The People's Self-Defense (; ''Narodnaya samooborona'') is a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...

organisation.

History

The organization emerged in 2013 as a result of the split of Autonomous Action, the largest Russian anarchist organization at the time. At the beginning it was called Autonomous Action (Social Revolutionary) (AD-SR; ; ''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. It 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 Collector(s) may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Collector (2011 film), ''Collector'' (2011 film), an Indian Malayalam film * Collector (2016 film), ''Collector'' (2016 film), a Russian film * Collectors (film), ''Collectors'' (film), a 2020 So ...

tried to take away from the residents of

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 ...

. A report received by

RIA Novosti RIA Novosti (), sometimes referred to as RIAN () or RIA (), is a Russian state-owned domestic news agency. On 9 December 2013, by a decree of Vladimir Putin, it was liquidated and its assets and workforce were transferred to the newly created ...

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 located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. 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 militant groups Anarchist organizations in Russia Anarcho-communism Human rights in Russia Left-wing militant groups in Russia Organizations established in 2013 Police misconduct Organizations designated as terrorist by Russia

History

See also

References

External links