Historical and patriotic association "Fatherland"
Historical and Cultural Association "Fatherland"
Society of Russian Culture "Fatherland"
Prehistory of the creation of the "Fatherland" association.
Immediately after the death of Joseph Stalin, the division of a significant part of the creative intelligentsia of the USSR into two hostile camps was clearly manifested:
- "liberal", oriented towards Western European values, in which the influence of Jews was very strong;
- "conservative" oriented towards "traditional" Russian values.
Both camps, which had high-ranking patrons in the CPSU and the state apparatus, were potentially oppositional to the official ideology of the USSR. The opposition of the "liberal" camp was obvious. But even the "conservative" camp of "Russian nationalists" could not be regarded as a support of the regime and over time increasingly inclined towards the Orthodox-monarchical ideology of pre-revolutionary Russia. A distinctive feature of the "Russian nationalists" was their belief in the negative influence of Jews on Russian culture. A significant part of the blame for the collapse of the Russian Empire was attributed to the Jews. After the 1917 revolution, the Jews, in the opinion of this camp, had a negative impact on the processes in Soviet Russia, entering the governing bodies of Soviet power, and in the Stalinist and post-Stalinist period, the influence on the party leaders, allegedly, was provided through Jewish wives. Great importance was attached to Masonic organizations, which were seen as instruments of influence on the part of secret Jewish organizations on a global scale.
According to the version of the researcher Nikolai Mitrokhin, set out in the book “Russian Party. The movement of Russian nationalists in the USSR. 1953-1985 ", the pa-trons of the" Russian nationalists "were the Komsomol leaders Alexander Shelepin (member of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee from 1964 to 1975), Vladimir Semichastny and Sergei Pavlov. This group, presumably, played a significant role in the elimination of Nikita Khrushchev, but in 1967 it lost the confidence of Leonid Brezhnev and was itself removed from the political Olympus. Nevertheless, in the cultural sphere, the influence of "Russian nationalists" persisted.
In 1965, representatives of this camp in the RSFSR created the All-Russian Society for the Protection of Historical and Cultural Monuments (VOOPIiK).
In the late 1960s - early 1970s, an organization of book lovers was created under the USSR Ministry of Aviation Industry. Information was published that this organization of book lovers allegedly included very high-ranking officials: two of them later became ministers, one more - a member of the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences. The names of these people were not disclosed.
Information was published that Anatoly Speransky, an employee of the Research Institute of Aviation Systems, organized what is supposedly the country's largest amateur association of readers "Soyuz", and later acted as one of the initiators of the creation of an official all-Union organization of book lovers. He was supported in this by the chairman of the USSR State Committee for Publishing, Printing and Book Trade Boris Stukalin, who was called an adherent of the ideas of "Russian nationalists". It should be noted that Stukalin's son studied at the Moscow Aviation Institute at that time. In 1974, the All-Union Voluntary Society of Book Lovers was created.
In the late 1970s, activists of the Moscow city branch of VOOPIiK and members of the society of book lovers under the Ministry of Aviation Industry (under the leadership of MAP employee Gennady Frygin) created the Vityazi group to organize the celebration of the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Kulikovo.
In 1982, the "Vityazi" group was renamed into the "Memory" association, the chairman of the board of which was Frygin. The association organized rallies, Sunday works to restore historical and cultural monuments, and promoted its ideas. An important role in the material support of Memory's activities was played by the USSR Ministry of Aviation Industry, whose employee was Gennady Frygin. It was reported that high-ranking officials of the Ministry were sometimes present at the meetings of the Memory association.
Information on the participation of senior officials of the USSR Ministry of Aviation Industry in the activities of the Memory association is of particular interest in connection with the role of this Ministry in the creation of the AST State Cooperative Concern. The scandal in connection with the activities of this concern in 1990 became the reason for the split of the "conservative" group in the governing bodies of the USSR, or the reason for the final delimitation of the two groups of influence within the "conservative" camp. As a result, the influence of Boris Yeltsin, on which a group associated with the leadership of the Ministry of the Aviation Industry, staked, significantly increased.
In 1985, due to the poor health of Gennady Frygin, Dmitry Vasiliev became the actual head of the Memory association.
When Mikhail Gorbachev was elected general secretary of the CPSU Central Committee in 1985, a number of high-ranking civil servants associated with "Russian nationalists" were sent into honorary exile in the diplomatic service. For example, the former chairman of the USSR State Committee for Publishing, Printing and Book Trade Boris Stukalin became ambassador to the Hungarian People's Republic, Alexander Yakovlev, who became the leader of the "liberal" wing of the CPSU, replaced him as head of the CPSU Central Committee's Propaganda Department. Stukalin's successor as chairman of the USSR State Committee for Publishing, Printing and Book Trade, Boris Pastukhov, became ambassador to Denmark in 1986.
Creation and activity of the Fatherland association.
In December 1986, the historical-patriotic association "Fatherland" was created in Sverdlovsk, headed by journalist Yuri Lipatnikov, who held a leading position in the Sverdlovsk branch of VOOPIiK. The ideology of the IPO Fatherland completely coincided with the ideology of the Moscow association Memory and, in fact, the IPO Fatherland was a regional branch of Memory, although they were not legally connected in any way. IPO Fatherland became the first informal organization (not under the control of the CPSU) in the Sverdlovsk region that tried to openly influence the political processes in the region.
In early 1987, representatives of the Fatherland IPO protested against a project to build a house near the central square of Sverdlovsk, which, according to Fatherland activists, could damage the historically formed architectural appearance of the city center.
During a discussion about two theatrical works carried out in 1987 in Sverdlovsk, it came to a scandal. The talk was about the performances “The Tale of Tsar Saltan” based on the opera by Rimsky-Korsakov and “The Minor” based on the play by Denis Fonvizin. The director of the first of them on the stage of the Sverdlovsk Opera and Ballet Theater was the Jew Alexander Titel. From the point of view of the Fatherland members, these performances were an infringement on the dignity of the Russian classics. In "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" they saw a swastika in the ornament of the royal throne and the Star of David among the ornaments of the Russian cap. The contrast between the poverty of Saltan's kingdom (supposedly representing Russia) and the ideal overseas world (where Guidon reigns) offended the Sverdlovsk "patriots", who saw in it a clear hint of a contrast between Russia and the West. The toilets of the theater were painted and covered with anti-Jewish and pro-Jewish inscriptions. In the city committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union began to call the refunded townspeople, demanding to restore order.
In April 1987, at the invitation of the Fatherland IPO, the leader of the Memory association, Dmitry Vasiliev, came to Sverdlovsk, who spoke about the significant role of Jewish-Masonic conspiracies, criticized the leader of the "liberal" wing of the CPSU, Alexander Yakovlev. Gennady Burbulis, deputy director of the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Ministry of Nonferrous Metallurgy of the USSR, who in the past was a teacher of philosophy at the Ural Polytechnic Institute, entered into a polemic with him. According to eyewitnesses, Burbulis looked much less convincing than Vasiliev. Burbulis, on the other hand, concluded that victory in the discussion largely depends on who is the owner of the discussion platform.
In May 1987, with the assistance of the Sverdlovsk City Committee of the CPSU, a permanent city "Discussion Tribune" was organized, the chairman of the council of which was Gennady Burbulis. It became the center of activity of the Sverdlovsk informal public organizations. Accusations were made that, despite the fact that the leaders of the "Discussion Tribune" were members of the CPSU, representatives of "radically liberal" movements that were in op-position to the CPSU received the advantage in speeches. The leaders of the Discussion Tribune were extremely negative about the Fatherland association.
According to the journalist Pilar Bonet, in the middle of 1988 there were 51 people in the Fatherland society. Of these, 38 were non-partisan, 9 were communists and 4 were Komsomol members. In terms of social composition, representatives of the technical and humanitarian intelligentsia predominated - 63% of the members of society, while the workers were 18.5%.
In August 1988, the Fatherland association and the Rabochy club created an initiative group to organize the Ural People's Front. It was indicated that the front was formed on the basis of the ideas voiced at the 19th conference of the CPSU in June-July 1988.
Since the end of 1985 , members of the Moscow association "Memory" dissatisfied with the activities of Dmitry Vasiliev began to form their own organizations independent of "Memory". Suspicions were expressed that Vasiliev began to act in the interests of certain curators from the KGB, who decided to use "Memory" in their own interests. Vasiliev allegedly suppressed the internal opposition to the union with the help of the "blackshirts" of his colleague Alexander Barkashov. Subsequently, Vasiliev and Barkashov were repeatedly accused of provocative actions, when they publicly opposed the "liberals", but in reality their actions played into the hands of the "liberals". At the end of 1987, Igor Sychev created a new "patriotic" organization in Moscow, which was supported by the founder of "Memory" Gennady Frygin, and the Sverdlovsk association "Fatherland" began to focus on this organization.
In 1987-1988 , members of the Fatherland association positively assessed the activities of Boris Yeltsin, despite the fact that, being the first secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU, Yeltsin organized the demolition of the Ipatiev house in Sverdlovsk, where the family of Emperor Nicholas II was shot. Fatherland even suggested organizing a campaign to award the title of Honorary Citizen of the city of Sverdlovsk to communist Boris Yeltsin for his "special services to our native town" and for his "proletarian and patriotic position in revolutionary Rebuilding."
In 1990, Fatherland leader Yuri Lipatnikov became an active opponent of Boris Yeltsin Yeltsin in the elections of people's deputies of the RSFSR. However, the political weight of the opponents was immeasurable - Lipatnikov won less than 1% of the vote. Fatherland representatives argued that the family of Yeltsin Yeltsin and his wife Naina Iosifovna could have Jewish roots, as a result of which Yeltsin could be involved in a conspiracy against Russia organized by the comprador bourgeoisie and bureaucracy associated with Zionism. According to Lipatnikov in 1990: “Now there is a bourgeois revolution. It depends on us whether it will turn into a national one”.
In March 1990, the founding congress of the Party of the Renaissance of Russia was held in Sverdlovsk, initiated by members of the Sverdlovsk and Tyumen associations "Fatherland", as well as a number of Moscow and Leningrad "patriotic" organizations. Igor Charikov, a member of the Sverdlovsk Fatherland association, was elected chairman of the party. However, a few months later, Aleksandr Romanenko, a member of the Leningrad Patriot organization, became the party's chairman.
In 1990 , the historical-patriotic association "Fatherland" was renamed into the society of Russian culture "Fatherland". Yuri Lipatnikov remained the head of the society. The society distributed materials about the "crimes of Yakov Sverdlov", demanded the return of the historical name of Sverdlovsk - Yekaterinburg.
In July 1990, the Fatherland society, together with the Rally-87 group, applied for a civil commemoration of those innocently murdered at the site of the Ipatiev house (the shot members of the family of Emperor Nicholas II). Archbishop Melchizedek of Sverdlovsk and Kurgan, on behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church, categorically refused to participate in the prayer service, but the Sverdlovsk city executive committee allowed the event to be held. The initiators of the prayer received a blessing for the construction of the Church on the Blood on the site of the Ipatiev House from the hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church abroad. The funeral service was conducted by Father Fyodor, a professor at the Zagorsk (later Sergiev Posad) Theological Academy, who, allegedly, was the personal representative of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy. According to the organizers, about 800 people took part in the event. The event was hosted by Fatherland leader Yuri Lipatnikov.
In December 1991, on the initiative of the Fatherland Society, the founding congress of the Russian Union was held in Yekaterinburg. It was reported that representatives of national patriots from almost 40 Russian cities took part in the work of the congress. The main goal was declared to be the creation of a Great Russian state as a necessary stage in the revival of a united and indivisible Russia. Orthodoxy should be the spiritual foundation, national interests should be above all others. Among the tasks was the creation of a shadow government, unification in combat squads, hundreds of Cossacks and regiments. The leader of the "Russian Union" was the leader of the "Fatherland" Yuri Lipatnikov.
In August 1993, Fatherland leader Yuri Lipatnikov died in a car accident in the Chelyabinsk region. Some representatives of "Russian nationalist" organizations said it was a murder.
After the death of Lipatnikov, the information resonance from the activities of the Fatherland society falls to almost zero.
In February 2012, in Yekaterinburg, in the Tsar's Hall of the Ural State Mining University (USMU), an anniversary evening was held dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the "Fatherland" association. The choice of the place for the celebration was probably due to the fact that the rector of USMU Nikolai Kosarev is close to many of the ideas promoted by Fatherland. It should be noted that in 2013 Nikolai Kosarev became the co-chairman of the Sverdlovsk branch of the All-Russian Popular Front, which is designed to become the most influential public organization in Russia.