Eduard Limonov (, real name Eduard Veniaminovich Savenko, ; born February 22, 1943) is a French citizen and a Russian writer and political dissident, and is the founder and leader of the unregistered radical National Bolshevik Party, which aims to create a grand empire that will include the whole of Europe, Russia and Northern/Central Asia to be governed under Russian rule. The political scientist and Russian expert Stephen Shenfield (Brown University) considers Eduard Limonov a fascist.
An opponent of Vladimir Putin and a political ally of Garry Kasparov, Limonov is a leader of Kasparov's Other Russia political bloc.
Limonov was born in Dzerzhinsk, USSR - an industrial town on the Oka River, near the major city of Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky during Soviet Rule). In the early years of his life family moved to Kharkiv, Ukrainian SSR where Limonov grew up. In the early 1970s he was a poet in Moscow, and achieved a degree of success before being stripped of his citizenship and expelled from the Soviet Union.
He arrived in New York City in 1974 as an emigrant and began writing novels. It's unclear what legal status Limonov had in the US that allowed him to stay there for many years. He fell in with the New York punk and avante-garde scene, acquiring an admiration for Lou Reed, as well as such American writers as Charles Bukowski.
In 1982, he moved to Paris with his lover Natalya Medvedeva, and quickly became active in French literary circles. He was also granted French citizenship, and his Soviet citizenship was restored by Mikhail Gorbachev. Limonov and Medvedeva married but were divorced in 1994.
Limonov's works are noted for their cynicism. His novels are also memoirs, describing his experiences as a youth in Russia and as émigré in the United States.
Russian film director and screenwriter Aleksandr Veledinskii's 2004 feature film Russkoe ("Russian") is based on Limonov's writings.
Since the late 1990s, Limonov has been a regular contributor to "Living Here" and later to the eXile, English-language newspapers in Moscow. These are the only known sources where Limonov has written 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 are political, he also writes on many topics, including "advice for ambitious youngsters."
In 1991, Limonov returned to Russia from France and became active in politics. He founded a newspaper called Limonka (Russian nickname for the modern lemon-shaped F1 hand grenade; presumably, a play on his pen name Limonov [Lemon] and the explosive nature of the material), and a small, equally radical political party called the National Bolshevik Party. The National Bolshevik Party (NBP) believes in the creation of a grand empire that will include the whole of Europe and Russia, as well as Northern/Central Asia to be governed under Russian dominance. Although the group never managed to obtain an official party status, it remains active in protests on various social and political issues, in particular harshly criticizing the regime of Vladimir Putin.
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.
Limonov supported the November 2000 NBP occupation of St. Peter's Church in Riga after the event, in an article in the eXile. Specifically, NBP activists had barricaded themselves in the church's belltower after brandishing a fake grenade, and threatened to blow up the building in attempt to draw attention to alleged mistreatment of Russian minorities in Latvia. While no injury or property damage occurred, this action has been referred to by some media outlets as terrorism. Three NBP member were convicted and sentenced to 10—15 years in jail. Four other NBP members, who were captured before the attack, served short sentences and were deported.
In the 2000s Limonov's NBP has liberalized to an extent, even denouncing all xenophobia and antisemitism on its official website. The party is part of Garry Kasparov's United Civil Front. During the 1990s, he supported Bosnian Serbs in the Yugoslav wars; and Abkhaz and Transnistrian secessionists against Georgia and Moldova, respectively.
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 parolled for good behavior.
Limonov is a strong supporter of Serbia and achieved notoriety by joining a sniper patrol in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Bosnian war. BBC television showed Limonov with Radovan Karad?i?, former Bosnian Serb President and accused war criminal for genocide against Bosniaks of Bosnia. The video featured Limonov firing a sniper rifle from a tank into the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo. He has at times controversially talked about the need for the use of "Serbian tactics" to regain areas of the former Soviet Union that have large Russian populations. Some people seeking to spread support for the NBP and minimize evidence of "extremism" say that the "Serbian tactics"simply means territorial assertion and perhaps military intervention. Some people say, however, that he is referring to genocide.
Limonov has listed among his idols Joseph Stalin, Mikhail Bakunin, Julius Evola and Yukio Mishima. He has counted Alain de Benoist amongst his political allies. He was initially an ally of Vladimir Zhirinovsky and was named as Security Minister in a shadow cabinet formed by Zhirinovsky in 1992. However Limonov soon tired of Zhirinovsky's over the top political stunts and split from him, writing the book "Limonov against Zhirinovsky".
On March 3, 2007, Limonov and members of his National Bolshevik Party together with other left and right-wing opposition activists took part in organizing Saint Petersburg Dissenters' March involving scores of people rallying against Vladimir Putin and Valentina Matviyenko's policies. Limonov was detained by police in the very beginning of the rally.
On April 14, 2007 Limonov was arrested after an anti-government rally in Moscow.
On January 31, 2009 Limonov together with a number of members of the National Bolshevik Party were detained by the Police during an Anti-Kremlin rally in Moscow.
In late April 2010 Limonov got involved in a sexscandal, at the same time with the same woman as other opposition members. The scandal has been blamed as a trap by Russia’s Federal Security Service.
Limonov has been married to the actress Ekaterina Volkova and has a son Bogdan and daughter Alexandra with her.
