This interview was conducted in December 2022 through encrypted email, for security reasons. It was originally intended for publication in a zine, focusing on various perspectives within the anarchist movement concerning the topic of war. We have decided to publish this interview now, at the mark of the two years of the onset of the war in Ukraine. Since the interview, BOAK has persisted in its activities, albeit with seemingly reduced intensity. To keep up with BOAK’s actions, follow their Telegram channel.
Telegram: https://t.me/BO_AK_reborn
Onion: http://boakor7dmr63zguccltp6nki56ou4oppirhyllfck7yd3sifywinhkyd.onion
Interview archive
Email reply to Komuna, 3rd December 2022.
Language: English, verbatim
Komuna:
First of all, can you tell us a bit more about yourself? Who are you, and what do you stand for, and the movement in general in Russia?
BOAK:
Hi!:) We are Combat Organization of Anarcho-Communists (in russian – Боевая организация анархо-коммунистов – БOAK, Komuna edit) – guerilla organization, which is preparing social revolution in Russia.
We want to change society according to anarcho-communist ideals:
– self-government, direct democracy, making decisions on their lives by the people themselves
– decentralization
– economy in the hands of the workers
– antimilitarism
– without any kinds of discrimination
– with harmony between people and nature
To achieve this we need to make a revolution – because Russian (and any government, really) would be against loosing power and fight with all in their hands – and we need to fight back.
And to make a revolution – we need to be a force, to organize and help people to fight together – that’s why we need to have an organization. And due to revolutionary nature of this organization it inevitably need to be partizan.
So we are working on developing our organization, gaining more people, resources and so on – and on weakening state, also on helping other people to fight it, and on spreading anarcho ideas and our methods in Russian society.
Komuna:
People in Kosovo have just some basic information on Russian politics and society. Can you tell us a bit more, sort of general overview of the Russian politics? Perhaps tell us how one lives under Putin regime and what sort of opposition exists to his power (if any)?
BOAK:
Russian politics developed in the same way for the last 2 years. Putin’s regime was gaining more and more power, killing or sending to prison any real opposition to it, and leaving in public space only a fake one – like communist party of the Russian federation or liberal democracy party of Russia, which are taking only those decisions, which are good for the Putin.
People in power use this situation for their own benefits – to get more power and money, and to take last from the people, and not give them an opportunity to tell anything against.
For example, as a result of Putin’s regime free medical system was destroyed (but taxes didn’t go anywhere), pension system too, number of people below the poverty line growth. But in the same time Putin and his friends take money from the budget with any project they like – and if anybody wants to say something against – use police and security service to shut them up. Policy system degraded to the limits – they don’t do anything with the crimes against people, but if you say something against state – they are here.
Also, propaganda system was developed – to make people believe, that all their problems are due the “bad west, who are against us and want to destroy Russians”
There are several large organized forces, who are in opposition to Putin’s regime now. First are liberal organization, like FBK*, organization of Navalny**, they are standing for the turning Russia to the way of the western capitalism.
Another one are right-wing organizations, which believes in necessity of “Russia national state”, without any other nations.
And the last (but not least) – left movement – including anarchists, communists and so on. It isn’t monolith force, there is different in opinions on many questions, but what is common that this force is standing on the position of the necessity of the social state, different as from today’s Russia, also from western capitalism – more human like and just.
Komuna:
Perhaps tells us a bit about the latest war in Ukraine? What is the importance of this war to the people in power in Russia, what are their goals both in geo-politics and for internal politics?
BOAK:
We think, that Russian government have a lot of problems inside internal economic – and to increase their power, to not loose influence on people’s minds, they organized this war. They thought that it would be a small victorious war – which leads to growth of patriotism in society (as it was after the Krym [Crimea – Note of editor] in 2014), economy growth, growth in international influence and so on. But they were wrong. And now this war became a loose-lose situation for them – they can stop it, because they fear inside protests (people would be thinking like “we suffered all this – and for what?”).
But they also can’t win it, at least, without radical measures, like total mobilization, which also can increase discontent in Russian society.
Although, we think, that very important factor is figure of Putin himself – he is rather old now, and he think about himself like some ‘historical person’, who collects Russian Empire back – and it was one of the factors, which lead to this war.
Komuna:
We have seen your actions over the internet. Can you tell us more about your official stance regarding the war in Ukraine, and bit of an overview as of what are some of the main actions you have done? Perhaps you can list some actions which you have taken responsibility for?
BOAK:
We are strongly against this war and are fighting to help people of Ukraine to fight back Putin’s aggression.
Also, we believe, that this war is good moment to free Russia too, because society is unstable, and power of government is weaker due the military fails.
So we are attacking military objects, to weaken Russia’s army and to stop it from killing Ukrainian people.
We openly took responsibility for four actions for now:
- Attack on cell tower in Belgorod oblast (near the warfare in Ukraine) – to disrupt military communications
- Two attacks in railroad, leading to military objects in Moscow region – to disrupt supply of military goods to Russian army in Ukraine
- And blasting of bridge, leading to military facility
- https://t.me/boakom/86 https://t.me/boakom/87
There were some more actions, for which we didn’t take responsibility as an organization, due to tactical reasons.
Also we are helping other partisan organizations, using our Revolutionary Anarcho Fond, to help them perform their attacks:
Komuna:
Can you perhaps evaluate the results of your actions? How effective they were in hindering capacities of Russian state to conduct the war?
BOAK:
It still to be revealed – because, of course, Russia’s government hides result of partisan actions, showing them only when they are caught. And we can’t check, what happened on our places of attack ourselves, due to security measures.
But we received message from our comrades, fighting in the Ukraine, that they saw help of our attacks
Also, speaking not only about our attack, but about partisan movement in Russia in general, we see, that partisan attacks destroy military documents, disrupts putin’s economy and so on. And we think that all this works together, weakening oppression state and making revolution closer.
Komuna:
With your safety in mind and without disclosing too much information, could you perhaps tell us how big is your network, how wide it is, and how its organized? Are we talking here about a group who coordinates all actions or autonomous groups with different goals?
BOAK:
We develop ourselves as organization. It means that all we share common ideals, goals and methods.
Our organization consists of several dozens’ groups (which have coordinators, but aren’t fully disclosed for each other, due to security reasons), which acts independently, but are coordinating their actions nevertheless.
Some decisions are made by the groups themselves (for example, how to do action or when) and others – concerning organization in common – are made together (what king of objects we can attack, for example). So we use principles of direct democracy in the functioning of our organization, obviously.
We combine real-life meetings with methods, which are provided for us by the technology.
In real life we met in some desert places, forests and so on, where no one can see or hear us. Of course, we leave our mobile phones and other technic at home.
In the internet we are using Tails – Linux based operating system, working through TOR only, encrypt our messages and so on.
To make a decision we try to reach consensus when it’s possible, but for situations, when time is critical, we decide by voting (if can’t reach consensus fast), or choose temporary coordinator (new every time), to make decisions quickly (for example, during actions)
Komuna:
Do your actions gain notoriety in Russia? Tells us about how the Russian people and the Russian media perceive your actions?
BOAK:
Official media doesn’t speak about us at all – they talk about partisans only when they are caught (and they try to show, that all partisans are nazis, played by the western special forces). But almost every opposition media now are supporting partisan actions – helping to spread word of the struggle, so it reaches more and more people. And as we can see, partisan actions receive understanding from people.
Komuna:
And what is the response of the state, both in terms of propaganda and physical force? Are any comrades arrested for these actions?
BOAK:
State tries to catch us very hard. They performed searches and interrogations in different regions in Russia, torturing people to get some information.
But they had no lack, they didn’t caught any of our members. What about propaganda – they don’t talks about us as organization. But there are a lot of words against partisans in general from the very top of Russian’s politics, for example, from Dmitry Medvedev***, who calls partizans “scumbags and freaks”, and calls for killing them. So we think that Russia’s government fears partisans danger, tries to decrease it.
Komuna:
What is your opinion of Ukrainian anarchist individuals and small groups joining the Ukrainian army in the war? There are some critical voices within the anarchist milieu saying that one should not align with the state forces in fighting the occupation whereas the Ukrainian anarchist say that it the matter of their survival. What is your opinion on this?
BOAK:
We know comrades, who fights at that war, and we know, that they fight not for Ukrainian government, but for the Ukrainian people. And we support them. We think, that they are fighting as for defending people of Ukraine, also as for bringing close anarchy in both our countries – they helps to weaken Russian state, to create for us possibility to act – and they become a force inside Ukraine – to have possibility to rebuild Ukrainian society after the war too.
Komuna:
How would you define the role of revolutionary groups in anti-colonialist struggles, especially of ones that live and struggle in imperialist countries?
BOAK:
We think, that without revolutionary groups anti-colonialist struggles can’t win. Without revolution colonies may just hope that their oppressor state will stop this himself – but why would he do this, losing money and power? If oppressor would be good enough for this, he didn’t oppress colony an the first way.
And we think that we live in global world, so we need a coordination between revolutionary groups inside colonies and inside imperialist countries. First are essential, but help of the second, which are weakening their imperialisting state, acting against it’s colonialistic policy, is a huge help for the beginning revolutionary movement.
Komuna:
Do you have contacts with other groups in the region? And how it’s the relationship of the groups from Ukraine? As we understood, there was a close cooperation once with the revolutionaries from Ukraine?
BOAK:
Yes, we are coordinating our actions with several anarcho partisan groups, as well with some anti-Putin or anti-war movements too.
Also we have several partizans-beginners groups, who we helps with money and advice, using our Revolutionary Anarcho Fond.
And we are coordinating with Ukrainian anarchists, helping each other to gain resources, spread information and so on.
Komuna:
Recently you started having interviews with international media, such as Popular Front and Al Jazeera. Can you tell us what is the importance of you coming out public to the western audiences?
BOAK:
We think, that in western audience there are a lot of our comrades – left, anarchists and so on. And we believe that it’s important to send them our word from the frontlines against Putin’s imperial aggression. We think that international solidarity is very important for our struggle – from gaining resources and spreading information right now to creating internation brigades, who fights for the freedom anywhere it’s necessary for the social revolution in the future. Very good example of this for us are international brigades in Rojava.
Also, we think that it’s important to talk to the wide auditory too, even not anarchists. Because we believe, that ideas of anarchy are in the nature of every people, and showing, that even in such country as Russia there are anarchists – freedom fighters, can popularize anarcho ideas and help us to rebuild all the world in just and free way.
Komuna:
Can we expect the increase of actions, or a change of tactics? What can you tell us of future plans (which you can share publicly of course)?
BOAK:
Yeah, of course. Now we are working on including in our war more and more groups, coordinating our actions. We see, that there are a lot of partisan attacks, but they are uncoordinated, and partisans often are caught because lack of planning. We believe, that acting together can help us all to achieve more significant results and, as result, perform a revolution in Russia
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Komuna:
As you probably know, Kosovo has always been part of wide geo-political plans of Russian state, and in Kosovo, there is not much sympathy for the Russian state (for obvious reasons). What would you like people from Kosovo to know about the Russian state and Russian people, as well what would you say to more revolutionary groups active in Kosovo?
BOAK:
For the Kosovo people – Russian state and Russian people aren’t the same. State tries to control mind of the people, to give them only those information, which is needed to manipulate them. But we are all people of the world, we have a lot in common, and we believe that we can overthrow this lies, understand each other and fight together against the oppression.
For the revolutionary groups in Kosovo – comrades, keep fighting! Sometimes it can be hard, almost unimportant – but know this – somewhere to the east from you Russian partisans are fighting oppression too – and they believe in you, and that you can overthrow oppression and win. And together we all can do this – and make this world better place, than it was before us.
Komuna:
Do you have anything to add for the end?
BOAK:
Our solidarity is stronger, than borders. Keep fighting, comrades – we are in this fight together, and that’s why we can’t loose!
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[*] The Anti-Corruption Foundation (Russian: Фонд борьбы с коррупцией – ФБК) – A non-governmental organization that has de facto served as a liberal opposition group. Since 2019, the organization has been banned in Russia, but it continues its activities abroad.
[**] Leader of the FSB, as well as a liberal opposition politician. On January 17, 2024, he died in prison in Russia, and up to the date of this text’s publication, the circumstances and cause of death are still unclear, but there are well-founded suspicions that it was a state execution.
[***] Former President of the Russian Federation, now Vice-Chairman of Russia’s Security Council.