Pamyat also identified itself as the "People's National-Patriotic Orthodox Christian movement." The group's stated focus is preserving Russian culture. Its longtime leader, Dmitri Vasilyev, died in 2003. The group had disappeared by the 1990s and split into groups like Russian National Unity.[7][8]
At the end of the 1970s, the amateur historical and cultural association Vityaz (Витязь, lit. "Knight") was established by public activists from the Moscow branch of the Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments. One of the purposes of the newly formed association was to prepare for the upcoming celebration of the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kulikovo.
Some notable Vityaz activists in Moscow were Ilya Glazunov and V. Kuznetsov (artists), S. Malyshev (historian), A. Lebedev and A. Lobzov (Colonels of the MVD), G. Frygin (Minaviaprom engineer), Vyacheslav and Yevgeny Popov (musicians), and K. Andreyev (locksmith). Similar groups were created in other regions of the Soviet Union.
Vityaz and some other informal groups founded Pamyat as a public organization in Moscow in 1980.[9][10]Pamyat took its name from the famous essay novel of the same name by Vladimir Chivilikhin.
Paul Klebnikov, in his book The Godfather of the Kremlin, Boris Berezovsky, or the Story of the Plundering of Russia, refers to Oleg Kalugin and writes that "the nationalist group Pamyat… was formed with the help of the KGB."
At an internal meeting on October 4, 1985, Pamyat split into several factions, many of which attempted to retain the same name as the "true" Pamyat. One of them, the so-called Vasilyev's group, led by Dmitri Vasilyev (a former worker in Glazunov's studio), A. Andreyev, and A. Gladkov, focused its activities on the media.
By the end of 1986, Pamyat's leaders claimed to be the main ideologues of the emerging Russian nationalist movement.
On May 6, 1987, Pamyat activists conducted an unregistered and illegal demonstration on Manezhnaya Square in Moscow in support of perestroika and to demand the end to the construction of an officially sanctioned memorial project at Poklonnaya Hill. The event met little repression from the authorities, and the participants met with Boris Yeltsin, then First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the CPSU, who listened to them attentively and promised to take into account their wishes.
In 1986–1987, other organizations named Pamyat were formed in cities in the RSFSR. The growth of Memory's ranks was accompanied by numerous conflicts between its founders and leaders.
In the fall of 1987, the National-Patriotic Front (NPF) was founded with the aim of "renaissance", with the intent to "lead Russian people to the spiritual and national revival" based on "three traditional Russian values": Orthodoxy, national character and spirituality.
In 1987–1989, Pamyat was split into several groups, which had in common only a belief in the existence of a worldwide "Zionomasonic conspiracy" and the Pamyat name. By the early 1990s, several organizations bore this name, including:
In August 1990, a permanent NPF council member, Aleksandr Barkashov (the author of The ABC of a Russian Nationalist), caused another split after he announced being "tired to be preoccupied by recollections". He said that "it is time to act". His new group was dubbed "Russian National Unity" (Русское Национальное Единство). Barkashov promoted the veneration of the swastika.
In addition, in 1990, the following broke away from Dmitry Vasilyev's NPF "Pamyat":[11]
According to writer Valery Shambarov, the plurality of Pamyat organizations was organized by the 5th Directorate (ideological) of the KGB of the USSR with the involvement of the CPSU MGK in order to discredit the organization of Dmitry Vasilyev.[11]
In 1991, the organization's newspaper (print run of 100,000) and radio station (both officially registered) were launched.
By the late 1990s, the original Pamyat disappeared from the public scene. Dmitry Vasilyev died on July 17, 2003. The organization reactivated in 2005 and participated in the Russian marches.
On September 1, 2021, it became known about the death of Nikolai Skorodumov: according to a post by Vladimir Basmanov on the Vkontakte social network, Nikolai Skorodumov died on June 10, 2021, at the age of 70 in a Zelenograd hospital
Ideology
The recurring motive in the group's ideology was the claim of the existence of a so-called "Ziono-Masonic plot" against Russia as "the main source of the misfortunes of Russian people, disintegration of the economy, denationalization of Russian culture, alcoholism, ecological crisis" (according to Pamyat). The Zionists were also blamed for the triggering of the revolutions in 1905 and 1917, the death of millions in the course of the Russian Civil War and for Joseph Stalin's personality cult. The contemporary Soviet government apparatus was alleged to be infiltrated by "Zionists and freemasons" working as "agents of Zionism" and serving the purpose of subordinating the Soviet government to the "Jewish capital". The "Zionist Occupation Government" accusation was often used by Pamyat.
In 1993, a District Court in Moscow formally ruled that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion were a fake, and dismissed a libel suit by Pamyat. The organization was criticized for using the document in their publications.[12]
The group disappeared by the 1990s and was split into other groups like The National Patriotic Front and The Russian National Unity.[7][8]
From the open letter of the NPF "Pamyat" leader D. Vasilyev to the President of the Russian Federation Boris Yeltsin:
"... Your Jewish entourage... have already made good use of you and don't need you anymore. You will share the destiny of Napoleon, Hitler, etc. who were Zionist-maintained dictators... The aim of international Zionism is to seize power worldwide. For this reason Zionists struggle against national and religious traditions of other nations, and for this purpose they devised the Freemasonic concept of cosmopolitanism."[13][14]
From the open letter of the NPF "Pamyat" leader D. Vasilyev to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin:
"Mr. President, your initiative to make taxes lower meets our demands. It is a positive step. Unfortunately, modern economy is an economy of national minority, which oppresses the majority. They are real suckers of our money, mineral resources etc.
Banks should not sell money and make it some kind of tradable good. They should serve the production sphere of economy. We are against a multiparty political system. Many parties mean distribution of egoism, blackmail etc. Russia has its own history, which is 1000 years old. It makes no sense to copy the western institutions in toto. They might be positive and efficient in small European countries, but in such a big country like Russia a weak, corrupted parliamentarian system means anarchy and fosters economic and politic separatism."[14]
The Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public was a body formed in 1983 in the Soviet Union as an anti-Zionist propaganda tool. Formation of AZCSP was approved on 29 March 1983 by the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in resolution 101/62ГС: "Support the proposition of the Department of Propaganda of the Central Committee and the KGB USSR about the creation of the Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public..."
Soviet anti-Zionism is an anti-Zionist and pro-Arab doctrine promulgated in the Soviet Union during the Cold War. While the Soviet Union initially pursued a pro-Zionist policy after World War II due to its perception that the Jewish state would be socialist and pro-Soviet, its outlook on the Arab–Israeli conflict changed as Israel began to develop a close relationship with the United States and aligned itself with the Western Bloc.
David Abramovich Dragunsky was a tank officer in World War II who was twice awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.
Marshal of the Soviet Union was the second-highest military rank of the Soviet Union. Joseph Stalin wore the uniform and insignia of Marshal after World War II.
The 1991 Soviet coup attempt, also known as the August Coup, was a failed attempt by hardliners of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) to forcibly seize control of the country from Mikhail Gorbachev, who was Soviet President and General Secretary of the CPSU at the time. The coup leaders consisted of top military and civilian officials, including Vice President Gennady Yanayev, who together formed the State Committee on the State of Emergency (GKChP). They opposed Gorbachev's reform program, were angry at the loss of control over Eastern European states and fearful of the New Union Treaty, which was on the verge of being signed by the Soviet Union (USSR). The treaty was to decentralize much of the central Soviet government's power and distribute it among its fifteen republics; Yeltsin's demand for more autonomy to the republics opened a window for the plotters to organize the coup.
Russian National Unity or All-Russian civic patriotic movement "Russian National Unity" was an unregistered neo-Nazi, irredentist group based in Russia and formerly operating in states with Russian-speaking populations. It was founded in 1990 by the ultra-nationalist Alexander Barkashov. The movement advocated the expulsion of non-Russians and an increased role for traditional Russian institutions such as the Russian Orthodox Church. The organization was unregistered federally in Russia, but nonetheless collaborated on a limited basis with the Federal Security Service. The group was banned in Moscow in 1999 after which the group gradually split up in smaller groups and their webpage became defunct in 2006.
Alexander Petrovich Barkashov is a Russian political leader and far-right nationalist who in 1990 founded Russian National Unity, a neo-fascist paramilitary organization.
Aleksandr Borisovich Chakovsky was a Soviet/Russian editor and novelist; editor-in-chief of "Literaturnaya Gazeta" from 1962 to 1988. A hard-line Communist, he served as an unofficial cultural arbiter through his position in the powerful Writers' Union.
Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1961 to 1990. He later stood as a political independent, during which time he was viewed as being ideologically aligned with liberalism.
Yuri Vasilyevich Bondarev was a Soviet and Russian writer and screenwriter. He was best known for co-authoring the script for the serial film franchise Liberation (1968–71).
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The February Revolution in Russia officially ended a centuries-old regime of antisemitism in the Russian Empire, legally abolishing the Pale of Settlement. However, the previous legacy of antisemitism was continued and furthered by the Soviet state, especially under Joseph Stalin. After 1948, antisemitism reached new heights in the Soviet Union, especially during the anti-cosmopolitan campaign, in which numerous Yiddish-writing poets, writers, painters and sculptors were arrested or killed. This campaign culminated in the so-called doctors' plot, in which a group of doctors were subjected to a show trial for supposedly having plotted to assassinate Stalin. Although repression eased after Stalin's death, persecution of Jews would continue until the late 1980s.
"Our Contemporary" The Second Exhibition of Leningrad artists of 1972 became one of the notable event in Art of the USSR of 1972. The Exhibition took place in the State Russian Museum. Exhibition continued a series of art exhibitions of the 1970s, dedicated to image of our contemporary and opened one year before.
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The Defence Council or the Council of Defense of the USSR was a high military advisory body which aided and assisted the Government of the Soviet Union and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in the implementation of military policy by the Soviet Armed Forces. It operated between 1955 and 1991. At the end of its existence, it was known as the Defense Council under the President of the Soviet Union.
The 35th Anti-Aircraft Artillery Division was an anti-aircraft artillery division of the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II and the early postwar period.
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Vasilyev was a Soviet-Russian actor, monarchist, and ultranationalist who was chairman of Pamyat from 1988 until his death in 2003.
Stepan Ivanovich Polyansky was a Soviet officer, participant in the Soviet-Finnish war. Regiment and division commander in the Great Patriotic War. Hero of the Soviet Union (04/07/1940). Lieutenant colonel (1943).
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