Google Nashi and you’ll inevitably come across the term “Putinjugend” I’ve never liked this label, mostly because Nashi is a far cry from the Hitler Youth in both scope and deed. Nashi’s presence is much more hollow, in fact I question how active they really are outside of a small core group of activists. If anything, they are more flash than substance, a virtual youth movement for our virtual times. Despite my aversion to them being labeled anything close to a Hitler Youth, the latest internet scandal involving the Yaroslavl branch of Stal’, or Steel, Nashi’s patriotic initiative group, certainly raised my eyebrows.
According to Gazeta.ru, Ruslan Maslov, a Stal activist in Yaroslavl, decided to draw up “The Movement’s Commandments of Honor.” Perhaps he felt his fellow Stalists needed some point by point direction. The commandments’ eight points are as follows:
- Your fatherland is Russia. Love it above all others and in deed more than word.
- The enemies of Russia are your enemies.
- Every compatriot, even the lowliest, is a part of Russia. Love him like you love yourself!
- Demand only duties of yourself. Then Russia will regain justice!
- Be proud of Russia! You must honor the fatherland for which millions have given their lives.
- Remember, if someone takes away your rights, you have the right to say “NO!”
- Uphold what you must without shame when Great Russia is concerned!
- Believe in the future. Then you can become the victor!
Your usual nationalist claptrap for the youth. The only problem is that it’s a little to close to Joesph Goebbels “Ten Commandments of a National Socialist.” The Reich Minister’s youth primer reads:
- Germany is your Fatherland; love it above all, and more in deeds than in words.
- Germany’s enemies are your enemies; hate them with all your heart.
- Every compatriot, even the lowliest, is part of Germany; love him as you love yourself.
- Demand only duties for yourself then Germany will also regain rights and privileges.
- Be proud of Germany; you have a right to take pride in a Fatherland for which millions have their lives.
- He who abuses Germany abuses you and your deceased; repay him with your fists!
- Repay like with like and then some. If you are denied your just rights, remember: you can secure them again only through your own political movement.
- Do not be a hooligan anti-Semite–but beware of the Berliner Tageblatt!
- Live your life in such a way that one day you will not need to stand ashamed before a new Germany.
- Have faith in the future; only thus will you win it.
The similarities are disturbing to say the least. Message to Nashi. Plagiarism is bad. Plagiarizing Joesph Goebbles is unacceptable. Especially when the nation of you claim to love lost 26 million people fighting the country Goebbles served as Reich Minister of Propaganda.
However, none of this seemed to phase the Stalists in Yarloslav. When Artem Kozlov, the coordinator of Stal’ in Yaroslav, was asked about the similarities between the two commandments, he called it a “provocation” then added, “The theses? Anyway, there is nothing bad here. The roads were built well in Nazi Germany, but that doesn’t mean that they had to be destroyed. Something good had to remain.” Maybe so, but Goebbles Ten Commandments are a far cry from roads.
Maybe I should start rethinking that whole Putinjugend label . . .
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If Surkov had been the author of those “commandments”, then maybe, otherwise… ?
Let me get it straight: does the fact that there was a _guestbook_ discussion of plagiarized Goebbels ten commandments on an obscure vkontakte page of regional “Stal’” branch makes “Nashi” a Putinjugend ?
In this case, a visit to a municipal tea party forum should be enough to be sure that GOP is a NSDAP reincarnation.
Nashi… the political movement for disaffected kids who would rather be making gonzo porn but who don’t have long enough mullets.
Really good blog, russia is a country that i’d like to visit so this will help me a bit i think
The Kremlin’s relationship to Nashi, Molodaya Gvardia, ect. (should we add the All Russia Union of Football Fans to the list?) is far more interesting to me than the antics of teens, which is low hanging fruit. Everyone had some disaffected kid in their middle school or high school obsessed with Hitler, nationalism, etc. Mom was a meth addict and dad a neo Nazi, or maybe mom was a struggling cashier and dad was a vet but hadn’t been around for years. The area they grew up in offered few opportunities for greatness and getting together with like minded maladjusted teens and writing manifestos, bullying perceived enemies, burning shit provided them with a raison d’etre. Slap this universal phenomenon onto a culture with a long history of patriotic youth organizations and youth wings of the ruling party, et voila! Don’t need an evil puppetmaster named Surkov to put on this show.
I think Nashi’s biggest problem is that, like the Komsomol, it provides official diversions, some vocational path and a sense of purpose to the bored and disaffected youth in return for party loyalty and political goon work, but like democracy, it is self-governing and requires no qualifications to participate in. Win-win: the kids can’t complain, and the Kremlin can claim plausible deniabilty. The only downside is cooties, guilt by association, Reductio ad Hitlerum. (So I guess all those Tea Party claims that Obama = Stalin will be valid if we find the leader of a Young Dems chapter declaring, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles!” and patting himself on the back for his wit and passion?)
I’ve been working with the assumption that kids will be kids, but it is the Kremlin’s affiliation with these scary youth that should worry us. But now I am wondering if the problem with Nashi, et al. isn’t just the opposite: that it is not enough like the Komsomol or Pioneers, that it needs more professionalism, discipline and direction.
Good to see the ‘at least they built good roads’ defense is still alive and well for those times when you need to explain away those pesky pro-Nazi accusations.
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