Slavic Union
The Slavic Union (Russian: Славянский Союз) (SS) is a Russian national socialist movement, which aims at the creation of a Slavic national state.[1] The Slavic Union is the most active ultranationalist political association in Russia, and is alleged to have around 70,000 members throughout Russia, according to various police sources.
There is yet another different organization Slavic Union in the Czech Republic (Czech: Slovanská unie, SU) founded in 1992 and supporting non-political collaboration and integration of the Slavic nations into European structures.[2] SU is a registered legal entity #48133396 and operates in the Czech Republic under the Czech and E.U. law. This organization derives its tradition from the first Slavic Congress in 1848 in Prague, attended by international celebrities of the Slavic movement and chaired by František Palacký called "Father of the Czech Nation”. SU rejects the xenophobic thought about the international Slavic movement as a confrontation between Slavs and other nations and nationalistic and chauvinistic ideas about the superiority of selected Slavic nations and languages (e.g. Russian) above the other nations and languages.[3]
Organizational history
Origins
The Slavic Union was founded in September 1999. The leader of the organization is Dmitry Demushkin (Дмитрий Николаевич Дёмушкин).[4]
The group's website, in Russian, links to extensive material on Holocaust denial[5] and to works by Adolf Hitler. Its organizational logo is a stylized swastika and the group's initials, "SS" in Russian, are the same as those used by the German Schutzstaffel and its secret intelligence service, the Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei, Secret Policeforce), during World War II.[4]
2010 prohibition ruling
The Slavic Union was banned by the Moscow City Court on April 27, 2010 following charges by prosecutors that the group promoted a national supremacist ideology similar to that of Nazi Germany.[4] Responding to the ban on April 27, Dyomushkin noted that the Slavic Union had been "banned all across Russia" and indicated that an appeal to higher legal authority of the organization's prohibition would "definitely" be forthcoming.[6] Since then, the group has remained active underground.
In September 2010 information surfaced that the organization allegedly has opened offices in Norway. This was reported when Viacheslav Datsik showed up at Norwegian immigration authorities requesting political asylum. Datsik had shortly before escaped from a mental institution near Saint Petersburg and was believed to have reached Norway on board an arms-trafficking vessel. Together with two other persons he was arrested by Norwegian police on suspicion of having possible links to organized crime.[7]
Footnotes
- ↑ Конечная ваша цель, к которой, по-вашему, ведет ваша деятельность?
- ↑ “Slovanská unie z. s. (Slavic Union in the Czech Republic)” http://slovane.org Retrieved Aug. 31, 2015.
- ↑ Statute of the Slavic Union (Slovanská unie z. s.)
- 1 2 3 "Slavic Union Banned," The Moscow Times, April 28, 2010. Retrieved May 16, 2010.
- ↑ "Revizionizm kholokosta" (Holocaust Revisionism)," www.demushkin.com Retrieved May 16, 2010.
- ↑ K.K. and D.P., "Court bans Slavic Union - organization," Interfax.com, April 27, 2010. Retrieved May 16, 2010.
- ↑ "Mentally ill Russian cagefighter arrested in Norway after hospital break-out". RIA Novosti. September 23, 2010. Retrieved September 23, 2010.
Additional reading
- Semyon Charny, "Racism, xenophobia, ethnic discrimination and anti-Semitism in Russia (January-June 2005)," Summarized review. Moscow Bureau for Human Rights.
External links
- Slavic Union's official website (Russian)
