My article “On anarchism and violence” is now banned in Russia

28th of November Lenin district court of the city of Tyumen uphold a request of the prosecutor of the Lenin district on recognition a text I wrote two years ago as “extremist”.

My article “on anarchism and violence” was published in issue 33 of Avtonom journal in autumn of 2011, and also in 5th issue of Finnish anarchist journal Väärinajattelija. I published both of these texts with a pseudonyme, as I did not want Russian authorities to pay unsoliticed attention to my person. Now I have translated this text to English, as I would like as many people as possible to make conclusion on justification of the decision of the Lenin district court of Tyumen.

Ural regional center of juridical examination”, which prepared expertise of my article, did not followed framework set up In this law. According to them, my text “has signs of justification of violent activities, which might be directed towards any person, and not necessarily against any concrete group”. Thus they found in my article instigating hatred against “racial, national, religious or social group”which was not against any racial, national, religious or social group!

My texts handles issue of violence in such an abstract level, that obviously “experts” have completely missed what it was all about. If these “experts” want to oppose any kind of violence whatsoever, why they do not want to ban police, army or governments? Obviously, it might be these “experts” understood point of my text excellently, and they just want to make activities of anarchists and other dissidents as difficult as possible, and to employ thousands of buraucrats for whom maintenance and governing of “list of extremist materials” provides means of living.

Here is the text, Russian version of which is now banned in Russia:

On anarchism and violence

 

Author columns

Антти Раутиайнен

June 11th is the International Day of Solidarity with Marius Mason & All Long-Term Anarchist Prisoners. This action day has a long history, it was organized first time 20 years ago in 2004. In the first year, we managed to paint a graffiti to wall of one of the most guarded objects of Moscow,...

4 months ago
Антти Раутиайнен

Anarchist group ANA Regensburg hosted my online-presentation on 16th of May 2024, in which I discussed tactics of anti-war activism in Russia, and reasons why the anti-war movement has not been able to make an impact to change the course of events yet. Cases of anarchists repressed for anti-war...

4 months ago