Wednesday, April 6, 2016

National Bolsheviks Mark Day of the Russian Nation



Paul Goble

            Staunton, April 6 – Russia’s National Bolsheviks yesterday marked the Day of the Russian Nation with meetings and demonstrations in Moscow, Krasnoyarsk, Sarov, Rostov-na-Donu, and Ulyanovsk. Some of these protests enjoyed official approval; others did not; but all were small.

            Those taking part called for the defense of the ethnic Russian nation both within the Russian Federation and abroad, for a combination of nationalism and socialism, for the freeing of Russian nationalist political prisoners, and for class war against the wealthy (nazaccent.ru/content/20157-den-russkoj-nacii-otmetili-v-neskolkih.html).

            The National Bolsheviks mark April 5 each year as the Day of the Russian Nation because that is the anniversary of Aleksandr Nevsky’s defeat of the Teutonic knights in the ice battle made famous for modern audiences by Sergey Eisenstein’s classic film. In many ways, the date is just as inconsistent and at the same time symbolic as the slogans of the Natsbols.

            Nevsky who is viewed by many Russians as their country’s patron saint defeated representatives of the Christian West by allying himself with the Muslim Mongol Horde and helped laid the foundations of the Russian state by serving as a tax collector for the latter. His  brother who refused to ally with the Mongols against the Christian West is viewed as a traitor.

           

           

           

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