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In Russia, Violence by National Socialists |
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Written by Leonard Zeskind
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June 24, 2008 |
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The Zeskind Fortnight No. 6
In Russia, Violence by National Socialists
By Leonard Zeskind
A one-night spree of racist and anti-Semitic violence in St. Petersburg last December 1 left four people badly injured, including a woman employed as a journalist by the Republic of Tyva, one of twenty-plus smaller republics encompassed within the Russian Federation. That same night a young man of Uzbek descent was stabbed multiple times and then left dead on the street. Just days before that, in the Volga River city of Samara, a gang of thirty neo-Nazi skinheads attacked a group of young people returning home from a punk rock concert. Three of the victims were sent to the hospital.
There is significant evidence that this type of violence in Russia is rapidly accelerating. A report on events in 2005 by Amnesty International UK cited 366 such assaults, including twenty eight murders. In 2007, between January 1 and November 30, the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis in Moscow counted 546 violent assaults by racists and neo-Nazis. Thirty four people were murdered in the Russian capital alone. SOVA’s findings were reported in Searchlight magazine, which has been regularly covering the situation. Unfortunately, violence is just one side of ultra-nationalist developments in 21st century Russia. And in one of the oddest of post-Cold War turnabouts, white nationalists in the United States are making common practical cause with their like-minded comrades in Russia. |
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Last Updated ( July 05, 2008 )
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Read more...
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Written by Leonard Zeskind
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July 27, 2007 |
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Almost three decades ago, I began writing regularly about white supremacists, anti-Semites and related topics with a portable typewriter and plastic press-on letters. I have been trying to catch-up with technological change ever since. This website re-captures many of the articles, opinion pieces and essays that have been published over the years. Additional material from this archive will be added to this site each week. Please note that on March 1, 2008 a cyberspace bulletin, The Zeskind Fortnight, will begin regular publication. I am now trying to finish a book on the history of the white nationalism movement for Farrar Straus and Giroux.
Before turning to research and writing and professional human rights activism, I worked in heavy industry: on the warehouse dock of a lamp factory, on an automobile plant assembly line, and in steel fabrication shops helping to build large girders, columns, trusses, and other elements of the manufacturing architecture. It was work that I enjoyed and still believe is undervalued. I am a high school graduate, and have earned certificates in welding and structural steel blue print reading. My work has been recognized by several institutions. In 1987, I received the Columbia University School of Journalism Paul H. Tobenkin Award for my contribution to an award-winning edition of the Spokane Spokesman-Review. I became a Petra Foundation Fellow in 1992 and was given the “Owen Bieber Civil Rights Award” by the Civil Rights Department of the United Automobile Workers Union in 1993. In addition, I received the “Bayard Rustin Award” from the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment in 1996. And the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation awarded me one of its famous five year fellowships in 1998. I remain a life-long activist with the hope of repairing a badly torn world. |
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Last Updated ( November 09, 2007 )
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