Autonomous Action (; AD) is a

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

libertarian communist Anarchist communism is a far-left political ideology and anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private real property but retention of personal property and collectively-owned items, goods, and serv ...

publishing group Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

. Established in January 2002 as a federation of anarchist groups, it published the ''Avtonom'' magazine, coordinated

anti-fascist Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...

patrols and organised ''

veche A ''veche'' was a popular assembly during the Middle Ages. The ''veche'' is mentioned during the times of Kievan Rus' and it later became a powerful institution in Russian cities such as Veliky Novgorod, Novgorod and Pskov, where the ''veche'' a ...

s'' as forms of

popular assembly A popular assembly (or people's assembly) is a gathering called to address issues of importance to participants. Popular assemblies tend to be freely open to participation, in contrast to elected assemblies and randomly-selected citizens' as ...

. The organisation faced repression from the Putin administration, which surveilled its members and deported one of its leading organisers. In 2013, the organisation split, with a number of members forming People's Self-Defense (NS). By the end of the 2010s, the organisation had been weakened substantially and reorganised into a small media group, focused on the ''Avtonom'' magazine and website.

History

During the 1980s,

Russian anarchists Anarchism in Russia developed out of the populist and nihilist movements' dissatisfaction with the government reforms of the time. The first Russian to identify himself as an anarchist was the revolutionary socialist Mikhail Bakunin, who became ...

formed a number of social networks, which by the 1990s had coalesced into the Russian

autonomous movement Autonomism or ''autonomismo'', also known as autonomist Marxism or autonomous Marxism, is an anti-capitalist social movement and Marxist-based theoretical current that first emerged in Italy in the 1960s from workerism (). Later, post-Marxist a ...

. In 1995, anarchists in the Kuban region began publishing the magazine ''Avtonom'', which over time expanded to become a periodical that represented the entire Russian autonomous movement. It has since become Russia's oldest continuously-published anarchist periodical, having published 38 issues as of 2019. From 1999 to 2002, anarchist and environmentalist groups from throughout Russia held a series of meetings, which the aim of forming a national organisation. In January 2002, delegates met at a congress in

Nizhny Novgorod Nizhny Novgorod ( ; rus, links=no, Нижний Новгород, a=Ru-Nizhny Novgorod.ogg, p=ˈnʲiʐnʲɪj ˈnovɡərət, t=Lower Newtown; colloquially shortened to Nizhny) is a city and the administrative centre of Nizhny Novgorod Oblast an ...

, where Autonomous Action (; AD) was established. In its founding manifesto, the AD proclaimed its opposition to the state and

capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

and its advocacy of

libertarian communism Anarchist communism is a far-left political ideology and anarchist school of thought that advocates communism. It calls for the abolition of private real property but retention of personal property and collectively-owned items, goods, and serv ...

. It also emphasised its opposition to fascism,

racism Racism is the belief that groups of humans possess different behavioral traits corresponding to inherited attributes and can be divided based on the superiority of one Race (human categorization), race or ethnicity over another. It may also me ...

and

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

, which it considered to be a method used by the rich and powerful to

divide and rule The term divide and conquer in politics refers to an entity gaining and maintaining political power by using divisive measures. This includes the exploitation of existing divisions within a political group by its political opponents, and also ...

people of different nationalities and ethnicities. ''Avtonom'' was made the official organ of the new organisation and it set up the website ''avtonom.org'', where internet users could self-publish their own articles; Russian courts later deemed the publication to be "

extremist Extremism is "the quality or state of being extreme" or "the advocacy of extreme measures or views". The term is primarily used in a political or religious sense to refer to an ideology that is considered (by the speaker or by some implied shar ...

" and banned it from distribution. In the first years of its existence, the AD established "anti-fascist patrol groups" to provide a physical resistance to

Russian nationalists Russian nationalism () is a form of nationalism that promotes Russian cultural identity and unity. Russian nationalism first rose to prominence as a Pan-Slavism, Pan-Slavic enterprise during the 19th century Russian Empire, and was repressed duri ...

, forming the foundation of the Russian anti-fascist movement. Antifa in Russia has thus taken on a largely anarchist character. During the 2000s, activists from the AD organised regular ''

s'' (

popular assemblies A popular assembly (or people's assembly) is a gathering called to address issues of importance to participants. Popular assemblies tend to be freely open to participation, in contrast to elected assemblies and randomly-selected citizens' ass ...

), which they used to organise actions and resolve internal conflicts. In 2005, sustained

political repression Political repression is the act of a state entity controlling a citizenry by force for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing the citizenry's ability to take part in the political life of a society, thereby ...

against the organisation forced the editorial team of ''Avtonom'' to move its headquarters from

Krasnodar Krasnodar, formerly Yekaterinodar (until 1920), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. The city stands on the Kuban River in southern Russia, with a population of 1,154,885 residents, and up to 1.263 millio ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

. By the 2010s, several activists were reporting that they suspected they were under state surveillance. In 2012, the Russian state annulled the

residence permit A residence is a place (normally a building) used as a home A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or more human occupants, and sometimes various companion animals. Homes provide shelte ...

of ''Avtonom'' editor and deported him to

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

, causing the AD to lose one of its leading organisers. In March 2013, the national anarchist organisation Volnitsa disbanded itself and some of its left-wing members, led by Kirill Banshantsev, joined AD. In 2013, the AD experienced a split; a number of revolutionary activists broke away from AD and formed People's Self-Defense (NS). While NS focused exclusively on

class conflict In political science, the term class conflict, class struggle, or class war refers to the economic antagonism and political tension that exist among social classes because of clashing interests, competition for limited resources, and inequali ...

, AD insisted that left-wing activists also ought to combat homophobia, racism and sexism. The split substantially weakened the AD, while the

left-libertarian Left-libertarianism, also known as left-wing libertarianism, is a political philosophy and type of libertarianism that stresses both individual freedom and social equality. Left-libertarianism represents several related yet distinct approaches to ...

movement as a whole experienced significant repression from the Putin administration following the outbreak of the

Russo-Ukrainian War The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...

. By 2019, AD had redefined itself as a "libertarian media group" which had grown out of the autonomous movement. ''Avtonom'' largely became focused on the international anarchist movement, having grown pessimistic about the state of

left-wing politics Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

in Russia. When the AD held lectures in the late 2010s, they did so under the protection of human rights organisations in order to keep their participants safe.

References

Bibliography

* * * * *

External links

* {{Portal bar, Anarchism, Russia 2002 establishments in Russia Anarchist organizations in Russia Anti-fascism in Russia Autonomism Opposition to Vladimir Putin Political organizations based in Russia Political organizations established in 2002 Russian democracy movements

History

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading

External links