Staunton,
January 11 – Valery Solovey, a professor at the Moscow State Institute for
International Relations, says he has assembled a working group to create a new
Russian nationalist party that will appeal not just to the 15 percent of the
Russian population that supports “hard” nationalist positions but to the 60-70
percent that backs a “softer variant.”
In an
article on Rusplatforma.org today, Solovey says that “the weakening” of the
current Kremlin leadership opens the way for the creation of the Russian Party
and that the prospects that “legal obstacles” against such a group “have fallen
away or are about to.” But he says that he is “not certain” that the situation
is all that promising (rusplatforma.org/publikacii/node447/).
On the
one hand, the MGIMO scholar says, in the Russian Federation, law and the
practice of officials are two very different things, with officials often
behaving directly contrary to legislation. But on the other – and this is
Solovey’s focus in this article – a major reason for pessimism lies with the Russian
nationalists themselves.
“Nationalists,” he continues, “who took part in the mass
protests of December 2011 – and it is not important [where in Russia] … -- know
very well that the traditional order of the day of Russian nationalism does not
win the support of the urban citizens (who are by the way in their overwhelming
majority are ethnic Russians).
And that is not because Russian nationalists did not have
the chance to speak at these meetings, Solovey says. Rather, many of the slogans they put forward
such as giving Russians “the status of the state forming people” have no little
meaning for most of the demonstrators and the broader set of political and
social ideas to which they subscribe.
Many Russian nationalists, he
suggests, do not recognize that there are “two means of political
communication: to tell the people what [the nationalists] think is important
and correct, and to speak with the people about what [the people themselves
consider important and correct.”
Instead, most nationalists do the first but ignore the second, thus
limiting the support they get. The
nationalists are accustomed “to speak in the name of the Russian people,
Solovey says, “but THE MAIN CONDENT OF THE RUSSIAN QUESTION is not ethnic as
they support but DEMOCRATIC and SOCIAL.” What Russians want “in the first
instance is freedom and justice;” ethnic problems are “secondary. And this is
something nationalists must recognize.
Moreover, Russians “typically
consider ethnic problems through the prism of a sense of justice denied.” This is “the reality,” Solovey continues,
whether Russian nationalists “like it or not.” Those nationalists who are upset
by “Jewish masonic activities and the conspiracy of ZOG” can only hope to find
a welcoming audience “among patients in psychiatric hospitals.”
Any Russian nationalist who hopes to
win more support must speak on behalf of what Russians want “and not on the
basis of his own imaginations about that.” To do so, “freedom and justice” must
stand “at the center of the nationalist narrative,” not in a mimicry of “popular
slogans” but rather because that is the true Russian nationalist position.
Russian nationalists also need to
recognize, he says that “at the same time, precisely free, competitive and
honest elections are the most economical and least problematic path to coming
to power. But if the nationalists want to win, then they must cease to be only nationalists and become also (and
in the first instance) democrats and defenders of a social state.”
The reasons for that should be
obvious: “the fully committed nationalist electorate, ‘the hard nationalists’
who are prepared to vote for nationalist candidates always and in all
conditions form only 15 percent of the population.” But support among Russians
for “’soft nationalism’ reaches 60 to 70 percent” – and that is “more than
sufficient to win.”
Supporters of “soft nationalism” do
not find “open nationalist rhetoric” or even the word “nationalism” acceptable,
and consequently, “ethnic demands must be presented only in a democratic and
social packaging,” something that makes them acceptable to the vital center of
the political spectrum.
Some nationalists may feel that they
will lose their identity if they take that step, but there is no reason to
think so. First, the ethnic problem “all the same” remains part of their
program. Second, “Russian nationalists are the only political force which has
never been in power” and thus do not have the burdens of the past others do.
And third, Solovey insists, “Russian
nationalists also are the only force which is in a position to fulfill all its
problems.” But despite all this, Russian nationalists need to recognize that
the messenger is as important as the message, and with regard to leaders at the
present time, Russian nationalists suffer from a serious shortage.
The only politician on the scene “who
is well kknown beyond the borders of nationalism” is Dmitry Rogozin, but even
his messages reach only a limited audience. “All other politicians of the
Russian nationalist stripe are either unknown to the non-nationalist audience
or categorically unacceptable to it.”
To try to address these twin
problems of Russian nationalism and a Russian nationalist messenger, Solovey
says, he is, after “consultations with friends and those who share these views,”
heading “a working group to form a new political party,” a step that he
suggests is for him both “natural and inevitable.”
The MGIMO professor points out that he “never was simply a scholar, observer
or ‘ideologue,’” as those who know his many activities can attest. But now,
because Russia is entering “an era of great change,” he feels compelled to
declare himself “openly and publicly” as a political actor.
The party he hopes to found in 10-12
days, will be one that will represent “a new force” in the country, “a party of
the national majority … which appeals to Russians and to all in Russia who seek
freedom, justice and democracy” and which will be “in the center of the
political spectrum” with a chance to win rather than a marginal group condemned
to permanent defeat.
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