The Visla: Munich on the banks of the Neva

Pavel Chernomorsky

The Burgerbraukeller tavern in the Bavarian capital was the young Adolf Hitler’s favorite hangout. The bars of Nevsky Prospect and environs have always had the reputation of being dangerous places. As early as the 1970s, local toughs used to get together at the Zhiguli on Vladimirsky Prospect. Nowadays the bar of the Visla Restaurant on the corner of Gorokhovaya Street and the Moika River has become the beloved spot of Petersburg’s extreme rightists.

In late summer 1996 the latest congress of Russian nationalists took place in St. Petersburg. The audience that honored the congress with its attendance presented a thoroughly motley spectacle. Representatives of the informal ultra-right youth movement were there—skinheads, or "baldies" in popular parlance. High-top black boots with white laces, army fatigues, bomber jackets—all this, in combination with shaved heads and athletic physiques, turned the heads of aging nationalists and other attendees of the congress. Pchela’s correspondent was able to chat with these young men, who usually do not welcome contact with representatives of the non-nationalist press. We reproduce the text of the interview without commentary. (All extremely foul language has been excised from the interview for ethical reasons.)

"Pchela": What are skinheads?

Skin 1: Seems to me that’s all pretty clear. We’re for a great Russia. A Nordic Russia—without Yankees, Chechis, Jews, wogs, and other occupiers. A Russia for Russian people. We hate this lousy regime, these Jews in the government and banks. We’re against them, because they’re against us. We’re Russian Nazis.

"Pchela": What sent you down this road, the life of a Russian Nazi?

Skin 2: The Chechis killed a friend of mine. Just like that, at night. And then they mutilated the body, the vermin.

"Pchela": And how did some of you others become skinheads?

Skin 3: Everyone had a different reason. People like me, we’re just against everybody. Somebody else hates blacks [the term "blacks" does not refer to people of African origin, but Caucasian peoples] and gets back at them any way he can. Somebody that reads a lot just gets high on the Reich and Adolf. Hell, it’s different for everybody.

"Pchela": Do the skins have some places of their own in Piter? ["Piter" is the familiar name used by many Petersburgers, and other Russians, for Saint Petersburg.]

Skin 2: Earlier we used to go to the Visla on Gorokhovaya a lot; we drank beer, vodka. There’s this other little place, the Ruslan.

Skin 1: Now we all go to different clubs. Our guys started a brawl in the Polygon [music club] in June, some of those thrasher bastards are still smarting from that one. Everyone who’s sold out to this society—thrashers, fucked-up hippies, grungers—they’re all our enemies, those American degenerates. Sometimes we go to the Gora [music club], too; we went to a punk festival there not long ago.

Skin 2: Things were fun before—the TaMtAm [music club] was still open, the bands were good; the Junkers alone were worth going to see. We beat up our enemies there, too.

"Pchela": And do you often have problems with the police?

Skin 1: Sure, what did you expect? Once they arrested all of us in this club. The pigs don’t like us much; naturally, we don’t like them either. There was a trial once: we were celebrating Hitler’s birthday in the Visla, then we cut off an Azeri’s ear in the subway, and the people in the train just sat and stared, nobody made a sound—afterwards there was a big fuss about it. But our guys didn’t squeal to the cops who did it. We’re really strict about that.

"Pchela": You’re talking about Hitler. But the Germans fought us for four years. Hitler called us sub-humans. You’re Russian, not German....

Skin 1: Yeah, I’m Russian. But I’m a Russian Nazi. See? I respect Nazism and Hitler. He was the coolest man in all of history and nothing else about him worries me. Got it?

Skin 2: Besides, he thought highly of some Russians. Vlasov, say, or Krasnov, Shkuro. [Leaders of Russian divisions of the Wehrmacht during WWII; Vlasov was made a symbol of collaborationism with the Nazis.] Though I don’t think so much of Vlasov. Anyway, enough about Hitler.

"Pchela": What sort of families do you come from?

Skin 1: My father and mother are just workers, they’ve busted their backs all their lives. But the Jews in the government haven’t paid them any wages for half a year now. Same with the others. I don’t work anywhere, I don’t want to lick anybody’s ass. But you can get money—it’s true we need it. Boots alone cost plenty. And there’s other stuff, German knives, jackets, and then you’ve got to eat.

"Pchela": How many of you are there in Piter?

Skin 3: We can round up 200 guys when we go to bust up the black dorm. But there aren’t many real skins like us here. Lots more in Moscow, but there are more blacks there as well.

"Pchela": Have the parties tried to recruit you?

Skin 3: Yeah, some of us belonged to the RNE, then they got tired of it. RLM [the Russian Liberation Movement, an ultra-rightist Petersburg organization] tried to recruit us, the Russian Party. I’m interested in politics, too, but I’m not in any party.

"Pchela": Do you Piter skins have your own jargon?

Skin 3: No. We don’t need those hippie words like flety [flats] and piply [people]. We’re Russians, we don’t need that American crap.

"Pchela": Who do skins vote for?

Skin 1: I don’t vote, I’m still too young. But some jokers vote for Zhirik [Vladimir Zhirinovsky]. But I’ll never go vote for a Jew. Let him do his presidenting at home in Israel.

Skin 2: What are these elections for? Anyhow, Yeltsin’s never going to leave on his own. We need a revolt, a war.

"Pchela": Are you planning to start a family?

Skin 3: Never. That’s not for real Nazis. Hitler talked about that, too. And personally, I just don’t want my son to live in shit like this, under a government like this one.