The New Revolutionary Alternative (; NRA) was 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 ...
far-left
Far-left politics, also known as extreme left politics or left-wing extremism, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single, coherent definition; some ...
terrorist
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...
organisation, allegedly active during the late 1990s.
History
During the late 1990s, several bombing attacks were carried out against the
Federal Security Service
The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation СБ, ФСБ России (FSB) is the principal security agency of Russia and the main successor agency to the Soviet Union's KGB; its immediate predecessor was the Federal Counterin ...
(FSB) by
far-left
Far-left politics, also known as extreme left politics or left-wing extremism, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single, coherent definition; some ...
activists of the
Russian Communist Workers Party
The Russian Communist Workers' Party (in Russian: Российская Коммунистическая Рабочая Партия; transcription: ''Rossiyskaya Kommunisticheskaya Rabochaya Partiya'' or ''RKRP'') was a communist party in Rus ...
(RCWP), who had become disillusioned with the post-Soviet
government of Russia
The Russian Government () or fully titled the Government of the Russian Federation () is the highest federal executive governmental body of the Russian Federation. It is accountable to the president of the Russian Federation and controlled by ...
. In 1998, RCWP member Alexander Biryukov carried out a bombing attack against the FSB. In April 1999, four women affiliated with the RCWP carried out a bombing of the
Lubyanka Building
Lubyanka (, ) is the popular name for the building which contains the headquarters of the FSB on Lubyanka Square in the Meshchansky District of Moscow, Russia. It is a large Neo-Baroque building with a facade of yellow brick designed by Alex ...
, the headquarters of the FSB in
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 ...
. The latter bombing was allegedly carried out in protest against the
carpet bombing of Grozny during the
Second Chechen War
Names
The Second Chechen War is also known as the Second Chechen Campaign () or the Second Russian Invasion of Chechnya from the Chechens, Chechen insurgents' point of view.Федеральный закон № 5-ФЗ от 12 января 19 ...
. Following these attacks, the FSB announced the existence of a new far-left terrorist organisation, the "New Revolutionary Alternative", which the FSB held responsible for the bombings. In 2001, it was reported that NRA had also set off bombs in Moscow military offices (Ostankino in 1996 and Cheryomushkinsky in 1997).
In 2003, Nadezhda Raks, Olga Nevskaya, Larisa Romanova, and Tatiana Nekhorosheva-Sokolova were found guilty of the bombings. Romanova's sentence was later commuted. Alexander Biryukov was declared incompetent to stand trial and was sent to a psychiatric hospital.
Legacy
The New Revolutionary Alternative has since become associated with
anarchism
Anarchism is a political philosophy and Political movement, movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or Social hierarchy, hierarchy, primarily targeting the state (polity), state and capitalism. A ...
and has been listed alongside other anarchist terrorist groups of the late 20th century, such as the German
2 June Movement
The 2 June Movement () was a West German anarchist militant group based in West Berlin. Active from January 1972 to 1980, the anarchist group was one of the few militant groups at the time in Germany. Although the 2 June Movement did not share ...
and the Italian . The
Combat Organization of Anarcho-Communists (BOAK) has cited the NRA as an inspiration for its
attacks against Russian rail infrastructure following the
Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
.
See also
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Anarchism in Russia
Anarchism in Russia developed out of the Narodniks, populist and Russian nihilist movement, nihilist movements' dissatisfaction with the Government reforms of Alexander II of Russia, government reforms of the time.
The first Russian to identify ...
*
Black Guards
Black Guards () were armed groups of workers formed after the February Revolution and before the final Bolshevik suppression of other left-wing groups. They were the main strike force of the anarchists. They were created in the Summer of 1917 i ...
*
Chernoe Znamia
*
Narodnaya Volya
Narodnaya Volya () was a late 19th-century revolutionary socialist political organization operating in the Russian Empire, which conducted assassinations of government officials in an attempt to overthrow the autocratic Tsarist system. The org ...
References
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Further reading
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{{refend
Anarchist militant groups
Anarchist organizations in Russia
Insurrectionary anarchism
Left-wing militant groups in Russia
Opposition to Boris Yeltsin
Terrorism in Russia