National Bolshevism

McBain to base! Under attack by Commie-Nazis! "Marxism cannot be reconciled with nationalism, be it even of the 'most just', 'purest', most refined and civilised brand. In place of all forms of nationalism, Marxism advances internationalism, the amalgamation of all nations in the higher unity, a unity that is growing before our eyes with every mile of railway line that is built, with every international trust, and every workers’ association that is formed (an association that is international in its economic activities as well as in its ideas and aims)."



National Bolshevism, also known as Nazbolism or Nazbol, is a neo-fascist and Third positionist ideology that supposedly combines far-right and far-left positions. The origin of National Bolshevism can be traced back to the years following the Russian Revolution, when nationalist groups supportive of the new communist government broke with Lenin over the "national question" and sought their own countries, or for a more Russian-nationalist form of socialism. It was also briefly popular in Germany in the 1920s; its German supporters identified with the USSR because of their opposition to western classical liberalism and capitalism.

National Bolshevik Party
"Bolshevik" actually translates from Russian into English simply as "Majority", whereas the English translation of "Menshevik" is "Minority". That being said, it may be difficult to definitively associate the "Bolshevik" or "Menshevik" Parties to anything other than the "Majority" and "Minority" Communist Parties during the early, pre-Stalin era of the Soviet Union, especially considering that Stalin killed or jailed most of his political opponents during "The Great Purge". The modern National Bolshevik Party (Russian: Национал-большевистская партия, Natsional-bol'shevistskaya partiya) came about in the aftermath of the collapse of the USSR. It operated from 1993 to 2007 as a Russian political party with a political program of National Bolshevism, although it was never officially registered. Originally formed by Aleksander Dugin and, the party combined traditional Bolshevik ideology with radical nationalism, and adopted neo-Nazi symbolism. This includes their logo, a black hammer and sickle on a flag similar to that of Nazi Germany.

By 2007, the Russian government had banned the party, though by this point the party had already split into two groups. Supporters of Limonov founded the party, which followed a more traditional Leninist model and endorsed direct democracy and anti-fascism. Followers of the more right-wing Dugin created the National Bolshevik Front and embraced anti-semitism, ultra-conservatism and fascism as its primary ideological goals. Many Nazbols defected to mainstream Russian nationalist parties.

Nazbol Gang
At some point, 4chan/8chan far-left board /leftypol/ found out about this ideology and presumably due to its sheer edginess and the absurdity of its combining two extreme and incompatible belief systems, made an ironic meme about it called Nazbol Gang, which consists of satirical image macros (usually "deep fried") that are stylized to make them appear as if they are sponsored by Nazbols (" is NAZBOL [Meme made by Nazbol Gang]"). The meme was promoted by "shitposters" that were, at worst, dirtbag brocialists, but not actual National Bolsheviks; these ironic Nazbols presumably outnumber the real thing by a large degree. However, when the fine folks at /leftypol/'s toxic, far-right cousin /pol/ discovered this meme and researched it, they found out about Strasserism. Now they even have their own anthem ("Fuera Sionista").

"Patriotic Socialism"
"Patriotic Socialism" (whose followers go by the demonym "patsocs") is, similarly to another ideology which has "Socialism in its name", an entirely internet-based far-right chauvinist trend in the United States claiming to combine Marxism-Leninism with "Patriotism" (a.k.a. U.S. ultra-nationalism). In practice, it's just a crude mix of vague support for the Chinese economic system, the fascist ideology of Dugin, Trumpism, transphobia, homophobia, biphobia, xenophobia, misogyny, American exceptionalism, anti-feminism, and other traces of hateful ideas as well as an almost complete devotion to nations like China and Russia (the latter of which they view as "anti-imperialist", because it's never imperialism when Russia does it, according to them), and commonly refer to themselves as tankies.

Unlike actual socialists, patsocs hold most of the bigoted views of the far-right, think that the existence of billionaires is not in contradiction with socialism (because China does it), and ignore the typical Marxist views of "class struggle", instead viewing the main problems in society as being by a small cabal of "globalists".

"MAGA Communism"
In an effort to "reach the American working class", patsocs have adopted "MAGA Communism" in an attempt to better sell patriotic socialism to far-righters (you know, the people who are some of the most militant anti-communists out there?). However, this has resulted in only "MAGA" with no "Communism", with major "MAGA Communism" promoters redefining communism to mean an economy for the "small businesses and single-farmers":