Eduard Veniaminovich Limonov (; 22 February 194317 March 2020) was a Russian writer, poet, publicist, political dissident and politician.
Limonov is best known for his novel ‘’It's me, Eddie’’, released in 1979. He emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1974, but returned to Russia in 1991, where he founded the National Bolshevik Party. The party was banned in the country in 2007 and superseded by The Other Russia. In the 2000s, he was one of the leaders of The Other Russia coalition of opposition forces.
Biography Early life, 1943–1966 Limonov was born in Dzerzhinsk, Gorky Oblast, Soviet Union. His father was born in the Voronezh Oblast while his mother was born in the Gorky Oblast. Limonov's fatherthen in the military servicewas in a state security career and his mother was a homemaker. In the early years of his life his family moved to Kharkov in the Ukrainian SSR, where Limonov grew up. He studied at the H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University.
By Limonov's own account, he began writing "very bad" poetry at the age of thirteen and soon after became involved in theft and petty crime as an adolescent hooligan. Limonov adopted his pen name for use in literary circles during this time.
In December 1973, KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov labeled Limonov a 'staunch anti-Soviet.'
Konkret poets in Moscow, 1966–1974 In 1966, together with his first wife, Anna Moiseevna Rubinstein, (their marriage was not registered officially) he first came to Moscow, earning money sewing trousers (Limonov "dressed" many in the intelligentsia; sculptor Ernst Neizvestny and poet Bulat Okudzhava among others), but later returned to Kharkov.
Limonov moved to Moscow again in 1967, marrying a fellow poet, Yelena Shchapova, in a Russian Orthodox ceremony in 1973. During his period in Moscow, Limonov was involved in the Konkret poets' group and sold volumes of his self-published poetry while doing various day jobs. Having achieved a degree of success in this manner by the mid-1970s, and he and his wife emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1974. The exact circumstances of Limonov's departure are unclear and have been described differently. Reportedly, the KGB secret police gave him a choice either to become an informant, or leave the country.Литературная Россия . Litrossia.ru. Retrieved on 22 February 2014.
Literary exile in New York, 1974–1980 Although neither he nor Shchapova were Jewish, the Soviet Union issued permission for the couple to emigrate to Israel, but soon after the couple arrived in the United States. Limonov settled in New York City, where he and Shchapova soon divorced.
Limonov worked for a Russian-language newspaper as a proofreader and occasionally interviewed recent Soviet emigrants. Like Eddie, the immigrant protagonist of Limonov's first novel It's Me, Eddie, Limonov was drawn to punk subculture and radical politics. Limonov's New York acquaintances included Studio 54's Steve Rubell and a Trotskyist group, the Socialist Workers Party. As protagonist Eddie finds out as a consequence, the latter is a political target of the FBI.Limonv, Edward. It's me, Eddie: A Fictional Memoir. New York: Random House. p. 91. . Limonov was himself harassed by the FBI.Rogatchevski, A. (2003). A Biographical and Critical Study of Russian Writer Eduard Limonov, Studies in Slavic Language and Literature, 20 . Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellen Press. p. 167. As he later recounted, the FBI interrogated dozens of his acquaintances, once asking a friend about "Lermontov" in Paris when he had resettled in France.
The first chapter of It's Me, Eddie, was published by an Israeli Russian-language journal. Finished by 1977, it was consistently rejected by publishers in the United States and only brought out a few years after becoming an instant success in France in 1980. In interviews, Limonov says this was because the book was not written with an anti-Soviet tone as was other Russian literature admired in the United States.
In New York, Limonov also discovered another side of the American Dream. After being a dissident, he lived a poor life due to his low income on welfare. He managed to afford a room in a miserable hostel and spent time with outcasts and homeless persons, some of whom he had casual sexual intercourse with, as related in ‘’It's me, Eddie’’, published in France under the title Le poète russe préfère les grands nègres. He then found a job as a butler for a millionaire on the Upper East Side. This period of his life led him to write autobiographical texts, including His Butler's Story.
Limonov was considered an outsider among exiliants and dissidents as he was still an unwavering and ardent communist that criticized western capitalism, denounced other dissidents like Solzhenitsyn, Brodsky or Sakharov and pursued an "outrageous" punk lifestyle which included bisexual acts, all of which he graphically depicted in ‘’It's me, Eddie’. Limonov dubbed himself the "Johnny Rotten of literature".
Limonov's stay in Paris, 1980–1991 Finally, disillusioned with the country he termed "a damned outhouse bereft of spirit or purpose on the outskirts of civilization", Limonov left America for Paris with his lover Natalya Medvedeva in 1980, where he became active and made a name for himself in French literary circles. He swore to never return to the United States, and never did. Having remained stateless for thirteen years, he was granted French citizenship in 1987. Limonov and Medvedeva got married in 1982; the pair split up by 1995. Limonov gave an infamous interview to Thierry Ardisson for Antenne 2 on September 25th 1989, in which Limonov wore a Red Army uniform and spoke positively about his admiration for masculinity, militarism as well as Soviet nostalgia.
Return to Russia and the foundation of NBP, 1991–2000 In 1991, Limonov returned to Russia from France, restored his citizenship, and became active in politics. He supported the hardliners during the August coup in 1991.
Limonov was an active supporter of Serbia in the wars that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia. Paweł Pawlikowski's film Serbian Epics includes footage of him meeting with Radovan Karadžić, then the Bosnian Serb president and later a convicted war criminal, on the front lines of Sarajevo in 1992. The film also shows Limonov participating in a sniper patrol and firing a few rounds with a machine gun on the outskirts of the besieged city.. osa.ceu.huFinding Karadzic: How Karadzic's poetry helps to prove his genocidal intent . Findingkaradzic.blogspot.com (5 December 2006). Retrieved on 22 February 2014. This incident led to him being deemed a persona non grata among western literary circles. When asked about the incident in 2010, Limonov said he had been shooting at a target range and that Pawlikowski added an extra camera shot to make it appear he had fired into a populated area. This explanation has been challenged.Marc Bennetts, "Eduard Limonov interview: Political rebel and Vladimir Putin's worst nightmare", The Guardian, 12 December 2010, accessed 27 August 2012. See also Bernard Besserglik, "A Novel Treatment," The Times Literary Supplement, 2 March 2012, p. 1. The footage was later shown during the trial of Karadžić at The Hague. Limonov wrote about his fascination with (para-)militarism, weapons and military aesthetics and visited war zones to achieve the status of a "warrior poet" as literary figures like Mishima, D’Annunzio, Hemingway or Orwell.
On another occasion, Limonov said that he "celebrated his 50th birthday in Kninska Krajina [...] by firing from a Russian-made heavy gun at Croatian Army headquarters."Holdsworth, Nick (29 March 2003) "News of the World," The Times. During the 1990s, he supported Bosnian Serbs in the Yugoslav wars and the Armenian, Abkhaz, and Transnistrian secessionists against Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova, respectively. Limonov was also 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, accusing him of moderateness and of approaching the president and consequently split from him, publishing the book "Limonov against Zhirinovsky" (1994).
Upon his return to Russia, Limonov established a sort of cult following among young, disenfranchised men due to his hyper-masculine, rebellious image and fashion style (black combat boots, leather jacket, tinted glasses).
In 1993, together with figures like Aleksandr Dugin and Yegor Letov, he founded the National Bolshevik Party which started to publish a newspaper called Limonka (the Russian nickname for the lemon-shaped F1 hand grenade; also a play on his pen name Limonov). 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. After that, a criminal case was launched against him on charges of incitement of ethnic hatred. Limonov was also a contributor for scandalous Russian newspaper Novy Vzglyad, where he met and collaborated with queer activist Slava Mogutin, who became his mentee until Mogutin left Russia. In January 1995 in Limonka, Limonov praised Yeltsin's invasion of Chechnya starting the First Chechen War.
On the Ukrainian Independence Day 24 August 1999, Limonov along with 15 other supporters from the top of the city's clock tower in Sevastopol publicly called to review the status of the city and not to ratify the Treaty about Friendship and Cooperation between Russia and Ukraine by the State Duma.
Jail and protest activities, 2001–2013 Limonov and a number of his supporters were arrested in April 2001 at a village in Altai close to the Kazakhi border by the FSB after illegally acquiring weapons and munition. He was jailed on charges of terrorism, the forced overthrow of the constitutional order, and the illegal purchase of weapons. The Russian government accused Limonov of trying to raise a private milita to invade Kazakhstan and incite a popular uprising of the Russian diaspora in the East Kazakhstan Region.
After one year in Lefortovo prison, 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.. Gazeta.ru. 30 June 2003. He served almost two years before being paroled for good behavior.. Novaya Gazeta via English pravda.ru. 21 June 2003. He wrote eight books while in jail. Amnesty International called Limonov a political prisoner.
In 2006, Limonov married the actress Yekaterina Volkova. They had a son, Bogdan, and a daughter, Alexandra. They split up in 2008.
On 19 April 2007, the Moscow City Court banned the National Bolshevik Party as extremist. The decision was upheld by the Supreme Court.
Limonov continued his political activities as one of the leaders of The Other Russia, along with liberal, nationalist and communist politicians. He took part in various protests and was one of the organizers of the Dissenters' Marches. In particular, on 3 March 2007, Limonov was detained by police in the very beginning of the rally the first Saint Petersburg Dissenters' March; on 14 April 2007, Limonov was arrested again after an anti-government rally in Moscow;. english.aljazeera.net. 15 April 2007. on 31 January 2009 was detained again in Moscow.