MOSCOW DEATH BRIGADE and their antifascist posse will not be cancelled by the West European wokerati.
Vandalised synagogues, burning croses in the night/Religious fascist radicals burning inifidels die/ The shit of the same type, the shit we must fight/Know your enemy/Recognise the dark from the light.
These lines are trumpeted out in a song called Anne Frank's Army. They are all quite commendable you might think. Later though, in the same piece the words whore get uttered.
This word, among other proscribed attitudes, have been pounced on by Western European critics in a failed attempt to cancel the authors on account of not being worthy of their own professed antifascist ideals.
Moskovkaya Brigada Smerti – or MOSCOW DEATH BRIGADE – are the authors of these words.This five piece hardcore punk/hip-hop oufit, formed in 2007, project a progressive and anti-racist ethos, which they shout out in English, but there are some who feel that they are not woke enough to join their brethren in the West.
Brown wedge.
MOSCOW DEATH BRIGADE augment their sinister name with a ski-maked stage act and hidden identities. However, their stance is pro-inclusivity and they partake in a Russian subculture which, whilst eschewing politics, aligns itself with those on the sharp end of the nationalist resurgence in contemporary Russia. They represent Nice Guy Skinheads the world over and as Discovery Magazine put it are on their way to becoming a household name in the underground scene (21/04/20).
Alongside them are such bands as WHAT WE FEEL, with whom they recorded a joint rocky number called Here to Stay in 2015, and bands like SIBERIAN MEAT GRINDER (who offer a more whimsical take on things with a mythology based on a Russian bear-Czar, and so on).
MOSCOW DEATH BRIGADE live in the here-and-now and know that the menace of fascism is for real. Fyodor Filatov (Feyday), the leader of the Moscow Trojan Skinheads, an avowedly antifascist collective, died in hospital in October 2008 after being found outside his flat with multiple stab wounds.
The Los Angeles Times (August 22nd, 2015) reports that an organisation styling itself Battle Organisation of Russian Nationalists (BORN) murdered ten people between 2008 and 2010. One victim included a Tajik man whose severed head was left in a government office building together with a note threatening further bloodshed.
Street humans.
Emerging from a DIY culture of skateboards and graffiti, MOSCOW DEATH BRIGADE refer to their upbeat and electronically enhanced sound as Circle Hip-Hop and are recognisable from their alligator logo. The verbals are intoned -with rushing Metro carriage syncopation -by the balaclava clad Boltcutter Vlad and six Mosh G. In Papers, please we get a glimpse of their ethic:
Poison the water/Feast of legalised muder they begin. Then:`Their lies about human rights don't cost a quarter/They bomb your home, let the beast roam, close the border.
They can boast about four previous releases including a compilation with other European antifascist protestors called United Worldwide (Voice of the Street Records, 2015) and Boltcutter in 2018 (Fire and Flames Music).
Throughout they have been showing the world that Russia does not just consist of ethnostatist sleepyheads.
Attempt at defamation.
There have been naysayers though.Five years ago in February it happened. A group under the anonymous name of Antifascist Subculture Worldwide posted, on Linksuten, a scathing attack on the whole Russian antifascist music scene, with particular respect to MOSCOW DEATH BRIGADE. It was entitled Russian antifa discredits Antifascism. This missive, which appeared untranslated from German, while the band were on tour,accused the band of being a bunch of nationalists and chauvinists who were using the anti-fascist association for monetary gain.
Not only did MOSCOW DEATH BRIGADE make use of dubious words in their lyrics, they rubbed shoulders with shady characters and projected a macho stance which excluded sexual minorities.
Furthermore, they did not put their heart and soul into a Left cause and were patriots who imagine that the politics of antifascism can be narrowly reduced to only a fight against Nazis. And so it went on….
Objections Overuled.
The band’s reply which they posted on Facebook on 19th February 2015 was detailed, dignified and convincing.
They remind us that the group – composed of Jews, Russians, Ukranians, Tartars, pople from Christian, Jewish and Muslim families have played numerous benefit gigs all done without profit.
They also remind us of their local situation. On the one hand they are in the shadow of a Soviet past which did not encourage much faith in State Socialism and on the other they are facing very real neo-Nazi tendencies from within their own circle (There are even red-brown Stalinist bands such as KLOWNS who sing in dismisive terms, of the tolerant West).
They express a hope totake patriotism away from the Naziz whose slogan consists of Russia for the Russians by embodying the multi-ethnic nature of Russian society. They have signed a non-partisan manifesto against the war in the Ukraine.
In one pointed passage they say: We can't understand why it is necessary to be labelled a Communist of an Anarchist to be a part of the antifascist movement.
The most significant part of it all is when they go on to characterise the slander of them as being Eurocentric and a blatant expression of West European Imperialism and elitism. (Indeed, it does seem as though the Woker-than-thou German critics have channelled a racial stereotype of Eastern Europeans as being brutalised and backward).
Undeterred.
Menawhile MOSCOW DEATH BRIGADE have released a pro-quarantine song called Put On Your Mask – the proceeds of which will go to organisations which help senior citizens in Russia during the coronavirus.
Their newest album, released last April, comes under the telling title of Bad Accent Anthems. This features a standout euro-banger track, which together with a video featuring people of all ages and types flinging themselves about to it, is a friendly appeal to solidarity:
Another run/ We have just begun/One against the storm/They had to lock the gates so we;re talking them by storm.
The main image: Youtube.com
