Before trump was already Zhirinovsky

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До Трампа уже был Жириновский

The leader of the ultranationalist liberal Democratic party of Russia marks 70 years. Among other things, he offered to send troops to Alaska, to drop atomic bombs on Chechnya and to sell the Kurile Islands to Japan for 50 billion dollars

Vladimir Zhirinovsky is 70 years old. His birthday he celebrates on Monday near the building of the state Duma and the Kremlin. In his own words, at the ceremony “not a single gram of alcohol and no cigarettes.” There is a danger of fire: the words of Zhirinovsky themselves incendiary. On 18 April, Russian President Vladimir Putin presented Zhirinovsky medal For merit to the Fatherland (II degree), given its contribution to development of Russian parliamentarism and legislative activity.”

And yet the leader of the liberal Democratic party of Russia, which, despite its name, is neither liberal nor democratic, is currently losing its influence. In the Duma elections of 2011, when the party won 11 and 67% of the vote, and this year it can maintain only 5% of voters, according to the January sociological survey of the Levada center. His vulgar antics and outrageous statements did not find the response of that before. Seeing that his popularity is falling, Zhirinovsky has become even more likely to excite public opinion, but that in the end only gave the opposite effect.

Here are some of his most high-profile initiatives. The leader of LDPR has offered to send troops to Alaska; drop a nuclear bomb on Chechnya and the Atlantic; to cancel a multi-party system; to sell for $ 50 billion Kuril Islands to Japan, for several decades, declaring their right to these territories; to install a giant fan to direct radioactive contamination from nuclear waste to Germany, and clear the alphabet from “non-Russian” elements. During his election campaign of 1993 he offered to reduce the price of vodka and to improve women’s underwear. On one of the videos 2002, he called the U.S. a “nation of queers and freaks”.

From words to fists

When words did not give the desired result, Zhirinovsky, without hesitation, allowed his fists, in particular, in respect of Boris Nemtsov and Mikhail Delyagin during the debates, as well as in the state Duma against Andrei Savelyev, the leader of the far-right political party.

Before you approach your 70th birthday, losing popularity Zhirinovsky received the best gift: international recognition. His political style has crossed the borders of modern Russia and, thanks to the ultra-right and eurosceptic MPs made it to Parliament and even became a part of American politics. Did Donald trump said that in case of victory, to erect a wall on the border with Mexico?

Russian anti-hero

Whatever it was, but the “Zhirinovsky phenomenon” deserves more attention. Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovsky was born in Alma-ATA, the capital of the Kazakh Soviet socialist Republic. His father, Volf Isaakovich Edelstein, was a Polish Jew who changed his surname to Zhirinovsky. After the divorce in 1949 he emigrated to Israel, where he worked as an agronomist, while in 1983 died in a car accident. Vladimir Zhirinovsky grew up thinking that his father was a lawyer and died in a car crash in 1946. After learning the truth, he stopped his anti-Israel statements and anti-Semitic remarks (“My mother was Russian and his father a lawyer”).

Mother Zhirinovsky, Alexander Zhirinovsky, one raised six children. In his biography of Zhirinovsky writes about a difficult childhood and youth: “I grew up without experiencing the draw of the warmth, neither from friends nor from family. I was something unwanted, a burden and an object of criticism. I never heard praise, nothing but accusations.” But it does not stop there: young Zhirinovsky is popular among women, can’t get an apartment, and when it finally gets delivered, it is expensive and I do not like him. The work weighs on him, and the fact that he is not a member of the Communist party, he creates nothing but problems.

Despite their complaints, Zhirinovsky by Soviet standards made a very decent career: he graduated in 1970, the Institute of Oriental languages at Moscow state University. Lomonosov, majoring in Turkish language and law; worked as an expert for European Affairs in the Soviet peace Committee (1972-1975), in the Dean’s office for foreign students of the Higher school of the trade Union movement (1975-1977), Inurcolleguia (1977-1983), then headed the legal Department of the publishing house “World” (1983-1990). By his own admission, this life and work experience has developed in him a rejection of the Soviet system.

Work for the KGB?

Taking advantage of the restructuring, Zhirinovsky, along with Vladimir Bogachev composer founded the liberal Democratic party of the Soviet Union (LDPSS), the second opposition party, registered in the country. Bogachev, who was under investigation for distributing “anti-Soviet propaganda”, was one of the founders of the Democratic Union, the first opposition party, registered in the USSR. Despite the fact that in LDPSS and consisted of twenty members, due to their sociability Zhirinovsky agreed to interviews and established contacts abroad, causing the envy of their colleagues. 6 Oct 1990 Bogachev on convening of the extraordinary Congress of the party, which has announced the expulsion from its ranks Zhirinovsky, accused of collaborating with the KGB. Response Zhirinovsky was not long in coming: by uniting his followers around him, he two days later was expelled from the party itself Bogacheva and all supporters of the “centrist” line, armed with nationalist slogans not related to the called party.

Over Zhirinovsky always hovered the suspicion that he was cooperating with the KGB, and then is mishandled by an agent of the KGB. According to Alexander Yakovlev, the Politburo member in recent years of its existence, the liberal democratic party (so was named the party after the collapse of the Soviet Union) was invented, including its name, the ruling Communist party and the KGB as the imaginary opposition party with the aim of eliminating potential dissident parties. In his memoirs Yakovlev even cites the document, proving, in his opinion that the liberal democratic party received directly from the coffers of the Communist party of three million rubles for its creation. Such accusations really like Zhirinovsky, who was heading to the nearest KGB office and requested to issue him a certificate stating that is not their employee, then filed a lawsuit and won it. Thus, he contributed to the growth of popularity of the party and was mined for it.

The meteoric rise of Zhirinovsky

After the collapse of the Soviet Union Zhirinovsky began to preach more radical views. Its former nationalism has given way to the aggressive Imperial ambitions. “I dream about the day when Russian soldiers will wash their boots in Indian ocean”, — he wrote in one of his books. In fact, the program Zhirinovsky is not different from any other European far right parties: the cave anti-communism, a strong government and the promise of national revival — all this is abundantly interspersed xenophobic statements against people from the Caucasus, the Turks and Azerbaijanis (oddly enough, most of those peoples whose language and culture Zhirinovsky studied at the Institute).

 

Incendiary speech of Zhirinovsky drew attention to the liberal democratic party, giving her the most valuable air time on private TV channels (in addition to boost their rankings, they are considered the leader of the liberal democratic party as an opportunity to crush the non-Communist opposition to Yeltsin), but reduced the chances of the party to succeed. In the first elections to the state Duma (June 1991), liberal democratic party scored 7,81% of the vote. In 1992, Zhirinovsky made contact with the leader at the time marginal of the French National front Jean-Marie Le pen, who sent him a Fax and computers. Le Pen visited Moscow to meet his Russian counterpart.

The results of the elections to the state Duma, held in December 1993, the liberal democratic party won a shock victory 22,92% of the vote and received broad representation across the country, and in 64 out of 87 regions of the Federation came out not even first place. According to the Russian sociologist Boris Kagarlitsky, Zhirinovsky has made such a success thanks to the skillful “manipulation of public discontent, while not speaking against the government”, as well as a not very successful campaign, which was conducted by the newly established Communist party of the Russian Federation (CPRF). “The demagogy of the early 90s turned against those who used to preach,” writes Kagarlitsky in his book “Restoration in Russia, or why failed capitalism” (1995).

“Spewing streams of lies on the heads of the Russian population, writes Kagarlitsky, — which in most cases had a very vague idea about the true state of Affairs, the state propaganda machine managed to get into the head of people that there is nothing worse communism was not, but this machine failed to convince them that as a result of the victory over communism life was better”. So, it was necessary to look for new villains. They could be Caucasians, foreigners, Freemasons, Jews, Americans or those same Democrats.

But the most important from the troubled and dejected citizen still kept, namely, the fact that his woes were not the result of someone else’s machinations, and the inevitable result of the system. While the average citizen was looking for intruders, the system is not threatened, no revolution or reform. However, the very ideology of this system, which has become a spent material, could be used as scapegoats.”

The victory of the liberal democratic party in 1993 Zhirinovsky encouraged to compete with Boris Yeltsin in the presidential election. Speculation on this subject has caused fear in the international community shuddered under the possibility that the owner of the Kremlin will be nationalist with expansionist tendencies. And yet, the idea that the election results were primarily an expression of protest against the Pro-government party “Russia’s Choice” nominated a presidential candidate of one of the authors of the shock therapy of Yegor Gaidar, Zhirinovsky was forced to abandon his intentions. After that, he announced his candidacy only in the 2008 elections and took third place with 9.5% of votes.

The nationalist dope

The German newspaper Der Spiegel wrote about the liberal democratic party that it became kind of distracting project, designed to neutralize the potential threat of nationalism. Politicians, like Zhirinovsky, Kagarlitsky writes, “are convinced that the main thing is that people loved them. Ideas, principles and interests of society were perceived exclusively through the prism of self.”. Such, continues the scientist, some “distinguishing features that can make anyone really successful demagogue”. However, over time tolerance increases, which, in turn, requires a more aggressive onslaught: if in the beginning it was enough to criticize the Soviet legacy, then it should require the execution of Communists. A list of persons who were plotting against Russia, expanding constantly. “A brilliant demagogue is not always becoming a successful politician,” Kagarlitsky recalls: in the 1995 elections, the LDPR has taken the second place (11,74%) after the Communist party Gennady Zyuganov; in 1999, she appeared on the fifth place (5.2 percent), in 2003, took third place (11,45%) and in 2007 also third place (8,14%). In the most recent elections to the State Duma of the liberal democratic party dropped to fourth place, scoring of 11.67% of the vote.

 

“As opposed to real fascism, these movements are amorphous in nature and a parasite on bourgeois parliamentarism — can’t fight the power,” writes Kagarlitsky. Zhirinovsky never fully managed to stir up Russian nationalism, his party is a representation of one person, constantly flashing in the media. “Whether the liberal democratic party ideology? The LDPR is Zhirinovsky!”, — I wrote a few ago in his Twitter account the Deputy-Communist Valery Rashkin.

If the liberal democratic party and continues to replenish its ranks, not so much because of its appeal to nationalist voters, but because of the small and medium entrepreneurs from the Russian hinterland that support her in exchange for something to gain access to power structures and have the ability to overcome bureaucratic obstacles, or even in exchange for the mandate, granting them parliamentary immunity. Nevertheless, Kagarlitsky adds, these parties are fraught with danger: “not only because their growth shows that the crisis of the new world order undermines democracy, and for the reason that, while the demagoguery of these movements will produce the effect that millions of people will be screaming in unison with the leaders of these movements and to believe in their recipes, which no salvation can not bring. The members of these movements are doomed to be held hostage to that very social order which they so sincerely hate.”

“Our voters love a bit of contrast, a shock to the system. So if you journalists will write that I was a normal Democrat with a normal program, calm, smart, educated, and thereby do away with me immediately”, — said Zhirinovsky in 1995. Today his name is Legion, and they are innumerable.

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