Monday, July 5, 2010

Kolovrat Interview

Below is an interview with long running Russian metal/ RAC band Kolovrat. It was originally posted on the French Werwolf Blog here






Cheers comrades Russian "Kolovrat" "Could you please introduce the members of your group to our readers?

Greetings to all our French brothers and sisters, all activists of the national one of the most beautiful countries in Europe, and also to all readers of this interview!
Firstly, on behalf of the group, I want to thank you for your interest and we carry the proposal to this interview, we appreciate!

Tell us about the history and discography of "Kolovrat" (you celebrated your 15th anniversary last year already)?

You're right: we celebrated our 15th anniversary on August 9, the anniversary for the 16th is ready. The band's history is long, many things (good or bad) that happened during all these years, so it is not so easy to tell the detailed story of our group, but I will try to give you the gist.

We started the summer of 1994 in our hometown of Moscow, there were no groups in CAR in the former USSR before us. We were 4 young (only 18 to 19 years) Skinheads in the same industrial area of Moscow. Our original name was "Russian Ghetto", we were all from poor neighborhoods, ghettos of Russians. That's why we chose "Russian ghetto" but also because we wanted to return to the original meaning of the word "ghetto" ("living space alone), because we were all Russian radical nationalists (we were blinded by the ultra-nationalism) and we believe in an ideal political model to continue where the Russian state would be governed by an autocratic leader and isolated from the world. But we changed our minds quickly and it was realized that these "ghettos Russians' t do anything more than a utopia and we all need to be first and foremost racialist, that all our nations belong to a joint family, so the race should be above all. We changed our name to Kolovrat "- in August 2007, I'll tell you the reasons for this change in detail in the next question.

We have always been active as a group, so we wrote about 300 songs and recorded more than 100 of them on many studio albums, compilations and split CD (see details below). The band played (both in "electric" and "Acoustic" (trio ballad) queues (or even our singer / brain performed solo as a bard with the entire ride)) about 270 times: all Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic, Italy, Hungary. The line has been amended several times inevitably, I think that no less than 15 times (or more) different people have played in "Kolovrat" during all these years. So the book of our history and tragic pages: 2 of our members were killed in 1994 and 1999, two other guys were convicted and are heavily behind bars since 1997.

"Kolovrat" official discography

(* "Official" Because Of Many pirate bootlegs by the band not authorized)

Ready to destroy (demo 1994, unreleased)

Hail Russia! (Demo 1995 Кolovrat Records SN 2000 MC Strong Survive Records USA 2005, CD)

National revolution (album 1998, Кolovrat SN Records 1998 + 2000, MC)

Blood of patriots (album 1999, Kolovrat SN Records 2000, MC/ CD)

Forged boots rock (official live bootleg 1999, КТR 2000, MC; Kolovrat SN Records 2002, MC)

Nahkampf/ Kolovrat (split CD 2000, Jens Puehse 2000, CD; Kolovrat SN Records 2000, MC (under the title "Russian-German NS unity"))

Ninth wave of WP (tribute album 2001, Kolovrat SN Records 2001, MC/ CD)

Era of right hand (album 2002 Kolovrat Records SN 2002 MC / CD; Pit Records 2002 CD)

Hammering the Road to Victory (album 2003 Kolovrat Records SN 2003 MC / CD)

Prisoner of conscience (2004 album, Kolovrat Records SN 2004 MC / CD; Moloko + Versand 2004, CD)

In memory of Ian Stuart (live album 2003, SN Kolovrat Records 2005, CD)

European freedom Express (split CD (with "Guarda de Ferro") 2004, White Noise Records 2007, CD)

Radical Voice (in defense of freedom) (Album '2002 / 2007, X-Day Records / SN Kolovrat Records 2007, CD, White Noise Records, CD (Englishspeaking (2008) and Germanspeaking (2009) versions))

Tоtal War (album, 2008, X-Day Records / SN Kolovrat Records 2008, CD, White Noise Records 2009, CD (English speaking German speaking versions and "under the tittle" Brother war "- to Be released))

Unity in Action (Split CD with "Hassgesang, PC Records 2009, CD))

Elite brotherhood (Split CD with "Imperium", "October 15" and "Attack", SN Kolovrat Records 2009, CD (for Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and for the Participated bands only); Moloko + Versand 2010, CD (European / world edition) - To Be released)



Сompilations: Сompilations:

Guess who's coming for seconds (GBNAR Records 2000, CD; Kolovrat Records SN 2000, MC)

Unsere Welt (Jens Puehse 2000, CD; Kolovrat Records SN 2000, MC)

East Europe Division (Ragnaroek Records 2001, CD; Kolovrat Records SN 2001, MC)

Nadsat - 1, 2 (2002 and 2003 Nadsat crew, CD; Kolovrat Records SN 2002 and 2003, MC)

WPWW- 6 (Midgaard Records 2004, CD) WPWW-6

Up to Zero - 8 (Masks Off Records 2004, CD)

ISD Memorial (live split CD 2003, Patriot Productions 2004, CD)

v/a Prezent (Forumul Crestin Noua Dreapta 2005, CD)

v/a Tribute to Skrewdriver Vol. 2 (Moloko+ Versand 2005, CD)

Day of the rope - 2 (Strong Survive Records 2005, CD)

28 Vol. 5 (unknown label in 2005, CD)

No one like us ... we don't care (Streetfight Records 2006, CD)

Tribute to Strikeforce (Iron Eagle Division 2006, CD)

Tribute to Legion 88 (Streetfighting Records 2006, CD)

Lost freedom. Tribute to Burzum (Patriot Productions 2007, CD)

Thanks bro (Tribute to Ken and Brutal Attack) (Good Night Left Side Records 2008, CD)

For faith and folk Vol. 1 (Revenge Records 2008, CD)

Tribute to Kontingent .. (Europe Genocide Records 2009, CD - To Be released (?))

Video:

Kriegsberichter - 5 (NS 88 video division in 2001, VHS / DVD)

Tell us about the meaning of the name of your group and why you chose it?

As I said earlier, we started with the original name "Russian Ghetto. It was a cool name for a group and atypical skin in the 90s, when the absolute majority of WP groups preferred a name more radical
type names "in your face" so to speak. But "Russian Ghetto" as a name for a Russian nationalist group was too controversial for many of our friends here, some guys even thought that this "ghetto" humiliated the Russian term (was a bit exaggerated I think, but hey .. .). Anyway: we felt that we need another name for our group - that name was supposed to share our political views more clearly, so we changed the name of the group "Kolovrat "in August 1997. We did this because we find that the new name represents the direction of creativity and the political attitude of our group a better way, "Russian Ghetto." Regarding the meaning of the name of our group - "Kolovrat" is the old Russian word (or is it better to say Slave) has two meanings: 1) Slavic pagan symbol resembling a modification of the right wing of the swastika for some (but is not the NS German swastika is an ancient pagan symbol of Russia, the right side of the sun wheel), 2) "Kolovrat" was the nickname martial one of the greatest heroes of Russia - Evpaty Kolovrat , who was head of the troops partisan warriors of 1200 to winter 1237 / 1238 and led the courageous Russian partisan insurgents in their resistance against the Indians and many Mongol hordes of Baty Chan, who invaded Russia in the road bleeding lips Europe. He died heroically in a battle of uneven and its name has become a leading national symbols of the liberation movement in Russia. The personality of this brave warrior is an example of absolute worship in modern Russian nationalists Today we were all impressed by the story of his many exploits. I should add that we are extremely proud that our group was such an honor and a privilege to be named in honor and memory of this hero , warrior and martyr Evpaty The Frantic (his other nickname martial).

What are the central themes of your songs?

As you know we are a political group, there is nothing surprising that the main themes are very political. Of course, we (or better to say yet) some "subcultural song" in our live set as well (from our first album in particular) on the skinheads and hooligan cult. But I would not say that we belong to a subculture, these days we try to play all the white descendants with a sense of national pride and racial identity, I suppose we may restrict expect more songs from this type of subculture from us. Today, we try to focus on these subjects, which could be easily understandable even by "normal people" of all social groups is a more effective way to convey the message to the survival of our People.

Regarding the content of our words - I really do not think that our message can not be recognized as quite original compared to other nationalist groups, this is not something special, too - I rather think that is quite typical in the middle, so there is nothing more to say about this. We sing for the survival of our race (the main thing that counts) / nations and all that goes with that, these issues are most important to us all, so we treat them first and foremost. The cultural heritage of Russia and Europe, the brave and glorious Russian heroes of our past, economic, and social policies of our countries to which they face today-that is all reflected in our words.

Can you tell us about your musical influences?

My thought is that "Kolovrat" is not a typical group of RAC (I hope at least) musically. We even try to go beyond the boundaries of musical and lyrical today, we try to be more diverse, more intelligent, not too in your face ", but still RAC same time - we can not forget our roots, that is very deep street music Skinhead: RAC and Hardcore (some call Hatecore). Perhaps the most accurate description of our creed music would be ... intend to develop the style we play, while remaining true to our roots and traditions of the stage at the same time, which is extremely important to us. But we're pretty metal, we like to use different styles of modern rock music heavy (even thrash / death metal, hardcore / metalcore) and our sound is hard, but I think we still have a RAC style anyway. In addition, it might be possible that we will move on to more traditional and melodic Oi! / RAC in the future, there are many different things in our minds as you you see ... But the most important thing is the lyrical message, you can talk about music but the content is more important than form, which may be different but the message remains the same anyway.

What are your favorite groups: both modern and old, those who are already dissolved?

Oh, there are a lot of good bands in the world . Well, let me begin by classical music RAC Skrewdriver (and anything done by Ian Stuart in fact) and Bound For Glory first, then Squadron, Nordic Thunder" (Blue Eyed Devils /sedition / Teardown), Brutal Attack, Midtown Bootboys, Aryan, Freikorps, Peggior Amico, Swastika, Fortress, Konkwista 88, Razor's Edge Ultima Frontiera, Imperial Estirpe ... the list could go on and on. So we're big fans of the Czech and Slovak scene, there were (and still) many excellent groups, follow them!

I belong to the older generation and veterans groups (but still active!) Are still there (and still) are the best for me: powerful Brutal Attack, Bully Boys, No Remorse, Razors Edge, Français Rose , Faustrecht , Kraftschlag, Landser/ Lunikoff Verschwoerung , Warlord , Vinland Warriors are still my favorite (especially in comparison with the new breed of WP groups, they are too metal / RAC too far for me (even if one wishes to use the metal elements in our own music.) Parallel to the scene Czech / Slovak I like the Italian scene Oi! / RAC in general, very well There are so many groups Skins (Peggior Amico / Armco , Ultima Frontiera , Mallnatt , legittima Offesa Gesta bellica , ADL 122 / Injustice Side, Timebomb, Civic 88, SPQR", etc., etc.) in Italy. I also love all the many projects of Big Ed Bound For Glory, Pillage and Plunder and Before God are especially touching. Ed is right a magician, amazing musician and songwriter.

Your future projects in the short and long term (new CD's, compilations, concerts later ...)?



Well, we've always had (and still have) many (perhaps too?) Different plans for the future, perhaps a kind of Russian national mentality? You know, there is an old Russian saying, "divide the skin of the bear before killing him," I think it is our particular case ...
Thus, concerning our plans ... where to start ... Of course, we have projects in the broad concert circuit, there are some very promising in the pipeline already. We play both ballad and "electric" and concerts at the moment we have about 270 shows in many countries already. We always try to make a list of songs with a unique program for each set together to make our performance more interesting for listeners. It's always a lot of work, while recalling the ancient songs of various albums (some songs we have not played for years) and try to play live quite well, but it has many fun at the same time, you know.

Studio: we work on recording a compilation of ballad wide, more than 40 songs (the ballads are played in concert since 2000 already, but we did not record a single album of all ride again We must correct this error), which will be separated into three different albums, each will be in a slightly different musical direction. Also we are working on new songs at the same time, they are for a new label split CD 5 titles (it should come out later this year for a well known European label) will bring together groups of veteran RAC across worldwide. We started working on this new album for our ninth full length album, due out in 2011. In addition we will take part in some international compilations if there are interesting proposals. So, to summarize, we will do our best to save as much as possible, we'll see if we will succeed. No rest for the wicked do not forget ...

Are you familiar with the French RAC scene?

We love to listen to the French stage, Bagadou Sturm, Lemovices (Thanks for the Beloye Army comrades), Hate and Proud, Cell 23 are among our favorites. One of the largest French is Kontingent 88, it has been dissolved since so many years, but returned with the new album recently. They have very talented guitarist, who could easily be compared Stigger, Big Ed and Jimmy the "Squadron". I also like Frakass, two pieces of the compilation France explosion are in my collection, and there are many good bands (but I suspect that the majority of them are no longer alive) ... Ultimatum is a very talented group, too, but they are more style metal WP I think. Also what is interesting about them - they used the image (Sventovit) of one of the most famous painters of Russia Konstantin Vasilyev on the cover of their album. And of course the best classic french RAC groups are Legion 88 and Bunker 84. By the way we have also covered some French versions in the past, White Legion (actually it is one of the first songs I heard RAC in my life, on the theme United Skins sampler ) by Legion 88 (we resume our Prisoner of Conscience album in 2004) + Victory and Cross and Flame (Kontingent 88) (for compilation tribute to a young French label, but project appears to be canceled, so we plan to release two titles in our studio, closer to the end of this year). We've taken these songs in our own way, AC was a very interesting experience for us We hope to have succeeded.

Which European groups would you play with in the future?

There are so many talented groups on the European scene these days it would be really difficult to answer this question. Of course, we'd like to play with all groups that have been mentioned among the favorites already, but Razor's Edge, Blue Eyed Devils and recently reunited Bound For Glory are the first names that come to mind .



Can you please tell us about "Sounds of Europe" festival in August 2009 in Budapest, Hungary?
You played at this concert, what are your impressions?

Good memories, it was impressive and exciting as an event. So many good bands and friends from around the world gathered together - just excellent!
With some of the people I met there we corresponded for over a decade, but also just met this memorable event. Also, I must mention an amazing degree of organization, the excellent work of the Hungarian comrades! What about our performance - it was not the best gig we've done because we were too tired at the moment we entered the arena, there was approximately one hour and some of us n had not slept for almost two days already. But we rocked the crowd anyway, I think (thank you in the right PA and the active support of the audience), we had this evening a lot and met many old and new friends, it's main thing next to the performance itself. I would like to send my greetings to all our Hungarian friends!


How is the skinhead scene in Russia?

Well, I think the skinhead name is almost finished in modern Russia, for several reasons. We have specialized as the political situation in our country and this level of development of the movement to far right that there is almost no leftist skinheads (in the "classic" boots'n'braces "that this subculture is known in Western Europe for example) in Russia, maybe just new entrants. If you see someone who dresses in traditional clothing skinhead in Moscow today is a dirty SHARP or another type of shit like a gay, most likely. Perhaps there are some young skinheads, nationalists in some very remote areas of our country, but the majority of the modern Russian activists are far from skinhead culture, they are much more intelligent to be unmasked by wearing skinhead (it is almost impossible in today's Russia, because of the brutal and utterly lawless violent oppression of the system just because of skin image and the attacks of Caucasians) and they are much more dangerous than most of the skinheads because they are not interested in concerts and demonstrations (and legal forms of protest in general), but more by the resistance Autonomous primarily everything. So we can reasonably say that the Skinhead movement is completed in Russia, but the NS autonomous resistance began. What about my personal attitude towards the Skinheads - I respect them a lot and I have many friends abroad who are in the skin trip, but Russia has its own way to see, which is still different from Western Europe.
Of course we still have a right wing on the music scene, but I would not call it the skinhead scene in particular, because we have not only skinhead groups.

Can you please tell us about the nationalist movement in Russia, is it well organized?

You're right, the Russian nationalist movement is very large, organized and radical, very radical and militant. Maybe Russian nationalists are the most violent in the world, in Europe of course. Here in our country, we have both "legal wing nationalist" (organizations such as "Russky Obraz" (www.russky-obraz.net), "Soprotivlenie" ("Resistance" (www.soprotivlenie . su)), "JSS" ("National - Socialism Initiative (www.nsinitiative.national-resistance.com))," Slavjansky Souyz "(" Slavic Union "(www.demushkin.com)),
"DPNI" ("Movement against illegal immigration" www.dpni.org) "NOR" ("All Russian - National Union," RNE "(" Russian National Unity ")) and the militant wing of Partizan. But the two wings: "legal" and illegal are under constant oppression and lawless. We also have organizations skinheads - (because the term "skinhead" has become obsolete here, there is almost no skinheads in Russia, we prefer the term "activist", I have already spoken) and groups in Russia + many right - wing hooligans (Moscow "Spartak, CSKA and Dynamo have the largest number of nationalists among hools).

The Russian nationalist movement has a long history (in fact, the movement started from the underground and small groups of nationalists top secret in the seventies now, and achieved open with an organization called "Pamyat" in the eighties) and it is fairly numerous: the last "Russian March" on 4.11.10 in Moscow met no less than 7,000 nationalists, public meeting, then a concert on the square Bolotnaya the same date in 2500 with fellow total.

A few words about the repressive system in your country.

Russia has always been very brutal and lawless as a country, a lack of respect for ordinary people and their opinions, that is a kind of historical tradition of the behavior of authorities here. One can easily compare modern Russia to medieval tyrannies Asian coconut or modern - North Korea's totalitarian regime of Stalin, he could not be compared as well. In fact, we do not have that famous spirit of Western Europe of freedom, there is no respect of persons, opinions, beliefs and positions of all kinds - My thought is that these factors are the main reasons for unlimited injustice and oppression that we face here today.

The so-called "political extremists" are considered "the major threat to state security" by the powers, I think you can imagine the dire consequences of this position ... More than 1,000 nationalists were imprisoned in Currently, more comrades face charges of incitement to racial hatred (Section 282 of Russian Criminal Code), there are many criminal cases against nationalists today. Even earlier killings of militant national ( militant wing) are known, everyone holds violence against so-called "minorities" (Caucasians and Asians) who are brutally beaten, tortured and brutally oppressed by all possible means by the police and criminals Caucasians / Asians in prisons - it is common practice here daily, the legacy of communist totalitarianism and the criminalization of our society. I think that the punishment will be even more difficult in the future, we see no trends in improvement of the situation, unfortunately. All segments of nationalism in Russia are under massive attack of law enforcement system (police and secret service) now.

The last words are yours.

On behalf of the group, I want to thank you for the interest Kolovrat! I hope this interview will help the French comrades to know us a little better. Continue, best fraternal greetings from Moscow!

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