Yemelyanov graduated from the
Institute of Oriental Languages at the
Moscow State University. He worked as an adviser to
Nikita Khrushchev on Middle Eastern affairs. In 1963, Yemelyanov was prosecuted for plagiarism in his PhD dissertation. After Khrushchev's resignation in 1967, he defended his dissertation at the Higher Party School of the
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, after which he taught
political economy,
Arabic, and
Hebrew at the
Maurice Thorez Institute of Foreign Languages, the Higher Party School, and several other universities, and worked as a translator. His strong knowledge of Arabic and work opportunities allowed Yemelyanov to establish extensive connections in the
Arab world, including some of the highest-ranking officials. He developed his concept of
Zionism from these sources. As a lecturer at the Moscow City Party Committee in the early 1970s, Yemelyanov called for the "exposure" of the "
Judeo-Masonic conspiracy." Yemelyanov consulted with and was friends with members of the anti-Zionist circle and the Russian nationalist movement known as the "Russian Party." During the 1970s, Yemelyanov closely associated with other authors developing the neo-pagan "Aryan" myth, and A. Ivanov (Skuratov). For a long time, Yemelyanov managed to maintain his roles as both an official publicist and a samizdat author; in this capacity, he was a unique example in the Russian nationalist movement. His official publications were consistent with the general thrust of Soviet anti-Zionist propaganda. Yemelyanov was the author of one of the first manifestos of Russian neo-paganism, the anonymous letter
Critical Notes of a Russian Man on the Patriotic Magazine Veche, published in 1973. After the publication of the notes, the magazine was liquidated in 1974, and its editor, V. Osipov, was arrested. This letter marked Yemelyanov's first samizdat publication. In the 1970s, Yemelyanov wrote the book
Dezionization, first published in Arabic in 1979 in
Syria in the newspaper
Al-Baʽath, under the orders of Syrian President
Hafez al-Assad. At the same time, photocopies of this book, purportedly published by the
Palestine Liberation Organization in Paris, was distributed in Moscow. Among the illustrations for this book were reproductions of paintings by
Konstantin Vasilyev depicting Russian heroes fighting evil forces, and, most notably, the painting "Ilya Muromets Defeats the Christian Plague," which has since become popular among neo-pagans. A voluminous and eclectic work, the central idea of
Dezionization is that the "true" history of humanity is a hidden struggle between pagans and "degenerate" Jewish Zionists. It also briefly recounts the contents of the
Book of Veles and the foundations of neo-paganism. The book presents a version of the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy theory. According to Yemelyanov, the conspiracy of Zionists and Masons was hatched by King
Solomon to seize power over the entire world by the year 2000;
Solomon's Temple was supposedly used for
devil worship and
human sacrifice. The book was translated and published in Israel and several European countries as an example of modern
Soviet antisemitism. In addition describing the alleged history, structure, and operating methods of the "Ziono-Masonic concern,"
Dezionization included the charter of the "World Anti-Zionist and Anti-Masonic Front" (, VASAMF). The section "Principles and Objectives of the Front" envisioned its formation as a "world organization for defense against Jewish Nazism-Zionism" and the liberation of all peoples of the world, and most importantly the Slavs, from "occupation." According to A. Ivanov (Skuratov), acted as an expert on
Dezionization. Despite the fact that he was one of the intellectual leaders of
Russian nationalists, he assessed the book as anti-Soviet and anti-Semitic. Later on, the theoretical differences between these two main ideologues of anti-Zionism had begun to worsen, reflected in a series of samizdat publications written by themselves and their associates. A recording of Yemelyanov's lecture at the , circulated in samizdat, contained the idea that Jews are a professional tribe of criminals, as well as a number of oral mythologies circulating among Russian nationalists, including criticism of
Lilya Brik's "Jewish influence" on
Vladimir Mayakovsky and
Andrei Tarkovsky's film
Andrei Rublev. The dissemination of the ideas Yemelyanov outlined in
Dezionization and in lectures at the Knowledge Society in the early 1970s sparked an international protest, lodged by US Senator
Jacob Javits to Soviet Ambassador to the United States
Anatoly Dobrynin in 1973, after which Yemelyanov's lectures were ended.
Semyon Reznik wrote that in 1975, Yemelyanov succeeded in having Masonic symbols removed from an exhibition dedicated to the
Decembrists. Sergei Semanov, a member of the "Russian Party," noted in his diary that in 1977, Yemelyanov sent a letter to the CPSU Central Committee protesting the presence of Masonic symbols on a commemorative
ruble, which consisted of three intersecting satellite orbits. Yemelyanov spoke with
Mikhail Zimyanin, the Secretary for Ideology, which resulted in the
Politburo of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union withdrawing the coins from circulation and sending them to be melted. In 1977, Yemelyanov sent a memorandum to the Central Committee of the CPSU, claiming that all
Soviet Jews were "Zionist agents." Thus, among other things, he demanded the introduction of a mandatory course in "scientific anti-Zionism and anti-Masonry" in schools, universities, and the army, the creation of a scientific institute for the study of Zionism and Masonry under the Central Committee of the CPSU. Since late 1989, Yemelyanov had been an open adherent of neo-paganism. At that time, together with 's Slavic Gorits Wrestling Club, he co-founded the , the first neo-pagan society in Moscow, and adopted the neo-pagan name Velemir. In 1990, Belov expelled Yemelyanov and his supporters, including
Alexey Dobrovolsky (Dobroslav), from the community for political radicalism. In 1991, Yemelyanov became one of the founders of the Slavic Council. In 1992, he declared himself "Chairman of the World Russian Government," but in the early 1990s, his organization's membership consisted of only a few dozen people who ran their own military-sports club in Moscow. It is alleged that their activities received financing from Arab countries. In the second half of the 1990s, Yemelyanov advocated the restoration of the monarchy in Russia under the "
Stalin dynasty" and proposed Stalin's grandson, retired colonel
Yevgeny Dzhugashvili, as ruler. In the 1990s, Yemelyanov taught at the
Armored Forces Academy. Toward the end of his life, Yemelyanov faded from the political scene. In 1997, along with a small number of followers, he joined A. M. Aratov's small Russian National Liberation Movement and became editor-in-chief of the newspaper
Russkaya Pravda. ==Views and thought==