Anarchists perestroika. How anarchist groups legalized in the USSR
The revival of anarchism on the territory of the Soviet Union dates back to the second half of the 1980-s and is associated with the liberalization of the internal political course that followed after the beginning of the restructuring. The anti-state actors of the beginning of perestroika still, of course, did not dare to speak about themselves as anarchists and acted as “supporters of socialism with a human face”. Under such a brand, they were able to act almost legally, without being subjected to strong persecution by the Soviet law enforcement agencies. The beginning of the legalization of left-radical groups refers to 1986, but the real surge of their activity occurred a year or two later. At first, left-radical groups that were legalized were deprived of the opportunity to engage in their own political activities and focused all their attention on theoretical and advocacy work - conducting seminars, lectures and conferences, publishing samizdat magazines, searching for and publishing materials on stories and theories of anarchism. At the beginning of 1989, attempts at consolidating Soviet anarchists were crowned with success. 21-22 January 1989 was established on the basis of the Union of Independent Socialists by the Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists (CAS), which became the largest anarchist (and perhaps left-radical, perhaps) organization in the USSR. The backbone of the Confederation was made up of activists of the Moscow club "Community" (at the time of creating the CAS, there were 30 people), its initial number did not exceed 60-70 people.
Confederation of anarcho-syndicalists
The founding conference of the Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists was held on 1-2 in May on 1989 in Moscow, and was attended by delegates from 15 cities representing the left-wing socialist and anarchist organizations of the country. The International Communitarian Association “Forest People”, the Socialist Club of Irkutsk, the Leningrad Anarcho-Syndicalist Free Association and a number of other anarchist and left-wing socialist groups, both members of the Union of Independent Socialists and formerly acting independently, declared their joining the CAS. The total number of organizations included in the CAS was 300-400 people, the majority of whom were students and young intelligentsia. It was officially recognized that the Confederation did not have anarcho-syndicalists, in accordance with the principles of anarchism, any governing bodies. The sole supreme body of the CAS was proclaimed congress. However, the real leadership was reinforced by the Moscow organization KAS as the capital, one of the most numerous and controlling the central press organ of the Confederation magazine "Community". Andrei Isaev and Alexander Shubin became the actual leaders and ideologists of the CAS, defining its political and ideological line.
Moderate anarcho-syndicalism was proclaimed the official ideology of the Confederation, based primarily on the concept of “communal socialism” put forward by UAC theorists even during the existence of the Obshchina club. The UAC was considered by MA Bakunin and Pierre Proudhon to be their main ideological inspirers. In fact, the CAS program was a combination of separate anarchist principles with the experience of European Social Democracy and modern liberalism. In addition, both leaders and ordinary activists of the CAS had a keen interest in the experience of the Makhnovist movement as if they were putting into practice the ideas of collectivist syndicalist anarchism. A number of materials on the history of the Makhnov movement were published in the Community, the author of which, first of all, was Alexander Shubin. The Confederation of anarcho-syndicalists proclaimed the ideal of a sociopolitical system to a society of stateless free socialism, represented in the form of federations of autonomous and self-governing territories, communities, and producers. Such a society should be based primarily on the principles of self-government and federalism. Self-government was seen as an alternative to the verticals of the executive and legislative branches and was presented in the form of non-partisan councils, created both at the place of employment and at the place of residence. The formation of these councils is carried out not through elections, as in a parliamentary society, but through the delegation of popular representatives, who can at any time be recalled by the people that nominated them. The most important decisions are made by direct popular legislation, i.e. at popular meetings. Having proclaimed full freedom of religious and political views, UAN spoke out for a society without political parties, regarding the latter as forces focused exclusively on seizing power. The principle of federalism substantiated by Proudhon was considered by the Confederation as one of the fundamental principles of a stateless social structure. Federalism, otherwise known as decentralization, was understood by the CAS ideologues as complete autonomy of territorial units in decision-making and the complete absence of any center that could infringe the rights of autonomous units. Each of these autonomous units, called KAS communities, should have the full right to withdraw or join one or another federation or union of federations. The CAS demanded the destruction of any measures and procedures that oppress the individual, including the immediate abolition of the passport regime and registration, all forms of forced labor, military service, prisons, the judicial system and the death penalty. Justice authorities, the police and the army in a stateless society were subject to immediate dissolution. For effective self-defense of the population, its organization was supposed to be based on a voluntary militia principle. The CAS economic program was based on Proudhonism and above all proclaimed the need to transfer the means of production to the ownership of labor collectives while maintaining small private property and market relations. The confederation of anarcho-syndicalists was an unconditional supporter of the peaceful evolutionary path to the ideal of a stateless society and adhered to non-violent principles. By building a society of stateless socialism, the CAS proclaimed syndicalism, i.e.
The Confederation considered theoretical and research work, the propaganda of anarcho-syndicalism among the masses, the organization of the trade union movement and support of workers, participation in mass actions and in campaigns of non-violent civil disobedience as the main directions of its activities. As a syndicalist organization focused primarily on labor union struggle, the Confederation considered one of its main tasks to create strong and independent trade unions of anarcho-syndicalist type in enterprises that would fight for the enterprise to become the property of the labor collective, for the introduction of workers' self-government and autonomy. enterprises from the central government, and would also be able to organize the protection of workers against state oppression and establish insurance funds for cash assistance to workers. On several occasions, the CAS attempted to create such trade unions both in the country's enterprises and in educational institutions. At 1989, at the initiative of the Moscow organization KAS, the Confederation-controlled Union of Student Youth was established, in Vorkuta and Kaliningrad, the trade unions of Solidarity were established. The strongest trade union organizations focused on anarcho-syndicalism originated in a number of Siberian cities, primarily in Omsk, Seversk and Tomsk, where local organizations launched an active campaign of the CAS division, which here consisted mainly of workers and employees. The Siberian branch of the CAS was one of the few anarchist groups in the USSR that actually had well-established ties with the labor movement and had a certain influence on enterprises. Subsequently, it was precisely on the basis of the CAS offices that the Sotsprof of Siberia and the Siberian Confederation of Labor were created. Certain propaganda activities at the enterprises were also launched by the branches of the UAN in Ukraine.
In addition to organizing trade unions, the Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists actively participated in events held by the general front of the democratic opposition, establishing fairly close ties with popular fronts in support of perestroika and with liberal groups such as the Democratic Union and Civil Dignity. In addition, unlike the Russian anarchists of a later time, the UAN considered it possible to participate in the elections as well. But after the candidate from the CAS to the Congress of People's Deputies Andrei Isaev was not registered, in November 1989 the Confederation called on the citizens of the country to boycott the elections to the Supreme Soviet and reoriented to the elections to the local authorities. At the local level, anarcho-syndicalists did indeed achieve great success and lead their own deputies to local councils in Novokuibyshevsk, Seversk, Khabarovsk and Kharkov (Kharkiv anarchist Igor Rassoha was even elected to the regional council). As for the mass actions of the Confederation at this time, we should note the pompous celebration of the NI Makhno 100 anniversary, the II CAS conference held on October 20-22 on October 1989 in Zaporozhye. As a result of the celebration of Makhno’s birthday, which was accompanied by pickets and rallies of supporters of anarchism in many cities of the USSR, many new members, primarily from among the youth, were recruited into the ranks of the UAN.
The confederation of anarcho-syndicalists has also launched a stormy publishing activity. If until 1989 there was practically the only more or less massive anarchist publication on the territory of the Union, the Moscow journal “Community” remained, then since 1989 there has been an increase in the number of anarchist periodicals in Moscow and in provincial cities. The recognized centers of publishing activities of CAS by the autumn of 1989 are Moscow and Kharkov. At the 10-12 held in Moscow on November 1989, a special meeting of editors of anarchist print media to coordinate press activities and more quickly disseminate information, the information agency KAS-KOR (KAS correspondents) was launched, which began to issue the KAS-KOR newsletter, which was prepared carried out the Moscow and Kharkov organizations of the Confederation.
Throughout 1989-1990. The confederation of anarcho-syndicalists has steadily increased in number, taking in its ranks more and more new activists from different cities of the Soviet Union. Especially a large influx of new members was outlined after mass actions - for example, in March 1990. In one day 30 entered the Moscow CAS. By the middle of 1990. the number of anarcho-syndicalists Confederation was 1200 people in 32 cities and towns of the Soviet Union. The CAS offices in Moscow, Kharkov and in the cities of Siberia, primarily in Irkutsk, Tomsk and Omsk, remained the largest and most influential. 31 March 1990 The 1st meeting of Siberian anarchists was held in Tomsk, where representatives of the CAS organizations of Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Tomsk and Seversk who took part in it decided to revive the movement for the independence of Siberia and to create a numerous anarcho-syndicalist trade union in Siberia. Numerous organizations of the UAN emerged in the cities of Ukraine - Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Kiev, Kadievka, etc.
It should be noted that, despite the fact that the bulk of the activists of the Confederation were young 18-26 years, some of the older generation of left-wing radicals who participated in the activities of left-wing underground groups in 50-60-e and in the labor movement. Thus, a participant in the unrest 1962 entered the Confederation of anarcho-syndicalists. in Novocherkassk, Peter Siuda, who served 12 for years in Soviet camps, former political prisoner Vladimir Chernolikh, who was convicted of anti-Soviet agitation, participated in the Temir-Tau uprising anarchist Anarchist Anatoly Anarchist. Representatives of the older generation did not at all perform “decorative” functions and were actively involved in the practical activities of the UAN (Vladimir Chernolikh, for example, was elected to the local council of the Primorsky district of the Irkutsk region).
Anarchism in 1990. Crisis and split of CAS
As the largest anarchist organization in the USSR, CAS has included not only supporters of syndicalism, but also adherents of virtually all existing anarchism directions - anarcho-individualists, anarcho-capitalists, anarcho-communists, pacifists and Tolstoyans, and even such an exotic flow as "anarcho-mystic." Naturally, such an ideologically diverse composition could not ensure the ideological homogeneity of the organization and ensure its normal operation. The provincial anarchist organizations that were part of the UAN in most cases retained not only the name, but also their own ideological principles and their own periodicals, on whose pages they defended their point of view. Since the provincial groups belonged to the most diverse areas of anarchism, within the CAS almost from the first months of its existence there were clearly defined ideological currents competing with each other and factional groups that criticized each other’s positions and, even more, the official CAS line.
On the extreme right flank of the UAN there was an anarcho-capitalist wing (or anarcho-liberals), represented predominantly by the right side of Leningrad anarchists and by some groups from Nizhny Novgorod, Tver and Kazan. The ideology of this trend combined anarcho-individualism in the spirit of Max Stirner with the concepts of neo-conservative and neoliberal persuasion and, in fact, was a Soviet analogue of American libertarism. Right anarchists were not only unconditional supporters of market relations, but, unlike the official CAS line, declared the full recognition of private property as one of the most important means of self-expression of the individual and confirmation of his individual freedom. Speaking for the complete freedom of the market and private property, the anarcho-capitalists were also resolute opponents of any revolutionary actions, focusing exclusively on the peaceful libertarian-evolutionary path of transition to a stateless society. At the same time, the anarcho-capitalists even advanced the thesis on the gradual independent and inevitable evolution of bourgeois-democratic society into a stateless society of free capitalism. Among a certain part of the anarcho-capitalists, even the slogan about the elimination of contradictions between a Western-style democratic republic and anarchy was cultivated. The recognized ideologue of the far-right "capitalist" part of the Soviet anarchists was the Leningrad anarcho-capitalist, one of the founders of ACCA, Pavel Geskin. Anarcho-capitalists took an intermediate place between anarchists and the radical part of the democratic movement, insisting on the development of cooperation between the UAN and liberal organizations, up to the formation of a single bloc. The Leningrad anarcho-capitalists, who came out of ACCA, formed their own organization, which remained as part of CAS - the Anarch-Democratic Union of the Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists (ADS-CAS) and began a constant controversy with the more left-wing supporters of the syndicalist line. In 1990 in Leningrad, the publication of its own anarcho-capitalist orientation was launched - the Free Contract newspaper, edited by Pavel Geskin and published on behalf of ADS-KAS in large quantities in 11.000 copies.
Somewhat more moderate positions than the anarcho-capitalists were occupied by the anarcho-individualistic wing, which was also located “to the right” of the official CAS line. Anarcho-individualists were grouped around the Leningrad ACCA, which by this time was renamed the Association of Free Anarchist Sections and extended its activities to Saratov and Petrozavodsk. Since the summer of 1989, the main newspaper of the anarcho-individualists has been the Leningrad ACCA newspaper Novy Svet, and the actual ideologue of the direction is Peter Rausch. Supporters of the official line prevailed in the Moscow, Irkutsk and Kharkov organizations of the Confederation of anarcho-syndicalists, as well as in Siberian groups. The ideologists of the official line were Isaev and Shubin, as well as Podshivalov (Irkutsk) adjacent to them. As before, the syndicalists determined the policy and ideology of the Confederation and controlled the release of most of the central organs of the organization, from Community to KAS-KOR.
Finally, the left flank of the CAS was occupied at that time by relatively few anarcho-communists, operating primarily in Leningrad and Ukrainian organizations, especially in Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye CAS. Back in the fall of 1989, the Dnepropetrovsk anarcho-communists criticized the activities of the CAS Moscow organization, not wanting to come to terms with recognizing the CAS official market relations and suppressing the CAS theorists of the anarcho-communist direction and the prominent role of P.A. Kropotkin in the development of anarchist ideas.
Almost from the first moments of the CAS activity, disagreements began to grow in it. Already in the spring of 1989, several months after the establishment of the organization, ACCA leader Peter Rausch (pictured), seeing the impossibility of full unification within the Confederation of all Soviet anarchists, put forward a proposal to create on a broader ideological and organizational principles of the "black front", who could really unite all the anarchist groups in the Soviet space. If in 1989 the disagreements in the CAS were not yet so noticeable, then with the beginning of the new 1990, they literally reached the limit and the Confederation of anarcho-syndicalists was on the verge of a split. At the same time, the CAS leaders themselves realized that the normal functioning of the union with such ideological heterogeneity is impossible, but they offered their own solution to this problem, which, not without reason, is considered one of the reasons for the split in the Confederation. In the winter of 1990, Mr. Isaev and Shubin, with the support of Podshivalov, spoke in favor of turning the CAS into a purely anarcho-syndicalist organization, which implied recognition by regional associations of the priority of the official line and their full transition to the positions of anarcho-syndicalism. The crisis that had been brewing from the very beginning of 1990 of the year resulted in an open confrontation between supporters of the official line and their opponents from regional organizations, primarily from the Leningrad ASSA who initiated the disengagement from UAN. At the II congress of the Confederation of anarcho-syndicalists, held in Moscow 17 on April 1990, despite a number of measures taken by UAC leaders to prevent a split (removing the status of the CAS central body from the Community and further expanding the powers of regional groups), serious contradictions that they ended the split of the organization. Representatives of Leningrad, Kazan, Saratov, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye and Nizhny Novgorod left the hall. In fact, this marked the beginning of the collapse of the organization.
Association of Anarchist Movements as an Alternative to CAS
5-6 in May 1990 in Leningrad, in the premises of the Palace of Culture of Food Industry Workers, an alternative congress of opponents of the official line was organized, where it was decided to create a parallel anarchist association on broader ideological and organizational principles. Naturally, the UAN leaders perceived this congress extremely negatively and the Confederation of anarcho-syndicalists was practically not represented at it, with the exception of the Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporozhskaya UAN who dispersed from the official line. Representatives of the Association of Free Anarchists from Leningrad, Petrozavodsk and Saratov, the Anarchist Democratic Union, the Moscow Union of Anarchists, the Alliance of Kazan Anarchists and a number of smaller groups, including environmental and pacifist, took part in the congress. Despite the fact that during the congress between its participants, there were also significant contradictions in the views on the organizational and ideological construction of the future organization, the congress ended with the decision to create the Anarchist Association. After the congress, the anarchists held a symbolic action of “washing away historical sins from Lenin”, which consisted in publicly wiping the bust of the leader of the Communist Party. This action was the reason for the refusal of the DC administration in the further provision of premises and anarchists. On the second day of the congress, almost all of its delegates took part in the defense of the ACCA headquarters in the unauthorized room in the house intended for demolition from the police. As a result of a clash with the police, more than 20 anarchists were detained. This incident attracted the attention of the public to the Leningrad Anarchist Congress, making it clear that the new association would be much more radical than the CAS.
16-17 June 1990g. In Balakovo, the Saratov region, where an environmental camp was held to protest against the construction of a nuclear power plant, a founding congress was held, at which the Association of Anarchist Movements (ADA) was proclaimed as a new, alternative UAN, union of Soviet anarchist groups. The congress was attended by delegates from 13 cities of the country, representing 14 anarchist organizations. The Association of Free Anarchist Sections from Leningrad, Saratov and Petrozavodsk, the Anarchist Democratic Union, the Moscow Union of Anarchists, the Alliance of Kazan Anarchists and some other groups have announced their joining the ADA. The congress adopted the Declaration of Associations of Anarchist Movements, the Agreement on Interaction between the Subjects of ADA, the regulations on self-defense groups, on environmental activities and on the government's economic program. Unlike UAC, the Association of Anarchist Movements fundamentally abandoned a certain ideology and the creation of organizational structures, presenting itself as a free association of collective and individual members, aimed at coordinating the joint activities of all anarchists, regardless of their ideological affiliation. It was decided that any provision should be accepted only if a consensus was reached, there was no fixation of collective or individual members in the ADA. At the congress, it was decided to create a single information network of the Association of Anarchist Movements for the full exchange of information between the organizations belonging to ADA. In fact, the role of the “information agency” of the ADA was assigned to the Leningrad anarchists and the printed projects published by them (“Novy Svet”, “An-Press”, etc.). Soon after the congress, 28 on June 1990, anarchists who remained in the environmental camp, with the support of local residents, held a mass demonstration against a nuclear power plant in Balakovo, in which several thousand people took part.
In fact, the creation of the Association of Anarchist Movements meant splitting the Soviet anarcho-movement into two parts, with the Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists gradually beginning to lose their positions in it. If, in the summer of 1990, the consequences of the split were not so obvious, and many anarchists maintained membership in both the CAS and the ADA at the same time, by the fall the contradictions between the two organizations reached the limit. In the autumn of 1990, Igor Podshivalov distributed to the CAS members an article entitled “CAS is an organization, not a party,” in which he advocated the introduction of at least some semblance of discipline and organization. But this proposal of the leader of the Irkutsk CAM was ignored. In November, the 1990 in Leningrad hosted the IIIrd Congress of the Confederation of anarcho-syndicalists, at which the UAN leaders tried to strengthen the organizational and ideological unity of the Confederation. But the presentation of Andrei Isayev about the categorical disagreement of the CAS with the democratic and nationalist movements, and other attempts to rectify the situation, did not lead to a successful result. It was at the third congress of CAS ACCA, and after it the other groups included in the ADA announced their full and final separation from the CAS leadership. After the third congress, the CAS crisis becomes obvious and begins not only to stop replenishing the Confederation’s ranks with new members, but also the outflow of old activists to other anarchist organizations, primarily ADA members, as well as a massive outburst of new anarchic associations that seemed much more promising and consistent than the Confederation of anarcho-syndicalists. As the most vivid evidence of the CAS crisis, almost immediately after the III rd congress, since the fall of 1990, ceases to be published regularly since 1987. leading publication of the CAS magazine "Community".
As already noted, opponents of the CAS official line criticized primarily the policy of "syndicalist dictatorship" in relation to representatives of other anarchist movements. But no less outrage from the anarchist masses caused the Confederation’s too moderate positions, especially its practical actions aimed at further rapprochement with the democratic opposition, as well as an orientation towards participation in the electoral process. More radical than CAS, part of anarchists, regardless of membership of the right or left wing of the movement, regarded the participation of representatives of the Confederation in the elections not only as ideological inconsistency and indiscriminateness, but also as a direct manifestation of the opportunism of the official line and even a betrayal of the ideals of anarchism. Isaev and his supporters were accused of abandoning the traditional principles of the anarchist movement, as well as of creeping before the authorities and unwillingness to finally disassociate from the national-patriotic and liberal opposition. The split of the Confederation of anarcho-syndicalists contributed, oddly enough, to the growth of theoretical literacy and the horizons of the Soviet anarchist masses, including thanks to the activities of alternative print media from Kasovsky. With a more detailed study of the theoretical views of Bakunin, for example, Soviet anarchists very soon discovered a discrepancy between the real positions of the “father of Russian anarchism” and those views attributed to him by the official CAS line. Naturally, Bakunin not only did not recognize market relations and was not a supporter of a non-violent evolutionary path to a stateless society, but, on the contrary, was in extremely revolutionary rebellious positions and was a staunch opponent of a market economy.
As a result, in 1990, both in the regions and in the capital, where the positions of the official line were unshakable, many new anarchist groups emerge, fundamentally unwilling to be part of the CAS and subjecting its policies to harsh criticism. Practically all these organizations were distinguished by their youth composition and attracted, first of all, newcomers to the anarchist movement, especially punks and other groups of politicized informals. Over the course of 1990, the two largest radical anarchist organizations that are not part of the Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists are being established in Moscow. So, in May, 1990 from the Anarchist-Communist Revolutionary Union broke away the Moscow Union of Anarchists (UIA), which was headed by Alexander Chervyakov. The UIA acted as one of the organizers of the constituent congress of the Association of Anarchist Movements and assumed the functions of the ADA office in Moscow. From the other anarchist groups, the ISA was distinguished, first and foremost, by a fairly tough discipline - thus, the organization had a strict dry law. The Moscow Union of Anarchists was probably the only anarchist organization in the country that paid attention to regular hand-to-hand fighting, shooting and combat training (later a private security agency was created on the basis of the ISA). In the autumn of 1990, also in Moscow, another group of anarchists emerged, speaking out with radical criticism of the CAS policy - the Anarchist Radical Youth Association (AROM), which included mainly politicized and anarchism-oriented Moscow punks. The leader of AROM was Andrei Semiletnikov (“Dymson”), a famous figure in the Moscow informal movement, later a defender of the House of Soviets in October 1993.
The process of creating new anarchist associations continued in the provinces. Thus, in Krasnodar in the summer of 1990, a group of young anarchists dissatisfied with the inaction of the Kuban organization KAS and its leader Vladimir Lutsenko organized the Union of Radical Anarchist Youth (CPAM), which later became the largest organization of anarchists in southern Russia. As a result, the skillfully set propaganda of the SRAM soon increased its number significantly - again, primarily due to the involvement of informal youth.
Until the end of 1990, the Soviet anarchists remained mostly within the right wing of the anarchist movement and left-anarchist ideas did not enjoy the influence they gained in post-Soviet Russia. Most of the provincial anarchist organizations were fairly right-wing positions, from the official line to individualism and anarcho-capitalism. However, since the end of 1990, as far as right-wing, market tendencies have been established in Soviet political life, socialist views have become increasingly common among anarchists. Inside the CASA Moscow organization, critics of the “left” appeared, claiming the priority of socialist and communist values over individualistic ones. One of them was Vadim Damier - now a doctor of historical sciences, one of Russia's largest specialists in the history of the international anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist movement. At the end of 1980's Vadim Damier was also the co-chairman of the Green Party and from the middle of the 1980s. led his own development in the field of theory. In 1989, on the pages of the journal Third Way, he presented the Eco-Socialist Manifesto, in which he harshly criticized industrial civilization and proposed a model of a stateless decentralized society based on federalist and communitarian principles. If before the second half of 1990, ideological contradictions were observed primarily between the CAS center and the regions and the political and ideological line of the Confederation was strongly criticized either by non-CAS groups or by regional offices, in 1990 the contradictions also cover the very heart of the Confederation, stronghold of the official line - the Moscow organization KAS. The disagreements in this case were caused by the spread of left-wing anarchism among some CAS activists and the emergence of the so-called inside the CAS Moscow organization. “Youth opposition”, organized in 1990 year in a non-partisan school. Contrary to the ideology of the official line of the CAS, the youth opposition to the left anarchist and anarcho-communist views.
In the winter of 1991, the Confederation of anarcho-syndicalists and anarcho-communists finally disengaged from the extreme left wing, the activists of which almost immediately after the exclusion from CAS created new, more radical, anarcho-communist organizations. In the early spring of 1991, the creation of the Anarchist Youth Front (AMF) group was announced, which included the radical part of the Moscow anarchist and informal youth. Dmitry Kostenko, Evgenia Buzikoshvili and Vadim Damier 5 March 1991 held a conference at which the Revolutionary Anarchist Initiative (IREAN) was announced, unlike ADA, which united not only dissatisfied with UAC policies, but that part of the Soviet anarchists that occupied the most radical and leftist positions and ideologically focused on anarcho-communism.
Thus, we can draw the following conclusions. The formation of the anarchist movement in the last years of the Soviet Union was due to the liberalization of the political course in the country. Actually in effect in 1987-1991. Anarchist organizations became the foundation for the emergence of subsequent organizations of Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and other post-Soviet anarchists. Many of the anarchists who began their political path at the end of the 1980s continue their active social and political activities at the present time. As for the ideological aspects of the movement, it is in the period between 1989 and 1991. there was a final turn of the majority of the Russian anarchist movement on the path of anarcho-socialism and anarcho-communism, which was associated with economic changes in the country. Building capitalism more made unfashionable individualistic and capitalist ideas among radical oppositionists.
Materials used:
1) Tarasov A.N., Cherkasov G.Yu., Shavshukova T.V. Left in Russia: from moderate to extremists. M., 1997.
2) Raush P.A. A brief essay on the anarchist movement of modern Russia // New World. No. 52. SPb., 2003.
3) Verkhovsky A., Papp A., Pribylovsky V. Political Extremism in Russia. M., 1996.
4) Korgunyuk Yu.G. Modern Russian Multiparty System M., 1999.
Photos are taken from http://www.nihilist.li/, www.memo.ru.
Confederation of anarcho-syndicalists
The founding conference of the Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists was held on 1-2 in May on 1989 in Moscow, and was attended by delegates from 15 cities representing the left-wing socialist and anarchist organizations of the country. The International Communitarian Association “Forest People”, the Socialist Club of Irkutsk, the Leningrad Anarcho-Syndicalist Free Association and a number of other anarchist and left-wing socialist groups, both members of the Union of Independent Socialists and formerly acting independently, declared their joining the CAS. The total number of organizations included in the CAS was 300-400 people, the majority of whom were students and young intelligentsia. It was officially recognized that the Confederation did not have anarcho-syndicalists, in accordance with the principles of anarchism, any governing bodies. The sole supreme body of the CAS was proclaimed congress. However, the real leadership was reinforced by the Moscow organization KAS as the capital, one of the most numerous and controlling the central press organ of the Confederation magazine "Community". Andrei Isaev and Alexander Shubin became the actual leaders and ideologists of the CAS, defining its political and ideological line.
Moderate anarcho-syndicalism was proclaimed the official ideology of the Confederation, based primarily on the concept of “communal socialism” put forward by UAC theorists even during the existence of the Obshchina club. The UAC was considered by MA Bakunin and Pierre Proudhon to be their main ideological inspirers. In fact, the CAS program was a combination of separate anarchist principles with the experience of European Social Democracy and modern liberalism. In addition, both leaders and ordinary activists of the CAS had a keen interest in the experience of the Makhnovist movement as if they were putting into practice the ideas of collectivist syndicalist anarchism. A number of materials on the history of the Makhnov movement were published in the Community, the author of which, first of all, was Alexander Shubin. The Confederation of anarcho-syndicalists proclaimed the ideal of a sociopolitical system to a society of stateless free socialism, represented in the form of federations of autonomous and self-governing territories, communities, and producers. Such a society should be based primarily on the principles of self-government and federalism. Self-government was seen as an alternative to the verticals of the executive and legislative branches and was presented in the form of non-partisan councils, created both at the place of employment and at the place of residence. The formation of these councils is carried out not through elections, as in a parliamentary society, but through the delegation of popular representatives, who can at any time be recalled by the people that nominated them. The most important decisions are made by direct popular legislation, i.e. at popular meetings. Having proclaimed full freedom of religious and political views, UAN spoke out for a society without political parties, regarding the latter as forces focused exclusively on seizing power. The principle of federalism substantiated by Proudhon was considered by the Confederation as one of the fundamental principles of a stateless social structure. Federalism, otherwise known as decentralization, was understood by the CAS ideologues as complete autonomy of territorial units in decision-making and the complete absence of any center that could infringe the rights of autonomous units. Each of these autonomous units, called KAS communities, should have the full right to withdraw or join one or another federation or union of federations. The CAS demanded the destruction of any measures and procedures that oppress the individual, including the immediate abolition of the passport regime and registration, all forms of forced labor, military service, prisons, the judicial system and the death penalty. Justice authorities, the police and the army in a stateless society were subject to immediate dissolution. For effective self-defense of the population, its organization was supposed to be based on a voluntary militia principle. The CAS economic program was based on Proudhonism and above all proclaimed the need to transfer the means of production to the ownership of labor collectives while maintaining small private property and market relations. The confederation of anarcho-syndicalists was an unconditional supporter of the peaceful evolutionary path to the ideal of a stateless society and adhered to non-violent principles. By building a society of stateless socialism, the CAS proclaimed syndicalism, i.e.
The Confederation considered theoretical and research work, the propaganda of anarcho-syndicalism among the masses, the organization of the trade union movement and support of workers, participation in mass actions and in campaigns of non-violent civil disobedience as the main directions of its activities. As a syndicalist organization focused primarily on labor union struggle, the Confederation considered one of its main tasks to create strong and independent trade unions of anarcho-syndicalist type in enterprises that would fight for the enterprise to become the property of the labor collective, for the introduction of workers' self-government and autonomy. enterprises from the central government, and would also be able to organize the protection of workers against state oppression and establish insurance funds for cash assistance to workers. On several occasions, the CAS attempted to create such trade unions both in the country's enterprises and in educational institutions. At 1989, at the initiative of the Moscow organization KAS, the Confederation-controlled Union of Student Youth was established, in Vorkuta and Kaliningrad, the trade unions of Solidarity were established. The strongest trade union organizations focused on anarcho-syndicalism originated in a number of Siberian cities, primarily in Omsk, Seversk and Tomsk, where local organizations launched an active campaign of the CAS division, which here consisted mainly of workers and employees. The Siberian branch of the CAS was one of the few anarchist groups in the USSR that actually had well-established ties with the labor movement and had a certain influence on enterprises. Subsequently, it was precisely on the basis of the CAS offices that the Sotsprof of Siberia and the Siberian Confederation of Labor were created. Certain propaganda activities at the enterprises were also launched by the branches of the UAN in Ukraine.
In addition to organizing trade unions, the Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists actively participated in events held by the general front of the democratic opposition, establishing fairly close ties with popular fronts in support of perestroika and with liberal groups such as the Democratic Union and Civil Dignity. In addition, unlike the Russian anarchists of a later time, the UAN considered it possible to participate in the elections as well. But after the candidate from the CAS to the Congress of People's Deputies Andrei Isaev was not registered, in November 1989 the Confederation called on the citizens of the country to boycott the elections to the Supreme Soviet and reoriented to the elections to the local authorities. At the local level, anarcho-syndicalists did indeed achieve great success and lead their own deputies to local councils in Novokuibyshevsk, Seversk, Khabarovsk and Kharkov (Kharkiv anarchist Igor Rassoha was even elected to the regional council). As for the mass actions of the Confederation at this time, we should note the pompous celebration of the NI Makhno 100 anniversary, the II CAS conference held on October 20-22 on October 1989 in Zaporozhye. As a result of the celebration of Makhno’s birthday, which was accompanied by pickets and rallies of supporters of anarchism in many cities of the USSR, many new members, primarily from among the youth, were recruited into the ranks of the UAN.
The confederation of anarcho-syndicalists has also launched a stormy publishing activity. If until 1989 there was practically the only more or less massive anarchist publication on the territory of the Union, the Moscow journal “Community” remained, then since 1989 there has been an increase in the number of anarchist periodicals in Moscow and in provincial cities. The recognized centers of publishing activities of CAS by the autumn of 1989 are Moscow and Kharkov. At the 10-12 held in Moscow on November 1989, a special meeting of editors of anarchist print media to coordinate press activities and more quickly disseminate information, the information agency KAS-KOR (KAS correspondents) was launched, which began to issue the KAS-KOR newsletter, which was prepared carried out the Moscow and Kharkov organizations of the Confederation.
Throughout 1989-1990. The confederation of anarcho-syndicalists has steadily increased in number, taking in its ranks more and more new activists from different cities of the Soviet Union. Especially a large influx of new members was outlined after mass actions - for example, in March 1990. In one day 30 entered the Moscow CAS. By the middle of 1990. the number of anarcho-syndicalists Confederation was 1200 people in 32 cities and towns of the Soviet Union. The CAS offices in Moscow, Kharkov and in the cities of Siberia, primarily in Irkutsk, Tomsk and Omsk, remained the largest and most influential. 31 March 1990 The 1st meeting of Siberian anarchists was held in Tomsk, where representatives of the CAS organizations of Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Omsk, Tomsk and Seversk who took part in it decided to revive the movement for the independence of Siberia and to create a numerous anarcho-syndicalist trade union in Siberia. Numerous organizations of the UAN emerged in the cities of Ukraine - Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Kiev, Kadievka, etc.
It should be noted that, despite the fact that the bulk of the activists of the Confederation were young 18-26 years, some of the older generation of left-wing radicals who participated in the activities of left-wing underground groups in 50-60-e and in the labor movement. Thus, a participant in the unrest 1962 entered the Confederation of anarcho-syndicalists. in Novocherkassk, Peter Siuda, who served 12 for years in Soviet camps, former political prisoner Vladimir Chernolikh, who was convicted of anti-Soviet agitation, participated in the Temir-Tau uprising anarchist Anarchist Anatoly Anarchist. Representatives of the older generation did not at all perform “decorative” functions and were actively involved in the practical activities of the UAN (Vladimir Chernolikh, for example, was elected to the local council of the Primorsky district of the Irkutsk region).
Anarchism in 1990. Crisis and split of CAS
As the largest anarchist organization in the USSR, CAS has included not only supporters of syndicalism, but also adherents of virtually all existing anarchism directions - anarcho-individualists, anarcho-capitalists, anarcho-communists, pacifists and Tolstoyans, and even such an exotic flow as "anarcho-mystic." Naturally, such an ideologically diverse composition could not ensure the ideological homogeneity of the organization and ensure its normal operation. The provincial anarchist organizations that were part of the UAN in most cases retained not only the name, but also their own ideological principles and their own periodicals, on whose pages they defended their point of view. Since the provincial groups belonged to the most diverse areas of anarchism, within the CAS almost from the first months of its existence there were clearly defined ideological currents competing with each other and factional groups that criticized each other’s positions and, even more, the official CAS line.
On the extreme right flank of the UAN there was an anarcho-capitalist wing (or anarcho-liberals), represented predominantly by the right side of Leningrad anarchists and by some groups from Nizhny Novgorod, Tver and Kazan. The ideology of this trend combined anarcho-individualism in the spirit of Max Stirner with the concepts of neo-conservative and neoliberal persuasion and, in fact, was a Soviet analogue of American libertarism. Right anarchists were not only unconditional supporters of market relations, but, unlike the official CAS line, declared the full recognition of private property as one of the most important means of self-expression of the individual and confirmation of his individual freedom. Speaking for the complete freedom of the market and private property, the anarcho-capitalists were also resolute opponents of any revolutionary actions, focusing exclusively on the peaceful libertarian-evolutionary path of transition to a stateless society. At the same time, the anarcho-capitalists even advanced the thesis on the gradual independent and inevitable evolution of bourgeois-democratic society into a stateless society of free capitalism. Among a certain part of the anarcho-capitalists, even the slogan about the elimination of contradictions between a Western-style democratic republic and anarchy was cultivated. The recognized ideologue of the far-right "capitalist" part of the Soviet anarchists was the Leningrad anarcho-capitalist, one of the founders of ACCA, Pavel Geskin. Anarcho-capitalists took an intermediate place between anarchists and the radical part of the democratic movement, insisting on the development of cooperation between the UAN and liberal organizations, up to the formation of a single bloc. The Leningrad anarcho-capitalists, who came out of ACCA, formed their own organization, which remained as part of CAS - the Anarch-Democratic Union of the Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists (ADS-CAS) and began a constant controversy with the more left-wing supporters of the syndicalist line. In 1990 in Leningrad, the publication of its own anarcho-capitalist orientation was launched - the Free Contract newspaper, edited by Pavel Geskin and published on behalf of ADS-KAS in large quantities in 11.000 copies.
Somewhat more moderate positions than the anarcho-capitalists were occupied by the anarcho-individualistic wing, which was also located “to the right” of the official CAS line. Anarcho-individualists were grouped around the Leningrad ACCA, which by this time was renamed the Association of Free Anarchist Sections and extended its activities to Saratov and Petrozavodsk. Since the summer of 1989, the main newspaper of the anarcho-individualists has been the Leningrad ACCA newspaper Novy Svet, and the actual ideologue of the direction is Peter Rausch. Supporters of the official line prevailed in the Moscow, Irkutsk and Kharkov organizations of the Confederation of anarcho-syndicalists, as well as in Siberian groups. The ideologists of the official line were Isaev and Shubin, as well as Podshivalov (Irkutsk) adjacent to them. As before, the syndicalists determined the policy and ideology of the Confederation and controlled the release of most of the central organs of the organization, from Community to KAS-KOR.
Finally, the left flank of the CAS was occupied at that time by relatively few anarcho-communists, operating primarily in Leningrad and Ukrainian organizations, especially in Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye CAS. Back in the fall of 1989, the Dnepropetrovsk anarcho-communists criticized the activities of the CAS Moscow organization, not wanting to come to terms with recognizing the CAS official market relations and suppressing the CAS theorists of the anarcho-communist direction and the prominent role of P.A. Kropotkin in the development of anarchist ideas.
Almost from the first moments of the CAS activity, disagreements began to grow in it. Already in the spring of 1989, several months after the establishment of the organization, ACCA leader Peter Rausch (pictured), seeing the impossibility of full unification within the Confederation of all Soviet anarchists, put forward a proposal to create on a broader ideological and organizational principles of the "black front", who could really unite all the anarchist groups in the Soviet space. If in 1989 the disagreements in the CAS were not yet so noticeable, then with the beginning of the new 1990, they literally reached the limit and the Confederation of anarcho-syndicalists was on the verge of a split. At the same time, the CAS leaders themselves realized that the normal functioning of the union with such ideological heterogeneity is impossible, but they offered their own solution to this problem, which, not without reason, is considered one of the reasons for the split in the Confederation. In the winter of 1990, Mr. Isaev and Shubin, with the support of Podshivalov, spoke in favor of turning the CAS into a purely anarcho-syndicalist organization, which implied recognition by regional associations of the priority of the official line and their full transition to the positions of anarcho-syndicalism. The crisis that had been brewing from the very beginning of 1990 of the year resulted in an open confrontation between supporters of the official line and their opponents from regional organizations, primarily from the Leningrad ASSA who initiated the disengagement from UAN. At the II congress of the Confederation of anarcho-syndicalists, held in Moscow 17 on April 1990, despite a number of measures taken by UAC leaders to prevent a split (removing the status of the CAS central body from the Community and further expanding the powers of regional groups), serious contradictions that they ended the split of the organization. Representatives of Leningrad, Kazan, Saratov, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye and Nizhny Novgorod left the hall. In fact, this marked the beginning of the collapse of the organization. Association of Anarchist Movements as an Alternative to CAS
5-6 in May 1990 in Leningrad, in the premises of the Palace of Culture of Food Industry Workers, an alternative congress of opponents of the official line was organized, where it was decided to create a parallel anarchist association on broader ideological and organizational principles. Naturally, the UAN leaders perceived this congress extremely negatively and the Confederation of anarcho-syndicalists was practically not represented at it, with the exception of the Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporozhskaya UAN who dispersed from the official line. Representatives of the Association of Free Anarchists from Leningrad, Petrozavodsk and Saratov, the Anarchist Democratic Union, the Moscow Union of Anarchists, the Alliance of Kazan Anarchists and a number of smaller groups, including environmental and pacifist, took part in the congress. Despite the fact that during the congress between its participants, there were also significant contradictions in the views on the organizational and ideological construction of the future organization, the congress ended with the decision to create the Anarchist Association. After the congress, the anarchists held a symbolic action of “washing away historical sins from Lenin”, which consisted in publicly wiping the bust of the leader of the Communist Party. This action was the reason for the refusal of the DC administration in the further provision of premises and anarchists. On the second day of the congress, almost all of its delegates took part in the defense of the ACCA headquarters in the unauthorized room in the house intended for demolition from the police. As a result of a clash with the police, more than 20 anarchists were detained. This incident attracted the attention of the public to the Leningrad Anarchist Congress, making it clear that the new association would be much more radical than the CAS.
16-17 June 1990g. In Balakovo, the Saratov region, where an environmental camp was held to protest against the construction of a nuclear power plant, a founding congress was held, at which the Association of Anarchist Movements (ADA) was proclaimed as a new, alternative UAN, union of Soviet anarchist groups. The congress was attended by delegates from 13 cities of the country, representing 14 anarchist organizations. The Association of Free Anarchist Sections from Leningrad, Saratov and Petrozavodsk, the Anarchist Democratic Union, the Moscow Union of Anarchists, the Alliance of Kazan Anarchists and some other groups have announced their joining the ADA. The congress adopted the Declaration of Associations of Anarchist Movements, the Agreement on Interaction between the Subjects of ADA, the regulations on self-defense groups, on environmental activities and on the government's economic program. Unlike UAC, the Association of Anarchist Movements fundamentally abandoned a certain ideology and the creation of organizational structures, presenting itself as a free association of collective and individual members, aimed at coordinating the joint activities of all anarchists, regardless of their ideological affiliation. It was decided that any provision should be accepted only if a consensus was reached, there was no fixation of collective or individual members in the ADA. At the congress, it was decided to create a single information network of the Association of Anarchist Movements for the full exchange of information between the organizations belonging to ADA. In fact, the role of the “information agency” of the ADA was assigned to the Leningrad anarchists and the printed projects published by them (“Novy Svet”, “An-Press”, etc.). Soon after the congress, 28 on June 1990, anarchists who remained in the environmental camp, with the support of local residents, held a mass demonstration against a nuclear power plant in Balakovo, in which several thousand people took part.
In fact, the creation of the Association of Anarchist Movements meant splitting the Soviet anarcho-movement into two parts, with the Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists gradually beginning to lose their positions in it. If, in the summer of 1990, the consequences of the split were not so obvious, and many anarchists maintained membership in both the CAS and the ADA at the same time, by the fall the contradictions between the two organizations reached the limit. In the autumn of 1990, Igor Podshivalov distributed to the CAS members an article entitled “CAS is an organization, not a party,” in which he advocated the introduction of at least some semblance of discipline and organization. But this proposal of the leader of the Irkutsk CAM was ignored. In November, the 1990 in Leningrad hosted the IIIrd Congress of the Confederation of anarcho-syndicalists, at which the UAN leaders tried to strengthen the organizational and ideological unity of the Confederation. But the presentation of Andrei Isayev about the categorical disagreement of the CAS with the democratic and nationalist movements, and other attempts to rectify the situation, did not lead to a successful result. It was at the third congress of CAS ACCA, and after it the other groups included in the ADA announced their full and final separation from the CAS leadership. After the third congress, the CAS crisis becomes obvious and begins not only to stop replenishing the Confederation’s ranks with new members, but also the outflow of old activists to other anarchist organizations, primarily ADA members, as well as a massive outburst of new anarchic associations that seemed much more promising and consistent than the Confederation of anarcho-syndicalists. As the most vivid evidence of the CAS crisis, almost immediately after the III rd congress, since the fall of 1990, ceases to be published regularly since 1987. leading publication of the CAS magazine "Community".
As already noted, opponents of the CAS official line criticized primarily the policy of "syndicalist dictatorship" in relation to representatives of other anarchist movements. But no less outrage from the anarchist masses caused the Confederation’s too moderate positions, especially its practical actions aimed at further rapprochement with the democratic opposition, as well as an orientation towards participation in the electoral process. More radical than CAS, part of anarchists, regardless of membership of the right or left wing of the movement, regarded the participation of representatives of the Confederation in the elections not only as ideological inconsistency and indiscriminateness, but also as a direct manifestation of the opportunism of the official line and even a betrayal of the ideals of anarchism. Isaev and his supporters were accused of abandoning the traditional principles of the anarchist movement, as well as of creeping before the authorities and unwillingness to finally disassociate from the national-patriotic and liberal opposition. The split of the Confederation of anarcho-syndicalists contributed, oddly enough, to the growth of theoretical literacy and the horizons of the Soviet anarchist masses, including thanks to the activities of alternative print media from Kasovsky. With a more detailed study of the theoretical views of Bakunin, for example, Soviet anarchists very soon discovered a discrepancy between the real positions of the “father of Russian anarchism” and those views attributed to him by the official CAS line. Naturally, Bakunin not only did not recognize market relations and was not a supporter of a non-violent evolutionary path to a stateless society, but, on the contrary, was in extremely revolutionary rebellious positions and was a staunch opponent of a market economy.
As a result, in 1990, both in the regions and in the capital, where the positions of the official line were unshakable, many new anarchist groups emerge, fundamentally unwilling to be part of the CAS and subjecting its policies to harsh criticism. Practically all these organizations were distinguished by their youth composition and attracted, first of all, newcomers to the anarchist movement, especially punks and other groups of politicized informals. Over the course of 1990, the two largest radical anarchist organizations that are not part of the Confederation of Anarcho-Syndicalists are being established in Moscow. So, in May, 1990 from the Anarchist-Communist Revolutionary Union broke away the Moscow Union of Anarchists (UIA), which was headed by Alexander Chervyakov. The UIA acted as one of the organizers of the constituent congress of the Association of Anarchist Movements and assumed the functions of the ADA office in Moscow. From the other anarchist groups, the ISA was distinguished, first and foremost, by a fairly tough discipline - thus, the organization had a strict dry law. The Moscow Union of Anarchists was probably the only anarchist organization in the country that paid attention to regular hand-to-hand fighting, shooting and combat training (later a private security agency was created on the basis of the ISA). In the autumn of 1990, also in Moscow, another group of anarchists emerged, speaking out with radical criticism of the CAS policy - the Anarchist Radical Youth Association (AROM), which included mainly politicized and anarchism-oriented Moscow punks. The leader of AROM was Andrei Semiletnikov (“Dymson”), a famous figure in the Moscow informal movement, later a defender of the House of Soviets in October 1993.
The process of creating new anarchist associations continued in the provinces. Thus, in Krasnodar in the summer of 1990, a group of young anarchists dissatisfied with the inaction of the Kuban organization KAS and its leader Vladimir Lutsenko organized the Union of Radical Anarchist Youth (CPAM), which later became the largest organization of anarchists in southern Russia. As a result, the skillfully set propaganda of the SRAM soon increased its number significantly - again, primarily due to the involvement of informal youth.
Until the end of 1990, the Soviet anarchists remained mostly within the right wing of the anarchist movement and left-anarchist ideas did not enjoy the influence they gained in post-Soviet Russia. Most of the provincial anarchist organizations were fairly right-wing positions, from the official line to individualism and anarcho-capitalism. However, since the end of 1990, as far as right-wing, market tendencies have been established in Soviet political life, socialist views have become increasingly common among anarchists. Inside the CASA Moscow organization, critics of the “left” appeared, claiming the priority of socialist and communist values over individualistic ones. One of them was Vadim Damier - now a doctor of historical sciences, one of Russia's largest specialists in the history of the international anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist movement. At the end of 1980's Vadim Damier was also the co-chairman of the Green Party and from the middle of the 1980s. led his own development in the field of theory. In 1989, on the pages of the journal Third Way, he presented the Eco-Socialist Manifesto, in which he harshly criticized industrial civilization and proposed a model of a stateless decentralized society based on federalist and communitarian principles. If before the second half of 1990, ideological contradictions were observed primarily between the CAS center and the regions and the political and ideological line of the Confederation was strongly criticized either by non-CAS groups or by regional offices, in 1990 the contradictions also cover the very heart of the Confederation, stronghold of the official line - the Moscow organization KAS. The disagreements in this case were caused by the spread of left-wing anarchism among some CAS activists and the emergence of the so-called inside the CAS Moscow organization. “Youth opposition”, organized in 1990 year in a non-partisan school. Contrary to the ideology of the official line of the CAS, the youth opposition to the left anarchist and anarcho-communist views. In the winter of 1991, the Confederation of anarcho-syndicalists and anarcho-communists finally disengaged from the extreme left wing, the activists of which almost immediately after the exclusion from CAS created new, more radical, anarcho-communist organizations. In the early spring of 1991, the creation of the Anarchist Youth Front (AMF) group was announced, which included the radical part of the Moscow anarchist and informal youth. Dmitry Kostenko, Evgenia Buzikoshvili and Vadim Damier 5 March 1991 held a conference at which the Revolutionary Anarchist Initiative (IREAN) was announced, unlike ADA, which united not only dissatisfied with UAC policies, but that part of the Soviet anarchists that occupied the most radical and leftist positions and ideologically focused on anarcho-communism.
Thus, we can draw the following conclusions. The formation of the anarchist movement in the last years of the Soviet Union was due to the liberalization of the political course in the country. Actually in effect in 1987-1991. Anarchist organizations became the foundation for the emergence of subsequent organizations of Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, and other post-Soviet anarchists. Many of the anarchists who began their political path at the end of the 1980s continue their active social and political activities at the present time. As for the ideological aspects of the movement, it is in the period between 1989 and 1991. there was a final turn of the majority of the Russian anarchist movement on the path of anarcho-socialism and anarcho-communism, which was associated with economic changes in the country. Building capitalism more made unfashionable individualistic and capitalist ideas among radical oppositionists.
Materials used:
1) Tarasov A.N., Cherkasov G.Yu., Shavshukova T.V. Left in Russia: from moderate to extremists. M., 1997.
2) Raush P.A. A brief essay on the anarchist movement of modern Russia // New World. No. 52. SPb., 2003.
3) Verkhovsky A., Papp A., Pribylovsky V. Political Extremism in Russia. M., 1996.
4) Korgunyuk Yu.G. Modern Russian Multiparty System M., 1999.
Photos are taken from http://www.nihilist.li/, www.memo.ru.
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