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Nashi (Ours)
Encyclopedia
Nashi is Vladimir Putin
's political youth movement in Russia, which declares itself to be a democratic, anti-fascist, anti-'oligarchic-capitalist' movement. Its creation was encouraged by senior figures in the Russian Presidential administration, and by late 2007, it grew in size to some 120,000 members aged between 17 and 25. Critics have compared it to the Soviet Komsomol
and the Hitler Youth
.
, (leader of the pro-Putin
Walking Together
youth movement) on 1 March 2005. The founding conference was carried out on 15 April 2005. It is believed that Nashi was established mainly as a reaction against Ukraine
's Orange Revolution
in 2004, in which youth-led street protests helped give the presidency to pro-Western candidate Viktor Yushchenko
.
Yakemenko claims to have constituted Nashi as a movement to demonstrate against what he saw as the growing power of Nazism
in Russia and to take on skinhead
s in street fights if necessary. While officially, its funding comes from pro-government business owners, it is widely reported that the group also receives direct subsidies from the Kremlin. Yakememko once said to Gazeta.ru that the Kremlin's support makes it possible for them to tell businessmen "guys, we need money for a national project".
Nashi's close ties with the Kremlin have been emphasised by Deputy Presidential Chief of Staff Vladislav Surkov
, who has met the movement's activists on numerous occasions, delivering speeches and holding private talks. It has been speculated that the Kremlin's primary goal was to create a paramilitary force to harass and attack Putin's critics as "enemies of the State". At one event for political education in summer 2006, the Kremlin advisor Gleb Pavlovsky
told members of Nashi that they "lacked brutality": "you must be prepared", he went on, "to break up fascist demonstrations and prevent with force any attempt to overthrow the constitution".
Walking Together
leader Vasily Yakemenko said in 2005 that the goal of the new movement is to put an end to the "anti-Fatherland union of oligarchs, anti-Semites, Nazis, and liberals." Several Moscow-based newspapers suggested the goal of the group is actually a bit more specific: to eventually replace the party of power, United Russia
. Not all of its goals are politically motivated however. Nashi organizes voluntary work in orphanages and old people's homes, and helps restore churches and war memorials. It also pickets shops accused of selling alcohol and cigarettes to minors, and campaigns against racial intolerance.
Sergei Markov, a Kremlin adviser, stated in 2005 that Nashi "[wants] Russia to be a modern, strong and free country... their ideology is clear: it is modernization of the country and preservation of its sovereignty with that."
One of the movement's main goals is preventing the introduction of foreign control in Russia. Russian newspaper Moskovskij Komsomolets quoted Yakemenko as saying that "organizations in Russia are growing, on the basis of which the U.S. will create groups analogous to Serbia's Otpor
, Georgia's Kmara
, or Ukraine's Pora
. These groups are Eduard Limonov
's National Bolshevik Party and Avant Garde Red Youth." Yakemenko expressed his fears that Russia's fate may be similar to that of Ukraine which he considers to have become a "colony of the United States
".
met with a group of Nashi members at his residence in Zavidovo, Tver Oblast
. He expressed his support for the group, described as "awestruck" by his presence.
In August 2005 Putin officially invited Yulia Gorodnicheva (b. December 16, 1985), an undergraduate student of Tula State University
, one of the members of Nashi he had invited to the Zavidovo meeting, to become a member of the Public Chamber of Russia
, but she refused to be selected by the President and on November 15, 2005, entered the second part of the chamber as a representative of Nashi. There she became a member of the Commission on Social Development.
In 2006 members of Nashi conducted a campaign against the British ambassador in Moscow, Tony Brenton
, as he attended an opposition conference called Another Russia on July 11–12. He attended along with Putin opposition leaders such as Eduard Limonov
, leader of the National Bolsheviks. Unnamed British officials were reported to suspect that this campaign had been co-ordinated by elements within the Russian government as a punishment for the speech given by the ambassador.
In April and May 2007, Nashi members held daily protests in front of the Estonian embassy in Moscow
in protest of the moving of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn
to a military cemetery. When movement members protested outside the Embassy of Estonia in Moscow
in April 2007, some members were carrying signs stating "Wanted. The Ambassador of the Fascist State of eSStonia" , in reference to then-Ambassador of Estonia to Russia Marina Kaljurand
. Nashi also evoked eSStonia when they accused the Estonian state of cultivating fascism, by removing the Bronze Soldier memorial
, the unsolved murder of Dmitry Ganin on Bronze Night
, the arrest and detention of Mark Siryk by the Kaitsepolitseiamet
on Bronze Night, and the Monument of Lihula
to the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Estonian) being built. In early 2008 Estonia placed some Nashi members on a European Union
-wide immigration blacklist, leading Nashi to accuse the European Union
of violating democratic principles that European officials often accuse Russia of violating.
On 24 July 2007, Putin met with several Russian political and environmental youth organisations, including Nashi, at his residence in Zavidovo
, and discussed various issues affecting Russian society. At the meeting, he stated that the United Kingdom
was acting like a colonial power with a mindset stuck in the 19th or 20th centuries, due to their belief that Russia could change its constitution, allowing Andrey Lugovoy to be extradited to the UK to face charges in relation to the Alexander Litvinenko
affair. He also stated, "They say we should change our Constitution – advice that I view as insulting for our country and our people. They need to change their thinking and not tell us to change our Constitution."
In December 2007 the movement was reported to be planning to send a select group of activists to study at British universities, arguably despite its disdain for Britain and its harassment of the British ambassador in Moscow. They said: "We lag behind in knowledge and experience vital for making Russia a 21st-century world leader. British education is rated highly all over the world. The graduates of British universities are in great demand. This is because of the high quality of education and also control from the government."
In March 2009 it was reported that a commisar in Nashi and some associates claimed they had launched a DDOS attack on Estonia
in May 2007. The attacks came after Estonia removed a World War II
-era Soviet memorial from its capital, provoking protests from Moscow.
On March 23, 2009, a small group of Nashi activists together with the activists of the Finnish Anti-Fascist Committee
and Night Watch
held a protest in Helsinki
, Finland, arranged by Johan Bäckman
. They denounced the publication of a new book about the Soviet occupation of Estonia by Sofi Oksanen
and Imbi Paju
and related seminar and saw the indictment of the occupation as an attack on Russia. Finnish historian and Russia-expert Arto Luukkanen considered the protest as an attempt by a marginal group to get publicity. Oksanen suggested that "Their message is aimed at Russians and the Russian media".
On January 18, 2010 activists of Nashi held a rally near the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow
and "congratulated" Ukrainian president
Viktor Yushchenko
with his defeat in the first round of the presidential election
the day before.
On July 30, 2010, Ella Pamfilova (Medvedev's human right's advisor) had to resign over comments she made, saying that Nashi activists had "pawned their souls to the devil" and that she "feared they might to come to power one day", causing Nashi to sue for libel. The Russian opposition commented, claiming that Nashi assaulted and intimidated its leaders.
. Some reports mention the use of the camp to improve Russia's demographics, where twenty tents were set up in order to allow twenty newlywed couples to sleep together.
, author of The New Cold War: Putin's Russia and the Threat to the West, Nashi is seen as Russian President Vladimir Putin
's version of the Soviet Komsomol
.
Nashi has been accused of recruiting skinheads and local hooligans to intimidate rival youth groups. Such activities caused Gavin Knight, an editor for the New Statesman
, to draw the conclusion that "Nashi’s true function was as a personality cult for Putin whose job was intimidate, bully and harass his opponents." The movement has evoked comparisons with the Hitler Youth
in the mainstream media to the extent that Nashi, together with other pro-Putin youth organizations, were derogatively nicknamed
Putinjugend.
A Nashi advertisement was described in a Time
magazine article as "reminiscent of Soviet-era propaganda with its non sequitur acceleration of hysteria". The advertisement read: "Tomorrow there will be war in Iran. The day after tomorrow Russia will be governed externally!" The Boston Globe said that "movement's Brownshirt tactics certain evoke shades of Hitler Youth
, as does the emphasis on physical fitness, clean living, and procreation for the Motherland". Some view the emergence of this and, more recently, other similar organisations, such as Young Guard
and Locals, as one of the signs of Russia under Putin "sliding into fascism, with state control of the economy, media, politics and society becoming increasingly heavy-handed".
The National Bolsheviks have accused Nashi of leading attacks on their members, including one in Moscow
in August 2005. Liberal youth leader Ilya Yashin has also denounced Nashi as a cover for 'storm brigades' that will use violence against democratic organizations and claimed that their formation is only part of Putin's fear of losing power in a manner similar to the Orange Revolution
of Ukraine
. One young National Bolshevik, Roman Sadykhov, joined Nashi's sister organisation Rumol (Rus Molodaya, or Young Russia
) in order to investigate its activities. He claimed that Rumol had formed a group of 'Ultras' to conduct street battles against members of the opposition. Their training included the construction of smoke bomb
s. He secretly taped meetings he had attended. At one of the meetings, senior Kremlin staffer Vladislav Surkov said that he found the training for street combat 'terrifically interesting'.
Nashi has been accused of being a group of "football hooligans and racist skinheads" preaching hostility of certain races traditionally targeted by Russian nationalists- such as Chechens, Georgians, Armenians, Azeris, Circassians, Uzbeks, Jews, Poles, etc.
British journalists Peter Oborne
and James Jones examined the activity of Nashi in a documentary produced for Channel 4
's foreign affairs series Unreported World. They described it as a movement originally created to prevent the emergence of a colour revolution-style movement in Russia. They claimed that some members of Nashi are explicitly racist, and met with Russian journalist Oleg Kashin
, who alleged that Nashi members were most likely responsible for a severe beating he received in late 2010 after writing an article critical of a business associate of Vladimir Putin. Kashin was beaten with iron bars, and was in a coma for three days due to the assault, in which he received two broken legs and a broken jaw, as well as a severed finger. Oborne and Jones accused Nashi of fostering a cult of personality
around Putin, redolent of historical leaders such as Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great and Joseph Stalin
.
's youth wing and United Civil Front in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Voronezh
and six other cities. Bukovskaya said that the agents were to inform her, and she, in turn, passed the information to senior Nashi official Dmitry Golubyatnikov, who was allegedly in contact with "Surkov's people" in the Kremlin. The agents, who were paid 20,000 rubles ($550) per month, provided information on planned and past events together with pictures and personal information on activists and leaders, including their contact numbers. On February 3, 2009, Bukovskaya told Youth Yabloko, which she had joined six weeks prior, that she was being paid to monitor their activities and to handle people in other opposition groups.
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
's political youth movement in Russia, which declares itself to be a democratic, anti-fascist, anti-'oligarchic-capitalist' movement. Its creation was encouraged by senior figures in the Russian Presidential administration, and by late 2007, it grew in size to some 120,000 members aged between 17 and 25. Critics have compared it to the Soviet Komsomol
Komsomol
The Communist Union of Youth , usually known as Komsomol , was the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Communist Union of...
and the Hitler Youth
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...
.
Foundation
The movement was officially announced by Vasily YakemenkoVasily Yakemenko
Vasily Grigoryevich Yakemenko is a Russian politician, creator and leader of several pro-government youth groups.In May 2000 he founded the movement Walking Together , which became well known for its struggle against Vladimir Sorokin's books and the band Leningrad...
, (leader of the pro-Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
Walking Together
Walking Together
Walking Together is a Russian youth movement that was created by Vasily Yakemenko in May 2000. The group, which had over 50 thousand members as of January 2002, is strongly pro-Putin and is openly endorsed by President Vladimir Putin's administration...
youth movement) on 1 March 2005. The founding conference was carried out on 15 April 2005. It is believed that Nashi was established mainly as a reaction against Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
's Orange Revolution
Orange Revolution
The Orange Revolution was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter...
in 2004, in which youth-led street protests helped give the presidency to pro-Western candidate Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko is a former President of Ukraine. He took office on January 23, 2005, following a period of popular unrest known as the Orange Revolution...
.
Yakemenko claims to have constituted Nashi as a movement to demonstrate against what he saw as the growing power of Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
in Russia and to take on skinhead
Skinhead
A skinhead is a member of a subculture that originated among working class youths in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, and then spread to other parts of the world. Named for their close-cropped or shaven heads, the first skinheads were greatly influenced by West Indian rude boys and British mods,...
s in street fights if necessary. While officially, its funding comes from pro-government business owners, it is widely reported that the group also receives direct subsidies from the Kremlin. Yakememko once said to Gazeta.ru that the Kremlin's support makes it possible for them to tell businessmen "guys, we need money for a national project".
Nashi's close ties with the Kremlin have been emphasised by Deputy Presidential Chief of Staff Vladislav Surkov
Vladislav Surkov
Vladislav Yuryevich Surkov is a Russian businessman and politician. Currently he is a First Deputy Chief of Staff of the President of the Russian Federation and a top aide to Vladimir Putin. Vladislav Surkov is widely seen as the main ideologist of the Kremlin...
, who has met the movement's activists on numerous occasions, delivering speeches and holding private talks. It has been speculated that the Kremlin's primary goal was to create a paramilitary force to harass and attack Putin's critics as "enemies of the State". At one event for political education in summer 2006, the Kremlin advisor Gleb Pavlovsky
Gleb Pavlovsky
Gleb Olegovich Pavlovsky is a Russian national, political scientist . He was an adviser of the Presidential Administration of Russia until April 2011. During the Soviet times he was prosecuted as a dissident....
told members of Nashi that they "lacked brutality": "you must be prepared", he went on, "to break up fascist demonstrations and prevent with force any attempt to overthrow the constitution".
Beliefs and goals
Walking Together
Walking Together is a Russian youth movement that was created by Vasily Yakemenko in May 2000. The group, which had over 50 thousand members as of January 2002, is strongly pro-Putin and is openly endorsed by President Vladimir Putin's administration...
leader Vasily Yakemenko said in 2005 that the goal of the new movement is to put an end to the "anti-Fatherland union of oligarchs, anti-Semites, Nazis, and liberals." Several Moscow-based newspapers suggested the goal of the group is actually a bit more specific: to eventually replace the party of power, United Russia
United Russia
United Russia is a centrist political party in Russia and the largest party in the country, currently holding 315 of the 450 seats in the State Duma. The party was founded in December 2001, through a merger of the Unity and Fatherland-All Russia parties...
. Not all of its goals are politically motivated however. Nashi organizes voluntary work in orphanages and old people's homes, and helps restore churches and war memorials. It also pickets shops accused of selling alcohol and cigarettes to minors, and campaigns against racial intolerance.
Sergei Markov, a Kremlin adviser, stated in 2005 that Nashi "[wants] Russia to be a modern, strong and free country... their ideology is clear: it is modernization of the country and preservation of its sovereignty with that."
One of the movement's main goals is preventing the introduction of foreign control in Russia. Russian newspaper Moskovskij Komsomolets quoted Yakemenko as saying that "organizations in Russia are growing, on the basis of which the U.S. will create groups analogous to Serbia's Otpor
Otpor
Otpor! was a civic youth movement that existed as such from 1998 until 2003 in Serbia , employing nonviolent struggle against the regime of Slobodan Milošević as their course of action. In the course of two-year nonviolent struggle against Milosevic, Otpor spread across Serbia and attracted more...
, Georgia's Kmara
Kmara
Kmara is a civic resistance movement in the republic of Georgia which undermined the government of Eduard Shevardnadze. After international observers condemned his government's conduct of the November 2003 parliamentary elections, Kmara led the protests which precipitated his downfall in what...
, or Ukraine's Pora
Pora
PORA! , meaning IT'S TIME! in Ukrainian, is a civic youth organization and political party in Ukraine espousing nonviolent resistance and advocating increased national democracy...
. These groups are Eduard Limonov
Eduard Limonov
Eduard Limonov is Russian writer and political dissident, and is the founder and leader of radical National Bolshevik Party. An opponent of Vladimir Putin, Limonov is one of leaders of Other Russia political bloc.-Early life:...
's National Bolshevik Party and Avant Garde Red Youth." Yakemenko expressed his fears that Russia's fate may be similar to that of Ukraine which he considers to have become a "colony of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
".
Events and incidents
On June 26, 2005, with media present, President Vladimir PutinVladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
met with a group of Nashi members at his residence in Zavidovo, Tver Oblast
Tver Oblast
Tver Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Tver. From 1935 to 1990, it was named Kalinin Oblast after Mikhail Kalinin. Population: Tver Oblast is an area of lakes, such as Seliger and Brosno...
. He expressed his support for the group, described as "awestruck" by his presence.
In August 2005 Putin officially invited Yulia Gorodnicheva (b. December 16, 1985), an undergraduate student of Tula State University
Tula State University
Tula State University is the biggest state university in Central Russia. Since May 2006 its rector is Mikhail Vasilievich Gryazev, professor, doctor of technical sciences. More than 20,000 students, 400 post graduates, more than 600 foreign students from 30 countries study at Tula State University...
, one of the members of Nashi he had invited to the Zavidovo meeting, to become a member of the Public Chamber of Russia
Public Chamber of Russia
The Public Chamber is a state institution with 126 members created in 2005 in Russia to analyze draft legislation and monitor the activities of the parliament, government and other government bodies of Russia and its Federal Subjects. It has a role similar to an oversight committee and has...
, but she refused to be selected by the President and on November 15, 2005, entered the second part of the chamber as a representative of Nashi. There she became a member of the Commission on Social Development.
In 2006 members of Nashi conducted a campaign against the British ambassador in Moscow, Tony Brenton
Tony Brenton
Sir Anthony Russell Brenton KCMG is a former British diplomat.Mr Brenton entered the British Foreign Office 1975, where he began his career learning Arabic and then spent three years in the British Embassy in Cairo working on the Middle East Dispute...
, as he attended an opposition conference called Another Russia on July 11–12. He attended along with Putin opposition leaders such as Eduard Limonov
Eduard Limonov
Eduard Limonov is Russian writer and political dissident, and is the founder and leader of radical National Bolshevik Party. An opponent of Vladimir Putin, Limonov is one of leaders of Other Russia political bloc.-Early life:...
, leader of the National Bolsheviks. Unnamed British officials were reported to suspect that this campaign had been co-ordinated by elements within the Russian government as a punishment for the speech given by the ambassador.
In April and May 2007, Nashi members held daily protests in front of the Estonian embassy in Moscow
Embassy of Estonia in Moscow
The Embassy of Estonia in Moscow is the chief diplomatic mission of Estonia in the Russian Federation. It is located at 5 Maly Kislovsky Lane in the Presnensky District of Moscow.-External links:...
in protest of the moving of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn
Bronze Soldier of Tallinn
The Bronze Soldier is the informal name of a controversial Soviet World War II war memorial in Tallinn, Estonia, built at the site of several war graves, which were relocated to the nearby Tallinn Military Cemetery in 2007...
to a military cemetery. When movement members protested outside the Embassy of Estonia in Moscow
Embassy of Estonia in Moscow
The Embassy of Estonia in Moscow is the chief diplomatic mission of Estonia in the Russian Federation. It is located at 5 Maly Kislovsky Lane in the Presnensky District of Moscow.-External links:...
in April 2007, some members were carrying signs stating "Wanted. The Ambassador of the Fascist State of eSStonia" , in reference to then-Ambassador of Estonia to Russia Marina Kaljurand
Marina Kaljurand
Marina Kaljurand is an Estonian diplomat ....
. Nashi also evoked eSStonia when they accused the Estonian state of cultivating fascism, by removing the Bronze Soldier memorial
Bronze Soldier of Tallinn
The Bronze Soldier is the informal name of a controversial Soviet World War II war memorial in Tallinn, Estonia, built at the site of several war graves, which were relocated to the nearby Tallinn Military Cemetery in 2007...
, the unsolved murder of Dmitry Ganin on Bronze Night
Bronze Night
The Bronze Night , also known as the April Unrest and April Events refer to the controversy and riots in Estonia surrounding the 2007 relocation of the Bronze Soldier of Tallinn, the Soviet World War II memorial in Tallinn....
, the arrest and detention of Mark Siryk by the Kaitsepolitseiamet
Kaitsepolitseiamet
The Estonian Security Police is a central national security institution of Republic of Estonia. Its purposes are centered around enforcing constitutional order...
on Bronze Night, and the Monument of Lihula
Monument of Lihula
Monument of Lihula is the colloquial name of a monument commemorating the Estonians who fought for Estonia against the Soviet Union in World War II, located in Lagedi near Tallinn, the capital of Estonia....
to the 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS (1st Estonian) being built. In early 2008 Estonia placed some Nashi members on a European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
-wide immigration blacklist, leading Nashi to accuse the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
of violating democratic principles that European officials often accuse Russia of violating.
Zavidovo
Zavidovo is a village in Konakovsky District of Tver Oblast, Russia. It is used as an official residence place for the President of Russia, and was also used by the Soviet leaders. The residence is situated in the Zavidovo nature reserve. According to UNESCO, Zavidovo is one of the most...
, and discussed various issues affecting Russian society. At the meeting, he stated that the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
was acting like a colonial power with a mindset stuck in the 19th or 20th centuries, due to their belief that Russia could change its constitution, allowing Andrey Lugovoy to be extradited to the UK to face charges in relation to the Alexander Litvinenko
Alexander Litvinenko
Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko was an officer who served in the Soviet KGB and its Russian successor, the Federal Security Service ....
affair. He also stated, "They say we should change our Constitution – advice that I view as insulting for our country and our people. They need to change their thinking and not tell us to change our Constitution."
In December 2007 the movement was reported to be planning to send a select group of activists to study at British universities, arguably despite its disdain for Britain and its harassment of the British ambassador in Moscow. They said: "We lag behind in knowledge and experience vital for making Russia a 21st-century world leader. British education is rated highly all over the world. The graduates of British universities are in great demand. This is because of the high quality of education and also control from the government."
In March 2009 it was reported that a commisar in Nashi and some associates claimed they had launched a DDOS attack on Estonia
Estonia
Estonia , officially the Republic of Estonia , is a state in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia , and to the east by Lake Peipsi and the Russian Federation . Across the Baltic Sea lies...
in May 2007. The attacks came after Estonia removed a World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
-era Soviet memorial from its capital, provoking protests from Moscow.
Finnish Anti-Fascist Committee
The Finnish Anti-Fascist Committee , also known by its Finnish abbreviation SAFKA, is a radical political organisation operating in Finland, founded in November 2008, but never registered...
and Night Watch
Nochnoy Dozor (pressure group)
Nochnoy Dozor is a group of mostly Russophone political activists living in Estonia. It was set up in the summer of 2006, with its original declared goal of defending the Bronze Soldier, a monument grave marker in Tallinn, near the Estonian National Library and next to a trolleybus stop, against...
held a protest in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, Finland, arranged by Johan Bäckman
Johan Bäckman
Erkki Johan Bäckman is a Finnish political author, legal sociologist and criminologist, holding an adjunct professorship in three Finnish universities....
. They denounced the publication of a new book about the Soviet occupation of Estonia by Sofi Oksanen
Sofi Oksanen
Sofi Oksanen is a Finnish contemporary writer. She was born in Jyväskylä. Her father is Finnish and her mother is Estonian. So far, Oksanen has published three novels, one an international best seller and a play. She has received several awards for her literary work.-Life:Sofi Oksanen was born and...
and Imbi Paju
Imbi Paju
Imbi Paju is an Estonian-born journalist, writer and filmmaker resident in Finland.Paju has been operating in Finland as a correspondent of the Estonian newspapers Eesti Päevaleht and Postimees...
and related seminar and saw the indictment of the occupation as an attack on Russia. Finnish historian and Russia-expert Arto Luukkanen considered the protest as an attempt by a marginal group to get publicity. Oksanen suggested that "Their message is aimed at Russians and the Russian media".
On January 18, 2010 activists of Nashi held a rally near the Ukrainian embassy in Moscow
Embassy of Ukraine in Moscow
The Embassy of the Republic of Ukraine in Moscow is the chief diplomatic mission of Ukraine in the Russian Federation. It is located at 18 Leontyevsky Lane in the Presnensky District of Moscow.- External links :...
and "congratulated" Ukrainian president
President of Ukraine
Prior to the formation of the modern Ukrainian presidency, the previous Ukrainian head of state office was officially established in exile by Andriy Livytskyi. At first the de facto leader of nation was the president of the Central Rada at early years of the Ukrainian People's Republic, while the...
Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko is a former President of Ukraine. He took office on January 23, 2005, following a period of popular unrest known as the Orange Revolution...
with his defeat in the first round of the presidential election
Ukrainian presidential election, 2010
The Ukrainian presidential election of 2010 is Ukraine's fifth presidential election since declaring independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. The first round was held on January 17, 2010...
the day before.
On July 30, 2010, Ella Pamfilova (Medvedev's human right's advisor) had to resign over comments she made, saying that Nashi activists had "pawned their souls to the devil" and that she "feared they might to come to power one day", causing Nashi to sue for libel. The Russian opposition commented, claiming that Nashi assaulted and intimidated its leaders.
Annual camp
Every summer, Nashi runs recruiting camps all across Russia. New members receive a basic military-style training, according to Nashi leader Vasily Yakimenko. In July 2007, Nashi's annual camp located 200 miles outside Moscow was attended by over 10,000 Nashi members. It involved two weeks of lectures and calisthenicsCalisthenics
Calisthenics are a form of aerobic exercise consisting of a variety of simple, often rhythmical, movements, generally using multiple equipment or apparatus. They are intended to increase body strength and flexibility with movements such as bending, jumping, swinging, twisting or kicking, using...
. Some reports mention the use of the camp to improve Russia's demographics, where twenty tents were set up in order to allow twenty newlywed couples to sleep together.
Criticism
According to Edward LucasEdward Lucas (journalist)
Edward Lucas is a British journalist.Lucas is International Editor of The Economist, the London-based global newsweekly and also oversees the paper’s political coverage of Central and Eastern Europe. He has been covering eastern Europe since 1986, and was the Moscow bureau chief from 1998-2002,...
, author of The New Cold War: Putin's Russia and the Threat to the West, Nashi is seen as Russian President Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
's version of the Soviet Komsomol
Komsomol
The Communist Union of Youth , usually known as Komsomol , was the youth division of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Komsomol in its earliest form was established in urban centers in 1918. During the early years, it was a Russian organization, known as the Russian Communist Union of...
.
Nashi has been accused of recruiting skinheads and local hooligans to intimidate rival youth groups. Such activities caused Gavin Knight, an editor for the New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
, to draw the conclusion that "Nashi’s true function was as a personality cult for Putin whose job was intimidate, bully and harass his opponents." The movement has evoked comparisons with the Hitler Youth
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...
in the mainstream media to the extent that Nashi, together with other pro-Putin youth organizations, were derogatively nicknamed
Name calling
Name calling is a phenomenon studied by a variety of academic disciplines from anthropology, to child psychology, to politics. It is also studied by rhetoricians, and a variety of other disciplines that study propaganda techniques and their causes and effects...
Putinjugend.
A Nashi advertisement was described in a Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine article as "reminiscent of Soviet-era propaganda with its non sequitur acceleration of hysteria". The advertisement read: "Tomorrow there will be war in Iran. The day after tomorrow Russia will be governed externally!" The Boston Globe said that "movement's Brownshirt tactics certain evoke shades of Hitler Youth
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...
, as does the emphasis on physical fitness, clean living, and procreation for the Motherland". Some view the emergence of this and, more recently, other similar organisations, such as Young Guard
Young Guard
Young Guard may refer to:*The Young Guard , a French elite military unit during the time of Napoleon Bonaparte*Young Guard, associated with Soviet Union and Russia:...
and Locals, as one of the signs of Russia under Putin "sliding into fascism, with state control of the economy, media, politics and society becoming increasingly heavy-handed".
The National Bolsheviks have accused Nashi of leading attacks on their members, including one in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
in August 2005. Liberal youth leader Ilya Yashin has also denounced Nashi as a cover for 'storm brigades' that will use violence against democratic organizations and claimed that their formation is only part of Putin's fear of losing power in a manner similar to the Orange Revolution
Orange Revolution
The Orange Revolution was a series of protests and political events that took place in Ukraine from late November 2004 to January 2005, in the immediate aftermath of the run-off vote of the 2004 Ukrainian presidential election which was claimed to be marred by massive corruption, voter...
of Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. One young National Bolshevik, Roman Sadykhov, joined Nashi's sister organisation Rumol (Rus Molodaya, or Young Russia
Young Russia
Young Russia is a Russian youth movement founded in April 2005. The movement is known for its protest rallies in front of foreign embassies and for various political rallies in the streets....
) in order to investigate its activities. He claimed that Rumol had formed a group of 'Ultras' to conduct street battles against members of the opposition. Their training included the construction of smoke bomb
Smoke bomb
A smoke bomb is a firework designed to produce smoke upon ignition. Smoke bombs are useful to military units, airsoft games, paintball games, self defense and pranks...
s. He secretly taped meetings he had attended. At one of the meetings, senior Kremlin staffer Vladislav Surkov said that he found the training for street combat 'terrifically interesting'.
Nashi has been accused of being a group of "football hooligans and racist skinheads" preaching hostility of certain races traditionally targeted by Russian nationalists- such as Chechens, Georgians, Armenians, Azeris, Circassians, Uzbeks, Jews, Poles, etc.
British journalists Peter Oborne
Peter Oborne
Peter Oborne is a British journalist and political commentator. He was educated at Sherborne School and The University of Cambridge. He is a Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph columnist, author of The Rise of Political Lying and The Triumph of the Political Class, and, with Frances Weaver, the...
and James Jones examined the activity of Nashi in a documentary produced for Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
's foreign affairs series Unreported World. They described it as a movement originally created to prevent the emergence of a colour revolution-style movement in Russia. They claimed that some members of Nashi are explicitly racist, and met with Russian journalist Oleg Kashin
Oleg Kashin
Oleg Kashin is a former seaman and a prominent Russian journalist.-Career:Kashin graduated from the Baltic State Fishing Fleet Academy with a degree in sea navigation in 2001. While studying, he wrote for Komsomolskaya Pravda in Kaliningrad where he expressed rather sharp views...
, who alleged that Nashi members were most likely responsible for a severe beating he received in late 2010 after writing an article critical of a business associate of Vladimir Putin. Kashin was beaten with iron bars, and was in a coma for three days due to the assault, in which he received two broken legs and a broken jaw, as well as a severed finger. Oborne and Jones accused Nashi of fostering a cult of personality
Cult of personality
A cult of personality arises when an individual uses mass media, propaganda, or other methods, to create an idealized and heroic public image, often through unquestioning flattery and praise. Cults of personality are usually associated with dictatorships...
around Putin, redolent of historical leaders such as Ivan the Terrible, Peter the Great and Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
.
Allegations of spying on opposition groups
In early February 2009, Anna Bukovskaya, a St. Petersburg activist with Nashi, publicly claimed that from January 2008 until February 2009 she had coordinated a group of 30 young people (not Nashi members) who had been tasked to infiltrate branches of the banned National Bolshevik Party, YablokoYabloko
The Russian United Democratic Party "Yabloko" The Russian United Democratic Party "Yabloko" The Russian United Democratic Party "Yabloko" (Russian: Росси́йская объединённая демократи́ческая па́ртия «Я́блоко» Rossiyskaya obyedinyonnaya demokraticheskaya partiya "Yabloko"; is a Russian social...
's youth wing and United Civil Front in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Voronezh
Voronezh
Voronezh is a city in southwestern Russia, the administrative center of Voronezh Oblast. It is located on both sides of the Voronezh River, away from where it flows into the Don. It is an operating center of the Southeastern Railway , as well as the center of the Don Highway...
and six other cities. Bukovskaya said that the agents were to inform her, and she, in turn, passed the information to senior Nashi official Dmitry Golubyatnikov, who was allegedly in contact with "Surkov's people" in the Kremlin. The agents, who were paid 20,000 rubles ($550) per month, provided information on planned and past events together with pictures and personal information on activists and leaders, including their contact numbers. On February 3, 2009, Bukovskaya told Youth Yabloko, which she had joined six weeks prior, that she was being paid to monitor their activities and to handle people in other opposition groups.