Nadezhda Gorbacheva
Evolution of the ultra-right section of political spectrum of Russia. This is expressed in the evolution of splinter groups and new party formations. A case study based on content analysis of Differentiation of the party- and political structures is one of the tendencies of the the RONSM, a splinter party that broke away from the large RNU in 1998 to show that difference of opinion about ideology was more important than scholars have up to now recognized. Ideology played an important role in splinter party formation, because ideology shows ways of parties' evolution.
There are quite a lot of radical parties in modern Russia: some parties disappear, others come to the political scene. It often happens that one radical party brakes off from another one. This process is called splinter party formation. During the period of 1998-1999 a lot of new radical political parties appeared at the political scene . This period was crucial for development of one of the largest ultra-right parties – Russian National Unity (RNU). Several daughter parties originate from this party, including Russian Orthodox National Socialist Movement (RONSM). Their establishment is representative for the process of splinter party formation in Russia in the period 1998-1999 because It illustrates developing of the Russian political spectrum.
There could be a variety of reasons for separation of a new organization: there could be some personal discord between the party leaders or a group of the party would urge towards using new methods (often more radical ones) of political struggle. One important reason for breaking off is disagreement with the basic ideological postulates of the “mother”-party. An important tendency in Russia since the beginning of 1990’s is the evolution of the ultra-right section of political spectrum of Russia. In the light of this tendency this research concentrates on the role of ideology in the formation of splinter parties. Detailed study of the ultra-right parties could help revealing the roots and the process of the growth of ultra-right parties in Russia, as well as to work out socio-political, economic and cultural measures to prevent growth of such organizations.
There is a number of works devoted to the problems of evolution of the ultra right part of the political spectrum , but they were created during the rise of the right radical movement and devoted only to the first period of development – initiation of the ultra-right political parties. Historiography dealing with the ultra-right parties mostly considers the individual categories of activity of the ultra-right parties, their social base, reasons for their rise and the problem of these parties’ evolution. It is worth to note that evolution of the parties was presented rather one-sidedly in these works: the examples given illustrate only how these parties “are turning to more moderate lines”. Notwithstanding the urgency of the issue, starting from the middle 1990s the majority of researchers have failed to consider the problems of evolution of the ultra-right wing of the political spectrum.
The case of the formation of the Russian Orthodox National Socialist Movement broke suggests that discords about ideals became one of a very important reasons for the new party formation. The goals of this research are to analyze the ideas and program provisions of RNU and RONSM, to reveal the differences and succession for the parties concerned, and, based on this, to formulate provisions on possible reasons for a new party formation.
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