National Bolsheviks and Communists marching in central Moscow on April 8 (epa)
May 10, 2006 -- A Moscow court today convicted two activists of the radical National Bolshevik party of hooliganism and damaging state property for a flamboyant antigovernment protest earlier this month.
The two -- Olga Kudrina and Yevgeny Logovsky -- had used mountaineering equipment to roll out a banner with antigovernment slogans on the front of a high-rise hotel in Moscow.
Kudrina was sentenced to 3-1/2 years in prison and Logovsky was given a 3-1/2-year suspended sentence.
(ITAR-TASS, Interfax)
Factbox: National Bolshevik Party
Factbox: National Bolshevik Party
- Created in 1994 by radical writer Eduard Limonov, Eurasianism ideologue Aleksandr Dugin (who soon left the party), and rock musicians Yegor Letov and Sergei Kurikhin.
- Limonov was a member of the Soviet literary underground in the 1960s. He emigrated to the United States in the 1970s, where he became close to American Trotskyites and anarchists.
- Limonov's best-selling novel, "It's Me, Eddie," has been translated into 15 languages.
- The party's official publication is "Limonka" the name, literally "little lemon," is also idiomatic Russian for "grenade."
- The NBP is believed to have several thousand followers, most of them young. They are popularly referred to as "limonovtsii."
- Started as a neo-fascist organization, the party now prefers to describe itself as an opposition group that supports democracy. Its ideology is a mixture of totalitarian and fascist symbols, geopolitical dogma, leftist ideas, and national-patriotic demagoguery.
- President Vladimir Putin is one of the party's constant targets. The party's website lists Putin's "crimes" as election fraud, reforming the Soviet-era benefits system, and the government's response to the Dubrovka and Beslan tragedies.
- The party has gained fame by staging provocative protests and publicly challenging its foes. Some of its favorite stunts include throwing eggs, tomatoes, and mayonnaise at prominent public figures.
- Its emblem combines the Nazis' red-and-white flag with the Soviet hammer and sickle.
- Authorities have continually cracked down on the party. In August 2004, 39 activists were arrested and charged with "attempting to seize power and organize a mass disturbance" after breaking into the presidential administration building.
- In June, the party was outlawed on extremism charges by a Moscow court. Russia's Supreme Court confirmed the ban in November.