ABSTRACT
Western opinion is accustomed to associate the threat of fascism in Russia primarily with the name of Vladimir Zhirinovsky. The attention devoted to him reached a peak in the aftermath of his dramatic success in the Duma elections of December 1993, when his Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) came in first, with about a quarter of the votes cast. This chapter examines the internal regime of the party, demonstrating that an extreme concentration of power in Zhirinovsky's hands is accompanied by a certain measure of tolerated ideological diversity. Both the programmatic literature of the LDPR and Zhirinovsky personally have repeatedly proclaimed such liberal principles as the rule of law, constitutionalism, individual freedom, private initiative, social justice, the "social market economy", reason, progress, republicanism, secularism, and multiparty democracy. Zhirinovsky tries to present himself as a loyal son of the Russian Orthodox Church, supporting, for instance, the Church's campaign against foreign religious sects.
