The war in Ukraine has given new prominence to Russia’s neo-Nazis, as official media echo their xenophobic claims. No longer afraid of repression, such groups circulate videos of spectacular street violence among hundreds of thousands of followers. The neo-Nazi subculture first emerged in Russia in the mid-1990s but remained marginal until the early 2000s. At the time, more traditional forms of neo-Nazi organization had gained greater popularity, mimicking the structures of fascist movements from the first half of the twentieth century: political parties with hierarchical structures and paramilitary units. The most successful among them was Russian National Unity (RNU). At its peak in the mid-1990s, the organization had up to 15,000 active members, with chapters operating in major cities. In some areas, fascists managed to establish connections with local authorities. However, due to internal splits, conflicts with official structures, and changes in Russia’s political system, the organization disintegrated by the early 2000s. The decline of organized fascist movements coincided with the rise of the neo-Nazi skinhead subculture. Like most youth subcultures in the post-Soviet space, Russian neo-Nazi skinheads imitated the style and ideology of Western neo-Nazi skins, obtaining information about them from foreign media. The use of Nazi symbols and terminology from German Nazism provoked outrage among ordinary Russians, as almost every family had lost relatives during the Great Patriotic War, as World War II is known in Russia. (…) Currently, the number of attacks has stabilized at around seventy to eighty per month. Despite the alarming increase in the frequency and brutality of videos in the spring of 2024, an unexpected decline occurred over the summer. Unfortunately, it’s unclear whether this was due to police efforts, as several prolific contributors were apprehended, or if neo-Nazis became more cautious and stopped posting every video online. Shortly before this publication, in late October 2024, the administrator of Project Mayhem, the second-largest Telegram channel regularly sharing attack videos, was arrested (the administrator of third-largest “Archive of good deeds” was arrested in summer). During its operation, the channel posted 157 videos documenting 241 attacks, and its audience had grown to nearly 20,000 followers.
via jacobin: How Violent Neo-Nazis Resurfaced in Wartime Russia