#WORLD #WORLDWIDE #RUSSIAN #ANARCHISM #News #Journal #Update - (en) avtonom: A brief overview of libertarian #samizdat in #Russia 2018-2021 (ca, de, it, fr, pt)[machine translation]

 For more than a quarter of a century, I regularly wrote reviews of anarchist

paper editions in the CIS countries: first (in the nineties) to the journal
"Contrary", and then to "Avtonom". Probably, anarcho-samizdat reached its peak in
the first decade of the third millennium. In the CIS, more than a hundred various
anarchist publications were published simultaneously (most of all - quite
predictably - in Moscow and Belarus, where anarchists managed to create a strong
semi-underground libertarian cultural layer): from large publications of
anarchist organizations (only Autonomous Action published a dozen of them) to
small punk zines, special feminist, anti-fascist, anti-militarist, syndicalist
and environmental media.

Then, also quite predictably and for quite clear reasons: the aggressive
expansion of the all-devouring and all-alienating Internet, as well as the
half-defeat of the movement and continuous repression by the authorities, which
gave rise to social apathy and total reaction - anarcho-samizdat began to die out
rapidly. Even such long-lasting, and the yield of 20 years' brontosaurs
"libertarian press, as the newspaper" New Light "in St. Petersburg," the Holy
Scriptures "in Königsberg or" Direct Action "and" Will " (at the moment there is
a resource in a telegram and facebook - ed.) in Moscow, stopped going out.
Everything is history.

By the way, I recommend to those interested in the libertarian press of the past
the wonderful site "Free Archives" , which has collected a huge and valuable
material on this topic on the Internet. And for a long time it seemed that our
"Avtonom" (which also significantly reduced circulation and now comes out only
once a year and a half) remained the last of the Mohicans on the forefront of the
free press, half-strangled by the Chekist boot.

However, fortunately, oddly enough, this is still not the case. Several
libertarian publications have courageously launched their publication in Russia
in recent years. (Of course, I have no information, but I have no doubt that
another two or three small local subcultural publications with a circulation of
ten copies are published in provincial cities - I just do not know them; sorry,
their editors, authors and readers). I have not read all of their numbers, and in
this article I would just like to say at least a little about them (without a
detailed and detailed analysis). Traditionally, I apologize both to those
anarchist self-publishers whom I do not mention in this review, and those about
whom I speak in insufficient detail, respectfully and enthusiastically - these
are only short, inevitably subjective and incomplete notes.

So, the first libertarian (if not completely anarchist, then very close to
anarchism) magazine that has been published in Moscow for five years and has
published several issues is moloko plus. Features of this edition: release
(approximately in the mode of a yearbook) exclusively in the form of thematic
special issues on "radical" and "forbidden" topics. Issues about terror,
revolution, patriarchy and some other issues were published ... Among the
advantages of the magazine (in addition to large circulation) is fearlessness,
which undermines official discourses and breaks the boundaries of what is
permitted, a special detailed journalistic consideration of certain subjects (for
example, about " Male State "in the issue of patriarchy), attracting outstanding
publicists. The disadvantages are randomness and fragmentation of materials,
often underestimation of theoretical analysis, uncritical enthusiasm for the
stereotypes of "left art" and "left fashion", often a departure from libertarian
approaches for the sake of shocking and scandal. Nevertheless, moloko plus is an
important mouthpiece for (near) anarchist ideas and discourses in today's
dictatorial Russia.

The second magazine, close to the libertarian movement, is published in Saratov
and is called Egalite. About five issues have already been published over the
past three years. It is luxuriously decorated, is also very fundamental and, like
the "Autonome" of ten years ago, combines the presence of the main "theme of the
issue" with constant headings. It is distinguished by a high level of theory,
attracting interesting thinkers and an abundance of translations, controversial
and problematic, but, alas, an unbearably high cost (under 800 rubles per copy of
150 pages), a very small circulation (which makes it little accessible), and the
obvious presence of non-anarchist , in particular, Marxist and other
authoritarian authors and texts. The "general" orientation of the publication
leads to dissonances in its content, but still anarchist approaches prevail.

The third edition began to appear in St. Petersburg. This is a small
non-periodical collection (only the first issue was published in 2021), whose
name provocatively speaks for itself, giving out its anarchist, feminist and
anticlerical origins: Anathema. It is published by the An-Fem collective, which
has its own website and organizes public actions, as well as published a brochure
by Emma Goldman about Voltaire de Clair. This issue is very specialized: it
analyzes some films in the genre of horror from a gender perspective and may be
of interest not only to fans of difficult cinematography.

Concluding my brief review, I wish the campaigners good luck and continued
publishing. It is noticeable that "party" publications, situational and thin
(newspapers, leaflets) have been replaced by thicker, specialized, theoretical.
This, of course, is explained by the fact that in the era of reaction (and the
impossibility of full-fledged open public action of anarchists), the struggle
moves into the sphere of ideas, culture, theory, reflection, enlightenment, and
also by the fact that paper editions of libertarians now cannot - and do not try
- compete in efficiency and information content with their Internet competitors.
Accordingly, paper anarcho-samizdat is becoming thicker, deeper and more
theoretical. But he doesn't die. And this means that you, the readers of Avtonom,
I hope, will still be waiting for my new reviews in the next issues. The mole of
history digs slowly (as the classic of Marxism noted), and the revolution does
not end,

Peter Ryabov

The text was prepared for the 40th issue of the magazine  "Avtonom"

https://avtonom.org/pages/kratkiy-obzor-libertarnogo-samizdata-v-rossii-2018-2021-godov
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