The Antifa movement in Russia has ceased to exist. Actually, it happened not today, but quite a long time ago. Its members, as well as its opponents, the Russian nationalists, were dispersed by the security forces, the most active and radical ones were sent to prison. It's time to ask the question - what was it all about, anyway? The topic needs to be studied, and probably dissertations will be written about it someday. I don't have an answer, at best there are some hints of one.
Young men from the two subcultures maimed and sometimes killed each other on the streets of cities. It resembled the battles of soccer fans and in some cases they were - some of the young people belonged to fans of different clubs.
From the outside it might seem that there were politically mutually exclusive ideas - nationalists and anti-nationalists. They weren't.
Most antifa, even if some called themselves anarchists, were quite convinced supporters of the mighty Russian state, maybe with a few exceptions. For them, the main event in history was the triumph of the USSR in May 1945.Even those of them who were not fans of Stalin admired the triumphant march of Stalin's army through Lithuania, Poland and Hungary.An anti-war stance was out of the question.One participant of this movement was writing an essay at the university on anti-German patriotic resistance during the World War II, and she was interested in such resistance in the Caucasus.Since we were acquainted, she asked me this question and learned about the Chechen revolt against Stalin during the World War II - the revolt of Khasan Israilov - with great surprise and perhaps shock. After all, she sympathized with Chechens, and here was something that contradicted her sympathies and views.
On the other hand, things were not so clear-cut among the nationalists. Some of them were patriots of the USSR, others (perhaps the majority) were supporters of the ROA and the Lokota Republic (pro-German Russian formations), or those who took a neutral anti-war stance in this matter.Many of them were defeatists to one degree or another. After all, from their point of view, neither the USSR nor modern Russia were Russian nation-states.
It seems that these are all matters of history, far removed from modernity, but such a view is mistaken. The fact is that these things were part of the myths of antifa or nationalists and, to a greater or lesser extent, were projected onto modernity. The word "myth" is used here in the sense that it was used by the ancient Greeks, i.e., a cautionary tale of heroes fighting monsters, a story that sets the norms and framework for a correct way of being.
Another point that determined the attitude towards reality was the attitude towards national minorities. Here again, things are far from unambiguous.Some or many antifa, although expressing sympathy for the peoples of the Caucasus, often displayed the usual xenophobia toward them, and quite publicly at that.Nationalists had no sympathy for Caucasians or migrants from Central Asia, they opposed migrants from Muslim regions, but, strangely enough, a significant proportion of nationalists were in favor of the independence of these peoples, saying "why should we live together...".
Some former Antifa became enemies of Ukraine, which is logical given their ideas. It is reasonable to believe that Stalin's triumph helped restore the Russian state after the catastrophe of 1941, and that this process of restoration was accompanied by a struggle with supporters of Ukrainian statehood. Others, out of sympathy for the forces fighting against the Russian state (which persecuted them, antifa) became supporters of the Ukrainian armed forces, while others took an internationalist position. Nationalists have a somewhat similar situation: some chose one side, some chose the other, and some criticize both sides in one way or another (although, of course, there are no internationalists among them).
As for the manifestation of social interests, in Russia nationalists sometimes raided markets controlled by traders from Central Asia and the Caucasus. It was rumored that some Russian businessmen paid them money for this. This may have been the case, but I have seen no convincing evidence.
It is also curious that some representatives of both camps (though hardly all of them) leaked information about each other to the security services.
Antifa and nationalists were not something completely opposite, like fire and water. Rather, they were a clash of youth subcultures, like the youth of two villages "wall to wall", i.e. they should be explained by hormonal reasons. But there is no doubt that there are ecological "niches" for them in modern society. To the extent that we can talk about their ideology, the views of both were a bizarre interweaving of various ideas of both patriotic pro-state and anti-patriotic anti-state orientation.
p.s. In the future, specialists will make all the necessary analyses, establishing the social class and national origin of people from these groups and carefully analyzing their views. Today it is difficult to talk about it.
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