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English Language Page Also, the newspaper of the Freedom Party, Nashe Obozreniye, whose main editor is the former skinhead, A. Grebnev, belongs within the number of radical nationalist publications. A new radical publication has appeared. Since the fall of 2001 in St. Petersburg, the newspaper Evpaty Kolovrat began to be disseminated. It is published in Tikhvin (Leningrad region) and states that it is an organ of the St. Petersburg regional organization of RNE. Not only “specialized” publications disseminate nationalist moods and xenophobia. The legal department in St. Petersburg University serves as a breeding-ground for similar ideas. In his works, E. Froyanov, a professor and, until recently, the dean of a department, nearly erased the border between academic compositions and articles for a nationalist publication. His monograph October 17 issued within the framework of the State Program “The Peoples of Russia” and recommended as a textbook (sic!) for the course “The Latest History of Russia” suggests a vision of the history or Russia as an unending struggle with a behind the scenes Zionist conspiracy. In the same vein, there is a work by Professor O. Karatev, a former KGB official, and now a doctor of law and a teacher in one of the institutions of higher education in the city. He thinks that “the right to investigate and expose Russian Jewry and the structure of its social-political power to a critic is an inalienable right,” and he tirelessly “unmasks” “the hidden Jews” everywhere. The Institute of Russian Literature in the Russian Academy of Sciences (“Pushkin House”) found itself at the center of attention in connection with a reference book issued to them called Russian Writers of the 20th Century. In the book, there was a separate article devoted to Sergey Neilus, the author of “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” and to Vladimir Purishkevich, one of the leaders of the “Black Hundred” at the beginning of the twentieth century who, strictly speaking, hardly has any connection to literature. The St. Petersburg television station, TRK Petersburg, has a particular role in the dissemination of xenophobia. In March 2001, Sergey Chernyadyev invited, on the one hand, a group of “Petersburg Caucasians” under the leadership of the Consul of Azerbaijan, and, on the other hand, nationalists, namely Nikolai Bondarik, at that time accused of inciting national hostility (1) for participation in his informational publicist program. The possibility to express freely all of their nationalist views was presented to N. Bondarik and his supporting “legal expert.” Given this, if we do not consider the fact that N. Bondarik himself has a non-Russian last name, there is nothing that showed that the host did not agree with the nationalist guests. An “interactive” poll on the theme — Will Petersburg residents participate in a pogrom? — was conducted during the program. According to the results, an absolute majority of viewers supposedly indicated such a desire. Popular city periodicals as a whole discuss the activities of nationalist organizations, but they turn to that theme for separate reasons, as a whole almost completely ignoring the nationalist activities. In the beginning and middle of the 1990s, the newspapers Smena, St. Petersburg Vedemosti, and Nevskoye Vremya wrote about the problem of nationalism. From the journalists who consistently cover the Petersburg nationalists it is possible to name: Y. Murashko (St. Petersburg Vedemosti; N. Katerli (printing in different publications until 1998–1999, but now almost not publishing); S. Gavrilina (earlier working in Smena and now in Nevskoye Vremya); T. Voltsky (Nevskoye Vremya); M. Chulaki (Vecherny Petersburg); and D. Zhvany (mainly publishing in Smena, but also having published for the St. Petersburg version of central periodicals — Komsomolskaya Pravda and Moskovsky Komsomolets). Individual publications appeared in the Vecherny Petersburg and in Argumenti i Facti — Petersburg (Nikolai Donskov). The English-language newspaper St. Petersburg Times turns repeatedly to the theme of interethnic conflicts and the activities of nationalist organizations. Now, only T. Voltskaya and S. Gavrilina in Nevskoye Vremya and journalists of the newspaper Peterburgsky Chas Pik continually throw light on the theme of xenophobia and nationalism. The last newspaper plays a main role in the St. Petersburg press since Natalia Chaplina — the wife of Victor Cherkesov, the plenipotentiary representative of the President for the Northwest federal district and before that the head of FSB department for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region — serves as the editor. The newspaper is more informed and has the possibility to interview those whom others sometimes simply cannot reach, and, in addition, it carries the “official line.” In 1998, Peterburgsky Chas Pik published several articles accusing the city administration and the police of criminal negligence in their relationship with nationalists, who operated freely on the streets of the city. At this time, RNE pickets, the majority of their leaflets pasted across the city, and even the inscriptions on the walls, primarily done by supporters from the National Bolshevik Party (NBP), the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), and the Working Russia (Trudovaya Rossiya) Party, began to attract the attention of those journalists who were in general inclined to turn to this unattractive side of life in the city. On 16 September, 1998, in Peterburgsky Chas Pik an article by Eva Liburkina “Nazism and Questions of Linguistics” was published. In the article, she accused the authorities of “complete tolerance” and inaction in their relations with the nazis. For proof, she gave an answer that she received in the Department of Administrative Bodies in St. Petersburg and in the regional Department of Justice. The answer was that in St. Petersburg RNE is not engaged in activities because RNE does not have official registration in the city, and they are being viewed as a group of private individuals and are not liable for penalties. The response to this publication from the head of the Department of Administrative Bodies, V. Grishanov (2), speaking on behalf of the Deputy-Governor of St. Petersburg, also was published in Peterburgsky Chas Pik. Indignant with accusations, the Deputy-Governor confirmed that he always “comes forward as an opponent of the spreading of the idea of fascism in our city and fights within the law to resist it.” As an example, he provided his refusal “to participate in a protest“ (without elaborating which protest) “of the National-Republican Party of Russia, of the Slavic movement, Solntsevorot, of the Movement for the Great Russian Empire, and others.” However, the protest followed after — not before — the publication of E. Liburkina’s article. In 2001, Evgeny Zybarev’s publication “It is Impossible to Live in a Society of Violence and be Free from Violence” continued this theme (3). In this work, Gennady Ryabov, a senior assistant of the city prosecutor, was quoted. G. Ryabov noted the following: “one cannot say that, for our region, nationalism and extremism is a serious problem. As a rule, even conflicts designated by the press as between nationalities, turn out during the course of the investigation to be ordinary crimes.” As a “final example,” G. Ryabov provided a situation when three friends beat up an Azeri cook for preparing a low-quality meat-dish. Other Azeris came to rescue of the Azeri cook. Then, other Russians entered on the side of the Russians who attacked the cook. A huge brawl developed between the two groups. “But it’s hardly a conflict between nationalities — if the cook was Russian or Ukrainian, the results would have been the same,” assured G. Ryabov. “Happily, residents of our region are intelligent, educated, and restrained, and they don’t give into nationalist or other extremist propaganda. Therefore, such conflicts are quite rare for us.” Municipal deputy and candidate for the State Duma, Dennis Usov, who is also a member of the bureau for the All People’s Union and a correspondent of the nationalist newspapers Novy Petersburg and Slavyansky Vestnik, became a hero of the series of publications in both the St. Petersburg and Moscow press. The case against D. Usov, based on the accusation of inciting hostility between nationalities, was examined in the Frunzensky regional court in St. Petersburg at the end of 1999. The case was dropped in connection with his proposed “Program for the Eviction from the Region of Individuals with Caucasian Nationality Engaged in Anti-social Criminal Activities” that he planned to implement in the city region Kupchino. Even earlier in 1997, Usov announced the eviction of “blacks” as the main point of his pre-election campaign, and in 1998, after already having become a deputy, he called upon his electors to tell him anonymously the address of all Caucasian neighbors in order to urgently “take action.” A splash of nationalist publications applauded the pogrom of 30 October 2001 in Moscow in the market near the metro station Tsaritsino. Following soon after the pogrom, publications called for a series of assaults on residents of Dormitory ¹13 for foreign students at the St. Petersburg Technical University (Polytekh). Attacks at foreign, especially African students are very common in St. Petersburg. Street violence against people of African descent is also on the rise. Actions of the Authorities Taken to Counteract Xenophobia and Nationalism On 29 March, 2000, Law “On the Administrative Responsibility Regarding the Production, Distribution, and Demonstration of Nazi Symbols in the Territory of St. Petersburg” was passed by the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly. The author of the said law, Deputy Vadim Tulpanov, announced to the newspaper Argumenti i Facti — Petersburg that “it is necessary to sound the alarm immediately, otherwise in several years representatives of the fascist parties will sit entirely legally in the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly and the State Duma, and also in some time, without exception, Nazis will be able to take power in the country, just as they did in 1933 in Germany.” (4) On 27 June and 25 October, 2001, a prominent local human rights organization, Citizen’s Watch, sent letters to the prosecutor of the city, E. Sedoruk, with the goal to draw his attention (based on the afore-mentioned law) to the wide distribution in the city of inscriptions and leaflets inciting national and racial hostilities. A lengthy list of examples was attached to the letter. Human rights activists received answers from the senior assistant of the city prosecutor for the supervision of the fulfillment of laws on the relations between nationalities, G. Strekalov; the deputy head of the Chief Police Directorate (GUVD) in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region and the head of the police for public safety, N. Feodorov; the deputy head of the GUVD and head of the department for the organization of preliminary inquiry of the GUVD in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, E. Sukharnikov; the head of the Admiralteisky district regional police department (UVD), A. Remezov; the head of section ¹19 and section ¹37 of the Department of Internal Affairs (UVD), and the acting prosecutor of the Admiraltaisky region, P. Parastayev. After an examination of the reported facts, representatives of law enforcement agencies had to recognize that some of the evidence was true, but (quoting exactly as written in the original) “due to the fact that it was impossible to identify the individuals responsible for writing the inscriptions, it is impossible to form an opinion objectively about whether or not the “authors” intended to incite national, racial, or religious hostility.” Because of this “uncertainty,” no criminal investigation was initiated. However, “a teletype with demands for the intensification of work on the exposure, interruption, and prevention of the manifestation of extremism and hostility between nationalities” was sent to the heads of all police structures in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region. Also, it was announced that, “together with the residential-communal services, measures for the removal of inscriptions from the facades of buildings and other structures have been taken.” The head of thirty-seven sections of the police in the UVD and lieutenant-colonel of the police, Morgunov, verified that “in the activities of the unidentified persons, we cannot see features that fall under Article 158 of the RF Code of Administrative Offences.” Numerous publications of Petersburg anti-fascists and human rights defenders continually cover the theme of ethnic conflict and the activities of nationalist associations. From 1993 to the present, there have been six special issues of the journal Baryer. Also, from 1996 to 2001, there have been 17 issues of the anti-fascist newspaper Tum-Balalaika (from 2002, the journal Antifashistsky Motiv became its successor.) Repeatedly, Pchela, a review of the activities of the non-governmental organizations, turns to the theme of the rights of racial and ethnic minorities in St. Petersburg. (1) In 1999, Bondarik participated as a candidate for deputy in parliamentary elections and disseminated a leaflet with a call for a struggle against “the enemies of God, the enemies of Russia and the Russian people,” “false-believers,” and “the Jewish-Caucasian Mafia.” Human Rights in Russian Regions — 1999 (Moscow: Moscow Helsinki Group, 2000). (2) Peterburgsky Chas Pik (23 December, 1998). (3) Peterburgsky Chas Pik (26 September — 2 October, 2001). (4) Argumenti i Facti — Petersburg (1999, ¹45). Back |
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