I wrote this article in Lefortovo prison. It turned out to be a creative mission instead of a serious time in jail. But Lefortovo is such a prison that even less than 3 weeks here is enough to become imbued with proud cosciousness of a Russian State prisoner. One does not simply write in there but prophecy. As it is now customary, I`d like to thank my fellow inmates Denis and Arsen who kept “creative” silence and also the prison guards who gave me a pen and a paper as soon as I requested.
So far nazbols have only one holiday that is really theirs, that is the Day of the Nation on April 5. OURS means that it is celebrated heartily even in solitude, in jail and among strangers. November 7, February 23 and May 1 have not been appropriated yet, maybe it will happen in the future. May 9 is an apotheosis of conventionalism, although we celebrated it in Latvia quite well. But in any case, there is a need for our own NB holidays which would make our party members` blood circulate more energetically. We will gradually force these holidays on the people. We need holidays that would in a roundabout way recruit new people into NBP.
There are many “high quality” people in Russia whose interest in politics has been killed, but not the dreams of human brotherhood. It would be wise to cement the beaten tracks, especially ones that haven`t been walked on by crowds. June 23-24 is a very attractive date, which is summer solstice. In the former USSR this date was widely celebrated in Latvia, Lithuania and Belorussia. In Latvia this holiday called Ligo was truly a nation-wide one. Soviet government had alternately prohibited and allowed Ligo, but finally put up with it, except for having hypocritically forbidden to call June 23-24 an official holiday. Nobody worked on those days, surely not June 24,after a wild night. The holiday was an orgiastic one and was called the Day of the Sun or something along those lines. Since the sun shines equally on everybody, many nations had this holiday, but few have kept it. Christian church as well as the communists, tried to prohibit the holiday, but wasn`t successful. Later they tried to “tame” it but only accomplished a new Christian name for it, that is Ivan`s day (John`s day).The holiday remained a pagan one. My childhood memories are those of huge bonfires, jumping over fire, wreaths made of oak leaves and dandilion, chasing girls and whipping their naked calves with sedge grass. Sedge grass and firewood were prepared beforehand.
Also, we burned old tires that gave thick black smoke. We drank rivers of beer on those days. This wasn`t specifically a Latvian, nationalistic holiday. During my high school and college days I`ve celebrated Ligo with different crowds, some had not a single Latvian among them. It became a nationalistic or even borgeois-nationalistic holiday after the breakup of the USSR in today`s Latvia. Latvians became a nation of bureaucrats, had isolated themselves and the holiday lost its spirit of openness. It became the sum total of disconnected drinking binges in the country houses, restaurants, saunas etc. I have and idea to offer: we should turn the summer solstice day into a powerful NB holiday and call it Day of Immortality. My comrade Scripatch (violinist) with whom I discussed this in the spring is the coauthor of this idea.
The Holiday of Immortality could include the cult of the Sun, the cult of Human Seed, the cult of Death and also the cult of Hero (Superhuman) challenging the Fate. Every religion is based on the idea of immortality, religion allows human fate to continue beyond earthly life in spite of imminent physical death. NB religion(it is better to call it “political faith”) is special in the sense that the eternal life is understood as the UNDYING PASSING ON THE BATON OF HEROES. This way, a nazbol is united in death with the immortal community of Superhumans. The rituals of the Holiday of Immortality have yet to be created. We should not tie these to the ways of celebrating this holiday in any particular country or any particular era. The party is not an ethnographic society. We should simply seize this date and give it the kind of content and form that follow our ideology and esthetics. We can put the ritual of marriage, a NB one, in the core of the holiday. The newlyweds exchange vows, but they are special vows.
These are VOWS TO AVENGE A MURDER,AN UNJUST ARREST OR TORTURE OF THE HUSBAND OR THE WIFE. Of course, this is a duty of the whole party, but we need “personal responsibility”, putting it in bureaurocratic terms. Sexual attraction may pass and the party will not keep those people together who are bored of each other in bed, as the church and the Communist party did. However, a nazbol has to carry the duty of just revenge throughout his life. The new nation is built on the foundation of new culture (what we mean is not new “art”, but new patterns of behavior).This foundation has already been collectively created by the party. We also need BLOOD TIES for strength, which are not interpreted in a primitive racist way by us. It is not the blood of ancestors who are often imaginary, that is important. We are breaking old blood ties and creating new ones. The ritual itself could go like this: the newlyweds each give a little of their blood, which is mixed and solemnly given back to them in, let’s say, sealed vials. Thus, a mystical ritual, a wedding by blood. There could be several such couples in the course of the Holiday. The ritual should be neither a short nor a too prolonged one. Also, it shouldn’t be too fussy since it is a solemn occasion. The best way to do this is in a city, a public place, accompanied by drums and using sound equipment. This is also a military ceremony, an oath of alliagence. A religious holiday corresponds with a sermon.
The party needs brilliant speakers, capable of developing the themes of Death, Revolution, Love, Freedom, Motherland and Duty, capable of creating an explosive mixture from these intoxicating words. We shouldn’t imitate those lame meetings, where the speakers take turns and ten of them wait for their chance to speak. The energy is dispersed, since people cannot experience ten emotional climaxes in one time. A religious ceremony is a more useful example. One or two speakers or preachers able to stir up the hearts of the audience is enough. Singing of the party anthem could be the final chord of the ceremony. This is the “official” daytime part of the Holiday. The night of June 23, which is the shortest night of the year should be spent outdoors. It would be meaningless to try to create rituals for it, especially sitting in a jail cell. Anything goes here, from orgiastic dances to meditative contemplation of bonfire flames or river waters passing by.
There are fans of both of these things among nazbols. We could also make tatoos for new NBP members. It would be appropriate on this night of Immortality to pray for those NBP warriors who passed away. These are just sketches, but I believe they are sketches of a great future. The party is standing firmer on its feet and is feeling more confident in the present time, but we need a dream, a flight of thought and anticipation of paradise.
Vladimir Abel. Lefortovo prison, Moscow, Russia
Tags: Belorussia, blood, Christian, church, Death, Duty, freedom, Holiday, Latvia, Lefortovo, Lithuania, love, Motherland, Nation, NBP, prison, revolution, USSR, warriors