The All-Russian Political Party "Rodina" is a nationalist political party in Russia. It was established by Dmitry Rogozin in February 2004 from Party of Russian Regions, one of the three key components of the People's Patriotic Union "Rodina" bloc. The party's ideology combines "patriotism, nationalism, and a greater role for the government in the economy", and is described as pro-Kremlin. Its headquarters is located in Moscow.
In the 2003 legislative elections, Rodina bloc won 9.02% of the vote and ended up with 37 of the 450 seats in the State Duma. In the 2016 elections, the party won 1.51% of the vote and ended up with one seat. In the 2021 elections, it won 0.80% of the vote and ended up with one seat. The party supports President Vladimir Putin.
Contents
Party name
The term rodina (Russian: родина) means "motherland". It is one of three words in the Russian language that express the concept of "native land". Otechestvo (отечество) and оtchizna (oтчизна) both translate into English as "fatherland" and "relate to the country in which one is a citizen". Rodina means one's birthplace and is identified with the nation's soul.
History
2003-2007
Following allegations brought by the Communist Party and ousted reform-oriented liberal parties such as the Union of Right Forces and Yabloko that President Vladimir Putin's United Russia had manipulated elections to ensure a favorable outcome, Rodina declined to field its own candidate in the 2004 presidential elections. This created a schism within Rodina as Sergey Glazyev insisted on running for President under the banner of an officially separate Rodina party, but Dmitry Rogozin was able to consolidate his support and defeat Glazyev.
In the aftermath of the 2003 legislative elections, the party mostly supported the policies of President Putin. However, four Rodina deputies, including Dmitry Rogozin, went on a public hunger strike and locked themselves in their offices at the State Duma to protest the welfare reforms being pushed through by Putin's government in February 2005. The bloc since increasingly adopted the slogan Za Putina, Protiv Pravitel'stva ("For Putin, Against the Government") and stated that its immediate goal was to win a parliamentary majority in the 2007 legislative elections.
On 27 January 2005, nineteen members of the State Duma, including members of Rodina and the Communist Party, signed a petition to the prosecutor-general demanding that Jewish organisations be banned in the Russian Federation. This caused a political scandal, with President Putin (who was participating in commemorations for the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz on the day that the petition was issued) expressing shame over the petition's content and the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews issuing a statement roundly criticising the petition and its signers. The prosecutor-general in a later investigation declined to charge the signatories of the petition with fomenting racial hatred. In July 2005, the party's co-leader Sergey Baburin left the bloc, taking nine Duma deputies with him and forming an alternative group in the State Duma, which also calls itself Motherland. The split led to a reunification of Dmitry Rogozin's and Sergey Glazyev's supporters. Rogozin accused the Kremlin of waging a dirty war against his bloc, which he claims is feared by the United Russia party because of its potential electoral support. Rogozin had also announced intentions to take legal action against the State Duma for allowing Baburin to register his bloc in the Duma as Motherland, creating a potential for confusion within the electorate.
On 6 November 2005, Rodina was barred from taking part in the December elections to the Moscow Duma following a complaint filed by the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia that Rodina's advertising campaign incited racial hatred. The advertisement in question showed Caucasian immigrants tossing watermelon rinds to the ground and ended with the slogan "Let's clear our city of trash", calling for Russians to clean their cities of rubbish. It garnered much controversy and opinion polls predicted that Rodina would come second with close to 25% in the December vote. Rogozin appealed the decision, but the ban was upheld on 1 December 2005.
Since 2012
Rodina was reinstated on 29 September 2012 and Aleksey Zhuravlyov, formally a member of the ruling United Russia, was unanimously voted to lead the party. Unlike the 2004 iteration of Rodina, which included a socialist faction, the revived Rodina includes groups affiliated with far-right subcultures including football hooliganism and neo-Nazism; Fyodor Biryukov, described as the party's ideologist, was previously a singer for neo-Nazi band Kolovrat. The party opposed the 2011–2013 Russian protests and members of the party's paramilitary have participated in attacks on migrants in Moscow.
In July 2017, the chairman of Rodina announced that the only candidate whom the party will support is current President Vladimir Putin for the 2018 presidential election.
In December 2023, Rodina announced that the party will support current President Vladimir Putin for the 2024 presidential election.
Party platform
The party was described as "far-right" by Timothy Snyder in The New York Review of Books in March 2014.
Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya stated that Rodina was a chauvinistic organisation that had been "created by the Kremlin's spin doctors" for the 2003 election and the "aim was to draw moderately nationalist voters away from the more extreme National Bolsheviks". The Guardian claims that Rodina was "set up by President Vladimir Putin's allies" in 2003 "to leach votes from the Communist party".
Rodina and its leader Dmitry Rogozin has made illegal immigration and a "Moscow for Muscovites!" platform a centerpiece of their election campaign.