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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