The People's Self-Defense (russian: Народная самооборона; ''Narodnaya samooborona'') is a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

anarchist organisation. The organization emerged in 2013 as a result of the split of

Autonomous Action The Autonomous Action (AD; russian: Автономное действие; АД; ''Avtonomnoye deystviye'', ''AD'') is a revolutionary anarchist federation in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine that was founded in January 2002. AD is composed of anarch ...

, the largest Russian anarchist organization at the time. At the beginning it was called Autonomous Action (Social Revolutionary) (AD-SR; russian: Автономное действие (социал-революционное); АД-СР; ''Avtonomnoye deystviye (sotsial-revolyutsionnoye)'', ''AD-SR''), and in 2015 it was renamed "People's Self-Defense". One of its leaders was Svyatoslav Rechkalov. The organization positions itself as a "non-partisan socio-political organization" and an anarchist media platform that publishes articles on anarchism and news about actions. She was also involved in the protection of residents of the evicted hostels, the fight against employers who do not pay salaries to workers. Members of the organization were on duty in the apartments that the collectors tried to take away from the residents of

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 millio ...

. A report received by RIA Novosti from law enforcement agencies says that from December 2017 to December 2018, supporters of People's Self-Defense carried out 247 "actions of an extremist nature" in 40 cities of Russia, including one terrorist act in Arkhangelsk, one fact of public justifications for terrorist activities and five cases of hooliganism and vandalism. On March 14, 2018, Svyatoslav Rechkalov was detained for two days. According to him, he was beaten, tortured with electric shocks, demanding to reveal the names of other anarchists and to confess his involvement in their actions. After his release, Rechkalov received political asylum in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. In September 2022, the Chelyabinsk Regional Court recognized the People's Self-Defense as a terrorist organization.

References

External links

Official site
{{Russian political movements 2013 establishments in Russia Anarchist organizations in Russia Anarcho-communism Human rights in Russia Organizations established in 2013 Police misconduct