Russian youth movement leader on its ideology

Source: Moskovskiy Komsomolets, Moscow, in Russian 19 Dec 06

People talk a lot about the Nashi youth movement and say different things about it. Some of them regard the "Nashists" as calculating careerists enjoying the authorities' support. Others regard them as true patriots defending their motherland. Your Moskovskiy Komsomolets correspondent decided to talk about Nashi with the movement's federal commissar Vasiliy Yakimenko.

[Sergeyev] Your movement is often compared to the Komsomol [Communist Youth Union]. Do you regard Nashi as its ideological successor?

[Yakimenko] One can compare our organizational structure, which is similar. I would also point out that the Komsomol used to be the state's personnel pool and now, our movement has become one. However, there is a fundamental difference: Our attitude to human life. The Komsomol was the communist party's reserve and was ready to sacrifice any number of people, their fates and lives, for its ideology. Meanwhile, we believe that human life is the highest and greatest value and our activity is aimed at protecting it. We can speak about some similarities if we keep in mind this fundamental difference.

[Sergeyev] What are these similarities?

[Yakimenko] First, there are many of us. Second, we try to preserve the status quo in the country by different means. We, just as the Komsomol, support the highest state power and the sovereign democracy policy. Third, we have young people only in our movement. At the same time, we do things the Komsomol never did. For instance, we have our corporate higher educational institution in which we train specialists in the fields of public relations and state and municipal administration. We also send our guys to study abroad at the best Western higher educational institutions.

[Sergeyev] Having said that, the Komsomol also had its own institute.

[Yakimenko] I used to be a Komsomol member myself and, frankly speaking, did not see real work to overcome social problems that existed back then. In my opinion, the Komsomol mostly served itself. Meanwhile, we have specific tasks. For instance, we have the programme called "City Without Children's Homes" we will implement in 2007. We want to have at least one city in Russia without children's homes, and we will invest all our efforts to achieve this. We will place small children in families and send teenagers to cadet schools and Suvorov military schools.

Children's homes are Russia's curse. They should not exist in a normal, civilized country. The Komsomol did not have this kind of programme or a programme such as "Legal Protection". We have put tents in the streets in which human rights campaigners explain to people how they can win disputes with state or private structures.

Or take "Our Army" programme, for instance. We reached agreement with the Defence Ministry that, as an experiment, young people can form a team, get trained for military service, select their military unit and equip it with a computer or something else and then serve in that unit as a team.

This is a good method against the bullying of young soldiers. We believe that if somebody does not like the existing army, one should try to do something specific to change it rather than walk the streets with posters. There is also the "Lessons of Friendship" programme endorsed by the president. More than 30,000 lessons have taken place within its framework for people living abroad and the CIS countries and members of ethnic minorities, as well as Russian lessons for Russian communities abroad. We live in a multiethnic country and have to learn to treat one another with respect. We have the total of 18 areas of work and there is a separate goal for each of them.

[Sergeyev] As we know, the Komsomol was regarded as the Communist Party's combat reserve. Do you consider yourselves the combat reserve of any party, for instance, One Russia?

[Yakimenko] No. We are not related to One Russia. It has its own youth organization, which is quite good. Nashi is an independent national Russian youth organization.

[Sergeyev] Nevertheless, you are referred to as "young Putinists."

[Yakimenko] We support Putin's political course rather than Putin as a person. Our ideal is a great, strong and independent Russia.

[Sergeyev] You, just like the Komsomol, like mass events. Sometimes your march blocks Leningradskiy Prospekt and then you open a summer camp for thousands of people on Lake Seliger. I do not even mention your Sunday events. Where do you take the money for this?

[Yakimenko] We receive support from various structures. For instance, our Krasnodar branch is supported by the Novorossiysk port and the Moscow branch by one of the biggest ice-cream manufacturers. House Construction Combine No 1 donates money from time to time. Some Duma deputies also support us.

[Sergeyev] Are you not afraid that sooner or later your sponsors will start to voice their demands and put forward their conditions?

[Yakimenko] They certainly will, for that's the way sponsors are. However, if their demands coincide with what is stated in our manifesto, it is nothing to be afraid of. After all, we are only humans and are perfectly aware of the fact that if somebody supports us he will sooner or later want us to cooperate and provide political support. The question is whether this will meet our interests. I am convinced that if sponsors' goals and objectives differ from ours our commissars will have the resolve not to accept money from them.

[Sergeyev] You position yourselves as an antifascist movement and even set up antifascist patrols. What is the reason for this?

[Yakimenko] First, in a country that defeated fascism any talk that Hitler's and Mussolini's ideas were normal is an insult to the 27 million people who died in the Great Patriotic War [Second World War]. Second, if we allow an outburst of radical nationalistic ideas, this will result in a break-up of the country and a civil war.

What does the slogan "Russia for Russians" mean? It means that we beat up a Makhachkala inhabitant in Moscow and he beats us up in his city. For instance, we beat up a Tatar in St Petersburg and he beats us up in Kazan. We beat up a Chechen in Lyubertsy and he beats us up in Groznyy. As a result, everybody beats everybody in this country and those regions in which Russians did not live historically - the North Caucasus, Kazan, Siberia and the like - will fall apart. How will we be regarded in the world after that?

It is for this reason that we built the Great Patriotic War museum in Groznyy and published the book entitled "The Chechen People's Heroic Contribution to the Victory Over Fascism." When a Chechen, a Russian, and a Tatar realize that our great accomplishments were our common victory any talk about ethnic supremacy will stop. Our antifascist patrols function in many cities, including in cemeteries they protect from vandals. We are going to expose any fascist regardless of his rank.

Another area of our activity is work with those who have erred. Sixteen or seventeen-year-old skinheads are deceived teenagers. We should talk with them. Are you a Russian patriot? Do you want people living in other countries to bring money here? Why, then, do you beat up those who have come to this country to study? Do you know that you would not be admitted to any international skinhead organization because you are "Slav crap" for them? Hitler and Mussolini regarded Slavs as sub-humans. Do you regard yourself as one? Then you should continue to express your admiration for their ideology. If you sit at a table with these kinds of people and talk normally, you can persuade many of them. You have to do this systematically though.

[Sergeyev] Do you cooperate with "spontaneous" antifascists?

[Yakimenko] No, we do not work with those who beat up the skinheads. There are two methods that cannot resolve difficult problems: Street marches and mugging. These kinds of actions are very ineffective.

[Sergeyev] Do Nashi oppose the National Bolsheviks?

[Yakimenko] I am [Eduard] Limonov's ardent opponent. Look at the Third Reich Nazi posters and the National Bolshevik posters and try to find 10 differences between them. Limonov uses fascist symbols and incites violence. And look at his stance on other issues: "It is necessary to expedite the extinction of 70 and 80-year-olds. They are vegetables - ill and old.... Intellectuals cannot be heroes. They should live in constant fear and should have no right to have families and children." These are barbaric views. Moral decay and corruption of young people takes place in his basement.

[Sergeyev] Can you be called an "anti-orange" movement?

[Yakimenko] We are opponents of any forces that may try to destabilize the situation in this country, push it towards unbridled liberalism and lead to the sale of national wealth. If the country slides towards the "brown abyss" we will oppose this also. What happened in Ukraine was not a revolution. A way was invented to move from the rear to the front stalls without paying the difference in the ticket price. In essence, people's will was substituted by the will of the crowd. The 100,000 people gathered on Kiev's central square were not the 56-million nation. One group of people simply replaced another group of people at the helm. Nothing has improved; the situation has even worsened. All these "orange" processes are unacceptable for Russia.

[Sergeyev] Your 17 December event was deemed "a march against the march" - a response to Other Russia's Saturday [16 December] event.

[Yakimenko] Our event had been planned long before Other Russia's march. Its idea had nothing to do with the so-called opposition's actions. We are talking about something different: The New Year is approaching and everybody is waiting for a miracle. Meanwhile, nobody expected a miracle in Moscow 65 years ago. Fascists who had conquered one-half of Europe were pushing towards Moscow. It was necessary to make a heroic deed. Today's veterans made it. One million people died at that. Then, they won the Great Patriotic War, launched Gagarin into space, and made this country great.

Everything fell apart in 1991. The merited veterans are 85-90 years old now. They sit in their apartments and do not expect any miracles. We proposed that 100,000 young people in 50 Russian cities recreate New Year's Eve 1941. It is the holiday they did not have a chance to celebrate in the fighting lines. We decided to prepare a front-line present for each veteran - something he could have received but never did.

The presents were prepared. People brought cedar nuts and smoked fish from Siberia and famous gingerbread from Tula. People knitted warm clothes and sewed tobacco pouches in which we put wartime Makhorka tobacco. Every present was prepared individually. Every one of them contained a wartime postcard we printed (an exact copy of a 1941 postcard).

The young people gathered together in city squares in the morning and from there went to veterans' homes. They passed holiday wishes and gave presents to tens of thousands of people. This was the sense of our campaign. We do not care about some kinds of political punks taking part in some kind of march.

[Sergeyev] Are you personally an opponent of Other Russia?

[Yakimenko] I am an opponent of everything that will lead us to chaos. Its leaders say: "Putin is bad." Who is good then? Kasyanov, Kasparov, Khakamada? If they come to power, will the 40 million drunkards stop drinking? Will hundreds of thousands of people stop giving and taking bribes? All these people already had power. Why did they not do anything?

[Sergeyev] What happened to the Marching Together movement of which you were leader?

[Yakimenko] It is working perfectly, mostly in the south of Russia. It is led by Pavel Tarakanov and has very good programmes.

[Sergeyev] What is your definition of patriotism?

[Yakimenko] It is striving to do everything one can to make the country live better.