Manifesto

MANIFESTO of the National Russian Liberation Movement “NAROD.” Russia stands on the brink of a national catastrophe. In peacetime, under favorable economic conditions, in the country richest in natural resources and territory, the population is rapidly degrading and dying out. The absence of an adequate public response to the unprecedented level of corruption, to official lies, to pervasive bribery and theft, to bureaucratic lawlessness and the authorities’ cynical attitude toward the people, allows this bloated little clique of people—cut off from society and having usurped power in the state—to prolong its days. It is finally necessary to understand: the interests of the alliance of officials and oligarchs that rules Russia today directly contradict the interests of the state and the people. The attempt to create a new, modern democratic state on the territory of the former RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) has failed. All the basic attributes of democracy—the principle of separation of powers, the institution of free elections, the federal system, local self-government, judicial independence, and much more—have in fact been eliminated. In their place has come the “vertical of power”: a collection of commercial clans that have usurped the functions and powers of the state and view the state as an instrument of feeding themselves, not an object of service. The rewriting of electoral law, the appointment of officials, judges, and prosecutors on the basis of personal loyalty, corporatism, family ties, and cronyism have become fertile ground for corruption and have produced the current regime of kleptocrats, who do not tie their personal future to Russia. The country’s leadership carefully copies everything worst from the USSR, while at the same time discarding, as unnecessary ballast, the real achievements of the Soviet period of our history—social, intellectual, technical, and cultural. Cynicism and social apathy are being deliberately cultivated in society by those in power. The number of officials—in uniform and out—in the Russian Federation has long exceeded the corresponding figures for the entire USSR. And the degree of their corruption, incompetence, and impunity corresponds to the level of the most backward African states. Thus, Russia remains the largest fragment of the USSR, one that has yet to become an independent state. If Russia does not acquire a national program for the future, the country will disintegrate and disappear from the political map of the world. Our history proves that the Russian people are capable of mobilizing and confronting internal and external challenges and threats. The rise of national self-awareness has always been the response to attempts to enslave our country, deprive us of freedom, independence, and territory, and divide us. Over a thousand years of history, our people have developed the consciousness of a victorious nation, capable of overcoming any calamity and any external enemy, uniting and answering any challenge. But the title of a “great people” must be confirmed by each generation through its labor and its achievements. Russia needs a new government—nationally minded and socially responsible. Representatives of today’s elite, whatever slogans they hide behind, are incapable of leading the country to anything but collapse and historical ruin. The struggle for a radical смена of elites is the most important task of the “NAROD” movement that we are creating: the first national-democratic movement in Russia’s modern history. The main values we uphold are: national revival freedom justice We are convinced that Russian national revival is possible only along the path of justice. Russians possess a special understanding of justice, which is one of the most important parts of our national tradition. A society in which a few dozen people appropriate the lion’s share of the national wealth, and man is a wolf to man, cannot be organic to Russia. We believe that the Russian people, by their entire historical destiny, have earned the right to live under democracy. We need genuinely free elections. Those who claim that Russians are “not ready” for democracy insult the national dignity of our people. That is what those say who want to preserve the omnipotence and lawlessness of today’s Kremlin sovereign kleptocracy. The ruling regime that is destroying Russia is trying to use patriotic sentiments for its own purposes. On the other hand, nationalist provocateurs undermine the state through xenophobia and calls for violence against “aliens,” creating a negative image of nationalists. Despite this, today millions of people raised in Russian culture, though not ethnically Russian, reject the chimera of “rossiyanstvo” (a civic “Russian” identity distinct from ethnic Russianness), recognizing themselves as Russian people. The unity of the country, its strength, and its prosperity will be strengthened only if we can ensure equality before the Law for all citizens, regardless of their ethnic origin, social status, or place of residence. We want to free the country from corruption, lies, arbitrariness, and national betrayal. We call for a national liberation struggle against the vicious political system created and run by oligarchs and officials, whose only goal is to multiply their personal fortunes at any cost. To preserve this system, they resort to every kind of rhetoric—from ultraliberal to jingoistic patriotic. We uphold the following principles: • The main task of the Russian state is to stop the process of degradation of Russian civilization and create conditions for the preservation and development of the Russian people, their culture, language, and historical territory. The indigenous peoples of Russia are firmly inscribed within Russian civilization and have long linked their fate with that of the Russian people. National minorities have every opportunity both for successful assimilation and for preserving their national distinctiveness. • It is necessary to restore the organic unity of the Russian past, present, and future by officially proclaiming today’s Russia the legal successor to all forms of Russian statehood—from Kievan Rus and the Novgorod Republic to the USSR. • Russians are the largest divided people in Europe. Every Russian must have the right to obtain Russian citizenship and the opportunity to return to the Motherland. • The people must in practice be restored to the status of the sole source of power. The president, regional heads, members of the Federation Council, and deputies of the State Duma must be elected in direct free elections. • Civilian oversight over all institutions of power, broad political reform, and the restoration of a real constitutional separation of powers as a system of checks and balances—this is our alternative to the criminal “vertical of power.” • Independence and election of judges, prosecutors, and “sheriffs”—local police officers. We support dismantling the discredited and corrupt law enforcement system. Trial by jury must become one of the foundations of justice. • Self-defense is everyone’s right. Any law-abiding citizen of Russia has the right to freely own a concealable handgun. • Unilateral acts of amnesty for participants in combat operations in the Chechen Republic are unacceptable. Participants in combat operations on the side of the federal forces must be exempted from prosecution. • Persons directly responsible for the adoption and implementation of legislative and other acts that caused harm to the state and its citizens must be held accountable. We consider it necessary to adopt a law on lustration. • It is necessary to recognize the priority of domestic debt over external debt. Deposits lost by Russian citizens in 1991–1992 must be compensated. • The “great privatization” of 1992–2006 was unjust and illegal. A review of the results of the loans-for-shares auctions, as well as the largest privatization deals, must proceed through the state’s repurchase of enterprises at the price of the original transaction. • A sensible migration policy is a state priority. Those who come into our home but do not want to respect our laws and traditions must be deported. • Russia must recognize the sovereignty and the right to self-determination of those countries that are our historical allies, in particular Transnistria, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia. • It is necessary to legally prohibit state corporations and natural monopolies from owning mass media outlets. • “Energy superpower” is a myth; its real name is “raw-material appendage.” The windfall profits generated by the oil and gas boom must be invested in technological modernization, which is impossible without substantial growth in state investment in science and education. • Small business must in practice become a means of survival for millions of people. To achieve this, small business must be freed from taxes, fees, and state inspections. NAROD is a supra-party structure whose members, and even leaders, may belong to other parties and movements without terminating or suspending such membership. NAROD is the first network-based (rather than hierarchical) political structure in modern Russia, with a notification-based (declarative) membership procedure. In today’s Russia, the old parties are voluntarily giving up the struggle for power, having reconciled themselves to the policy of national catastrophe. The country stands on the threshold of the emergence of qualitatively new political forces that will inevitably take power in the coming years. That is precisely why we are creating the National Russian Liberation Movement—NAROD. Sergei Gulyaev Alexei Navalny Vladimir Golyshev Pavel Svyatenkov Pyotr Miloserdov Andrei Dmitriev Alexei Volynets Zakhar Prilepin Igor Romankov Mikhail Dorozhkin Yevgeny Pavlenko