In Russia The
red–brown term (,
krasno-korichnevye) originated in
post-Soviet Russia to describe an alliance of
communists and far-right (
nationalist,
fascist,
monarchist, and
religious) opposition to the
liberal,
pro-capitalist Russian government in the 1990s, opposing
economic and
social reforms such as rapid transition to a
market economy through
shock therapy, subsequent sharp increase in
poverty and drop in
living standards, and removal of many restrictions on people's behaviour. Such an alliance was first suggested by
Aleksandr Dugin, an early member of the
National Bolshevik Party and writer of the new
Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF) program. As leader of the opposition,
Gennady Zyuganov oversaw the partnership of the CPRF with
Russian National Unity, a prominent
Russian neo-Nazi party. As described by American geography lecturer
Alexander Reid Ross in his 2017
Against the Fascist Creep, in the 1990s Zyuganov also formed alliances with the far-right
National Republican Party of Russia and the Soyuz Venedov, the latter of which, as described and paraphrased by Reid Ross, promotes the worship of pagan gods of the
Slavic pantheon' while translating and disseminating German
Nazi propaganda in Russian." After Zyuganov publicly proclaimed this new red–brown alliance, there was a noted rise in
antisemitism within the CPRF, particularly driven by party official
Albert Makashov, who openly called for the expulsion of
Jews in Russia and met with
David Duke,
grand wizard of the
Ku Klux Klan.
In Germany During the
Weimar Republic, the term
Querfront emerged in Germany to similarly describe an alliance between the
far-left and the
far-right ("red-brown"). In modern German discourse, the term is either used for minor movements that attempt to bridge the divide of left and right in a
populist strategy to unite forces in an effort to gain power, or as a descriptor of media and groups typically viewed as far-right that take on more traditionally left-wing positions such as explicit
anti-capitalism and
anti-imperialism. An example for the former are the activities of the
National Bolshevik Michael Koth, while an example of the latter is the magazine
COMPACT. The modern usage of the term has been criticized by historians as not accurate to the original Weimar-era usage. == See also ==