- Chronicle
- Remembering Kropotkin
- Keep on Regrouping
- The Rainbow that Burned Down a House
- Student Riot in Moscow
- Commentary
- May Day in Russia and the New Zhironovsky
- Back to May Day...
- Bielorussia: Tough Days for Gomel Anarchists
- Who Needs Mutual Aid When You Have Friends in Pyongyang?
- Socialists Always Write the Stupidist Articles About Anarchists
- "The Wonderful world of ZAIBI", THE most interesting (anti)music (anti)group and some of its ideas
- The Great Unknown of Russian Anarchism: Alexei Borovoi (1875-1935)
- (Some) Anarchist publications and groups in the former USSR
On December 2-3, 1995 anarchists from 6 cities of Russia participated in the congress of lately disfunct Association of Anarchist Movemnts (ADA) with the aim to give it new life. The delegates adopted a new version of agreement on cooperation and ruled that self-proclamation of membership will no longer be the practice and that groups and individuals willing to join the Association will have to do it according to the new agreement on coopeartion.
On December 10 anarchists in Moscow, St.Petersburg and Kazan organized demonstrations and pickets commemorating the first anniversary of the aggression in Chechnya. In Moscow anarchists participated in several demonstrations together with socialist and human rights groups and spray-painted downtown streets. In St.Petersburg anarchists together with Soldiers' Mothers Committee and human rights activists hold a demo of 150 people. In Kazan there was a small picket, but after it even local Muslim nationalists were distributing anarchist leaflets condemning the aggression against Chechnya.
Moscow. February 8 - anarchists and scientists commemorated
the 75th anniversary of Kropotkin's death by a small
gathering at Novodevichyea cemetary.
February 10 - there was a small public meeting with
speeches.
On February 18 Muscovites living close to the Neskuchny Garden and anarcho-ecologists prevented works on construction of two new houses for the rich that will destroy part of the garden.
Moscow. January 18 - Ministry of Nature Presesrvation. 14 activists were taken to a local cop-shop, but soon released.
March 5 - "Rainbow Keepers" staged a theatrical protest against the construction of super-railway Moscow- St.Petersburg that will cut Central Russian provinces in two with a huge concrete knife and will be another financial disaster (estimated cost of construction is 7 billion US$ which is likely to increase and is unlikely to pay for itself ever due to the extremely hugh cost of the tickets). A symbolical railway train was destroyed outside the Moscow stock market where they started to sell shares for the railway.
REMEMBERING KROPOTKIN
On February 8 scientists and relatives of Kropotkin accompanied by anarchists from Moscow, Petrograd, Tver and Saratov held a memorial meeting at Kropotkin's tomb, commemorating an anniversary of his death. Later during the day they visited the house where he was born, currently occupied by Palestinian embassy. Workers of the embassy were greatly enlightened about who the hell this man was.
KEEP ON RE-GROUPING
The end of February was marked by the recreation of "An- Press" newsbulletin and the establishment of the group "The Movement of Rigid Anarchy", which is described as "neither left, nor right, but really black anarchist". However, after the publication of one issue "An-Press" slipped back into non-existence, while Petrograd anarchists launched a new initiative - to recreate now the defunct Association of Anarchist Movements (ADA), a loose thing, hardly even a network. No news since then.
THE RAINBOW THAT BURNED DOWN A HOUSE
On March 23, Moscow group of "Rainbow Keepers", a self- proclaimed "radical" ecological group, composed mainly of anarchists, burned down somebody's cottage (somebody being some rich bastard) in one of the national parks on the outskirts of Moscow, that was built in obvious violation of the current ecological standards. This action led to what "Rainbow Keepers" called a "surprising response" from ISAR, an international organiazation set up by the CIA-controlled National Endowment for Democracy, which is sponsoring many environmental groups in the former USSR. ISAR refused to finance projects of "Rainbow Keepers" charging them with "terrorism". The paper of "Rainbow Keepers" declared that they were never dependent on financial support from outside (which is bullshit) and that they are not going to "correct" the activities of their organization because if ISAR's refusal. Well, that's good, but I'm still not going to applaud them - this is hardly a heroic act.
STUDENT RIOT IN MOSCOW
On April 12 there was a trade union day of action and the student union affiliated with the (old, "official") FNPR trade union federation also had a rally near the White House. Activists of "Student Defense" (self-proclaimed radical union) showed up and made some chanting. The rally was officially closed after half an hour, but the activists of "Student Defense" organized a demonstration to the Kremlin. "Leaders" were arrested right away and police also captured all the megaphones (they say that they were singled out because the "official" student union cooperaterd with the police). Police attacked the demonstration beating some people with rubber batons and taking them into police vans. Some demonstrators responded by throwing bottles. Then the crowd proceeded towards the center while the pigs tried (succesfully) not to let them into the main street (Novy Arbat). Anyway, the demonstration went towards the center of the city through Arbat (a smaller pedestrian only street, parallel to Novy Arbat). Several people in masks attacked police van with rocks. Police attacked again breaking the demonstration and dividing it. The head of the column went further breaking some shop windows on the way and throwing some bottles and rocks into the General Headquarters of Russian Army. Near the Kremlin the remaining demonstrators were divided once again and later the head of the column was attacked and beaten (the "body" was dispersed in the underpasses). 22 people were taken to pig stations. Most of them spent the night there and were taken to court the next day. Five of them were found not guilty, three got some fines and the rest got away with a warning. (This is more or less the version distributed by the "Student Defense" activists, I left out some glorious descriptions.) This event was in no way organized by the "Student Defense" and thus most of the people (who probably were at the demo for the first time) didn't know how to react to police attacks - they didn't even join hands when the pigs were arresting people. The slogans at the demonstration varied from "Capitalism is shit" and "We won't go to war!" to "Chechnya is shit - the victory will be ours" and "Give us beer".
COMMENTARY: FUCK THIS SHIT!
"Student Defense" is a contradictory mixture of Stalinists, Kim-Il-Sungists, some anarchists and those who look at it as a "business". The first and the later obviously play the most active role and manipulate the organization for their own goals. The anarchists are there to create a "cool" facade of the organization. One of the Stalinist leaders was quoted as saying "If young people don't come to us under red banners, let them come to us under black banners". Recently there were some more worrying signs - in St.Petersburg neofascists from the Cells of National- Syndicalist Offensive joined the union, while in Moscow so- called "anarchists" from IREAN (who participate in the "Student Defence") became good drinking buddies of Limonov, the leader of National-Bolshevik Party, also with some cases of defecation to the NBP and contributing to fascist papers (see Laure's article on Limonov's party). Among the fascists of various sorts - from Nazi skins to new right intellectuals - there's a strong tendency to use parts and pieces of leftist and even antiauthoritarian theories for the purpose of creating a more intelligent and poppy image of fascism. Recently Limonov's paper run a tribute to Guy Debord, a review of some article by a Polish fascist who favourably comments on Polish anarchists and a very favourable review of "anarchist" paper "Chornaya Zvezda" published by IREAN.
Idiotic tendencies among some of the IREAN activists - which include not only comradely relations with fascists and Stalinists, but also regular seminars sponsored by the Northern Korean embassy - lead to a split in the group already a while ago when anarcho-syndicalists left to form the Group of Revolutionary Anarcho-Syndicalists (GRAS).
There is also something you can do - organize an active boycott of IREAN and Dmitry Kostenko in particular: don't send any materials to these assholes unless you really sympathize with the things that they do. I guess it will also be reasonable to remove Kostenko from the international A-Infos network.
MAY DAY IN RUSSIA AND THE NEW ZHIRONOVSKY
Laure Akai
People must have gotten the message that the politics of their impoversation are not transitional and that the word reform is a crock of shit. Either that or their patriotism is all worked up from watching the preparations for victory day - too many war films on TV or something - because the crowd was a little bigger this May Day than last - although not as angry as a few years ago when they battled the police. There were actually two "non-government" parades (the smaller left groups unable to organize anything else because of a strict ban which would have resulted in immediate arrest): one was held by the trade unions and the Communist Party (Zyuganov, who likes to distance himself from extremism as much as possible), and the other by the usual red-brown melange of half hysterical idiots.
I went to the first march but as they both ended near the Bolshoi Theater, near a large statue of Marx, I caught part of the second one an hour or two later. The difference between the two might be summed up by saying that the first crowd suffered from a "law-abiding citizen complex"; while the CPRFers and the trade union bureaucrats seek change through "legal", governmental avenues, and more or less support "democracy", the red-browns have less faith in the government and most support some type of dictatorship of one kind or another. Amongst the red-browns therefore one could definitely encounter the angrier crowd - but not all anger is equal. This probably explains why most of the self-styled anarchists, artists, punks - and youth in general - attended the second march.
Naturally, all sorts of objectionable characters were to be seen today. If you looked right you could get a free copy of "Russkiy Poryadok" (Russian Order) or "Chornaya Sotnya" (Black Hundred). Stalin was there of course, but it seems his popularity is dropping as the anti-semites' is rising. Mostly extreme nationalism and xenophobia. The one thing that was new this year however was the widening popularity of the National Bolshevik Party - the Bolshevik Nazi Party - which deserves some attention.
The National Bolshevik Party is not a "grass roots" organization like the National Salvation Front, Russian National Unity or the Black Hundreds. Like the LDPR (the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia), the National Bolshevik Party exists to put its main figureheads into political power; the likelihood that it will be the LDPR of the next election is rather great. The main personality in this party is Edward Limonov, a former emigre "writer" who became famous for a scandalous book about life in America. A notorious personality with an enormous ego, Limonov is a master of self-promotion. Having emigrated to America in the 70s, obviously with naive expectations of life in the capitalist West, Limonov found that the best America had to offer a poet of his negliable talents was a job as a bus boy. So he cleverly decided to invent a hitherto nonexistant literary genre - the anti-Western emigre novel. Poorly imitating the punk (the word post-modern makes me puke - and it's too sophisticated for him anyway) literary fashions of America at the time, Limonov seemed to introduce a new style in Russia literature with the publication of his extremely crude novel "It's me, Eddy". (Which of course compared to the stale realist drool that was most of modern Russian literature until perestroika, seemed innovative and interesting to a lot of people.) Limonov of course was the main literary character in all of his novels, all the better to create his public persona. He began to write anti- Western, Russian nationalist articles as well, which became more extreme as perestroika and the post-perestroika regime developed. He is the author of "Limonov vs. Zhirinovsky" where he claims that Vlad is a coward and a zionist fake in an attempt to appear tougher and to syphon off some LDPR support (votes). And apparently his strategy is working.
Part of the National Bolshevik Party's strategy for gaining support is to monitor different movements, act concillatory to them and to mimic their politics and style in order to attract their marginal supporters. (See my earlier report entitled "Friendly Fascism".) The party's main organ is "Limonka - the Newspaper of Direct Action" which took lessons in style from the anarchist press - literally. (At the demonstration I saw a least one so-called anarchist peddling the rag.) They recently printed rave reviews of "Chornaya Zvezda" (Black Star) and commended the Polish fascists for infiltrating (called "working with") the Polish anarchists. Former anarchist and punk rock legend Yegor Letov has long since gone over to the NBP and this greatly helps their image with youth. For the more intellectually inclined, they offer up Alexander Dugin, editor of "Elementy", a journal supported by French fascists. This is great for those who feel better having some theorectical mumbo-jumbo ready to justify their irrationality, even if they don't understand any of it themselves.
The NBP describes itself as nationalist socialist but distinguishes itself from the nazis of Hitler fame; they do not have a view of the Russian nation based on race, but on adherence to Russian Civilization. Their program is simplistic and is designed to push all the right national patriotic buttons. At the basis of their program are the following ideas:
Russian is a great civilization which is being threatened by its enemies, mainly the United States and the people which it has put into power in Russia. As a great civilization it is historically determined to spread and naturally the smaller "lesser tribes" should Russify themselves. Russia was never a colonial empire because non-Russians had positions of power, but Russia should, and by natural law is predestined to be an empire. The Crimea is Russian territoy, as is parts of Estonia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Osetia, Kharkov and the Donetsk Basin. A strong army is the mark of a strong nation. We need a strong central government which will ensure the happiness of the Russian family. Russia for Russians and all will be OK.
From their program:
"Russian rule freely spread into Siberia, Central Asia and the Caucasus; it was not imposed by force as our enemies suggest, but by the development of Russian Civilization." "Empire - Yes. Empire is the state form which stems from civilization." "Russia was never a colonial empire." "The West... is our enemy. It has successfully attcked us with its most modern weapons: "democracy" and "human rights"... The future of Russia is in union with Islam. Both the Orthodox and the Isalmic have been fighting Western agression for thousands of years." "Cleanse Russia of foreign influence." "Law and Order! New Order! Russian Order!" "Corporatism." Etc., ad nauseum.
A lot of people were selling "Limonka" today; it seems that the NBP has taken the place of the LDPR and Zhirinovsky amongst the dispossessed. Limonov, Dugin and Letov will be running in the next election; don't be surprised if they get in.
(Aside from the normal anti-Chechen, anti-American crap, "Limonka" has been running some definitions of fascism, some of which are good for a laugh. These guys would be almost as funny as Zhirinovsky if it weren't for the fact that they're totally serious. From this issue:
"Fascism is the sweetness of forbidden fruit."
"Fascism is male nature."
"Fascism is when your can protect your girl and kick ass first."
"Fascism is respecting the opponent you want to kill."
"Fascism is an eagle eye, sharp teeth, a strong hand, and soft, soft lips to kissed your beloved."
If anybody here had half a brain, we could make a great musical.)
BACK TO MAY DAY...
In Moscow anarchists failed to join forces and thus were spread in the ranks of trade union and Communist demonstrations. Small group of "radical anarcho- syndicalists" (GRAS) and some of their comrades which form the "Volya" union made a small picket and distributed leaflets on the outskirts of the trade union manifestation. They were later joined by activists of KAS and non-party anarchists. IREAN marched together with the young and old commies in a mainly chauvinistic crowd. In Kiev, Ukraine, activists of "radical" "Direct Action" union were banned from demonstrating and police effectively controlled the streets. In Khabarovsk, an anarchist crowd of 50 blocked the traffic on one of the central streets, 9 people were arrested. In Chelyabinsk 5 local anarchists marched with the communists and were interviewed by local TV station. In Nizhny Novgorod anarchists and punks burned national flags, but apparently this interested nobody. No concrete information about anarchist rallies in other cities and places. (Also see a piece on Bielorussian anarchists.)
BIELORUSSIA: TOUGH DAYS FOR GOMEL ANARCHISTS
On April 26 anarchists joined an alternative demonstration organized to commemorate the anniversary of Chernobyl disaster. Since the Bielorussian authorities (the same as Ukranian and Russian) were not in favour of any dissident voices, they concentrated some great police forces. However, the demonstrators managed to break several police lines and march through the city. The police was rather brutal and it turned out that their not so successful measures on Chernobyl day made them angry and they took revenge on anarchists at the May Day demonstration. Activists of Bielorussian Anarchist Federation together with the Bielorussian Confederation of Labour made a separate rally nearby the Communists. They were attacked by police and three people were arrested. They were beaten in the police van and then in the pig station. Later on the police arrested to young punks who carried home black banners after the demonstration, they both were beaten up and tortured - pigs strangled them with the flag and put a gun to their heads. (In Kiev anarcho-ecological picket was also attacked by police, though not so brutally.)
WHO NEEDS MUTUAL AID WHEN YOU HAVE FRIENDS IN PYONGYANG?
One of the great pleasures of life is when life's hypocrites, assholes, pretenders and manipulators finally become so apparently exposed that they are no longer credible. I hope, at last, we can say goodbye to our great scummy chum, Dmitry Kostenko, recently departed for Pyongyang to receive the favours of the government. Kostenko, the so-called anarchist revolutionary (who actually joined up with anybody who would send him abroad) left Moscow boasting of the ill-wishes he sent to the Conference in Hungary. (Whether or not he actually sent them, or was bullshitting, we don't know.) Basically he condemned the 'Western' anarchists for coming by, trying to tempt the poor, uncorrupt Russians with money and causing problems in the anarchist movement here. Although we understand that this is bullshit, because Dmitry was probably more money hungry than the rest (his first meeting with me being for the purpose of conning me out of dough), and we have seen all sorts of other individuals and groups, highly dependent on handouts, turn their self-hatred outwards and condemn all such 'charity', we are also aware that Dmitry's attitude is one shared by many, albeit it they seldom vocalize it. (At least not in mixed company.)
It is clear that many people, communists, socialists, anarchists, face Russia with a very missionary attitude; it is important for them to support projects in Russia but they are too naive about what they are doing. Many publications in the West publish false or distorted histories; these stories fit their propaganda but don't match reality. It's time that bullshit about the revolutionary potential of the Russian population (as if they're ready to overthrow capitalism tomorrow) stop appearing without question. That the stories of revolutionary groups and unions be more carefully scrutinized. Let's look what's happening to the 'anarchists' everyone was trying to help a little time back. They join up with Limonov or Zhirinovsky, they commemorate Kim Il-Sung or they 'disappear' tens of thousands of dollars from the workers' movement. Donate your money back home and save yourself from your own charitable impulses.
SOCIALISTS ALWAYS WRITE THE STUPIDIST ARTICLES ABOUT ANARCHISTS
But why do anarchists, who supposedly know better, feel compelled to print them? Here I am talking about Tatiana Shershukova's article on "Personalities in the New Russian Anarchism", which has recently appeared in a Dutch pamphlet, with some otherwise interesting articles. This article is shit. Not that there are great lies in it, but the information gives a very distorted picture of the anarchist movement. It talks about different personalities, the self- styled leaders, some of whose evident authoritarian personalities have led at least three of them to denounce anarchism and take up party politics with the most disgusting of groups. These three people (and some others mentioned) are non-personalities in the anarchist movement. And of course there are dozens of people, committed and sincere, whose names will never appear anywhere in the history books because they haven't tried to make careers manipulating people with their words. This is anarchist history from the wrong perspective. It is from the prospective that all movements need leaders to be legitimate. If there are no leaders from today, we'll take them from yesterday.
Are we to believe that in all of Russia there are only six personalities in the anarchist movement, concidentally six people who traditionally tried to form confederations often are asked to speak on behalf of its members? Well, the people who read this kind of information are really done a diservice, because they miss the most interesting things of all. These are apparently the same European types I met years ago who were shocked to find out that there were more than two @ bookstores in the States and that no, we weren't waiting around for the spiritual guidance of Murray Bookchin, who tends to appear more at the free-lunch crowd than amongst the anarchists.
akai
THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF ZAIBI
After my teenage obsession with rock'n'roll was finally gone, I found myself in a pretty difficult situation. Russian rock that was much talked about here during the first years of perestroika was living through a rather conservative transformation - after a period of orchestrating the turn to democracy it went deeper and deeper into crass commercialism and political that was always personal was more and more withering away. In fact there was still a lot of talk about the supposedly "over- politisation" of Russian rock, but this was mainly due to a lack of knowledge about the Western music. Anyway, several years passed and rock'n'roll is finally daed here and no signs of revival are to be seen. The things that they play is the same shit that we listen to.
The stage of primitive accumulation is hardly the best time for the development of counter-culture, no wonder that what passed for counter-culture in Russia has easily commercialised and became an easy entertainment for the yuppi-punks that flood the porchy bars where you have to pay 10-50 bucks just to get it. But still, while economic and political situation are hardly supportive of underground culture, the group and ideas that I want to write about appeared on Russian soil, although they sort of stick out and may themselves be wondering why this whole thing is possible here.
I first read of ZAIBI (which is an abbreviation that stands for "For Anonymous and Free Art") in some magazine where one of their first albums was reviewed. The reviewer found himself in a difficult situation since he had to describe not only the contents of a cassete that was given to him in a heavy plumbum box, but also who were these people - on the latter no information was available, since this art was anonymous. I never had a chance of getting a hold of their music - I doubt that they ever made more than 50 copies of their plumbum boxes and I think they refused to distribute their music without the box that made it weigh substantally.
My nexy encounter with them was live and they left me in ruins. Imagine two skinny short-haired men banging a drum, making a farting sound with some metal tube and raping the violin and a fragile woman. Their music was monotonous and depressing. Their lyrics left one shocked or confused. Was their "Homosexuals of All Countries, Unite! All Power to the Soviets of Homosexuals!" a song about gay conspiracy (a theory rather popular among aged Stalinists and chauvinists here in Russia) or was it a vision of some queer utopia? Now I think it was neither and both - an absurd song that can be interpreted both ways, and it was great - the conspiracy interpretation was obviously present and it scared the homophobes, and the utopia too. Anyway, everything was up to the audience, as with Laibach, but there were no objects for consumption attached to it. This first concert indeed left a deep impression on me since I saw that the group clearly was "political" and considered itself part of the revolutionary tradition. What else - they were really interesting. They were nihilistic and they chose the right targets for their hate.
"There is the same shit as here
New is the same shit as old
Good musak is the same shit as bad musak
What we play is the same shit that you listen to
Musical instruments is the same shit as 000 instruments
...
High shit is the same shit as low shit
Art is the same shit as the people that it belongs to
Knowledge is the same shit as power
Time is the same shit as money
Our suppresors is the same shit as our followers
...
The West is the same shit as the East
Bolshoi Theater is the same shit as Malaya Zemlya
Soviet power is the same shit as electrification
Party is the same shit as our ruler
...
There's no shit but shit
There was a twist of postmodern cynicism about this all, but in the same time there was some hidden energy and strong feelings attached to it that make one think that there must be something but shit for those who sing it. Maybe it was just the desire to be an 'artist', but the way they put it in their manifesto was far from bourgeois self-affirmation or postmodern 000: One must be an artist not in spite of the hard conditions, but due to them.
tsovma
THE GREAT UNKNOWN OF RUSSIAN ANARCHISM
ALEXEI BOROVOI (1875-1935)
In November 1995 there will be two big dates - 120 years of Alexei Borovoi and 60 years since his death. Until recently the name of this man was unknown even among the anarchists. Nevertheless the impact of his ideas and personality on the anarchist movement since 1906 when he gave the first 'legal' lecture on anarchism in tsarist Russia until his death in exile in Vladimir/Vyatka was profound.
Alexei Borovoi was born in 1875 in Moscow. After graduating from the law faculty of Moscow University he became a teacher and worked at different 0000. Already back in the university he became acquainted with Marxism that was extremely popular in Russia at the turn of the century and also was involved in some minor student activities. After his trip to France in 1904-06 he came back to Russia already as an anarchist. In Paris he encountered the works of Henri Bergson which was one of the major influences on him and also witnessed the practice of the flourishing syndicalist movement. His Marxism was shattered, although for the rest of his life he admitted that the synthesis made by Marx to socialism was indeed profound and always adviced his students to read the works of the grand man.
In April 1906 he gave a lecture on "Social ideals of modern humanity" in which he examined liberalism, socialism and anarchism. His lecture made a big furror and later was published as a pamphlet by "Logos" publishing house. In 1907 he gave another major lecture on "Revolutionary vision" which was greatly inspired by Stirner and Nietzche. In 1906- 1908 Borovoi published several anarchist books (namely Bakunin and Malatesta) with "Logos" publishers that also published his second lecture. Already during the first Russian revolution he got in contact with some anarchists, but he never was involved with any of the groups because of his contempt for their narrow terrorist tactics. Borovoi's anarchism was of different kind - more poetic and individualist, although he never was attracted to liberalism of any sort. In 1908 he was interrogated by the police for the publication of his second lecture and shortly afterwards escaped from Russia with the help of his friend's passport. He spent several years in France and came back only in 1900.
In 1917 after the Febryary revolution Borovoi was involved with some anarchist groups that re-appeared in Moscow and launched a fortnightly anarchist publication "Klich" (The Call) where he propagated the idea of a syndicalist "Federation of Mental Labourers". Revolutionary syndicalism and critique of parliamentarism were the topics of his pamphlet "Revolutionary creativity and parliament" that was written as a series of articles in 1900-00 and published as a book in 1917. Throughout the whole revolutionary upheaval he gave numerous lectures that were greeted with enthusiasm (see for example Makhno's memoirs). In 1918 he published a thick volume on "Anarchism" that incorporated some of his previous writings and some of the notes for his future works. Although the book was obviously published in a "raw" form, it nevertheless was and still is a good reading on the subject. In his "Anarchsim" Borovoi propagated his own vision (and he made no secret of it) which was rather critical of the then fashionable Kropotkin-style anarcho- communism and instead was greatly inspired by Stirner, Nietzche, Bakunin, Bergson and French syndicalists.
He participated in the conferences of the Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists (KAS), which in fact never really took off the ground as an organisation in spite of the notable influence that its activists - Volin, Maximoff, Shapiro and others - had on the factory committees movement. Anarcho- syndicalist "Golos Truda" publishing house published Borovoi's "Individual and Society in Anarchist Philosophy" (1921). Alexei Borovoi dived into the work that he was most suited to do - he edited posthumous Kropotkin (1921) and Bakunin collections (1926) and probably their collected works. His and N.Otverzhenniy's book "The Myths about Bakunin" (1925) - mainly a collection of literary debates with Marxists on Bakunin and Dostoevsky - was one of the last books published by "Golos Truda" until it was finally shut down by the government in 1926.
By the mid twenties all organized anarchist groups were either brutally suppressed by the Cheka or were led by the infiltrators to a shameless end of declaring their "historical compromise with Marxism". In 1921 Borovoi was banned from the University (this wasn't done even by the tsarist regime) and was subjected to long periods of unemployment which were accompanied by occasional jobs of an accountant and that sort. (His desperate appeals to the education Department for a job of a teacher - "I can teach history of the middle ages as a 000 Marxist" - were not noticed.) Nevertheless, Borovoi was still exercising his influence on young students who were attracted to libertarian ideal. In 1921 even the students of Communist Academy (which was then located in the premises previously occupied by the Moscow Federation of Anarchist Groups) decided to make a discussion on "Anarchism vs. Marxism" and inviting Borovoi and Bukharin to defend their visions, but the discussion was banned by the Bolshevik authorities.
After the shutting of the "Golos Truda" publishing house (the manuscripts of unpublished books are to be found in Borovoi's collection in the Russian Archive of Literature and Art - RGALI), the only outlet for semi-legal and thus quite moderate anarchist activity was the Kropotkin Museum. There too anarchism was met with contempt, mainly by Kropotkin's widow and her friends who tried to make an emphasis on Kropotkin's scientific legacy. The other "danger" came from the "mystical anarchists" who were trying to push forward their esoteric visions for the real essence of anarchism. Borovoi and the remaining anarchists fought virulently against both, but in vain - they all had left the Kropotkin Committee in 1927. Although this topic needs some considerable studies there are some indirect evidences that there were attempts to make clandestine anarchist groups using the status of Kropotkin museum and most probably Borovoi was one of the people behind that. Anyway in 1931 he and some other anarchists including Italian syndicalist Francesco Ghezzi were arrested and sent in exile. Borovoi spent his last years in Vyatka and Vladimir and died on November 00, 1935. He was buried in Moscow, on the German Cemetery.
Not long before the Nazi invasion into the USSR his family donated his archive to the Russian Archive of Art and Literature as he wished. Among the most precious things there are his unfinished memoirs "My Life", his unpublished book on Dostoevsky, the manuscripts of "Golos Truda" publishing house, photos of Kropotkin's funeral and numerous documents of his life that will make possible to write his biography one day. (Unfortunately his memoirs describe his life only until the 1917 and the rest of his life can be reconstructed only through documents and diaries.)
* * *
Although Borovoi was undoubtedly _the_ most interesting anarchist thinker of the beginning of the century (Kropotkin aside) and he excerted a strong influence -whose vestiges can be found both among the numerous young anarchists of the post-revolution period and in the manifestos of the "underground anarchists" who bombed the Moscow city Bolshevik party committee in 1919 - his name passed into oblivion and hardly anybody knows it these days. Among the reasons for that of which Stalinist repression was the main one also is the nature of Borovoi's ideas - his ideas were pretty heretical and openly stood in contradiction to what Borovoi himself called "traditional anarchism". He realized, that anarchism was a pretty chaotic set of ideas and reconciliation was hardly possible between 000 00.
What is probably a serious gap in the history of Russian anarchism - is the lack of an outline of the tradition that was, in my opinion, so fruitful and so significant in the Russian anarchism of the 1905-1930s.
Kropotkinite anarchism
syndicalist counter-current - back to Bakunin,
Borovoi's originality - against rationalism, against static ideal society
unfortunately, his ideas seem to have a great historical value, but can be applied to contemporary radical social theory only in the most general sense
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In November 1995 we plan to hold a memorial conference in Moscow devoted to Alexei Borovoi, his life and ideas. In 1994 anarchist "Cube Press" published his brilliant essay on Bakunin's philosophy and we are looking forward to publish some of his works either in book format or as separate pamphlets. If you want to assist this or get more information on Alexei Borovoi (mainly Russian-language articles and texts, but also a tribute to him from "Revolution Proletarienne") you can get in contact with the Alexei Borovoi group (Mikhail Tsovma). We would appreciate your assistance in obtaining (photo)copies of any materials on Borovoi, especially the German edition of his first lecture on anarchism that was published somewhere between 1906 and 1917. The only other translation of his works that we know about is "Anarchism and Law", a chapter of his book on "Anarchism" that was published by some anarchists in Buffalo (without date).
We also hope to get a videocopy of a documentary on Kropotkin's funeral, featuring, among others Alexei Borovoi, Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman.
Some quotes:
Liberalism is philosophy of the priviledged classes, socialism is philosophy of fork and knife, anarchism is philosophy of a human awakened!
POB 500, Moscow
107061 Russia
contact address for the loose informal network of some Moscow anarchists
(KAS, Rainbow Keepers, etc.) and publications - "Volya", "Vugluskr", "Aspirin Won't Help"; the same address can be used to contact Laure Akai
and her (only) seemingly defunct zine "Mother Anarchy"
(multi-lingual, but mainly in English)
POB 19 Seversk-13
Tomskaya oblast 636070
Russia
Seversk anarcho-syndicalist group, part of KAS and Siberian Confederation of Labour, also their papers "Syndicalist" and "Worker"
POB 31, Elektrogorsk
Moskovskaya oblast 142530
Russia
Group of radical anarcho-syndicalists (GRAS) and "Volya", a syndicalist union; also their publication "Direct Action"
POB 199
Kazan 420059
Tatarstan/Russia(?)
Alliance of Kazan anarchists and their paper "Kazan Anarchist"
POB 14
Nizhny Novgorod 603082
Russia
Class War Federation (?) and its publication, ironically called "The Sun"
POB 88
Gomel 246028
Bielorussia
Bielorussian Anarchist Federation, part of Confederation of Revolutiuonary Anarcho-Syndicalists (KRAS), and their paper "Anarchy"
POB 327
340122 Donetsk
Ukraine
194021 St.Petersburg, pr.Parkhomenko 33-76
Alexander Maishev/An-Press
Compiled by Mikhail Tsovma. No Copyright.
Materials published above reflect only personal opinion of the author(s), but this doesn't mean they should be treated differently from the positions of the so-called federations.
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