TYR vol 3

Joshua Buckley and Michael Moynihan announce the third issue of TYR (and are asking for pre-orders to elecampane@bellsouth.net).

Contents:

Thomas Naylor on “Cipherspace,” Annie Le Brun on “Catastrophe Pending,” Pentti Linkola on “Survival Theory,” Michael O’Meara on “The Primordial and the Perennial,” Alain de Benoist on “Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power,” Nigel Pennick on “The Web of Wyrd,” Thierry Jolif on “The Abode of the Gods and the Great Beyond,” Stephen Flowers on “The Spear of Destiny,” Joscelyn Godwin on Philip Pullman’s “Dark Materials” trilogy, Ian Read on “Humour in the Icelandic Sagas,” Geza von Neményi on the “Hávamál,” Gordon Kennedy on the “Children of the Sonne,” Michael Moynihan on “Carl Larsson’s Greatest Sacrifice,” Christopher McIntosh on “Iceland’s Pagan Renaissance,” Jónína Berg on Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson, Selected Poems by Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson, Vilius Rudra Dundzila on “Baltic Lithuanian Religion,” James Reagan on “The End Times,” interviews with the stalwart folk singer Andrew King and the modern minnesinger Roland Kroell, Collin Cleary on “Paganism Without Gods,” Róbert Hórvath on Mark Sedgwick’s “Against the Modern World,” and extensive book and music review sections.

I am told that the book review section contains a review of Against the Modern World by Joshua Buckley which "represents something of a dialogue with" Róbert Hórvath's review, printed in this issue of TYR in "a somewhat amended version" of that which has been on the Internet for some time.

I wonder if Mr Hórvath's review still contains the statement that "Some presume that [Mark Sedgwick] is a kind of Euro-Atlantic spy, whose official task is to hunt for all the anti-modernist conceptions that have fertilised the contemporary Islamic world. According to others he has not been allowed to enter an initiatory order with 'Traditionalist' connections, and has written this book as revenge"?

As a general rule, I don't generally enter into dialogue with such suggestions, though I did think of putting "presumed Euro-Atlantic spy" on my CV. However, for the record I'll just mention that I am not and never have been a spy of any sort, and that I was never refused entry into any initiatory order, and that the speculations about my motives in writing Against the Modern World that are to be found in various places on the Internet are without foundation. I'm just a historian doing the job of a historian to the best of my ability.

More important is Mr Hórvath's statement that "expressing the references to Hungary numerically, it transpires that out of 21 pieces of information 13 are false." He should know! I once emailed him and asked for corrections, but got no reply. I now renew my appeal, to him or to anyone else! I do not know Hungarian, and so could put only a little in my book about Traditionalism in Hungary, but it seems to be important, and it would be good to know more.

Dugin accused of "terrorism"--update

Since yesterday's post, the ESM have denied the allegations of involvement with explosives brought against them by the Ukrainian SBU. See «Евразийцы» объявили найденную СБУ взрывчатку «провокацией кровавого режима».

As one comment on yesterday's post suggested, it is possible that "someone - either the Ukrainian security service or the Ukrainian nationalists - was trying to [frame] the ESM."

Dugin accused of "terrorism"

Alexander Dugin's Union of Eurasian Youth (Евразийский Союз Молодежи, ESM) has been accused of three acts of terrorism directed against the Ukrainian government in recent weeks.

The immediate context for this is a worsening of relations between Russia and Ukraine after Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko decided in mid October to elevate the members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, active during the Second World War against both German and Soviet forces, to the status of national heroes.

• On October 18, ESM activists climbed Mount Hoverla in the Carpathians. Mount Hoverla is Ukraine's highest mountain, and a national symbol. The ESM activists destroyed some Ukrainian monuments, unfurled the Eurasian flag, and renamed the mountain "Mount Stalin." See photos.


• On October 30, the ESM launched attacks against the website of the Ukrainian president.


• On November 2, the Ukrainian security service (SBU) seized explosives from a left-luggage office at Simferopol railway station. According to the SBU, ESM activists intended to use the explosives on November 4, Russia's Day of National Unity.

These ESM accepted responsibility for the first two of these "actions," and has not yet commented on the third.

The first action was described as vandalism. The second might be called either vandalism or cyberwarfare (see "Estonia and Russia: A cyber-riot," The Economist, May 10th 2007). The third, because of the presence of explosives, would probably be called terrorism.

In fact, from the perspective of terrorist theory, the distinction between vandalism and terrorism is relatively unimportant. The political objectives of the use of violence are the same, whatever the type of violence, and whether the violence is used against property or persons. Blowing people up, of course, involves playing for higher stakes than climbing mountains.

It is not known whether or not the ESM was intending to use explosives against persons, but the violence of its "actions" may be increasing and tending in that direction.

• Escalation from vandalism against property to attacks on persons is a pattern familiar to terrorism analysts. The Baader-Meinhof gang started off by attacking a department store, for example.
• Fully-fledged terrorist groups have been inspired by Traditionalism before, in Italy in the 1970s.