Zhirinovskii: Ideas in Search of an Audience

Abstract

Of all today’s Russian politicians it is Zhirinovskii who has attracted the largest number of attempts at categorization. Most frequently he has been called a nationalist. The term has become a handy means of differentiating him from his rivals — Yeltsin, Chernomyrdin, Kozyrev and Gaidar — who have emphasized a commitment to other values: democracy, parliamentarianism, individual freedoms, cultural tolerance, inter-ethnic co-operation. His rivals have in various ways modified their ideas since 1991, and characteristically have adopted rhetoric which has included a praise of Russian nationhood. But still the contrast with Zhirinovskii is firmly drawn. He is seen as differing qualitatively from the politicians of the most influential elites and representing a nationalist danger to whatever level of territorial, political, economic and social harmony might be achieved in the Russian Federation.