rebellion, a National Bolshevik sees his mission in destroying the system to its foundations. A traditionalist, hierarchical society will be built on the ideals of spiritual masculinity and social and national justice." National Bolshevism's external enemy was identified as "the Great Satan – the USA and the European mondialists". The party's aim after achieving power was to build "a total state, where human rights will give way to the rights of the nation" and "any separatist aspirations of national minorities will be ruthlessly suppressed". The party's economic program was to "terminate all agreements with the West" and build an autarkic socialist "economic dictatorship" with progressive nationalization.[19] Other party positions included "the establishment of Russian sheriffs, empowered to deliver the culprit dead or alive; the live broadcasting of executions on television; a ban on abortions; and a legal obligation for all women between 25 and 35 years of age to give birth to at least four children".[11]
After Dugin's departure from the party in 1998 and during Limonov's prison sentence in 2001-2003, the NBP experienced an ideological shift under the guidance of Vladimir Linderman, Limonov's second-in-command. Moving away from its previous right-wing and authoritarian positions, the party's main focus became human rights and pro-democratic activism, while retaining its Russian nationalism, anti-NATO sentiment, and left-wing economic positions.[11][17] In its later years, the party publicly denounced fascism and rejected "any form of xenophobia, antisemitism, or racial intolerance" in favor of Great Russian civic nationalism; the party advocated for Russian nationalism on the basis of culture and language rather than ethnicity.[17]
Limonov explained this ideological shift, stating:
Why would we bother playing with fascism anymore when the Kremlin is already fascist? […] We are an opposition party. And today the most radical position of all is to fight for democracy and elections — against Putin’s fascism.[20]
On 29 November 2004, at the party's fifth congress, a new program was adopted. According to the new program, "the main goal of the National Bolshevik Party is to transform Russia into a modern, powerful state, respected by other countries and peoples and beloved by its own citizens". The program demanded the free development of civil society, freedom of independent media, public oversight of law enforcement, an end to the Second Chechen War via negotiation, and the protection of the rights of Russian-speaking people outside of Russia. The program was highly critical of Vladimir Putin's government and state institutions, stating that "the activities of the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs today pose no less of a threat to the security of Russian citizens than Chechen terrorists".[21]
On the difference between the 1994 and 2004 programs, the party stated:
The NBP doesn't change its ideology, but our ideology evolves and develops based on the current reality. In the mid-1990s, when the NBP began its existence, the party's main slogans were national and social justice. The ideal state structure was a total state based on strict discipline. It envisioned harsh punishment for those directly responsible for the collapse of the country, "privatization," and "shock therapy." This was a response to the rampant "democratic" permissiveness.
However, after Putin came to power, a "tightening of the screws" and political repression of dissent (primarily the NBP) began. Under these conditions, advocating for totalitarian slogans became simply stupid and politically illiterate. Therefore, to the demands for national and social justice, the National Bolsheviks added a third component: the demand for civil and political liberties.[17]
According to an FAQ document published by the party in 2005, the NBP "advocates social justice in the economy, imperial dominance in foreign policy, and civil and political freedoms in domestic politics" and that "a National Bolshevik state is harsh on the outside, against external enemies, and soft on the inside, for its own citizens (unlike today's Russia, whose government constantly compromises national interests on the global stage while oppressing its own people)." In economic policy, the document called for nationalisation of oligarch property and for state funds to be redistributed as reparations for privatisation; in foreign policy, it claimed as the party's goal the restoration of the USSR "as a counterweight to the growing appetites of the United States" but also to "fight against creeping Chinese expansion"; in domestic policy, it condemned Vladimir Putin's administration as "oligarchic, despotic, and anti-national" and the Kadyrov family as a "criminal clan".[17]
Speaking on the colour revolutions, the document voiced ambivalent support:
The National Bolsheviks are studying the practice of velvet revolutions. We admire the people taking to the streets and squares of Kiev chanting, "We are not cattle! We are not goats!" A bloodless, non-violent revolution is one of the models of action that can lead the opposition to victory. From this perspective, we support the