National Bolshevik Party

The party's founding fathers are considered to be Eduard Limonov, Alexander Dugin, Yegor Letov (leader of the musical group "Civil Defense") and avant-garde composer Sergei Kuryokhin.

The party was founded by Eduard Limonov and Alexander Dugin following a split in the National Radical Party (NRP), established in 1992. It was originally called the National Bolshevik Front (NBF). The organization's formation was announced on 1 May 1993. The front included the NRP-Limonov faction, the Front of National Revolutionary Action (FNRD), the Movement in Support of Cuba, and the New Right Movement. The declaration defined National Bolshevism as "the fusion of the most radical forms of social resistance with the most radical forms of national resistance." On 8 September 1993, NBF was registered by the Moscow Region Justice Department as the National Bolshevik Party (NBP). FNRD participated in the creation of the National Bolshevik Front, but its integration into the National Bolshevik Party did not go beyond participation in a single rally on 9 May 1993.

During the 1993 constitutional crisis, Eduard Limonov, on behalf of the NBP, became one of the signatories of the "Statement of Representatives of Public and Political Organizations of Russia from the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation," accusing Russian President Boris Yeltsin of violating the Russian Constitution by signing Decree No. 1400 which ordered the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Council of Russia to cease their activities.

The first issue of the NBP newspaper "Limonka" was published on 28 November 1994.

Eduard Limonov and Alexander Dugin ran in single-mandate constituencies in the 1995 State Duma elections, but lost. Since 1996, the NBP has held annual "Days of the Russian Nation" rallies on April 5th.

During the 1996 Russian presidential election, the NBP initially called for a vote for Boris Yeltsin, based on the principle "the worse, the better," and opposed KPRF's Gennady Zyuganov's candidacy. NBP ultimately supported independent Yuri Vlasov.

In May 1998, Alexander Dugin and his supporters broke away from the NBP, subsequently creating a number of political organizations with a "Eurasian" (more right-wing conservative) orientation: "Eurasian Invasion," the Eurasia Party, the International Eurasian Movement, and the Eurasian Youth Union.

In early 1997, the NBP was registered as an interregional organization, and on 9 February 1998, it was re-registered by the Justice Department of the Moscow Region Administration. On 1-2 October 1998, Nazbols held the First All-Russian Congress of the NBP. Members from 47 regions of the Russian Federation attended. In October 1998, the NBP submitted documents to the Ministry of Justice for registration as an All-Russian political party. The Ministry of Justice denied the NBP registration.

In 2000-2001, Nazbols attempted to organize a guerrilla detachment in Altai, on the border with Kazakhstan, to operate in Kazakhstan with the goal of annexing Northern Kazakhstan to Russia. On 7 April 2001, Nazbol members Aksyonov, Limonov, Pentelyuk, and others were arrested in Saratov and the Altai Krai. They were charged with attempting to seize East Kazakhstan territories from Kazakhstan, acquiring two shipments of weapons, machine guns, and explosives, and planning terrorist attacks against Western interests in Kazakhstan. The NBP members were sentenced to various prison terms.

On 26 June 2002, the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow ruled to suspend publication of the Limonka newspaper for promoting war and calling for violent change of the constitutional order. On 15 April 2003, the Saratov Court sentenced Eduard Limonov to four years in prison for the illegal acquisition and possession of firearms. He was released on parole on 30 June 2003.

Since 2004, the NBP shifted its political line and emphasized demands for power turnover, democratic freedoms, and the release of political prisoners. Party members repeatedly held protests criticizing the Russian leadership. For example, on 2 August 2004, in protest against the monetization of benefits, a group of "Limonovites" occupied the office of the Russian Minister of Health and Social Development, Mikhail Zurabov. The activists were sentenced to various prison terms. On 14 December 2004, several dozen NBP activists, under corresponding slogans, nonviolently seized the reception office of the Presidential Administration in Moscow. Thirty-nine participants were later charged with organizing mass riots and sentenced to various prison terms. "From the fall of 2003 to July 2005, the National Bolsheviks carried out approximately 870 protests. This is at least 20 times more than any other political organization," wrote P. Danilin, a researcher of the Russian opposition.

The NBP program adopted at the 5th Congress was significantly less nationalistic and imperialist in its rhetoric. It included demands to "allow civil society to develop freely in Russia," "not to hinder the activities of independent media," "to ensure public oversight of law enforcement agencies," and so on.

In 2006, the NBP, together with other opposition organizations, including those with a liberal orientation (United Civil Front, Russian People's Democratic Union, Solidarity), and others, participated in the creation of The Other Russia coalition, aimed to "restore the Constitution of the Russian Federation." As part of this coalition, party activists participated in "dissenters' marches" in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other cities in 2006–2007.

On 29 June 2005, the National Bolshevik Party was liquidated as a legal entity and subsequently banned by a decision of the Tagansky Court of Moscow.

On 29 August 2006, a congress of Nazbols who decided to leave the NBP was held in Moscow. This resulted in a split, after which the National Bolshevik Front was created. Its leaders were former prominent NBP activists and former prisoners Maxim Zhurkin and Alexei Golubovich. The reason for the split was the NBP leadership's new tactic of rapprochement with the liberal opposition, as well as the proclamation of a second political program, which, according to the "schismatics," signified a shift from the orthodox theoretical interpretation of National Bolshevism to more left-wing political positions.

On 25 September 2006, approximately 50 National Bolshevik members seized the Russian Ministry of Finance building.

On 19 April 2007, the Moscow City Court declared the Nazbol Party, "a public organization operating without a legal entity", extremist and banned its activities in the Russian Federation. On 7 August 2007, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation upheld the Moscow City Court's decision to ban the NBP. After the NBP was banned, the Nazbols continued to operate within the "Other Russia" coalition. Since 2009, the party has participated in the regular "Strategy-31" protest in defense of Article 31 of the Russian Constitution (the right of the people to peacefully and unarmedly hold mass events).

In March 2009, party leader Eduard Limonov announced his intention to run in the 2012 Russian presidential elections.

On 4 July 2009, a third split occurred within the NBP, this time due to disagreements between the Moscow Nazbol leadership and members of Eduard Limonov's federal campaign headquarters. The breakaway National Bolsheviks formed the national democratic movement Nation of Freedom.

On 28 June 2010, Eduard Limonov announced in an interview that the founding congress of The Other Russia party, created on the basis of the coalition of the same name, would be held on July 10 "with the goal of participating in the upcoming parliamentary elections." The founding congress of The Other Russia party took place on 10 July 2010. By creating the new party, the Nazbols managed to circumvent the ban imposed by the National Bolshevik Party.

The party's central idea is National Bolshevism - a syncretic radical movement attempting to combine the ideas of Bolshevik socialism and radical nationalism. The NBP attempted to unite both left- and right-wing radicals within its ranks, but by the end of its existence, the NBP leaned somewhat toward left-wing populism.

The political objectives of the NBP (1993) were stated to be "the removal from power of the anti-national junta and the regime of social dictatorship of the overwhelming minority, and the establishment of a new order based on the national and social traditions of the Russian people."

The 1994 NBP program stated that the essence of National Bolshevism was a "withering hatred for the anti-human trinity system of liberalism/democracy/capitalism." External enemies were declared to be the United States, "European globalists," NATO, and the UN, while internal enemies were "boyar-bureaucrats, marauding New Russians, and the cosmopolitan intelligentsia." The NBP's global goal was declared to be the creation of an "Empire from Vladivostok to Gibraltar based on Russian civilization." The party intended to build a totalitarian state in which "human rights will give way to the rights of the nation." At the same time, it advocated for complete freedom in the cultural sphere. The program also noted the need to build a unitary system with the abolition of "national republics and territories" and to establish an "iron Russian order" within the country. By "Russians" they meant those "who consider the Russian language and Russian culture to be their own," regardless of origin or religion. As a model for economic development, the party proposed "Russian socialism," based on the "principle of progressive nationalization": the more workers a company has, the more nationalized it is.

In the mid-2000s, influenced by hatred of Putinism, the party gradually evolved from totalitarian ideas to those of "direct democracy." Toward the end of its existence, the NBP was part of The Other Russia coalition with the liberals Kasparov and Kasyanov.

Eduard Limonov was party leader.