Russian Magazine Cited For Publishing 'Mein Kampf' Excerpts

The magazine “National Business,” which is distributed in Yekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod, Tyumen, and other Russian cities, has received an official warning from Tyumen Oblast prosecutors for purportedly violating the law on extremism.

In its April issue, the journal -- which is targeted at “a new generation of managers” -- published excerpts from Adolf Hitler’s manifesto “Mein Kampf.”

The excerpts were published without commentary as part of a regular series featuring the “life principles” of famous people including King Solomon, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Henry Ford, and others.

The journal’s publisher, responding to a complaint from the Tyumen branch of the pro-Kremlin Right Cause party, said: “The article was printed in our business publication in order to demonstrate to businesspeople whether they are building their businesses on the principle of the strong defeating the weak; that is, whether they are basing their work on the ideas of a mentally ill person, and doing this might help them avoid catastrophe.”

Right Cause and the local Communist Party branch filed official complaints against the publication.

Activists with Right Cause offered to give the journal’s subscribers free CDs with patriotic songs from World War II.

“Kommersant” reported that “National Business” has agreed to apologize to readers and to destroy the offending issue.

A spokesperson for the Tyumen Oblast prosecutor’s office, though, noted that during the course of investigating the “Mein Kampf” incident, officials discovered the journal had also published excerpts from the writings of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, and might issue a second warning relating to that.

Under Russia’s mass media law, a publication that receives two official warnings can be shut down.

(by Robert Coalson)