Posted by Sean on June 12, 2010
Russia’s Far East has always been an unruly place. Tsars and Communists alike dumped its criminals and politicals there. In the interwar period it was a hot bed for lawlessness and banditry, where gangs and holdouts of the White Army made life difficult for the new Soviet state. There is one historical artifact that always stands out in my mind when it comes to the Russia’s Far East. I tend to give it to my students so they can get a flavor of the heady days of the Russian Revolution. The document is an anonymous letter to Lenin dated 15 January 1918. After lambasting Lenin for not keeping his promise to deliver “peace, bread, land, and liberty in three days’ time” the complainant ended with this warning: “If you’ve picked up the reins [of power] then go ahead and drive, and if you can’t, then, honey, you can take a ..read more
Posted by Sean on January 19, 2010
One year ago, an assassin in a ski masked shot anti-fascist lawyer Stanislav Markelov in the back in the head near Kropotkinskaya metro. The killer then shot Novaya gazeta journalist Anastasia Baburova as she went after him. She died in a hospital shortly thereafter. Both were well known antifascists.
Two suspects, Nikita Tikhonov and Yevgeniya Khasis, alleged former members of the fascist group Russian National Unity, were arrested in November in the killing, a rarity in Russia. They’re being tried for murder in Moscow’s Basmanny court.
The memory of these two figures, however, not only reminds us of the plight of human rights activists and journalists, but also the specter of Russian fascist violence.
In his report on the Markelov and Babunova‘s murders in Novaya gazeta, Sergei Sokolov addresses two myths worth remembering about Russian fascists:
First myth: Russian fascists are shaved young morons in shitkickers and bombers who attack immigrants. There are those. ..read more
Posted by Sean on August 18, 2009
Posted by Sean on June 18, 2006
According to my unscientific survey, the Russian diaspora in Israel is an under reported topic in blogs on Russia. I present excerpts from two articles from Haaretz in hopes of beginning a discussion. The first tells of Russian anti-Semitism toward Orthodox Jews in the form of neo-Nazis, while the second reports on the Israeli oppression of Russians because of their adherence to the Orthodox faith. Both point to the contradictions the post-Soviet aliyah to Israel that began in the 1990s. Excerpts are below.
“Fear and loathing in Petah Tikva / Neo-Nazi gangs assaulting ultra-Orthodox Jews”
By Moti Katz
Haaretz, May 11, 2006.
A week after the desecration of the Great Synagogue in Petah Tikva, nothing remains of the horror the worshipers encountered there last Thursday when they arrived for morning prayers. The walls, which had been sprayed with swastikas and blasphemy, have been newly painted, the floor polished and the ..read more
