Morrison
The Formative Years and Beyond. According to recent profiles, including one published in the Russian newspaper Rossiyskiye Vesti (Russian News),1 Vladimir Volfovich Zhirinovskiy was born on April 25, 1946, in Alma-Ata (now Almaty), the capital of Kazakhstan. His father, described in this profile as an office worker but said by Zhirinovskiy to be a lawyer or legal adviser, died within a year in an accident.
In his formative years in Kazakhstan, Zhirinovskiy attended a Russian school and appears to have felt that there was discrimination against Russians. The authors of the Rossiyskiye Vesti profile suggest he has a complex about the "nationalities question," rooted in his early childhood; they quote him as saying that Kazakh students received marks twice as high as Russian students for giving the same answers to questions.
Zhirinovskiy, who displayed a special aptitude for foreign languages, reportedly went on to Moscow State University, where he graduated from the Institute of Oriental Languages or the Institute of Asian and African Studies and later the Law Faculty (evening studies
department).2 He is said to speak four foreign languages-- Turkish, English, German, and French.3
As a university student in his fifth year, Zhirinovskiy says he worked as an interpreter for eight months and apparently had other work experience for a few months, gaining experience on a radio and television committee and elsewhere. Then he "went to Turkey as an interpreter, with a Russian engineer's delegation."4 After graduation he served in the Soviet Army in the Transcaucasus Military District.5 He has said that he was a soldier in Tbilisi for two years, serving in the staff headquarters where he "pushed papers," and that he was never rebuked nor did he abuse anyone or participate in anything.6 He then returned to Moscow and worked at the Soviet Committee for the Defense of Peace, later at the higher school of the trade union movement, where he was associated with work for foreign students, at the Foreign Law Collegium, and at the "Mir" Publishing House, where he was a legal consultant.7
Zhirinovskiy is now reported to be married, with a grown son, living in a cooperative apartment in Moscow.8
The Recent Political Awakening. Again according to the Rossiyskiye Vesti profile, beginning with perestroyka in the latter half of the 1980's, Zhirinovskiy developed sympathies for Mikhail Gorbachev and, later, Boris Yeltsin, and then became dissatisfied with the reformers' activities. This profile suggests that Zhirinovskiy's desire for active political work and power dates to 1990. Another account indicates he belonged to other political groups as early as 1987.9 He organized or helped organize the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) and became its chairman. Accounts differ as to whether the founding date was March 1990 or March 1991; according to one report, an early Liberal Democratic Party was founded in March 1990 with Zhirinovskiy as chairman, but he was expelled and in February 1991 launched his own Liberal Democratic Party which in April 1991 was officially registered as the first party since 1917 to which the Communists granted official status.10 The profile suggests that "In view of V.V. Zhirinovskiy's lack of any previous political experience, it appears highly dubious that the idea of forming this party arose spontaneously."11 (See the below section entitled "Alleged Affiliations with the KGB" for allegations and denials of involvement of the Communist Party and KGB in the establishment of the party.)
In 1991, Zhirinovskiy's party nominated him as a candidate for president of the USSR's Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR). To be officially registered, he had the choice of collecting 100,000 signatures or at least 213 votes of deputies of the RSFSR Supreme Soviet. He chose the latter and, reportedly to everyone's surprise, received 477 votes, more than 50% of those present. He was said to have impressed the deputies with "the absolutely fascinating unconventionality of his expressions and opinions and his 'almost magical effect,' a 'fusion' of shocking peremptoriness, extreme radicalism, and unabashed self-publicity." In the actual election won by Yeltsin, Zhirinovskiy won 6.2 million votes, about 7% of the total, placing third behind former Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov. He announced that he would immediately start his next election campaign and began addressing various groups.12
Toward the end of the election campaign, some reformers apparently saw Zhirinovskiy as a threat and began criticizing him. Yeltsin avoided--and has continued to avoid--criticizing Zhirinovskiy personally. State-run television on 11 December ran a documentary critical of Zhirinovskiy in an apparent attempt to discredit him.14
In the 12 December parliamentary election, Zhirinovskiy's Liberal Democratic Party won 22.8% of the nation-wide party-list vote for 225 of 450 seats in the lower-house State Duma--more than any other party, with the pro-reform Russia's Choice coalition coming in second with 15.4%. After counting in victors in the other half of the Duma seats chosen by individual district, Zhirinovskiy's party came in second for total representatives in the Duma with about 14% of the seats, following Russia's Choice which gained about 17%.15 Zhirinovskiy himself won an election contest for one of the district seats in the Moscow area.
After the 12 December parliamentary elections, Zhirinovskiy actively sought or welcomed selection to various positions in the government or State Duma. He suggested publicly that he would be open to Yeltsin naming him prime minister or simply a minister.16 He was one of ten delegates nominated to be chairman of the State Duma, but he withdrew his candidacy, referring to his unwillingness to "act in the role of an overseer."17 Khirinovskiy sought the chairmanship of the State Duma's foreign affairs commission but was blocked from this position by parliamentary leaders; and, in an apparent compromise, his party was given the chairmanship of a newly-created "geopolitical" committee, the mandate of which is unclear.18
Earlier in the fall of 1993, Zhirinovskiy had published, in 75,000 copies, a book entitled Posledniy Brosok na Yug, translated variously as Last Dash to the South, Last Push South, Last Thrust Southwards, and Last Assault on the South. In his book, Zhirinovskiy provides a strange mix of chronicles of his deprived and unhappy childhood, stories of unhappy relationships or non-relationships with women, and political strategies for acquiring power and launching an assault by the Russian military south of Russia. (Invited on one occasion to comment on a remark attributed to Izvestiya that it is easier for Zhirinovskiy to seduce a nation than a woman, Zhirinovskiy replied: "I never had the problem of being obliged to seduce a woman. As far as the nation is concerned--I am working on it."19
Critics have charged that this book "propagandizes the unleashing of aggressive war against Russia's neighbors Turkey, Iran, and Afghanistan" and have asked that a criminal case be opened against Zhirinovskiy.20 On 26 January 1994, it was announced that the Russian procurator general's office had instituted criminal proceedings against Zhirinovskiy under the Russian criminal code's article 71 on war propaganda. In a press conference that day, Zhirinovskiy began defending himself by claiming that this "dash" to the south would be accomplished by Russian troops without firing a single shot.21 A prosecutor has stated that in bringing the lawsuit against Zhirinovskiy his office has focused not only on the book but also on a court ruling in December, an article in the Kuranty newspaper, and an incident at the Kremlin Palace of Congresses on 12-13 December. The prosecutor indicated that the issue was a complex one with a large number of circumstances and that he did not know how long it would take to complete the investigation, which is reportedly a step that would precede filing of any charges.22
He travelled to Germany in October 1993, meeting with right-wing extremist Gerhard Frey and his German People's Union.
With much publicity, he also travelled to Central and Eastern Europe in late December after the Russian election. For this trip, he said, "The basic goal of my visit to several European countries is to renew my business contacts and present our party's positions."23 On the December trip, he travelled to Munich, where he met again with Gerhard Frey.24 He has said that "Dr. Frey is my friend and the DVU (German Peoples Union) is our partner."25 Accompanied by Frey, he then travelled to Austria where he was hosted by a timber merchant, Edwin Neuwirth.26 Neuwirth has been described as an ethnic German from Transylvania, who volunteered for the Waffen--SS when he was sixteen.27 Zhirinovskiy indicated he had come to Austria to meet with numerous Russian industrialists throughout Europe to examine economic problems.28 Representatives of Eastern trading companies with seats in Vienna were reported to have attended a meeting with Zhirinovskiy.29 Neuwirth boasted that "We received businessmen from Austria, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia here."30 Zhirinovskiy was also said to have gone to a hospital in Graz, Austria, for unspecified treatment.31
Zhirinovskiy next travelled to Bulgaria, where he publicly suggested that Turkey was preparing to conquer both the Balkans and the Caucasus, Romania was an artificial state inhabited by Italian Gypsies, and President Zhelev should step down and be replaced by Svetoslav Stoilov, a Bulgarian living in Austria who has been described as Zhirinovskiy's personal economic advisor.32 The Russian Embassy in Sofia issued a statement distancing itself from Zhirinovskiy, saying that his remarks "have nothing to do with Russia's policy based on noninterference . . . ."33 The Russian ambassador also offered apologies.34 Zhirinovskiy charged that the press had distorted his statements, denied having spoken against the Bulgarian president, and declared his respect for Bulgaria and its people.35 Bulgarian authorities, nevertheless, order Zhirinovskiy to leave Bulgaria within 24 hours on grounds that he had insulted Bulgaria, meddled in its internal affairs, and jeopardized its relations with neighboring states.36
Stoilov, when asked in an interview if he intended to become president of Bulgaria, responded, "Me, Bulgarian president?! This would be an insult for me. I shall become president of the Balkans (or Balkan peninsula). This will be followed by a great upheaval in Bulgaria. We shall throw all the parties that exist in the country today into the Black Sea. The plan is ready . . . ." When asked if this would likely provoke a military conflict in the Balkans, Stoilov responded: "We are so strong that no one would dare to do anything. In saying "we," I mean our party--Mr. Zhirinovskiy's party."37 Stoilov also was reported to have said that in four or five months Zhirinovskiy "will have ousted Yeltsin and will be president. And I will advocate an independent state for all Macedonians from Greece, Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria. A roundtable should decide as soon as possible on the return to Germany of the territories occupied by Poland. . . . South Tirol must be returned to Austria as soon as possible." 38
According to German government sources, Zhirinovskiy then sought a visa to travel at the invitation of a private company to Berlin where he wanted to hold a news conference and participate in a conference on Europe.39 The German Foreign Minister, however, denied him a visa.40
When a German Embassy official at the Sofia airport on 30 December told him of the visa denial, Zhirinovskiy reportedly threatened to break off diplomatic relations with Germany and furiously pointed out that there were still Russian troops stationed on German territory, saying these troops would not be withdrawn and, if he came to power, 300,000 Russian troops would be stationed in Germany. He also said Germany would have to pay compensation for World War II damages. He threatened that the German Embassy official could be sure to be "liquidated" soon and that he, Zhirinovskiy, had such good contacts with Russian intelligence that he could make the official simply "disappear."41
Zhirinovskiy was reported by one Western source (the author could not find other sources to confirm this) to have travelled apparently in late 1993 or January 1994 to the Crimea to lend support to the Russian nationalist politician Yuri Meshkov, who won the 30 January runoff election for the presidency of Crimea. After the election, Meshkov declared that the outcome of the election was a "vote to restore broken links to Russia . . . and conclude a military-political alliance with Russia."42
In late January and early February 1994, Zhirinovskiy made a trip to countries in the former Yugoslavia, where he and his party again gained publicity. Travelling to Slovenia, Zhirinovskiy and his entourage acted in such a way that Slovenia's Foreign Ministry asked that he leave the country as quickly as possible, saying that he had "offended public order" and "caused consternation among part of the Slovenian public."43 He was reported to have stated at a press conference that Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs should reunite in a single state.44 Other reports indicated that his bodyguards or supporters had grossly violated public order in the resort town of Bled.45
Leaving Slovenia enroute to Belgrade, Zhirinovskiy stopped in Budapest where he reportedly told the Hungarians that they had no prospects, that no one wanted the buses they make or their apples, and that the solution to their economic situation was to create a zone of East European cooperation using ideas from the former CEMA and Warsaw Pact organizations.46 Another report indicated Zhirinovskiy bullied and threatened Hungarian airline personnel at the Budapest airport as he arrived late for a plane about to depart.47 The Hungarian Foreign Ministry sent the Russian Embassy in Budapest a memorandum stating that Zhirinovskiy's insulting remarks about Hungary and the airport staff were unacceptable behavior.48
In Serbia, a meeting was planned with the minister of minorities and human rights but was not held, apparently as the government did not want to elevate the status of the trip. Zhirinovskiy then went to Bosnia for a visit organized by a Vienna-based businessman, Petar Ivanovic, a native of Montenegro. He met with Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic and an individual who had been instrumental in forcing Muslims from their homes. When he was introduced to a Russian fighter who had joined Serb paramilitary forces, Zhirinovskiy was said to have commented: "The Russians have already arrived. They are coming on their own, it is a sign of Russia's goodwill."49 Addressing a crowd in Bosnia, Zhirinovskiy praised the Serbs for waging war to "save Orthodoxy" and promised: "Don't worry, brothers. We will protect you . . . .If a single bomb falls on Serbia, we will consider that an attack on Russia." He also said that: "Once we punished France; 50 years ago we did the same to Germany. Now the same treatment awaits anyone who mistreats the Serbs."50 Another report indicated he stated that: "I want to warn the Western countries' governments that to bomb any cities in Bosnia will be to declare war on Russia. . . . Let them not forget that there are still Russian forces in Europe and they could remain there for a long time."51 In a news conference in Belgrade, he reportedly told a news conference that if NATO attacked Serbs, a group of Russian officers in Europe would use a secret weapon against Western forces. He also said he opposed creation of small states and called for there to be two or three Orthodox states in the Balkans, which he called "the land of Orthodoxy, where Serbian and Russian will be spoken," and suggested formation of an "Eastern European Community from Knin to Crimea."52
There were reports that after visiting the former Yugoslavia Zhirinovskiy planned to continue on to Poland, where he had been invited by Janusz Bryczkowski, a Polish industrialist who heads the National Self-Defense front, a small extremist party. There are no indications that the visit actually took place as planned at that time. Zhirinovskiy eventually visited Poland in mid-March.53
According to Izvestiya, before the trip to the former Yugoslavia, Zhirinovskiy on 21 January reportedly threatened Russian Foreign Minister Kozyrev with dismissal unless he changed his policy on the Balkans within a week and put himself unconditionally on the Serb's side. Kozyrev rejected this ultimatum, indicating he did not intend to take a pro-Serb stance. Kozyrev stated that: "Certain political forces are trying to drag Russia into a global catastrophe, and use this to their own advantage, to seize power. . . . If Zhirinovskiy or anyone else demands my resignation, I will perceive this as the best admission that my policy is correct." This same Izvestiya article suggested that Zhirinovskiy after his trip to the former Yugoslavia might demand a no confidence vote on Kozyrev in the State Duma where there is said to be an influential "anti-Kozyrev lobby."54
After the trip, on 5 February Zhirinovskiy addressed a meeting of about 1,000 people in Moscow in support of Serbia.55 In his remarks, he reportedly accused the Russian government of conniving on policy toward Serbia with the West. He said that in Serbia the West was "testing mechanisms for destroying Russia" and that already in progress in Yugoslavia is "the third world war waged against the Slavs and the Orthodox Church by the USA, West Germany and the Vatican." He went on to accuse the West of wanting to surround Russia with "a green Muslim corridor" employing a program to destroy Serbs and populate their lands with Muslims, and apparently employing this policy "from Moscow to Vologda and Arkhangelsk." He condemned the Russian government for keeping in office Foreign Minister Kozyrev, Deputy Prime Minister Chubays, and Economics Minister Shokhin and declared that they had "betrayed not only the Russian people, but also all the Slavs."
On 9 February, he addressed the Russian State Duma on the Bosnian issue. He declared that bombing of Serbian positions in Bosnia would be "the beginning of World War III," said the people in Bosnia-Herzegovina are "a single Orthodox people, some of whom at some time were forcibly converted into Islam and Catholicism," called for withdrawal of all foreign forces, and proposed that the Duma adopt a position that "the countries whose pilots will dare to bomb Serbian positions will be completely eliminated." When there were numerous calls to turn off his microphone, Zhirinovskiy promised his critics "a trip to the north in the very near future."56
In mid-February, the Spanish Government was reported to have refused to give Zhirinovskiy an entry visit to participate in a television show in Spain.57
There have been reports that Zhirinovskiy and his party have received support and funding from a variety of sources --including citizens in Russia; the Russian military-industrial complex; Russian security, intelligence, and information services; Russian and other business firms in Western Europe; ultra-rightists in Germany and elsewhere in Europe; Armenian businessmen in Armenia and Russia; and Saddam Hussein. The authors of the Rossiyskiye Vesti profile suggest that Zhirinovskiy's social base includes "the military-industrial complex, the Army, the impoverished section of the former Soviet middle class, pensioners, a section of the working class, Russians in the nearby foreign countries, young people." The authors indicated they have been unable to ascertain the sources of finance for Zhirinovskiy's lengthy campaign.58
Zhirinovskiy has claimed that ordinary citizens in Russia have funded his efforts and no funding has come from other sources. He has mentioned that six million people voted for him in the 1991 election and implied that many of them have mailed money to him, suggesting what may be a hypothetical figure of 6 billion rubles or $3.5 million; but he has also indicated that there are main sponsors, saying, ". . . I will not disclose the name of the main sponsors: Secrecy is the essence of business."59 He has said that the December election campaign was conducted at the expense of "money orders from Russian citizens" and that "Not a single mafia grouping, economic structure, bank, or political organization gave us a kopeck." He did not deny, however, receiving money for interviews by foreign journalists, saying, "There is a long line and those who want to jump it have to pay."60 He also said that "ordinary people" paid nearly a billion rubles to his party's election fund and the party will easily pay its 200 million ruble debt to television companies.61
Zhirinovskiy's party and the other 12 parties or blocs qualifying for the 12 December parliamentary election were each given 100 million rubles to conduct the campaign, according to a staffer of the Central Electoral Commission's press service.62
The Liberal Democratic Party's Deputy Chairman, Aleksandr Vengerovskiy, when asked about supporters, replied: "Industrialists who do not yet want to name themselves. In addition to having a state job, I also have some restaurants in Moscow. Rather than buying Mercedes cars, I finance party issues from the profits."63
Andrey Zavidiya, who was Zhirinovskiy's running mate in the 1991 presidential election and is chairman of the Galant (other reports say "Galand") Company (which a co-panelist on a TV show said has 1,500 enterprises), claims to have been an early supporter of the Liberal Democratic Party and the "main organizer" of the party's parliamentary election victories. Zavidiya said he first met Zhirinovskiy in 1990 at a Kremlin ceremony, they later began cooperating, and Zhirinovskiy asked how publication of the party program might get funded. Zavidiya said he or his firm paid 26,000 rubles to have the program printed in 1991 and paid another 10,000 rubles for Zhirinovskiy posters. Zavidiya reportedly went on to say, this time apparently speaking of the December 1993 parliamentary election, that the Galant company had set up 3,500 organizing committees throughout the country and that they voted for Zavidiya rather than Zhirinovskiy (here there is a garble but it appears to suggest that Zhirinovskiy relegated his place on the nation-wide party list to Zavidiya or someone else, while Zhirinovskiy competed for one of the district seats from the Moscow area). Zavidiya disagreed with a suggestion that the Communist Party or KGB were behind the establishment of the Liberal Democratic Party. He said he did not know of other sources of funding for the party but suggested that Zhirinovskiy would not have approached him for this relatively small funding had there been other sources.64
According to another report, Zavidiya provided funds for both the 1991 and 1993 election campaigns of Zhirinovskiy, with Zavidiya allegedly saying that for the 1993 election he provided money "via third, even tenth firms, rather than directly." Zavidiya reportedly has broken with Zhirinovskiy and has said that: "I sealed his victory, then he went on to strike me from the deputy list; that offended me and I parted with him." Saying that "I have cut off his oxygen," Zavidiya reportedly has begun "withdrawing his men from the party" where they represented 60-70 percent of the support, and has ordered his enterprises to stop paying Zhirinovskiy and demand repayment of debts. Zavidiya says that Zhirinovskiy is "drowning in debt," and Zhirinovskiy is reported to owe one billion rubles for television time. Zavidiya is reported to have said that he himself is a communist and that nearly ten percent of the Liberal Democratic Party members hold communist convictions. He has also reportedly said that the party has no base and that one-half the party's candidate list comprised people associated with Galand enterprises.65
Russian and Dutch press reports have indicated that an Amsterdam-based company, Global Money Management (GMM), owned by a 27 year old Muscovite by the name of A.V. Nenachov (the only shareholder in the company that was registered with the Amsterdam Chamber of Commerce in January 1993) has at least "paid a considerable part of the campaign costs"; a Russian press story described GMM as "sub-criminal" and said it illegally launders money for Russians in the West. Other reports indicate that GMM contributed between $50,000 and $800,000 to Zhirinovskiy's party, and that Netherlands officials and the Russia Central Bank are investigating this.66 GMM was said to have bought a place on the electoral list for Aleksej Soejev, described as a 23-year-old adviser to Nenachov.67
There are reports of a network of support being established by businesses in Europe. A Viennese newspaper reports that Aleksey Vedenkin, who describes himself as the financial adviser and spokesmen in Europe of the Liberal Democratic Party and who operates from a hotel in Vienna, claims to have succeeded in establishing a network of companies all over Europe and subsidiaries of the Liberal Democratic Party in Austria, Germany, Italy, France, Holland, and Switzerland. Vedenkin claims to have contacts not only with right wingers Frey and Neuwirth in Germany and Austria but also with the former financial director of the East German Socialist Unity Party, Werner Girke; he says that Girke has visited with Zhirinovskiy but has not moved "any millions around for us." Vedenkin apparently suggested that Zhirinovskiy's true financial backer is a French woman named Miriam Selen, said to be close to Jean Marie LePen and one of the richest women in Europe. The Viennese newspaper reports that neither Le Figaro nor Der Spiegel's Paris bureau had heard of this woman.68
T. Gdlyan, chairman of the Russian People's Party, has been reported to believe that there are Western and Mafia elements behind Zhirinovskiy. Gdlyan also claims to have information that Zhirinovskiy receives financial support from Armenian businessmen in Armenia and Russia.69
In a discussion at the Hudson Institute on 14 December 1993, former KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin, responding to reports of rumors that Zhirinovskiy had received funds for the election campaign from extreme right circles in Germany and from the Russian armed forces, claimed that several millions of American dollars had come from Saddam Hussein. Kalugin recalled that Zhirinovskiy had supported the Iraqi position during the Gulf War, had visited Saddam, and has vowed to resume arms sales to Iraq and to use Russia's vote in the UN Security Council to lift sanctions on Iraq.70
A Russian reporter from Moscow Evening, who claims to have infiltrated the Liberal Democratic Party in the final stages of the campaign for the December parliamentary elections, alleges that the party leader of the district of southern Moscow told him that he had travelled to Iraq on behalf of the party in mid-1993, met with people from the surroundings of Saddam Hussein, and was promised financial support. This party leader also allegedly said that Zhirinovskiy receives money from directors of the weapons industry.71
The truth about whether Zhirinovskiy has had or continues to have connections to the KGB and its successors is something that would be extremely difficult to establish.
The KGB is reported to have issued a special statement on 28 August 1991 refuting the claim that Zhirinovskiy was a KGB agent.72
Zhirinovskiy has denied being affiliated with or funded by the KGB and its successors. In response to a question about him being a former KGB agent and reports that the KGB helped establish his party, Zhirinovskiy has stated: "Never. All that is propaganda. Just like they say that I am a Zionist, anti-Jewish, a member of the radical right or left, or Jewish. Nothing of the sort. I am Russian, Russian, Russian."73 In response to questions about KGB funding, he has said: "With regard to KGB-like bodies, no one is helping me. I would be pleased if I was given money."74 Asked about KGB support, he has said: "If the State Security Committee had helped me, I would not be sitting here now but in the Kremlin. This was their downfall precisely--they did not admit people like myself while they themselves withered away, went into decay, and the country and the economy collapsed together with them."75 He has been shown on Russian television walking along the Arbat (a street in Moscow with vendors) and criticizing the sale of KGB iconography, saying the KGB is the only organ capable of saving the country.76
Former KGB General Kalugin has indicated that, while he has no proof, he believes Zhirinovskiy was recruited by the KGB while overseas, saying: "All I can do is judge by what my former colleagues have said. As far as I know from them, Zhirinovskiy was recruited by the military counterintelligence bodies of the KGB when young, when he was a translator in a Middle East country. There is nothing special about that."77 It has been reported that Zhirinovskiy had ties to the KGB dating to his student days at Moscow State University and that, according to Oleg Gordievsky, said to be a former Soviet intelligence officer who was a double agent for the British, Zhirinovskiy was recruited by the KGB as an informer when he was in Turkey in 1969.78
St. Petersburg Mayor Anatoliy Sobchak has alleged that Zhirinovskiy was a captain in the KGB active reserve and that the Liberal Democratic Party was created by the former KGB on orders of Mikhail Gorbachev and the Politburo of the old Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Sobchak claims that, after the abolition of Article 6 of the USSR constitution stipulating a monopoly of power for the Communist Party (this occurred in February 1990), Gorbachev told the Politburo that a multiparty system was in the offing and that the Politburo should set up the first alternative party, one that would be malleable. He further claims that the selection of a prospective party leader was left to the KGB, that it chose Zhirinovskiy, that the name Liberal Democratic was invented there and then, and that the party was officially registered two weeks later--the first party to be officially registered in the USSR.79
The Washington Post, in reporting the claims by Sobchak, noted that, while Sobchak was well-connected, he had not been a member of the Politburo and offered no documents or evidence, although Sobchak said he would provide evidence in a coming book. The newspaper reported that Gorbachev had said that Sobchak's claims were untrue--"pure falsification"--and suggested that "democrats" like Sobchak were seeking scapegoats now that their policies had paved the way for Zhirinovskiy's success. It also reported that in a telephone interview, Vladimir Kryuchkov, the head of the KGB in 1990, denied any role in creating the Liberal Democratic Party.80
A Vienna newspaper, reporting on Zhirinovskiy's trip in late December to Austria where he allegedly met with businessmen from various countries, claimed that "Zhirinovskiy, who made a career in the environs of the KGB, is in effect considered the 'manager' of the new cover companies of the KGB empire. The giant military-industrial complex of the former Soviet Union uses them for its activities. . . ."81
According to Kalugin, Zhirinovskiy has very close ties to the Russian Federation's Foreign Intelligence Service and Ministry of Security. Kalugin estimates that 85-90% of the members of both services voted for Zhirinovskiy. He claims that the Security Ministry has supplied Zhirinovskiy with the results of their polls for years and that it was on the basis of this information that Zhirinovskiy fashioned his electoral campaign.
Kalugin also claimed that Zhirinovskiy's closest foreign and national security adviser is an emigre writer named Eduard Limonov (phonetic), who made considerable money in Western Europe and the U.S. in the 1980s as a businessman--a writer of soft-pornography. Kalugin said Limonov does not believe the nonsense that Zhirinovskiy spouts but knows that these fables and myths appeal to the average Russian. He further said that Zhirinovskiy and Limonov are fascists--real fascists--and believe that such an ideology is perfect for Russia in its present state.
The sympathy and support appear mutual. Zhirinovskiy's statements--especially his book--advocate a renaissance for the military, which has come upon hard times, and he strongly supports the military-industrial complex in advocating an end to defense conversion and promotion of arms sales abroad. He appears interested in weaponry and has spoken of an alleged new, secret Russian weapon which he called the "Elipton" and which he has compared to neutron and sonic weapons.83
There are contradictory reports about the results of military voting in the 12 December parliamentary elections. Early press reports indicated that 72% of the Strategic Rocket Forces and 46% of the military in the Moscow military district voted for Zhirinovskiy's party. Defense Minister Grachev, however, on 29 December disclaimed these types of reports, saying that the Central Electoral Commission had not released any figures on military voting and that most military personnel voted together with civilians.84
On the other hand, President Yeltsin, responding at a 22 December press conference to a questioner who suggested that most of the Army had voted for Zhirinovskiy's party and who asked what measures Yeltsin would take, said: "Well, it was not most of the Army that voted for the Liberal Democratic Party, but a third. Nonetheless, it is a lot and it worries us. Relevant measures are already being taken now." (The measures were not further specified).85
A Russian press report in late January is consistent with the Yeltsin statement in saying: ". . . On average, in closed precincts in Defense Ministry subdivisions the LDPR got 34 percent of the votes, the Communists 9 percent, and 'Russia's Choice' 11 percent respectively. It is characteristic that the opposition got the largest number of votes among servicemen serving in 'hot spots' (the Dniester region, Tajikistan). The LDPR got the smallest number of votes (19 percent) among Black Sea Fleet personnel, and the largest number (49 percent) among personnel of the Northwest Group of Forces. At the same time the LDPR garnered 31 percent of the votes among Military Space Forces personnel and 32 percent among servicemen in Strategic Missile Forces units."86
The Deputy Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, Aleksandr Vengerovskiy, when asked in an interview if party membership included army officers and policemen, responded: "Yes, a quarter of the membership. There are large-scale dismissals from the army. It is mainly the dismissed officers who come to us, because this is where they find the suitable political orientation. According to the current Russian law, they cannot form a separate party."87
Vengerovskiy immediately after the election indicated that the LDPR shadow cabinet would "focus on beefing up the armed forces more than the present government." The LDPR candidate for the security ministry, a former KBG officer, advocated recalling "former KGB officers who left the agency for political reasons" with an aim of putting an end to the country's rising crime.88
There have been several reports of guards or paramilitary personnel, often in one type of uniform or another, deployed at the LDPR headquarters, and there have been references to activities of LDPR youth groups.
According to former KGB general Kalugin, Zhirinovskiy has not only a bodyguard but also a kind of party militia whose members wear ordinary Russian military uniforms; some may be soldiers or security police on leave or detached service. Kalugin has suggested that they seem to be preparing to act like Blackshirts or Storm Troopers.89
LDPR Deputy Chairman Vengerovskiy, answering a question about the party's youth organization, has stated: "We indeed have a youth organization. We do use means like combat sports to attract young people. When our organization was founded, the young people did ask to wear blue uniforms like in the air force, but they have not been wearing these for five months now."90
Zhirinovskiy has been shown on Russian television explaining the military-style uniforms of his followers by saying that they prefer this.91
Vengerovskiy has spoken of teaching people the fighting spirit he learned in the army, saying: "People are itching to take up arms. We want to teach them the fighting spirit that I, for example, was given in the army: This is where we learned what the real tasks of a man are."92
According to an article about a reporter from the newspaper Moscow Evening who is said to have infiltrated Zhirinovskiy's party in the final phase of the December election campaign, there allegedly exist within the party secret combat groups--so-called boyeviki--who have access to weapons. They are part of a secret structure, work within the police and the army, and would be ready to use the weapons for the goals of the party.93
Zhirinovskiy at a 14 December 1993 news conference dismissed allegations that Saddam had made funds available to him and said the LDPR: ". . . never sent volunteers to Iraq. What we had was an exchange of youth tourist groups." Zhirinovskiy also claimed that: "We have no contacts with the Iraqi embassy or state."96 But, according to an Iraqi radio report, Zhirinovskiy met on 21 December with the Iraqi ambassador to Russia and asked the ambassador to convey his wishes to Saddam Hussein for good health and success in achieving all goals for which the Iraqi people are struggling. Zhirinovskiy reportedly told the Iraqi radio correspondent that his party supports Arab causes which Iraq is upholding and that one of his party's priorities is to enhance Russian relations with Iraq and contribute to lifting the embargo on Iraq.97
A Moscow television feature broadcast before the December 1993 election showed a youth representative of Zhirinovskiy's party talking about the strong Jewish influence in the U.S. and in Russia and why it must be combatted. It then showed footage of Zhirinovskiy telling a rally that Jews are to blame for both World Wars but have so far failed in their original intentions of world domination.98
Zhirinovskiy was reported to have said at a news conference on 14 December that "From time to time, Russia is overwhelmed with anti-Semitism. This phenomenon is provoked only by Jews themselves."99 He has also made statements with racist overtones, such as "Our electors always tell us that many television announcers are not Russian and that they would like to see good Russian faces on the screen speaking to them in good Russian."100 One report quoted him as referring to the "Jewish infection on TV."101
A remark by Zhirinovskiy that his mother was Russian and his father was a lawyer has led some to raise questions about the nationality or ethnic background of his father. The preface to an interview with Zhirinovskiy published by a Hungarian newspaper said Zhirinovskiy was born to a Jewish lawyer's family.102 Asked during an interview if his father was a Jew, Zhirinovskiy responded that this was propaganda and that allegations that his father was Jewish, that he is an anti-Semite, a Zionist, an extremist, a fascist, a communist, and that Saddam Hussein had given him money are outright lies.103 He has said that "Both my mother and father are Russian, and father's kin were all lawyers."104 Zhirinovskiy told one journalist that his father was a Russian whose second language was Polish because he was born in Poland, then incorporated into the Russian empire.105
A reporter for the U.S. media reportedly has found documents in the archives in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where Zhirinovskiy was born in 1946, that list Zhirinovskiy's surname on his birth registration as "Eidelshtein" and other documents that show that Zhirinovskiy applied for and received permission to change his name from "Eidelshtein" to "Zhirinovskiy" in June 1964. Documents reportedly show that Zhirinovskiy's mother was married to Andrei V. Zhirinovskiy who died in August 1944, 18 months before Vladimir Zhirinovskiy was born, and that five months before Vladimir was born she married Volf Isakovich Eidelshtein, who was officially listed as Jewish. She took the name "Eidelshtein." Zhirinovskiy's birth certificate identifies his father only as "Volf," and a note on the back says "no documents for father." The registration shows in handwriting the baby's last name as "Eidelshtein." This was crossed out and "Zhirinovskiy" was handwritten in with a note indicating the change was made in 1964. Officials at the archives have said the records are authentic, but a spokesman for the Liberal Democratic Party said they are "forged" and that since Zhirinovskiy's birth ". . . his only last name has been Zhirinovsky."106
When one correspondent indicated that the Israeli government had said that they had given Zhirinovskiy an immigrant entry permit, Zhirinovskiy responded: "It is a complete lie . . . show me the supposed relative of mine! If I had a relative there, I would be pleased. But I have no relative there. . . . I am Russian--I myself, my mother, my father, and the whole family. Half of them have already died."107
When the same correspondent raised reports of his participating in the establishment of the Shalom association in Moscow, reportedly a Jewish cultural organization, Zhirinovskiy responded: "That is also a lie. The establishment of nationality associations was begun in Moscow five years ago by Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians, and so forth . . . Almost 1 million people of foreign descent live in Moscow. Among them, the Jews also decided to set up a cultural association called Shalom. I then visited these associations one after the other; I was invited and visited them. I am a legal expert, and that was the time that the association's statutes were adopted. I made some comments that they liked."108
It has been reported in Parade Magazine that: "In the 1980s, according to CIA sources, Zhirinovskiy was a member of a group called Shalom. Although outwardly pro-Jewish, Shalom was set up by the Anti-Zionist League--a KGB front designed to create divisions among Soviet Jews."109
When asked during an interview if there were Jews in the Liberal Democratic Party, Zhirinovskiy was reported to have appeared incredulous, repeated the question, and after regaining his composure replied: "There may be one, two, or three of them. I do not know their exact number, because when people join our party we do not ask them to disclose their nationality."110
Asked in the same interview for his views on Israel, Zhirinovskiy is reported to have said that the state of Israel must exist and that Russia and the U.S. should work together to finalize Israel's borders so that war and extremism would be over. Asked about emigration, he said Russian Jews should be allowed to go to Israel but if they want to stay they are most welcome.111
"He is not acquainted with the burden of power and responsibility, his actual administrative potential is not known, so the motive behind his desire for power may be assumed to be the desire for self-fulfillment, which, combined with a marked inclination to express opinions in a peremptory manner, could, if that desire was fulfilled, create a situation of dangerous unpredictability in his decisions of authority."
"He is inclined toward a certain arrogance, unconventional behavior, and political risk-taking. . . ."
"He is a master of the art of persuasion and polemics. . . ."
"By political conviction he is a 'liberal democrat' and an advocate of authoritarianism ('tough' power), including in foreign policy. . . ."
"In international relations he is inclined toward unpredictable political extremism."
"He has undoubted linguistic ability; he is resourceful, sharp-witted, and extremely emotional; he easily makes contact with any audience; he is an excellent orator and improviser; his public utterances are generally provocative; he tends toward metaphorical thinking and terse, short sentences; he has a unique personal image and a high capacity mentally to 'infect' his audience; he is extremely self-confident, with a pronounced desire for recognition, insatiable self-esteem, and high opinion of himself; he is uncritical, often to the point of irresponsibility; he virtually always speaks in the first person and never cites other authorities; his preferred conversational style is imperious. He has the capacity to transform himself with artistic virtuosity. His capacity for work is high."
"He has repeatedly demonstrated a unique political intuition and a capacity to make unerring predictions whose sources can only be guessed at." (The authors cite how Zhirinovskiy correctly predicted three weeks in advance that he would come in third in the 1991 RSFSR presidential election, and how two weeks before the 1993 parliamentary elections he said his party would get 24%--they got about 22.8%--of the votes for the 225 seats in the lower-house State Duma chosen by nation-wide total votes for parties.) "V.V. Zhirinovskiy is undoubtedly a talented and gifted man, but it is absolutely clear to any professional that for all his 'multifunctionality' and huge capacity for work, it would have been beyond his powers single-handedly to tackle simultaneously and with such a high degree of skill the program tasks, analytical and forecasting tasks, and practical tasks."
"V.V. Zhirinovskiy, however attractive this simple view may seem, is certainly not the puppet of the forces behind him, he is an independent and active participant in the process that is being pursued, and is clearly and soberly aware of what is going on. His role in this process is far from unequivocal, and simplistic assessments of that role, including hysterics and the pinning of labels, are not permissible."
The authors of this profile suggest that "the statements of certain politicians regarding his [Zhirinovskiy's] fascism are premature at the moment," but they offer a concept of how populism may slide into extremism and then fascism.
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