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English Language Page In the nationalistic press in today’s Russia, the hate speech phenomenon is a mandatory rather than common feature. Many periodicals of this type dedicate more than 50% of their material to the focused effort of shaping a negative image of an ethnic community or religious group. Not surprisingly, this situation is the logical outgrowth of the modern Russian nationalistic and patriotic movement’s political and propaganda efforts. The boundaries of the arena within which it is acceptable (i.e., to all politicized movements and groups) to pursue self-identity has turned out to be very small. Not quite all nationalists in today’s Russia would identify themselves with the contemporary state. Many have very different perceptions of the prevailing religion and its role in the life of the Russian nation, to say nothing of the fact that many continue to differ on the definition of the Russian nation — a fundamental issue for all nationalists. Notably, most of the materials with a positive emotional charge have been written on historical issues. Conversely, articles about current problems have been more inclined to carry a sour note. Nationalists have been particularly inclined to shape their propaganda to strike “in opposition;” rather than to “go for” or support something, in the usual case they “go against something” or better still “against somebody.” To achieve the goal of uniting ethnic Russians, the local nationalists have mostly sought to inspire fear or anger towards a common enemy against which action must be taken, rather than to stand up for common values. It is only natural that the hate speech materials carried by the nationalistic and patriotic media have been so numerous, with the sentiments of intolerance being so sharp. Additionally, nearly all nationalistic and patriotic newspapers and magazines have been tottering on the verge of breaking provisions of Federal Law “On the Mass Media in the Russian Federation” and the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which contains bans on provoking ethnic hatreds. Some of the domestic nationalistic media have gone so far as to exceed these constraints on occasion. While proceeding to research the local nationalist media, one should bear in mind that those newspapers and magazines are marginal operations within the larger context of Russian mass media. In terms of circulation, regularity of printing, and quality of the materials carried, the nationalistic press is generally outperformed by the Russian “mainstream” mass media by a whole order of magnitude. The average current nationalistic print media circulation is in the range of 5 000 — 15 000 copies, with the issues or editions coming out only once or twice a month. The only exception to this rule has been the more popular nationalistic newspaper Zavtra (its circulation reaching 100 000 copies and editions coming out on a weekly basis), which appears to be coming close to being “mainstream” press, if assessed by the more relevant technical indicators. Given the above factors, it would hardly be justified to conclude that the current nationalist media have had any meaningful impact on the minds of contemporary Russians. The committed audience for this kind of press seems to be negligibly small. Dominant Hate Speech Trends in the Nationalistic Mass Media The principal hate speech targets for nationalistic mass media have traditionally been migrants from the Caucasus, Americans and Jews. Following the September 11 attacks in the United States, there has been some increase (although insignificant) of anti-Islamic publications. This particular theme had been rather heavily pushed in Russia following the 1999 Moscow and Volgodonsk apartment building explosions. But by now, those sentiments are somewhat on the wane. Importantly, the more radical domestic nationalists heavily push the idea that the September 11 attacks had been arranged by the Americans themselves (in order to kick off a new global arms race) or by the Israeli special services. The Jews have become the main hate speech targets for such newspapers as Nashe Otechestvo (St. Petersburg), Russkie Vedomosti, Slavianin (Vologda), Alex-Info (Samara), Kolokol (Volgograd). These periodicals have been most vigorously exploiting the persisting idea of the global Jewish conspiracy, while claiming that power in the Russian Federation has been seized by the smarter Jews who continue to ruthlessly rob the nation and work to eliminate the Russian people. What is more, a whole array of Orthodox and patriotic periodicals devote a good deal of attention to the effort to shape a nefarious image of the Jewish people, with the relevant arguments primarily being religious in character. The anti-Judaic pathos has been fully applicable to such newspapers as Oprichnina, Tsarsky Oprichnik, Russky Partizan, Russkaya Falanga and, to a lesser degree, to the magazine Russky Dom, as well as to such newspapers as Rus Pravoslavnaya (St. Petersburg), Russky Vestnik and Novy Vek. Starting from the summer of 2001, the Era Rossii newspaper (given its increasingly cooperative links with domestic fundamentalist circles) has been more and more receptive to this kind of hate speech. Importantly, this periodical has become a leader in releasing materials attacking migrants from the Caucasus. The Caucasus-phobia has started to be shared by any and all nationalist and patriotic mass media sources. While you can still find a newspaper without Anti-Semitic materials (for example, Pravoye Soprotivlenite and Limonka), nationalist periodicals without materials attacking the Caucasus migrants are practically impossible to locate. The acknowledged leaders in this respect have been the following newspapers: Nashe Obozreniye (St. Petersburg), Ya — Russky and Russky Vostok (Irkutsk). Notably, anti-Americanism has been another topic actively pushed by all nationalistic publications, moderate ones not excepted. The nefarious image of the US and Americans has been continuously perpetuated by the domestic nationalist media. This particular theme has been the principal hate speech type found in Zavtra, Duel and Limonka newspapers. Other, though less popular, hate speech targets could include: Normally, the aforementioned hate speech targets are accused of criminal intentions, insidiousness with respect to Russians, moral and cultural deficiencies. There have been occasions when the extreme nationalist press would resort to direct calls for violent actions against hate speech targets. (1) This concise overview is based on the on-going monitoring of nationalistic press in all regions of Russia. Back |
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