by Stefano Caprio

Founded in 2020, this movement, which now has hundreds of thousands of members, is characterised by an increasingly xenophobic nationalism. Its groups are a sort of "National Guard", Freikorps dedicated to violence. This is overshadowing the very idea of the "Russian World", which still envisages bringing together other peoples, projecting an ever-greater sense of aggressive isolationism onto the country’s future.

Rallies by the Russian Community (Русская Община, Russkaya Obshchina), a group of ultra-right-wing Russian nationalists, have been multiplying recently after its Second Grand Congress last February, which followed that of October 2023, the first public event of a movement that is increasingly present in the domestic political and social life of the Russian Federation.

In 2023, only 200 people got together, becoming 1,200 last February, and now it is impossible to assess the real range of this trend, especially in the regions. However, the number of leading figures participating and supporting the movement is also increasing, as evinced by their show of support on social media.

One example that stands out is that of Bishop Savva (Tutunov) of Zelenograd, vicar of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. The 47-year-old was born in France, where his family had emigrated. He spoke on Patriarch Kirill's behalf at the congress, conveying his blessing.

Members of the Russian Duma Mikhail Matveev and Nikolai Nikolaev also showed up at the nationalist rally, as did Roman Antonovsky, the creator of a social media channel called "Sons of the Monarchy", who recently managed to block the presentations of a book on anti-fascism, a sign of the many pro-Nazi tendencies of the group's members.

Many other well-known individuals have spoken out, substantially agreeing with the proposition that, "We shall have no other future than the Russian one", so that political and social actions are geared towards “making the Russian people the master of their country again, since they established the state", with obvious threats against all other national groups within the Russian Federation.

Reports from the congress and regional gatherings highlight an underlying racism, starting with the notion of the superiority of Russians over Ukrainians, like blogger Yuri Kot, who wrote about the historical aspects of the origin of Ukrainism and the meaning of Little Russia (Малороссия, Malorossiya) for the Russian people.” The Ukrainian language is treated as “a simplified version of the great and powerful Russian language, adapted for the semi-illiterate peasants of Malorossiya.”

In addition to linguistic and historiosophical issues, there is also an attempt to organise "cyber-companies" (кибер-компании, kiber-kompanii) to monitor any event deemed unacceptable to true patriots, such as concerts where Ukrainian songs are sung or in other “minor languages”, in order  to block them.

From the far-right fringes of the political spectrum, the Russian Community (Русская Община, Russkaya Obshchina) has now gone beyond the narrow boundaries of other similar groups, like “The Northern Man" (Северный человек, Severnyy chelovek) by Misha Mavashi or "The Double-Headed Eagle” (Двуглавый орел, Dvuglavyy orel) by the Orthodox oligarch Konstantin Malofeev.

According to the SOVA Centre for Information and Analysis, membership in the Community jumped from 166,500 to 644,000 between 2023 and 2024, a significant development considering that it was founded in 2020.

Andrei Tkachuk, a former regional lawmaker from Omsk, Siberia, is believed to be a founder, along with Evgeniya Chesnokova, the coordinator of "For Life!", an anti-abortion association, and Andrei Afanasev, who works for Spas (Спас, Saviour), a TV station.

Formally, the movement is concerned with the "promotion of Russian culture", bringing together ethnic Russians. Its members wear a black shirt with the symbol of Saint George slaying the dragon, take part in Orthodox liturgies, organise Russian courtyard festivals (Русские Дворы, Russkye Dvori) with songs, dances and folk games, lead pilgrimages to monasteries where real Russian elders (старцы, startsy) are found, where men often train for combat with their bare hands, while women weave nets to mask trenches. In short: a rather militarised "parish community".

In fact, most initiatives involve different forms of "anti-migrant" actions, called "assistance to those suffering from illegal migration", against migrants who are derogatorily referred to as bandits (абу-бандити, abu-bandity).

The Russian Community is morphing into a "National Guard", like a Freikorps dedicated to violent repression, like in Italy and Germany a century ago, driving Russia towards an increasingly gloomy "communitarian" future.

Nationalist militias crack down on ethnicised crimes, i.e. offences blamed on migrants, mostly from the Caucasus or Central Asia, certainly never by ethnic Russians.

Their actions are monitored by the benevolent eye of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (Следственный комитет Российской Федерации, Sledstvennyy komitet Rossiyskoy Federatsii), the Russian FBI, led by General of Justice of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin, one of the main masterminds behind Russia’s war on migrants.

The most sensational case came last November, when the Obshchinniki (общинники)(members of the Община, Obshchina) released a video showing 30 masked migrants beating two members of the Community, while gunshots could be heard.

Journalists eventually obtained the full video, which shows that the masked men were Russian nationalists who had attacked two young Uzbek migrants, who were eventually rescued by fellow Uzbeks.

In another video, reportedly to “fight abortion”, two "vigilantes" (дружинники, druzhinniki) are seen sporting the neopagan Slavic swastika (коловрат, kolovrat or spinning wheel), watching over the doctors of a clinic from a closet, ready to stop abortions.

The Russian Community’s propaganda has become more and more obsessive and repetitive across all media platforms.

Although it claims on is social media account that it is "all supported by donations", it is evident that the organisation is backed by big money, especially in light of its increasingly high-profile events, such as the popular culture festivals titled "The Meeting" (Сретение, Sretenie), taken from the religious feast of the Presentation in the Temple on 2 February, a holy day for Russian Orthodox nationalism when the last congress was held (15 February according to the Gregorian calendar).

Many Z-activists, propagandists of Russia’s universal war, financed by oligarchs and state bodies, attend such events.

Still, the Community is not very “unitary”, as several regional cells act on their own, in Sakhalin, Kaliningrad,  and Krasnodar, at opposite ends of the country, unwilling to “submit to the orders of the Moscow centre”. In such regions the group goes by the name of the Russian Company (Русская Дружина, Russkaya Druzhina), evocative of the first groups of boyars in Kievan Rus',  and instead of Saint George, their T-shirts show the Roman salute.

Of course, such divisions, according to the leaders of the Community, are due to "Western secret services", as Andrey Tkachuk wrote in a message: “If they invite you to another community or Druzhina, know that they are enemies of Russia.”

Other super-patriotic organisations have been active for years, such as the Forty Forties (Сорок Сороков, Sorok Sorokov), a reference to the sacred number of Moscow churches. Others have supported Tsar Putin's policies long before war broke out in Georgia and Ukraine.

It is still unclear how far this raging resurgence of aggressive activism within Russia will go,  beyond the increasing xenophobia epitomised by attacks like the one at Krokus City Hall in March 2024, which, against the background of Tsar Putin's new consecration, further radicalised Russia’s war policy.

Nationalism has certainly always been a major aspect of Russian patriotism since ancient times, with forms of anti-Semitism and contempt for dark-skinned peoples (чернотаm, Chernota) mostly against ethnic groups from the Caucasus rather than Africa, with various epithets for northern, Siberian and Mongolian ethnic groups, who have become cannon fodder for the war in Ukraine, which now includes North Koreans.

The Russians are unable to pity the lives lost by these soldiers at the front, treated mostly as “mercenaries" who go to war for large sums of money.

Since the origins of Rus', the feeling of being "surrounded" on all sides is an aspect deeply rooted in the soul of a people dispersed over a territory that is far too vast for their own good.

Today the Russian Community is trumping the Russian World, which seeks to bring together other peoples, and projects a future for Russia that is more aggressively isolationist, making even Putin's imperial cravings seem more open to the rest of the world, starting with the emperor of US tariffs.

The Druzhinniki are not looking for friends, they want to be alone, and the rest of the world can sink into atomic and apocalyptic oblivion for all they care.

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• russia
• moscow
• nationalism
• the russian community
• russkaya obshchina
• xenophobia. migrants
• putin