New Breed of Fascist Rises in Russia : Politics: Right-wing and ultranationalist, these ideologues are fanning hatreds to win support.

During a 900-day siege that cost almost 700,000 lives here, the Nazis failed to fight their way into this city’s center. But five decades later, home-grown fascists now claim St. Petersburg as the “spiritual center” of their nationwide movement.

The fascists’ leader is a police detective whose heroes are Josef Stalin, Adolf Hitler and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Their chief ideologist is a 23-year-old who teaches university Polish and writes ultranationalist tracts in her spare time. One of their sponsors is a new Russian entrepreneur who donates a chunk of his earnings to train young supremacists to fight.

At first glance, they seem like a motley bunch to promote fascism in a country weary of ideology after seven decades of communism. But this trio, plus about 400 others in the People’s Socialist Party, say the time will soon be ripe to start rebuilding their country in the style of Hitler’s Germany, Benito Mussolini’s Italy and Francisco Franco’s Spain.

“No one believed that the Fuehrer would come to power, either, or Franco or Mussolini, but the people backed them,” said Viktor Krasavin, an entrepreneur and party sponsor. “When the very foundations of a nation are being threatened, the people believe their natural leaders. Our people are not quite ready for it yet, but the democrats will do everything that is necessary to prepare people for it.”

As the Communist Party has weakened and lost power, the political pluralism that has taken root in Russia in the last few years has displayed many faces. Although Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin and democracy appear firmly in power, many nationalist groups--some so extreme that they freely admit they are fascist--also are fighting for the hearts and minds of Russia’s people.

It is unclear whether parties like the People’s Socialists will remain on the extremist fringe or whether, as they suggest, their ideas will catch on because the Russian people--caught in the painful transformation from paternal communism to do-it-yourself capitalism--are desperate for a firm-handed alternative.

Like Germany’s neo-Nazis, Russian fascists seek to capitalize on resentment of foreigners. As their first target, the People’s Socialists and other Russian nationalists have chosen the darker-skinned people of the Caucasus Mountains south of Russia--an ethnic group that is already widely distrusted.

In St. Petersburg, the People’s Socialists have joined with other groups in a campaign to force out people from the Caucasus. If authorities fail to answer their demands, “we will kick them out ourselves,” party leader Yuri Belayev said.

The fascists are trying to fan public hatred by publicizing cases of Russians being killed or raped by Azerbaijanis, Armenians, Georgians or others from the Caucasus.

“We need to create the image of an enemy,” said Belayev, who has been on the police force for 12 years and is a St. Petersburg city council member. “How can we go to battle without an enemy?”

A poll by the Sociology of Parliamentarianism Institute showed that almost 80% of Muscovites agree that the fewer people from the Caucasus in Russia the better; that indicates that the People’s Socialists may not have far to go to reach their first goal.

Then they will move to “unseen enemies” like Jews and later Christians, because their turn-the-other-cheek ethic prevents Russians from buying into the might-makes-right philosophy that the People’s Socialists espouse, added Belayev, a short, stocky man with frightened eyes.

He said he hopes the energy created by this hatred will help bring his party to power, adding: “Nationalism is our weapon. Only brutal nationalism can lead Russia.”

Just how serious is the specter of fascism here? In the poll, which this month surveyed 1,000 families, 27% said that life in Moscow would be better if only Russians were living in the city; 13% said they agreed with the slogan, “Russia for Russians.” Nugzar Betaneli, a Georgian and director of the institute that conducted the poll, said fascism “is not yet a serious problem in Russia, but it should not be underestimated either.”

Grigory Pashkov, another pollster, stressed that, if a fascist-like ideology were to gain prominence in Russia, it must go by another name. That is because the word fascism , with its Nazi-era associations, has an ugly past here. Most ultranationalist, anti-Semitic groups refrain from using the word fascism in their literature. But when asked directly, the leaders of the People’s Socialists and other organizations admit their philosophy is equal to fascism.

But several groups, including the People’s Socialists, use the swastika, despite the painful emotions it evokes among the older generation that suffered under Nazi Germany in World War II.

At least 40 anti-Semitic newspapers and magazines also have appeared across the country in the past year, according to the Anti-Fascist League, a grass-roots group that collects information on fascist and other extremist organizations and circulates literature to oppose them. That problem has gotten out of hand because local authorities have not enforced a law that makes racism a crime, Vladimir Kirakozov, the right-hand man of the Russian prosecutor general, told Russian Television. His office has started proceedings against several anti-Semitic newspapers.

Belayev’s party has gone beyond holding demonstrations and posting flyers to training its own band of fighters and developing a financial base by courting entrepreneurs with promises to give Russians business privileges when it comes to power.

Two dozen party men were sent to fight in Moldova, a former Soviet republic where Russians and Moldovans are locked in a bloody territorial conflict.

In the first issue of their newspaper, Nationalist, the group has published its platform, which asserts Russian racial supremacy and pledges to pursue a “genetic healing” of Russia.

Party leaders do not shy from describing the ruthless means they will use, if they come to power, to silence opponents. “A soft terror will be necessary--not wholesale terror like Stalin directed but selective terror,” Belayev said.

Executions of democrats and other opponents, as well as the formation of labor camps, will be inevitable, he added, noting that Russia will take over--violently, if necessary--the former Soviet republics that became independent last year.

While such talk may sound not only grim but outlandish, the party has found its warmest reception among young people and factory workers.

To help strengthen its loyalties, the party uses its donations to support its unemployed members. “A friend of mine introduced me to this party, and now all our buddies support it,” said Alexei G. Andreyev, 18, a clarinetist in the Interior Troops orchestra. “No one believes Yeltsin can do anything good. We need a leader who will put only Russians in power.”

This fall, the party plans to launch a big campaign to recruit students at technical schools, universities and even high schools. “We are preparing a base for our serious entry into politics,” Belayev said.

It is also starting branches in other Russian cities. The party already has almost as many members in Moscow as in St. Petersburg. “But the pulse still comes from St. Petersburg,” Belayev said. “This is the spiritual center of the movement.”

St. Petersburg residents are split about whether racist, fascist or ultranationalist groups such as the People’s Socialists are a serious political force.

“There are lots of people looking for an enemy to blame for their problems, so the fascist ideology is prospering,” said Igor Ulyanov, 29, a security guard and Yeltsin supporter. “I think Russia must be the most racist country in the world.”

There is no ideological or moral frame of reference anymore, he said, because everyone was taught to judge everything based on the principles of communism, which has now been discredited. “I personally am afraid,” added Ulyanov, a tall muscular man. “Although I’ve lived here with my family for eight years, I’m Ukrainian. Any time, they can say, ‘You’re not one of us, get out of here.’ ”

But Valentina Grechiskina, 82, a German teacher who was there through the whole 900-day blockade of Leningrad, as St. Petersburg was formerly known, said she does not want to believe that fascism could gain support in her city.

“Leningrad suffered so much under fascism,” she said. “I cannot believe that after this, fascism could find a base here.

“I’m a Russian and I believe we need to be patriots of our nation,” she added. “But I believe that you must look at a person as an individual, not judge him because of his nationality.”

But she also noted that, recently, she has sensed that her students have a new attitude about Hitler: “Many of my students are reading ‘Mein Kampf,’ and they say they like his approach.”