Anti-Fascists March to Own Drum

State Duma deputies filed criminal charges against them for wiping their muddy boots in public on the Soviet flag. The manager of the Russian-American Press and Information Center scolded them for calling Gennady Zyuganov a "necrophiliac." At an anti-war rally, they had a puppet symbolizing death flail about with a scythe and chant curses against Pavel Grachev.


They are Anti-fascist Youth Action, or AYA, a group of scruffy students sharing a common revulsion for racism, totalitarianism and communism. From a small group of like-minded students who met and talked in the summer of 1994, the group has grown into a registered organization with a 700-strong membership nationwide and a 500-member Moscow chapter.


AYA Chairman Pyotr Kaznacheyev, 19, said he felt his activist calling as a 9-year-old growing up during perestroika. "I saw how we were taught a bunch of lies. I heard from my parents about Stalin and Brezhnev. I saw how my school kicked out Jews all the time. They had to go to other schools that would take them," recalled the clean-cut philosophy student. "I would speak out in class, saying things like, 'Being rich is not bad.' I got the teachers angry."


Kaznacheyev now devotes 20 hours each week to AYA projects and to preparing two to three political events each month. "It is very important that people have and defend liberal views," he said.


AYA makes a point of putting across their message in unconventional ways. On Victory Day last May, members dressed up as red and brown rakes -- the colors representing communism and fascism -- and offered real rakes to passersby. "Go on, step on a rake," they proclaimed, referring to the Russian expression for making oneself the victim of one's own daftness.


AYA raises money and membership through frequent "Rock Against Fascism" concerts. The events draw eager crowds of youths who throw themselves about to the strains of punk and metal anti-fascist bands, along with some grumbling nationalist and neo-Nazi youths who come just for the music. A November concert at Kinoteatr Sputnik attracted 30 new members.


On a more somber note, AYA has held a press conference with Russian Orthodox priests decrying racism in the church. They also held a demonstration last fall at the Solovetsky Kamen to remember victims of totalitarianism on the anniversaries of the Russian Revolution and Kristalnacht.


"We see one of our main duties as reminding the public of history. We try to bring their attention to the dangers of fascism and dangers of the current trend of striving for strong-handed rule," said Nikolai Rusanov, a math student at Moscow State University who is the group's press secretary.


But even Rusanov admits that AYA's political influence is marginal. "I can't say that our influence on the public is big. Our affiliations with democratic Duma deputies like [Yegor] Gaidar don't go too far because liberals themselves don't have much of an influence in the Duma."


Yury Davidov, director of the U.S.A./Canada Institute, sees the AYA as concentrating too much on the "fashionable" misconception that a "struggle between radical liberals and communists" exists, when the main problem in Russia is corruption. Other critics say the group should not be lumping communism together with fascism.


AYA appears strongest in its efforts to politicize youth-related issues. "Young people in Russia have all had their rights abused in one way or another," said Fyodor Vayitalovsky, 17, a history student who joined AYA two years ago. "I think it's important to stand up for your rights, whether it's speaking out against police brutality or the conscript system." AYA has held a number of anti-war and army reform rallies.


For the time being, the group's members are happy with whatever impact they can have in their causes. And their leader, Kaznacheyev, has little idea what his future holds. "Communists plan," said the chairman. "We act."