Ideologue of neo-Nazi terror: Aleksandr Sevastianov and Russia’s ‘partisan’ insurgency

The career of Aleksandr Sevast’ianov, a nationalist intellectual who became a leading apologist of far-right violence, is in focus here. In the first phase (1992–1997) of his revolutionary project, Sevast’ianov avoided overt statements on violence while he led the campaign against the repatriation of WWII ‘trophy art’. During the second phase (1998–2003), as leader of a radical nationalist party, he repeatedly affirmed his commitment to legality but hinted that violent militants also had a role to play. During the third phase (2004–2012), which coincided with a wave of racist killings committed by neo-Nazi gangs, he glorified this carnage as the beginning of a national revolution. During the final phase (2013–2016), Sevast’ianov shifted this framework to the Russian insurgents in the Donbas, whom he extolled as the vanguard of a revolution that would ultimately transform Russia itself.