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Libertarian Labor Review #15
Summer 1993, pages 30-33
Anarchism in Russia
by Mikhail Tsovma
Tsovma notes that this article reflects his personal views,
though he is an activist in the KAS. He has attempted to be
objective, but notes that his positions are inevitably present:
The majority of anarchist groups remain at the margins of
social and political life, unable to propose any significant
alternatives. The groups that were created by dozens last year have
tended to disintegrate, the number of participants in anarchist
groups stabilized approximately at the level reached in 1989, when
the first country-wide anarchist federation (KAS) was created.
Today the movement is still split in spite of all the talk of
cooperation between different tendencies. In major cities like
Moscow, anarchists can enjoy the luxury of creating 5 groups of
four people, but in the provinces the number of activists is
usually not more than ten people.
This year has seen feverish activity by the Federation of
Revolutionary Anarchists (FRAN)--numerous pickets, leftist meetings
and organizational attempts. Created in 1992 as a federation of
libertarian communist groups, FRAN now has activists in half a
dozen towns in Russia, Byelorussia and Ukraine. Its local groups
usually cooperate with various Trotskyist and Communist sects
(usually the most "revolutionary" ones). On Nov. 7, 1992, they even
organized a demonstration to commemorate the anniversary of the
Bolshevik coup d'etat (which they consider to have been an anti-
capitalist revolution). The poster which advertised the demo was
signed by IREAN (Moscow group of FRAN) and two Trotskyist groups
(each one consisting of only one to two members). The flags of the
Fourth International and CNT-AIT and wildcat symbols were put
together at the demonstration. After their own march through the
streets of Moscow they went to the Stalinist demonstration--an odd
place to try to recruit members for an anarchist group.
FRAN is also attempting to create a union which would become
the Russian section of the International Workers Association.
During last year's East-West syndicalist conference in Berlin,
IREAN was made the publisher of the East European bulletin "of the
friends of IWA." Two issues have been published (in Russian) and
the tendency is quite clear--the Confederation of Anarcho-
Syndicalists (KAS) is in fact cut off from this bulletin.
It is very characteristic that the decision to become an IWA
section preceded the creation of the union--very few of the FRAN
activists previously made syndicalist propaganda or tried to
organize independent unions. Obviously, the attempt to become the
Russian section of the International is a great motivation in
itself as it gives those people seeking high esteem the requisite
status.
At the same time, the oldest and still the biggest anarcho-
syndicalist federation in Russia, KAS, declared (in May 1991) that
it does not yet seek affiliation to any specific international
tendency, but is open to cooperation with various anarchist and
syndicalist groups. The results to date are not so great, but still
they are much more real than the claims of FRAN.
Another field of activity which attracts activists from
different anarchist groups is ecology. Every summer this or that
source of pollution (nuclear power plant, chemical or other heavy
industry enterprise) becomes the target of anarchists and radical
ecologists. This year two campaigns will be organized--one against
the storage of nuclear wastes in Siberia, and the other against a
metallurgical plant in Cheropovets. Though there's still a lot to
be desired in the efficiency and organization of these actions,
they at least have the potential to unite the libertarian viewpoint
and popular protest movements.
Recently some groups revived their publications. Thus at the
end of 1992, Moscow anarcho-syndicalists relaunched Obschina
magazine, and anarchists in Irkutsk and Kemerovo are also thinking
about launching new papers. Small publications oriented mainly to
other anarchists also seem to be developing. This is a good sign as
for quite a long time the anarchist press was constantly
collapsing.
It is necessary to mention that many groups declaring
themselves "anarchist" do a good job of discrediting the anarchist
movement in general. Thus at the end of last year, at the Congress
of the Association of Anarchist Movements (ADA), a group was
created called the "Association of Anarchist Movements (Marxist-
Leninist). No comments about this group, but its worth mentioning
that many people equate anarchist with various foreign Marxist-
Leninist guerrillas. Anarchist news bulletins constantly inform
that this or that "anarchist" group made a protest to support the
RAF, Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path), the IRA, Basque terrorists or
Red Brigades. Moscow IREAN is particularly notorious for this kind
of action.
The liberal wing of the anarchist movement also seems to be
quite confused about anarchist theory. Thus, at the end of last
year the St. Petersburg Anarcho-Democratic Union declared its
support for the government's economic "reform" policies. Two
Moscow-based libertarian capitalist "anarchist" groups--the Moscow
Union of Anarchists and the Union of Anarcho-Universalists--have
degenerated into commercial distribution enterprises. The leader of
the Moscow Union of Anarchists, Alexander Cheryakov, even started
publishing an advertising paper full of ads featuring "pretty girls
for wealthy businessmen."
The conclusion is obvious. The Russian anarchist movement is
in a terrible state and a lot needs to be done before we can
present a real alternative to the present destructive developments
in Russia and the other former Soviet republics. One of the tasks
will be a clearer definition of what anarchist ideas are and how
they can be implemented here and now. Surely this process won't
lead to the creation of the "united anarchism" that some people
dream about, but it will help activists from different groups try
out their ideas. At this point the anarchist press both here and
abroad is filled with short sloganistic manifestos which stand in
for serious analysis and careful programs. Today the KAS program,.
adopted in 1989 and devoted mainly to an analysis of the Soviet
regime, remains the only such consistent attempt to put forward a
libertarian socialist program. The realities of a "free market"
Third World capitalism are still waiting to be considered by
Russian anarchists.
For readers of anarchist publications from other countries
Russian anarchists may seem rather weird, and so they are. It is
quite doubtful that anarchists should try to copy all the ideas and
actions of their comrades in the First World. But surely there is
a difference between difference and idiocy.
There's a very long way to go, and we should start moving.
Wages and Living Standards
Inflation in February 1993 was 29 percent a month. A recent
economics ministry study found that one-third of Russia's
population was living below the officially defined subsistence
level. While prices rose by 26 times last year, the average wage
increased only 13.5 times.
Unemployment continues to grow, but at a slower pace than
predicted. Russia's "official" unemployed, fewer than 1 percent of
the workforce, account for only a fraction of the number who are
chronically out of work. Starved of credits and raw materials,
factories shut down for as many as several weeks a month rather
than carry out mass layoffs.
The Russian government's "solution" to unemployment is a
familiar line--"Women: back to the home." More than 70 percent of
Russia's officially unemployed workers are women. But Labor
Minister Gennady Melikyan says he sees no need for special programs
to help women return to the workforce. "Why should we try to find
jobs for women when men are idle and on unemployment benefits?"
Melikyan said. "Let men work and women take care of the homes and
their children."
A few years ago women made up 51 percent of the Russian
workforce. But government cutbacks, aimed largely at middle-level
administrative staff, have disproportionately hit women. The
government's drive to turn women back into housekeepers and baby-
minders is reflected in a new law on the family pending in the
Supreme Soviet. The first draft would have nullified women's right
to abortion and banned women with children from working more than
35 hours a week. Following protests from women's and human rights
groups, the most controversial clauses were dropped, but the
current draft eliminates the state's obligation to provide day care
for the children of working women.