Remember, remember the fourth of November ....


In the Soviet Union the 7th November was a public holiday comparable only with the 9th of May, when victory over the Nazis was marked. The date marked the celebration of the "Great October Socialist Revolution". Under Boris Yeltsin's shambolic guidance the holiday tradition became communist public protests against the Kremlin regime and in 1994 Yeltsin rebranded the holiday with the rather ironic title "Day of Accord and Reconciliation".

In Vladmir Putin's Russian Federation the holiday has been moved to 4th November (a significant date for Russian Orthodoxy) and has become Public Unity Day. The holiday has acquired Slavicist and Russian nationalist connotations and the tradition of public dissent on this day is now upheld by a cornucopia of shadowy right wing groups. Putin's own youth groups have subsequently been mobilised to make the Kremlin's presence felt.

In Moscow this holiday will bring with it apprehension as 30,000 people prepare to take part in demonstrations. Putin has used patriotic and nationalist sentiment to galvanise Russians and to bolster the people's damaged Post Soviet self-esteem. These sentiments are however a dangerous animal and when they are exploited the sinister forces of racism and exclusivism that form nationalism's dark underbelly are seldom far away.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Football fever in Russia

Russia Blog is getting excited about Euro 2008. Indeed it is drawing parallels between Guus Hiddink and Peter the Great in terms of successful Russo-Dutch exchanges of expertise. Meanwhile, in Moscow, fans have been taking to the streets in order to celebrate the national team’s achievements.
Read more

Shia Revival

The Iranian author, Vali Nasr, has written an interesting book called The Shia Revival: How conflicts within Islam will shape the future .  Its argument is exceptionally pertinent at a time when European governments are edging toward arming Sunni extremists in Syria. Nasr portrays Shiism as the more liberal, palatable strand of Islam and a religion for underdogs.  He makes his point persuasively, although putting a progressive gloss on the regime in Iran and Hezbollah does undermine his thesis. A lot of the material is focussed on Iraq, where there is a Shia majority, which was suppressed during the presidency of Saddam Hussein.  The leading cleric, Ayatollah Sistani, is depicted as a moderating influence, who opposed retaliation as Sunni extremism threatened to cause sectarian civil war. The book’s opening chapter provides an erudite and fascinating history of factions within Islam.  The split dates back to the origins of the faith and a dispute over the prophet Mohammed’
Read more

Walker loada rubbish

Former BBC employee Brian Walker has overrun Slugger O’Toole lately with countless poorly structured, poorly written posts. It is possible quickly to recognize and avoid these by subjecting each Slugger piece to a cursory inspection and identifying those which feature characteristic lack of paragraphing and a tenuous grasp on the technicalities of linking source articles. Although I generally evade Walker’s posts by this method, occasionally (and unfortunately) I have persevered and found that their content is as unrewarding as the style in which they are written. Today, for instance, I inflicted upon myself Brian’s thoughts on a mooted Fianna Fail / SDLP merger . In actual fact, he is right to welcome news that the Southern Irish party has dropped this proposal from its agenda; however, the logic by which he arrives at this conclusion is parochial nonsense. To summarise, Walker believes that pursuing realignment with larger parties, whether they are from the rest of the UK or fro
Read more