In Russia, schisms are evident on unity day

Ultranationalists staged marches in cities across Russia on Saturday as far-right activists and their critics tussled over what kind of symbolism to attach to the country’s new National Unity Day holiday.

About 4,000 demonstrators gathered at a Moscow square for a rally shouted, “Russia for Russians!” and anti-Semitic slogans. More than 1,000 police officers stood guard nearby. The protesters then left the square for a march, which had been banned, and police detained dozens of people, mainly those carrying flags or banners.

A female Russian journalist was hit several times in the face by a protester as the ultranationalists gathered, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported. A suspect was arrested, it said.

Rally organizers said police beat some protesters while detaining them. More than 200 protesters were detained on their way to the rally, RIA Novosti said, quoting a police source.

In St. Petersburg, police used tear gas to break up a fistfight on the city’s main street that involved about 200 ultranationalist marchers and a group of leftist activists, the news agency Interfax said.

About 10 participants in a banned march in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk were detained for questioning, according to Interfax.

Last year, ultranationalists staging a march to mark the first year of the new holiday gave the Nazi salute and shouted, “Heil Hitler!” That prompted public criticism that led to a decision this year by authorities in Moscow and many other cities to ban such marches.

Kremlin authorities came up with the National Unity Day holiday to replace the traditional Nov. 7 celebration of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Communists had marked the Nov. 7 holiday with protests against policies that have led to a sharp increase in the gap between rich and poor.

The new holiday is pegged to Moscow’s liberation in 1612 from Polish invaders, helping ultranationalists to imbue it with sentiment against non-Russian ethnic groups, even though those who designed it meant to emphasize national unity.

The ultranationalist rally in Moscow was allowed to take place because the small, right-wing People’s Will party had received a demonstration permit, and then larger groups that had been unable to obtain permission for a rally or march joined that event.

Human rights organizations and democracy parties held an officially sanctioned counter-rally that drew about 1,000 demonstrators to a different part of Moscow to denounce fascism.

A neo-Nazi group had made threats on its website to attack that rally, which was also held under heavy police guard. Participants were required to show identity documents and pass through metal detectors before being allowed to the rally site.

A group of youths appeared on the far side of a canal from the anti-fascist rally, shouting insults. Police detained at least a dozen of them, but the two sides did not physically clash.

Nationwide, officially sanctioned celebratory events were held in 136 towns and cities, with more than 150,000 people taking part, and more than 25,000 police officers deployed to maintain order, Interfax reported.

“In some places, hooligans have made attempts to break through to sites of mass events,” said First Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Chekalin. “Offenders and persons who were in a state of intoxication have been brought to police stations and will be prosecuted.”

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin addressed a Kremlin reception to mark the holiday, RIA Novosti reported.

“For modern Russia, National Unity Day is a holiday of the entire society, a day when we pay tribute to centuries-old traditions of patriotism, accord and unity of the nation,” Putin said, addressing an audience that included teachers of Russian language and literature and Russians living abroad.

At the ultranationalist rally in Moscow, a 16-year-old boy who gave his name as “Igor the Devil” complained about police detentions of protesters.

“It is disgusting how the Russian police beat us and put us in jail for the fact that we say loudly that we are Russians,” he said.

“If Jews or Muslims or others get together and do something publicly, it is OK,” he continued. “When Russians get together it is a crime. My friends and I will change the situation when we get a little older. Just wait and you will see. We will give our country back to the Russians.”

Alexander Vdovin, 34, a metallurgic engineer, asserted that even though Putin was Russian, he was too beholden to wealthy Jewish businessmen to promote the interests of ethnic Russians.

“This holiday today gives us a possibility to march and rally as representatives of the subjugated and humiliated Russian majority in our own country,” Vdovin said.

Sergei Baburin, a member of the lower house of parliament who heads the People’s Will party, said in a speech at this same rally that former Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin’s promotion of the concept “Russian citizen” was a “weapon” used against ethnic Russians.

“Today we’re saying that we are Russian people, and the future of Europe, and the future of the world, depends on Russians,” Baburin said. “Glory to Russia!”

At the anti-fascist rally, some of the speakers said that they were the true Russian patriots.

“It is a great pity that patriotic slogans and ideas were hijacked by people who have nothing in common with patriotism,” said Nikita Belykh, leader of the pro-democracy Union of Right Forces party.

“I’m Russian, and I’m proud to be Russian. I want my Georgian friends to be proud to be Georgians. I want all people to be proud of their nationality. Those people who say they are patriots and marching at these rallies are not patriots themselves.”

The ultranationalist marchers talk about Russians facing subjugation, but they are promoting xenophobia, Belykh said.

“It’s impossible to build patriotism on an inferiority complex,” he continued.

“I’m sure that soon we’ll be able to say, ‘Glory to Russia,’ understanding that it’s not a nationalistic slogan.... Glory to Russia!”

Sergei Mitrokhin, deputy head of the liberal Yabloko party, told the same rally that “fascism is against our country, because it breeds inter-ethnic hostility.”

He noted how Serbian nationalism had played a key role in the breakup of Yugoslavia.

“We are Russian patriots. We will not allow this,” Mitrokhin declared. “Fascists -- get out of Russia!”

david.holley@latimes.com

Times staff writer Sergei L. Loiko contributed to this report.