Russian Nationalism Yahoo group

In September 2007 Andreas Umland established a Russian Nationalism group on Yahoo groups.

The group is designed as a forum of exchange and an open archive serving researchers, journalists and others interested in the history and current permutations of Russian right-wing thought and politics. While everybody is invited to join, this forum is reserved for the spread of substantive, analytical information as well as for the announcement on relevant conferences, publications, and other academic projects. This is not a discussion group.

In addition to extremely useful Links and Files sections, there is also a biweekly "Russian Nationalism Bulletin" (RNB) that has started to appear on 1 November 2007.

Although you can freely see the messages, Links and Files sections are available only for the members of the group. Joining is pretty easy and you are not required to have a Yahoo account.

Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality

If you read Roger Griffin's magnum opus Modernism and Fascism: The Sense of a Beginning under Mussolini and Hitler, you may find this documentary film really fascinating -

Flight from Death: The Quest for Immortality (Wiki)



Flight from Death is the first film to investigate the psychological effects of death anxiety, or fear of death. This 90-minute documentary about the effects that our reactions to death anxiety have on a psychological, spiritual, and cultural level reveals convincingly that death denial is a root cause of human behavior and more importantly, violence and aggression.

The effects of death anxiety are embedded within everything we do across the globe. Our architecture, our careers, the children we raise, and the wars we wage, are all manifestations of our desire to gain a sense of permanence in defiance of our mortality. This film is a cinematic approach to these theories, placing them in a modern context and portraying them in ways that are both stimulating as well as reflective of the importance and magnitude of their implications.

Flight from Death is the culmination of many years of research and shooting all over the world in locations such as Egypt, Israel, Guyana, Greece, and China. It features interviews with leading scholars, philosophers, researchers and authors such as Robert Jay Lifton, Irvin Yalom, and Sam Keen culminating in the most comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and mind-blowing investigation of humankind’s relationship with death ever captured on film.


FFD crew with psychohistorian Robert Jay Lifton.

(I remember referring to Lifton in my article on "clerical fascism".)

The Palingenetic Thrust of Russian Neo-Eurasianism

A new issue of Russian-language version of German online academic journal Forum für osteuropäische Ideen- und Zeitgeschichte features my article on Aleksandr Dugin -

Палингенетический проект неоевразийства: идеи возрождения в мировоззрении Александра Дугина

It was previously published in Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions and is available here.

The new issue of Forum also features important articles by Andreas Umland, Marina Peunova, Marlene Laruelle, Leonid Luks and other authors.

Jewish question in Bandera's independent Ukraine

The Simon Wiesenthal Center today condemned Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko for posthumously awarding the "Hero of Ukraine," one of the country’s highest honors, to Stepan Bandera, a Ukrainian nationalist leader whose followers killed thousands of Jews and others during World War II.

In a letter to Oleh Shamshur, Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States, Mark Weitzman, the Wiesenthal Center’s Director of Government Affairs, expressed "deepest revulsion at the recent honor awarded to Stepan Bandera, who collaborated with the Nazis in the early stages of World War II, and whose followers were linked to the murders of thousands of Jews and others. It is surely a travesty when such an honor is granted right at the period when the world pauses to remember the victims of the Holocaust on January 27."

I have scanned a short excerpt from the protocol of the OUN (Bandera's faction) conference held in Lviv on 18-19 July 1941. The conference dealt with the ethnic minorities in Bandera's independent Ukraine, but this short excerpt concerns the "Jewish question" only.

П. ГУПАЛО: Добре було би, якби нам віддали райони, заселені українцями. Головне, багато всюди є жидів. В центрах спеціально. Не дозволити їм там жити. Вести політику на виселення. Вони будуть самі втікати. А може виділити їм якісь міста, пр. Бердичів.
П. ЛЕНКАВСЬКИЙ: Схарактеризуйте мені жидів.
П. ГОЛОВКО: Жиди є дуже нахабні. Не можна було сказати жид. З ними треба поступити дуже остро. В центрі не можна держати рішучо. Мусимо їх покінчити.
П. ЛЕВИЦЬКИЙ: В Німеччині Жиди мають арийський параграф. Для нас більше цікава є ця справа в Генерал Губернаторстві. Там назначено кожного Жида. Кожний Жид мусів бути зареєстрований в віроісповідній громаді. Їх усували із деяких міст приміром з Кракова, а переміщували до інших, пр. до Варшави, призначували їм гета, які обмуровували мурами. Вони мають кіна, театри, але не мають що їсти.
Молоді здібні до праці - ідуть до праці. Частину треба знищити. Хоч і тепер є вже дещо знищено... Факт є, що деякі влізли в українську кров, богато женилися з українками. В Німеччині є різні пів-жиди, чверть-жиди, але в нас так бути не може. Німець, що жениться з жидівкою, стає жидом.
П. ГОЛОВКО: На Україні супружжа з жидівками є головно в містах. Жидівки виходили заміж за Українців для вигідного життя, коли українці банкротували вони розводилися. Жиди з українками добре навіть жили. Мені дуже подобається німецький погляд.
П. ГУПАЛО: В нас є багато працівників жидів, яких навіть поважають, є і такі, які вихрестилися до революції.
П. ЛЕНКАВСЬКИЙ: Це треба розглядати індивідуально.
П. ЛЕВИЦЬКИЙ: Німці спеціалістів використовують. В Кракові є 5 жидів, що не носять опасок, за те, що добрі сили. Мені здається, що німецький спосіб жидівської справи нам дуже підходить. Мусимо індивідуально розглядати поодинокі випадки.
П. ЛЕНКАВСЬКИЙ: Відносно жидів приймемо всі методи, які підуть їм на знищення.

Source: Бондаренко К. До питання про національну політику Організації Українських Націоналістів на початку німецько-радянської війни // Українські варіанти. – 1997. – № 2. – С. 93-95 (94).

Radicalism and New Media

Matthew Feldman has recently established a very important research group at the University of Northampton -

Radicalism and New Media Research Group Vision Document

Remit

By harnessing existing expertise in the University of Northampton’s School of Social Sciences, an interdisciplinary research group has been formed to investigate radicalism and new media. While historical examples range from Martin Luther’s use of the printing press to Joseph Goebbels’ use of the radio, primary focus will be placed upon the new media revolution over the last generation (the internet, mobile phones, satellite television, personal audio devices, etc.) as it has been deployed by ideological and/or religious radicals.

Although this understudied connection is both striking and increasingly noticeable – whether from the English Defense League’s use of Facebook for directing activities or Islamist jihadi beheadings filmed for the purposes propaganda and global dissemination – there has been, as yet, no coordinated network to systematically undertake research in this critical, highly visible area. In taking on this role, we will invite academic researchers, practitioners and civil servants (partihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifcularly the police and security services) to compare experiences and develop collaborative enterprises in the analysis of this wide-ranging phenomenon, particularly as it relates to the contemporary UK.

To achieve such goals at this formative stage, the ‘Radicalism and New Media Research Group’ especially aims to develop s at once academic and public-facing, cutting-edge yet supported by the School’s established academic leaders in the fields of media studies, political extremism, law, sociology and criminology, as well as modern history.

Academic Advisory Team at the University of Northampton

- Dr Matthew Feldman, History (Project Leader)
- Dr Paul Jackson, History (Project Co-ordinator)
- Professor Jon Stobart, History
- Dr Manos Daskalou, Criminology
- James Ressel, Law
- Kirstie Best, Law
- Simon Sneddon, Law

Forthcoming Activities

- Running academic conferences, ideally for summer 2010 initially;
- Conducting original research, particularly as it relates to the Research Group’s above remit;
- Launching an online journal, perhaps on the interaction of cults and new media;
- Writing government reports, such as for OCST, J-TAC, the Home Office or similar;
- Forming external partners, notably through a series of large grant bids to UK research bodies;http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
- Developing interdisciplinary Masters programme in Radicalism and New Media or similar;
- Creating new continuing professional development courses in issues relating to radicalism and new media;
- Establishing a Research Centre for Radicalism and New Media at the University of Northampton

Contact Details

Email:
Matthew.Feldman@Northampton.ac.uk
Paul.Jackson@Northampton.ac.uk

Postal:
Dr Matthew Feldman, School of Social Sciences, University of Northampton, Boughton Green Road, Northampton NN2 7AL

Telephone: 01604 892575

Tymoshenko and the Ukrainian radical right

The presidential candidate Yuliya Tymoshenko's links to the Ukrainian far right are often played down. Few people seem to remember that in 1997 Dmytro Korchynsky, a former leader of the notorious extreme right-wing party UNA-UNSO, left his party and organised the so-called "Shield of Fatherland" (Щит Батьківщини) which was deemed to be a "paramilitary" wing of Tymoshenko's party "Fatherland" (Батьківщина). In 2000-2001, during the "Ukraine without Kuchma" campaign, Tymoshenko directed Korchynsky and his organisation to protect the protesters. In 2002 Korchynsky reformed the "Shield of Fatherland" into the "Brotherhood" (Братство) party which was officially registered by the Ministry of Justice in 2004.

Another former leader of the UNA-UNSO (1999-2001), Andriy Shkil, joined the parliamentary group of the Bloc of Yuliya Tymoshenko (BYuT) in 2002 and became an official member of the "Fatherland" party in 2004. Quite soon he was elected to the political council of the party.


Andriy Shkil (on the right behind the NPD flag) during the
meeting of the UNA-UNSO with the extreme right-wing
Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (NPD)
in June 2000.

Interestingly, in Lviv the editorial office of the UNA-UNSO journal Nationalist, edited by Shkil, shared the same premises with Tymoshenko's "Fatherland" party.



It was Shkil who unambiguously approved Viktor Yushchenko's "Bandera the Hero" act.

On 24 August 2008, Levko Lukyanenko, a prominent member of the BYuT parliamentary group, celebrated his 80th birthday and published a revealing article titled "Ukraine's Civilisational Choice", in the MAUP's anti-Semitic journal Personal Plus. Just an excerpt -

Do we, Ukrainians, people of the white race, want to become different from what we have been, for example, to become black, yellow or red? The cases of marriages of Ukrainian women to representatives of another races indicate that not all [Ukrainians] value their white race. Thus I state my own position: I come out wholeheartedly for the preservation of the Ukrainian people as the white race and ultimately oppose the transformation of the Ukrainian nation into a nation of some blacks, browns or of any indefinite colour.

On the very same day Tymoshenko wished Lukyanenko many happy returns of the day.

Isn't it too much for the democratic (?) and pro-European (?) presidential candidate?

Stepan Bandera becomes a Hero of Ukraine

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, who contested the presidential elections held on 7 January 2010, obtained only 5.45 per cent of the vote and, thus, set a new world record for the lowest vote for an incumbent in a presidential election.

On 22 January 2010, during the ceremonies marking Ukrainian Unity Day, Yushchenko conferred the rank of a Ukrainian Hero to Stepan Bandera, the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN, Bandera’s branch). President said that the high rank had been conferred to Bandera for “defending national ideas and battling for an independent Ukrainian state”.

Stepan Bandera (1909–1959) was one of the most notorious Ukrainian fascists, terrorists and Nazi collaborators, who was responsible for deaths of hundreds (if not thousands) of Poles, Russians, Jews and Ukrainians. He played a key role in the terrorist activities against the authorities of Poland and other countries (see more info on the OUN's attempt at assassinating Franklin Roosevelt). In 1934 Polish authorities even sentenced him to death for terrorism but eventually the sentence was reduced to life imprisonment: Bandera was freed in 1939 by the German troops after they had occupied Poland.

Bandera has been one of the few Ukrainian Nationalists mentioned in the proceedings of the Nuremberg Trial of German Major War Criminals. On 25 December 1945, former Colonel of the German Army Erwin Stolze testified –

“In carrying out the above-mentioned instructions of Keitel [General Field Marshall Wilhelm Keitel] and Jodl [General Colonel Alfred Jodl], I contacted Ukrainian Nationalists who were in the German Intelligence Service and other members of the Nationalist Fascist groups, whom I enlisted in to carry out the tasks as set out above [subversive activities in the territory of the USSR]. In particular, instructions were given by me personally to the leaders of the Ukrainian Nationalists, the German Agents Myelnik (code name ‘Consul I’) and Bandara [Stepan Bandera] to organise, immediately upon Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union, and to provoke demonstrations in the Ukraine, in order to disrupt the immediate rear of the Soviet Armies”.

On 30 June 1941, after Nazi Germany had levied war on the USSR, Bandera was proclaimed a leader of independent Ukraine. Article 3 of the Act of Ukraine’s Independence read as follows –

“The newly formed Ukrainian state will work closely with the National-Socialist Greater Germany, under the leadership of its leader Adolf Hitler which is forming a new order in Europe and the world and is helping the Ukrainian People to free itself from Muscovite occupation.
The Ukrainian National Revolutionary Army which has been formed on the Ukrainian lands, will continue to fight with the Allied German Army against Muscovite occupation for a sovereign and united State and a new order in the whole world.
Long live the Ukrainian Sovereign United Ukraine! Long live the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists! Long live the leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian people – Stepan Bandera”.

Of course, Bandera’s priority was an independent Ukraine, and that was where Bandera’s and Nazis’ plans differed. Where they did not differ, however, was both German and Ukrainian fascists’ vision of the “new world order”.

Yushchenko is right in one thing: Bandera did “battle for an independent Ukrainian state”. But what Ukraine would it have been? Article 1 of Constitution of Ukraine, the principles of which Yushchenko swore to defend after the victorious “Orange revolution”, unequivocally states that “Ukraine is a sovereign and independent, democratic, social, law-based state”. What does Bandera’s vision of Ukraine have to do with the democratic, social and law-based Ukraine? Absolutely nothing, I believe, and the majority of Ukrainian citizens think likewise. Does President of a democratic state have a right to legitimise Bandera’s fascist Ukraine on the only ground that it would have been an independent Ukraine? No, they do not. Small wonder that Yushchenko decided to make Bandera a Hero of Ukraine after he had ignominiously lost the presidential elections: he had nothing to lose.

But we do have something very important to lose. With Bandera being a Hero of (democratic!) Ukraine, we are losing confidence that extreme nationalism and fascism of different strains have been driven out to the margins of genuine democratic politics. Can we expect response to this outrageous act of Yushchenko's from two major presidential candidates, Viktor Yanukovych and Yuliya Tymoshenko? I think we should expect because they must clearly state their positions, before the second round of the presidential elections to be held on 07 February. At the moment we have responses from Yanukovych's (Party of Regions) and Tymoshenko's (BYuT) parties, but the presidential candidates must express their opinions themselves.