BARKASHOV, ALEKSANDR PETROVICH

(1953– )

   Politician. Born on 6 October 1953 to working-class parents in Moscow, Aleksandr Barkashov graduated from secondary school in 1971. He then did his military service, later taking up his father’s trade as an electrician. After becoming interested in world history and martial arts, Barkashov joined the ultranationalist, anti-Semitic Pamyat political party in 1985, ultimately becoming second-in-command under Dmitry Vasilyev. On 16 October 1990, he and a group of other radical Pamyat members formed what would become the Russian National Unity (RNU) party. During the constitutional crisis of 1993, he led a group of fighters in defense of the White House against Boris Yeltsin’s forces. After the situation was defused, Barkashov was sought by the authorities for nearly three months before being arrested and charged with arms possession and inciting mass disorder, though he was granted amnesty by the newly elected State Duma in 1994. Later that year, he published The ABCs of a Russian Nationalist, which became the manifesto of the RNU. In 1999, the RNU was banned in Moscow, and Barkashov lost control of the organization a year later. He was arrested again in 2005 for assaulting a police officer.