Alexander Petrovich Barkashov (born 1953) is a Russian ultranationalist who founded Russian National Unity (Russkoye Natsionalnoye Edinstvo, RNE) in 1990. A former member of the nationalist Pamyat society, he broke away to form the RNE, a paramilitary movement that used a swastika-like emblem and uniformed formations. RNE members took part in the armed defense of the Russian parliament building during the October 1993 constitutional crisis, after which Barkashov went into hiding before being amnestied in 1994.

In the 1990s the RNE became the largest neo-Nazi organization in Russia, claiming branches across the country, before splitting at the end of the decade. Researchers of the Russian far right treat Barkashov and the RNE as an important part of the milieu from which later nationalist and pro-Kremlin paramilitary figures emerged.

Sources

• Shenfield, Stephen D. Russian Fascism: Traditions, Tendencies, Movements. M. E. Sharpe, 2001.
• Laqueur, Walter. Black Hundred: The Rise of the Extreme Right in Russia. HarperCollins, 1993.

Summary entry. A fuller, document-based profile is in preparation.