Last modified: 2015-08-13 by zoltán horváth
Keywords: russian national unity | swastika | hammer and sickle (black) | blade | national bolshevik party | bolshevik | russian national union | cross: double vertical arm | hammer cross | saltire (black) | pamyat | national social |
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Image by Tomislav Todorović, 21 July 2012
The far-right Slavic Union (Slavyanskiy Soyuz), claiming to be Russia's National Socialist Movement, is led by Dmitriy Demushkin, and is one of a number of Russian nationalist groups with neo-Nazi tendencies. The group’s Russian initials spell SS (U+0421U+0421), its members give Nazi-style salutes, and its main flag features a reworked swastika. The group has claimed responsibility for several murders and attacks on Jewish organizations, websites, and groups. They claim kinship to the Russian Nation Union and other Russian extremist organizations such as the National Patriotic Front. The Slavic Union was recognized as an extremist organization and banned by the Moscow City Court in 2010, and by the Supreme Court of the Russia the next year.
(modified text from "Historical Flags of Our Ancestors" website)
The main flag of the Slavic Union displays a white swastika on red field. The aspect ratio varies a lot: from 2:3 (photo, photo) to 1:2 (photo), but 1:1 was also used sometimes (photo) and there was at least one case of 3:2, i.e. width larger than length (photo). The arms usually have the same width as the areas between them (see above image), but might be visibly narrower as well.
Tomislav Todorović, 21 July 2012
Image by Tomislav Todorović, 21 July 2012
Slavic Union extensively uses red flags with the movement name inscribed in two lines in white, in a medieval-looking typeface. The variant which seems to be more used has only the initial letters of
two words in uppercase form and the inscription is aligned at the left-hand side. The flag can be seen here: photo, photo, photo, photo, photo, photo.
Tomislav Todorović, 21 July 2012
Image by Tomislav Todorović, 21 July 2012
A less used variant has the whole inscription in uppercase letters, a rather condensed variant, and the text is centered. This flag can be seen here: photo, photo, photo, photo, photo.
Although the inscriptions on these two flags might mislead the observer to the conclusion that two different typefaces are used, they do employ the uppercase and lowercase letters of the same typeface, the name of which is Izhitsa.
The colors used might actually be a borrowing from Communist and other far-left flags in Russia, whose designs currently in use often show white emblems on red field. The movement name might have also been
chosen to resemble that of the Soviet Union (Russian: Sovetskiy Soyuz). Such borrowings, meant to confuse potential new members in order to facilitate their subsequent indoctrination, are not new to the Nazism and neo-Nazism: the original National Socialists of Germany are thought to have chosen their name and the flag with red field with the same thing in their mind, and modern ultra-rightist flags also frequently borrow design elements of those used by ultra-leftists.
Tomislav Todorović, 21 July 2012
Images by Tomislav Todorović, 21 July 2012
After the Slavic Union was banned, the Slavic Force (Slavyanskaya sila) was founded by Dmitry Demushkin to replace it. The organization uses either red or black flags with the name of the organization in white, inscribed in two lines in a medieval-looking typeface, following the previous practice of the Slavic Union.
(modified text from "Historical Flags of Our Ancestors" website)
The flags with red field may have the text either aligned at the left-hand side (see top image, left) or centered (see top image, right). The flags with black field have so far employed only the left-aligned text (see bottom image, right). The common features of the inscriptions on all of these flags are that the typeface used is another condensed variant of the Izhitsa (see above), but the uppercase and lowercase letters differ here in size only, and the top line of the text is visibly more condensed than the bottom line, regardless of the alignment.
Sources:
Tomislav Todorović, 21 July 2012
Image by Nikolay A. Khimenkov, 12 Apr 2006
This is official flag of the National-Socialistic Society for internal usage.
Mikhail Revnivtsev, 12 Apr 2006
Image by Victor Lomantsov, 12 Oct 2011
This is official flag of the National-Socialistic Society for external use. The letters НСО are Russian for National-Socialistic Society, or the NSS.
Mikhail Revnivtsev, 12 Apr 2006
Image by Victor Lomantsov, 5 May 2009
Seen in a TV news report, a Russian nationalist demonstration with participants waving imperial black-yellow-white flags, some of which had a logo in the center consisting of a word under a white
and black white supremacist-style circle-cross.
Eugene Ipavec, 5 May 2009
It is flag of ultra-right "Movement against illegal immigration"
Victor Lomantsov, 5 May 2009
Image by A. Sedano, 5 Feb 2012
The Movement Against Illegal Immigration (DPNI) is a Russian nationalist hate group and anti-Illegal immigration organization. The DPNI was founded in 2002 by Vladimir Basmanov, in 2008 leadership passed to Aleksandr Belov (Potkin), the former press spokesman for ultra-nationalist Pamyat's leader, Dmitry Vasilyev. In 2010 the leadership changed once again, and Vladimir Ermolaev now leads the group.
Human Rights Activists had filed complaints with the Russian authorities because they believed the DPNI was "pursuing a fascist agenda," exemplified by slogans such as "Russia is for Russians!" Because the Movement continued to repeatedly take part in events aimed at igniting inter-ethnic hatred, it was finally banned by the Moscow City Court in 2011. At the present time, a suspension of the activities of the organization remains in force. The Movement Against Illegal Immigration was one of the more active political organizations in Russia with about 5000 members in 30 different regions.
Pete Loeser, 13 July 2012
Image by Chrystian Kretowicz, 7 Nov 2009Mikhail Revnivtsev reported today to RussoVex the flag of "Pamyat" ("Memory" or "Memorial"), the ultra-nationalist organization is appearing under two names:
The National Patriotic Front, a splinter group from the Pamyat (Memory) Union, is a Russian ultra-nationalist organization sometimes identifying itself as the "People's National-Patriotic Orthodox Christian Movement." It has been accused of racism, xenophobia, and antisemitism.
The groups most well-known leader, Dmitry Vassilyev (who died in 2003), made the Pamyat Union the most prominent organized group of Russian nationalists in the 1980s. After several splits and name changes, and the imminent dissolution of the USSR, the organization launched its own newspaper "The Pamyat" in 1991, with print runs of 100,000 copies, and started their own radio station.
However, by the end of the 1990s, the original Pamyat had disappeared being replaced with smaller groups with names like "The National Patriotic Front" and "The Russian National Unity." The Russian National Unity promoted the cult of the swastika, a symbol which, they claimed "acts on subconsciousness and paralyses, weakens and demoralizes non-believers."
Pete Loeser, 13 July 2012
Image by Tomislav Todorović, 5 Jun 2010
The People's National Party (Narodnaya Natsional'naya Partiya) was founded in 1994. Its
ideology, called Russism, is meant to be a "localized" form of Nazism. The party flag is white with a large black cross potent in the centre; the cross has an inner white and an outer black fimbriation. The aspect ratio is 1:2, as can be seen at the photo gallery from the party website. As Vladimir,Popov, party leader's deputy, wrote in his book "Returning of Russia: On the Path Towards the Russian State", the party emblem is the combination of two swastikas, one right-facing and one left-facing.
Sources:
Tomislav Todorović, 5 Jun 2010
Image by Tomislav Todorović, 21 Nov 2011
These are flags used by a Russian neo-Nazi organization called the National Front. The National Front is led by Ilya Lazarenko. First formed in 1991 as the"Union of Russian Youth," then renamed the "Front of National-Revolutionary Action" in 1992, and finally named the "National Front Party" which it has
remained since 1994. Its doctrine is racist and fascist envisioning a "Great National-Socialist Russian Empire" under a "national dictatorship," which explains their use of flags reminiscent of both Nazi Germany and Imperial, Russia.
Pete Loeser, 17 Nov 2011
Image by Victor Lomantsov, 21 Nov 2011
The National Front Skinheads wear traditional black fascist uniforms and display their black Celtic crosses on their banners which they claim are based on the crosses of Novgorod and Jerusalem instead of the traditional swastika which is illegal in Russia. According to Lazarenko, his movement has contacts with the Russian National Unity (RNE) of Alexander Barkashov, but the relations are generally cool because they view the policies of the RNE as "absolutely erroneous."
Pete Loeser, 17 Nov 2011
Image by Pete Loeser, 21 Nov 2011
At demonstrations the National Front Party has been seen displaying flags using the traditional neo-Nazi red and white, but also flags using the Romanov Imperial colors (such as the Front of National-Revolutionary Action Flags, and even re-purposing and using the last Russian Imperial State Flag of 1914.
Pete Loeser, 17 Nov 2011
Image by Pete Loeser and Tomislav Todorović, 20 Nov 2011
National Socialist Movement - Russian Division claimed to be the branch of the National Socialist Movement, or National Socialist Movement 88, a neo-Nazi movement from the USA. They used a
red flag with a large white disc, charged with a variant of wolfsangel symbol in black. The image of this flag could be seen at the movement website, which is no longer available online (the
movement probably disbanded itself, the members leaving to join other
similar organizations), but can still be found at the Internet archive.
Tomislav Todorović, 20 Nov 2011
Images by Tomislav Todorović, 9 July 2012 (left) and Victor Lomantsov, 9 Nov 2011 (right)
National Socialist Initiative (Natsional'naya Sotsialisticheskaya Initsiativa) was formed in St. Petersburg in 2009 by Dmitriy Bobrov, nicknamed Shul'ts, previously the leader of
Shul'ts-88, an informal group of Nazi skinheads which were active in St Petersburg and the Leningrad Region 2001-2007 before the police suppressed them. Bobrov himself was arrested in 2005 and sentenced to six years in jail on a conviction of violence, but was released in 2009. In early 2010, National Socialist Initiative has spread to the city of Cherepovets, Vologda Region. This branch of the organization was deemed extremist by the Vologda City Court in May of 2010, but the main body seems not to have been illegalized yet.
(modified text from "Historical Flags of Our Ancestors" website)
National Socialist Initiative uses black flags with a white disc, charged with the black Cyrillic monogram NS (НС), shaped so as to resemble the sunwheel. In the complex flag design, the disc is surrounded with a red wreath and a small black shield, fimbriated red and charged with red initials nsi (нси), placed over the bottom end of the wreath. The simple design adds only a red fimbriation to the disc. Photos showing both flags can be seen at the Nazi Watch website.
Tomislav Todorović, 9 July 2012
Images by Tomislav Todorović, 29 September 2012
Russian Obraz (Russkiy Obraz) is an ultra-nationalist organization
modelled after the Obraz Fatheland Movement, a similar organization from Serbia.
The model organization is presented at the FOTW
website.
The main flag of the organization is derived from that of its Serbian
counterpart by changing the field color - plain black instead of bicolor
red-blue. Its photos can be
found here (Image)
and here (Image)
Images by Tomislav Todorović, 29 September 2012
An alternate flag displays a different
emblem - runes Tyr and Gebo placed one over the other, which in Russian
pre-Christian religion, according to the
website of the
organization were representing spear and shield of god Perun, respectively. Name
of the organization is inscribed above the emblem, in a typeface with letter
shapes modelled after the runes. The photos of this flag can be found
here (Image)
and here (Image)
Images by Tomislav Todorović, 29 September 2012
Another flag with these charges has the
name of the organization inscribed beneath the emblem, which is ammended with
the initials Р (R) and О, inscribed in the same typeface as the
full name. Its photos can be found
here (Image)
and here (Image
1) (Image
2)
All three flags can be used together, as is shown on numerous photos
here.
Tomislav Todorović, 29 September 2012
I sort of get the presence of the confederate flag but what's with
Scotland? Is a white on blue saltire used in any
capacity in Russia?
MR Majan, 29 September 2012
Perhaps it isn't Scotland, but
Quebec, whose flag is sometimes used by Russian
ultra-rightists, but is not the best visible here. Both flags are used as the
symbol of solidarity with their original users, who are said to be fighting
against the same enemies ("new world order" or "globalism", however they call
it) for their freedom. Of course, it is possible that the flag of
Scotland is also used in the same way, thus
expressing solidarity with Scottish independentists. (The fact that most of
Scots or Quebecois are not sharing their ideas is neglected, of course.)
Tomislav Todorović, 29 September 2012
A blue saltire on white would be the old naval flag. Perhaps the Scot flag
was easier to get, or is used as some kind of "independentist" symbol, while
similar (or the "negative" version)?
Dirk Schönberger, 29 September 2012
I don't think that this was the case here - after all, they could have made
their own copy of the naval flag quite easily if they wanted to use it. However,
they seem to prefer the Romanov colors.
Tomislav Todorović, 29 September 2012
The blue saltire on white is the current (post-Soviet)
naval ensign of Russia as well as the pre-Soviet
naval ensign.
Michael Halleran, 01 October 2012
