The People's National Party (PNP or NNP; ; ''Narodnaya natsionalnaya partiya'', ''NNP'') was a minor

far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Its leader was Aleksandr Ivanov-Sukharevsky, who founded the party in 1994 with, it has been alleged, the aid of two veterans of the

Black Hundreds The Black Hundreds were reactionary, monarchist, and ultra-nationalist groups in Russia in the early 20th century. They were staunch supporters of the House of Romanov, and opposed any retreat from the autocracy of the reigning monarch. Their na ...

Vladimir Osipov and Vyacheslav Demin.Russia 2001

Origins

The party grew from an attempt by Ivanov-Sukharevsky to get himself elected to the Co-ordinating Council of the Russian All-People's Union in January 1994. Although a fairly well-known figure he was not a member of this party and in a vote he was narrowly defeated in his aspiration. He linked up with Vyacheslav Demin, the editor of the journal ''Zemshchina'' and the two set about establishing a party that they claimed would represent the

Russian Orthodox Church The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

. The new group adopted the name Movement of Popular Nationalists and Ivanov-Sukharevsky was chosen as chairman upon its establishment in October 1994. In December the group merged with a group based around Vladimir Popov's ''Era Rossii'' magazine, the National-Socialist Movement(a group that fused

neo-Nazism Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...

and

monarchism Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalist. ...

in what was a not uncommon feature of the Russian far right), to form the NNP proper.

Support

In March 1999 Ivanov-Sukharevsky was arrested for promoting national hatred and whilst awaiting trial he was held in the same cell as Semyon Tokmakov, the head of the

white power skinhead White power skinheads, also known as racist skinheads and neo-Nazi skinheads, are members of a neo-Nazi, music of white skin head white supremacist and antisemitic offshoot of the skinhead subculture. Many of them are affiliated with white natio ...

group Russian Goal.Nazi Skinheads in Modern Russia
The two became allies in prison leading to a close link being forged between Tokmaov's skinheads and the NNP. Tokmakov eventually fused his group into the NNP's youth movement and took over editing duties on the fourth page of the party organ ''Ya-Russky'', in the process making the paper one of the widest read amongst Russian skinheads.

Ideology

The NNP

ideology An ideology is a set of beliefs or values attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely about belief in certain knowledge, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones". Form ...

is based on the ideas of 'Russism', a creation of Ivanov-Sukharevsky. It seeks to link earlier ideas of

Russian Orthodox The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC; ;), also officially known as the Moscow Patriarchate (), is an autocephaly, autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox Christian church. It has 194 dioceses inside Russia. The Primate (bishop), p ...

monarchism to

Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...

, with

Nicholas II of Russia Nicholas II (Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov; 186817 July 1918) or Nikolai II was the last reigning Emperor of Russia, Congress Poland, King of Congress Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland from 1 November 1894 until Abdication of Nicholas II, hi ...

and

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

the two great heroes of Russism as, they claim, Hitler sought to avenge the Tsar for his killing by Jewish Bolsheviks. However, although Russism avowedly links itself to Russian Orthodoxy, in practice the NNP has also been open to those elements of

Neopaganism Modern paganism, also known as contemporary paganism and neopaganism, spans a range of new religious movements variously influenced by the Paganism, beliefs of pre-modern peoples across Europe, North Africa, and the Near East. Despite some comm ...

favoured by many of its skinhead followers. In contrast to some groups on the Russian far right, where bitter factionalism has often predominated, the NNP has been keen to work with other like-minded groups. As a result of one such initiative, the party absorbed the wing of the National-Republican Party of Russia (NRPR) loyal to Yuri Belyaev in December 1997 after that group had split into two separate groups, both claiming the original name, in 1994. The merger, which brought a significant increase in party membership due to Belyaev's well-developed network of local cells, proved short-lived however and his wing of the NRPR was reconstituted the following year after he quarrelled with Ivanov-Sukharevsky.Shenfield, ''Russian Fascism'', p. 230

Publications

The NNP has published a number of journals apart from ''Ya-Russky''. These have included ''Zemshchina'', based in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

, began publishing in 1990 and eventually became the official NNP organ. Its regular features included columns entitled "Holy Russia", "Aryan Unity", "Rightists Old and New", "Church Life" and "Our Culture".Russia 1996 report
A

Tomsk Tomsk (, ) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Tomsk Oblast in Russia, on the Tom (river), Tom River. Population: Founded in 1604, Tomsk is one of the oldest cities in Siberia. It has six univers ...

-based weekly bulletin ''Cherny korpus'' (Black Corps), appeared in December 1995 and included local party news. Ivanov-Sukharevsky himself edited the political monthly ''Era Rossii''(Era of Russia), which achieved a print-run of 25,000. This publication eventually expanded to include a regular section on

white power music White power music is music that promotes white nationalism. It encompasses various music styles, including rock, country, and folk. Ethnomusicologist Benjamin R. Teitelbaum argues that white power music "can be defined by lyrics that demonize ...

. Within the pages of ''Ya-Russky'' articles praising fellow right-extremists such as

Pamyat The National Patriotic Front "Memory" (NPF "Memory"; , also known as the Pamyat Society; , , ) was a Russian far-right antisemitic, and monarchist organization. ''Pamyat'' also identified itself as the "People's National-Patriotic Orthodox ...

and

Russian National Unity Russian National Unity (RNU; transcribed Russkoe natsionalnoe edinstvo RNE) or All-Russian civic patriotic movement "Russian National Unity" () was an unregistered neo-Nazi, irredentist group based in Russia and formerly operating in states wit ...

have appeared, as well as an article marking the hundredth anniversary of

The Protocols of the Elders of Zion ''The Protocols of the Elders of Zion'' is a fabricated text purporting to detail a Jewish plot for global domination. Largely plagiarized from several earlier sources, it was first published in Imperial Russia in 1903, translated into multip ...

Decline

On 3 October 2003 the headquarters of the NNP were damaged in a bomb attack which resulted in Ivanov-Sukharevsky suffering serious injuries and possible blindness. The injuries sustained saw him depart politics and so the NNP fell into decline with its skinhead membership largely departing to other groups.

Notes

References

{{Authority control 1994 establishments in Russia Eastern Orthodoxy and far-right politics Neo-fascist parties in Russia Monarchist parties in Russia Neo-Nazi political parties in Europe Neo-Nazism in Russia Political parties established in 1994 Anti-communist parties 2009 disestablishments in Russia Defunct nationalist parties in Russia Political parties disestablished in 2009 Defunct far-right parties