Valery Nikolayevich Yemelyanov (; 24 May 1929 – 9 May 1999) was a Soviet-Russian Arabist and public figure, teacher of Arabic and Hebrew, and candidate of economic sciences.
Yemelyanov was a member of the anti-Zionist circle, which was part of the Russian nationalist movement in the USSR, known as the "". He was one of the founders of Russian neo-paganism, a representative of the "first wave" of the Russian neo-pagan movement, the creator of the pseudo-historical concept of an ancient civilization of "Aryo-Veneti", and an author of antisemitic ideas. He was the founder and chairman of World Anti-Zionist and Anti-Masonic Front "Pamyat" (the neo-pagan wing of the far-right Pamyat society) and author of the books Dezionization and Jewish Nazism and the Asiatic Mode of Production. He was one of the most prominent self-proclaimed anti-Zionists in the Soviet Union.
Life 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.Антисемитизм в 1970–80-е гг. - Электронная еврейская энциклопедия ОРТ
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. In the memorandum, he "exposed" the "international Judeo-Masonic pyramid." He proposed the creation of a "World Anti-Zionist and Anti-Masonic Front" similar to the anti-fascist popular front of the 1930s and 1940s, since, in his opinion, all goyim of the world were threatened by the global Zionist domination that he predicted to come by the year 2000.
In 1977–1978, Yemelyanov participated in the activities of the anti-Zionist circle, on the basis of which its participants planned to establish the Pamyat World Anti-Zionist and Anti-Masonic Front. The circle was led by Yevgeny Yevseyev, nephew of the Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Boris Ponomarev. Later, in 1979–1980, following the circle's example, a Book Lovers' Society was founded under the Ministry of Aviation Industry, forming the basis of what in 1982 became the Pamyat Society.
Semyon Reznik believes that Yemelyanov was the author of an anti-Semitic article in the magazine Moskva, published in 1979 under the pseudonym I. Bestuzhev. This article asserted that Judaism preaches hatred of non-Jews and instructs to kill the best of them.
Yemelyanov began accusing a wide range of individuals of "Zionism," including the ruling elite, headed by General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU Leonid Brezhnev. In early 1980, he attempted to distribute copies of Dezionization among members of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee and its secretariat. Following an investigation by the Party Control Commission, Yemelyanov was expelled from the CPSU and suspended from his post; the formal grounds for this were violation of party discipline by publishing the book abroad. From the CPSU Central Committee's perspective, independent publication of the book, especially by a party member, was unacceptable. On 26 March 1980, he refused to name the people who helped him publish the book at a Party Control Commission meeting. The Shorter Jewish Encyclopedia attributes his expulsion with the fact that Yemelyanov called Leonid Brezhnev a "Zionist." His expulsion from the party meant the end of his political and public career.
On 10 April 1980, Yemelyanov was arrested on charges of murdering and dismembering his wife with an axe. He was convicted, declared insane, diagnosed with schizophrenia, and placed in the Leningrad Special Psychiatric Hospital for six years. According to a later statement by a court observer, Yemelyanov's motive for dismembering his wife's body and burning it at a construction site was suspicions of her collaboration with Zionists.
After his release from the psychiatric hospital in 1986, Yemelyanov joined Dmitri Vasilyev's Pamyat Society and was briefly considered one of its leaders. The most influential literature in the society were Yemelyanov's Dezionization and A. M. Ivanov's (Skuratov's) The Christian Plague. Yemelyanov parted ways with Vasilyev on ideological grounds: Vasilyev believed that the Zionists were destroying Christianity in Russia, while Yemelyanov believed that Christianity was imposed on Russia by the Zionists.
In late 1987, Yemelyanov founded the Pamyat World Anti-Zionist and Anti-Masonic Front.Соловей В. Д. "Память": история, идеология, политическая практика // А. В. Лебедев (ред.) Русское дело сегодня. Кн. 1. "Память". Moscow: ЦИМО Institute of Anthropology and Ethnography, 1991. P. 12—95.
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.
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