Russia and the Western Far Right

Routledge Studies in Fascism and the Far Right

by Anton Shekhovtsov

The growing influence on the Western far right has been much discussed in the media recently. This book is the first detailed inquiry into what has been a neglected but critically important trend: the growing links between Russian actors and Western far right activists, publicists, ideologues, and politicians. The author uses a range of sources including interviews, video footage, leaked communications, official statements and press coverage in order to discuss both historical and contemporary Russia in terms of its relationship with the Western far right.

Initial contacts between Russian political actors and Western far right activists were established in the early 1990s, but these contacts were low profile. As Moscow has become more anti-Western, these contacts have become more intense and have operated at a higher level. The book shows that the Russian establishment was first interested in using the Western far right to legitimise Moscow's politics and actions both domestically and internationally, but more recently Moscow has begun to support particular far right political forces to gain leverage on European politics and undermine the liberal-democratic consensus in the West.

Contributing to ongoing scholarly debates about Russia's role in the world, its strategies aimed at securing legitimation of Putin's regime both internationally and domestically, modern information warfare and propaganda, far right politics and activism in the West, this book draws on theories and methods from history, political science, area studies, and media studies and will be of interest to students, scholars, activists and practitioners in these areas.

Genres: Russia, Politics, Far Right, Nonfiction, History, Ukraine

292 pages, Paperback

First published September 14, 2017

About the author

Ukrainian academic and writer. He is known for his writings on the European radical right and in particular its connections to Russia. He is the editor of the Explorations of the Far Right book series at ibidem-Verlag and sits on the board of the open source Fascism: Journal of Comparative Fascist Studies.

Reviews

[Jakub · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not easy to read at all, definitely not a book for a good night's sleep. Will overwhelm you with lots of details, names, dates and concepts. However, it is most probably the best work you can find on Russia´s relationship with different far-right politicians and movements in the Western Europe. Superbly researched academic work, highly recommended to anyone interested in contemporary European far-right movements

[Olofeh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A most informative book on an important subject. The author describes the connections between extreme far right groups in the west and in Russia and how the Russian leadership is reaching out to these groups. He covers the networks well but he could have done more to analyse the common ideas and policies. However this is in my view sofar the best that has been written on the subject. Should be read together with the brilliant historian Timothy Snyder’s essay ”On Tyranny”.

[Adrian · Rating 5 out of 5]

incredibly dense, fantastic research

[Artem · Rating 4 out of 5]

Книга без какой-то одной задачи. Новичку в теме даст широкую базу, но иногда жертвует деталями, из тех что заметил я: в исторической главе Полю Эльцбахеру отрезали все его заслуги перед силами добра (как можно!); глава об усилении «вертикали» целиком очень бедная на цепочки событий — на фоне многих других источников по теме; дыра на месте событий вокруг сбитого Боинга.

Чуть подробнее обо всех задачах и воплощениях книги:
1) два приятно сложенных исторических нарратива — о первых нацболах и об «активных мероприятиях»,
2) экскурс в евразийство до Д*гина,
3) почти полный пантеон российских правых политиков (и ни одного активиста, что нормально, потому что о тех нужна минимум одна отдельная книга),
4) краткий бестиарий современных европейских ультраправых (но имён и сокращений сильно больше, чем мотиваций за ними, — в абсолютном соотношении),
5) портреты карманных международных наблюдателей за выборными процессами (нравится всё, потому что первый раз о них слышу)
6) попытка залезть в голову к Деду, чтобы выстроить нарратив его «оптимистичного консерватизма» (в момент выхода книги ещё употребляли слово «охранительство»)
7) поверх всего перечисленного Шеховцов выстраивает неожиданные связи между всеми действующими лицами (я слишком молодой, чтобы помнить вояжи Жириновского и Д*гина по Европе в 90-х)

[Sami Eerola · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a exhaustive look at the history of Kremlin's support or connections to Western Far-right actors. The connections go as early as to 1950´s, but many Western far-right groups wanted support of USSR as early as 1920's.

The book not just tells about a wast network of vastly different far-right and red-brown extremist groups, but what function they have in different time periods and how they have operated. There is almost no far-right group or leading individual that the Kremlin has not approached

Looking to the different groups and actors presented in this book, it is still very relevant.

[Илья Дескулин · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the one hand, the book is really good because it uncovers the history of cooperation between Russia and the Western dissident right since the Soviet (!) period in great detail. Once again Russia is trying to find the "fifth column" in the West and use it for her own ends. On the other hand, the book is not so good because it fails to come up to its own standard of definitions talking about the "far right" while lumping together extremists, isolationists, populists and even libertarians. For better or worse, these movements have not had any significant power in Europe for years. So it would be really interesting to read a book about Russia and the Western mainstream politicians – those people who welcomed "new" Russia after collapse of the USSR, made Europe dependent on its energy resources and essentially made Putin the person who he is now.