Eduard Limonov

Eduard Veniaminovich Limonov (; 22 February 194317 March 2020) was a Russian writer, poet, publicist, political dissident and politician.

He emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1974, but returned to Russia in 1991, where he founded the National Bolshevik Party. The party was banned in the country in 2007 and superseded by The Other Russia. In the 2000s, he was one of the leaders of The Other Russia coalition of opposition forces.

Biography Early life, 1943–1966 Limonov was born in Dzerzhinsk, Gorky Oblast, Soviet Union. Limonov's fatherthen in the military servicewas in a state security career and his mother was a homemaker. In the early years of his life his family moved to Kharkov in the Ukrainian SSR, where Limonov grew up. He studied at the H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University.

By Limonov's own account, he began writing "very bad" poetry at the age of thirteen and soon after became involved in theft and petty crime as an adolescent hooligan.

Konkret poets in Moscow, 1966–1974 In 1966, together with his first wife, Anna Moiseevna Rubinstein, (their marriage was not registered officially)

Literary exile in New York, 1974–1980 Although neither he nor Shchapova were Jewish, the Soviet Union issued permission for the couple to emigrate to Israel, but soon after the couple arrived in the United States. As protagonist Eddie finds out as a consequence, the latter is a political target of the FBI. Limonov was himself harassed by the FBI. As he later recounted, the FBI interrogated dozens of his acquaintances, once asking a friend about "Lermontov" in Paris when he had resettled in France. quote|I did not find the freedom to be a radical opponent of the existing social structure of the country which pompously calls itself the 'leader of the free world,' but neither did I notice it in the land which represents itself as the 'future of all humanity.' The FBI is just as zealous in putting down American radicals as the KGB is with its own radicals and dissidents. True, the methods of the FBI are more modern. [...] The KGB is, however, studying the techniques of its older brother and modernizing its methods. and became active in politics.

Limonov was an active supporter of Serbia in the wars that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia. Paweł Pawlikowski's film Serbian Epics includes footage of him meeting with Radovan Karadžić, then the Bosnian Serb president and later a convicted war criminal, on the front lines of Sarajevo in 1992. The film also shows Limonov participating in a sniper patrol and firing a few rounds with a machine gun on the outskirts of the besieged city. When asked about the incident in 2010, Limonov said he had been shooting at a target range and that Pawlikowski added an extra camera shot to make it appear he had fired into a populated area. This explanation has been challenged.

On another occasion, Limonov said that he "celebrated his 50th birthday in Kninska Krajina ... by firing from a Russian-made heavy gun at Croatian Army headquarters." During the 1990s, he supported Bosnian Serbs in the Yugoslav wars; Armenian, Abkhaz, and Transnistrian secessionists against Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova, respectively. However Limonov soon tired of Zhirinovsky, accusing him of moderateness and of approaching the president and consequently split from him, publishing the book "Limonov against Zhirinovsky" (1994).

In 1993, together with figures like Aleksandr Dugin and Yegor Letov, he founded the National Bolshevik Party which started to publish a newspaper called Limonka (the Russian nickname for the lemon-shaped F1 hand grenade; also a play on his pen name Limonov). In 1996, a Russian court judged in a hearing that the NBP paper Limonka had disseminated illegal and immoral information: "in essence, E. V. Limonov (Savenko) is an advocate of revenge and mass terror, raised to the level of state policy." The court decided to recommend issuing an official warning to Limonka, to investigate the possibility of examining whether Limonov could be held legally responsible, and to publish its decision in Rossiiskaia gazeta. After that, a criminal case was launched against him on charges of incitement of ethnic hatred.

Jail and protest activities, 2001–2013 Limonov was jailed in April 2001 on charges of terrorism, the forced overthrow of the constitutional order, and the illegal purchase of weapons. Based on an article published in Limonka under Limonov's byline, the government accused Limonov of planning to raise an army to invade Kazakhstan. After one year in jail, his trial was heard in a Saratov court, which also heard appeals from Russian Duma members Vladimir Zhirinovsky, Alexei Mitrofanov and Vasiliy Shandybin for his release. He maintained that the charges were ridiculous and politically motivated, but was convicted and sentenced to four years imprisonment for the arms purchasing, while the other charges were dropped. He served almost two years before being paroled for good behavior.

Limonov continued his political activities as one of the leaders of The Other Russia, on 14 April 2007, Limonov was arrested again after an anti-government rally in Moscow; on 31 January 2009 was detained again in Moscow.

In July 2009, he helped organise the Strategy-31 series of protests. It was denied official registration in 2010 and in 2019, after it got re-established without Limonov as formally part of its leadership.

Later life and death, 2013–2020 Starting in 2014, Limonov supported the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and the at the time unrecognized Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic, and encouraged Russians to take part in the Russo-Ukrainian War on the Russian side. The Other Russia also created a militia called "Interbrigades" to support the separatist movement in Donbas; they took part in the battles for Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, and also were engaged in the protection of the leader of Limonov during his visit to the Luhansk region.

He died on 17 March 2020, aged 77, in Moscow. It was reported that Limonov had been battling cancer; complications from two surgery procedures such as throat problems, struggles with oncology, and inflammation were cited as the direct cause of his death.

Literary work

Limonov's works are known for their cynicism. His novels are also (to an extent, fictive) memoirs, describing his experiences as a youth in Russia and as an émigré in the United States.

Limonov's works were scandalous for the Russian public, once they began to be published in the USSR during the late perestroika era. Particularly noted is It's Me, Eddie, which contained numerous pornographic descriptions of homosexual acts involving the narrator. The author later argued that such scenes were purely fiction; however, his fellow Russian nationalists were nevertheless appalled by such descriptions in Limonov's work. Thus, the Neo-Nazi leader Alexander Barkashov remarked to a journalist of Komsomolskaya Pravda concerning Limonov: "Если лидер педераст, то он родину продаст." ("If the leader is a pederast, he will betray the fatherland.")

Russian film director and screenwriter Alexander Veledinsky's 2004 feature film It's Russian is based on Limonov's writings. In late 1990s and early 2000s, Limonov was a regular contributor to "Living Here" and later to the eXile, both English-language newspapers in Moscow. These were the only known sources where Limonov wrote articles in English. When he joined as a contributor, he specifically asked the editors of the paper that they preserve his "terrible Russian-English style." Although most of his featured articles were political, he also wrote on many topics, including "advice for ambitious youngsters."

Influences Limonov stated that his favorite poet was Velimir Khlebnikov. The Japanese writer Yukio Mishima is noted, by some observers, as an influence on Limonov's writing.

Works about Limonov Eduard Limonov's life is related in detail by Emmanuel Carrère in his 2011 biographical novel Limonov and in the Adam Curtis documentary series Can't Get You Out of My Head. English actor Ben Whishaw portrayed Limonov in Limonov: The Ballad, a film by Kirill Serebrennikov based on Carrère's novel.

Selected bibliography Books It's Me, Eddie His Butler's Story, first published in English by Grove Press, 1987. Translated by Judson Rosengrant Memoir of a Russian Punk, Grove Weidenfeld, 1990. Translated by Judson Rosengrant Молодой Нeгодяй (A Young Scoundrel), translated by John Dolan My Political Biography (English), translated by Sofia Arenzon Russian Psycho Control Shot The Holy Monsters Imprisoned by Dead Men (English), translated by Sofia Arenzon The Book of Water The Wild Girl American Vacation The Great Mother of Love Anatomy of a Hero Disappearance of Barbarians How to be Mad and Happy at Fifty-Five

Interview Eduard Limonov: Each year I get closer to Islam Limonov's dialogue with a Voice about Thanksgiving Eduard Limonov: It's a Great Time of Struggle

Essays Doctor Limonov's advices to ambitious youngsters Punk and national-bolshevism Foreword of The Exile: Sex, Drugs, and Libel in the New Russia

Filmography Documentaries Saratov (2003) Da, smert (2004), by Alyona Polunina The Revolution That Wasn't (2008), by Alyona Polunina Srok (2012), by Alexey Pivovarov, Pavel Kostomarov and Alexander Rastorguev Eduard Limonov (2026), by Natalia Gugueva

Films Russkoe (2004), by Alexander Veledinsky – screening of several Limonov's novels