Visions of Chaos: Weighing the Violent Legacy of Iron March
Brandon Russell, the 22-year-old founder of the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, posted a PDF of an obscure textbook about paramilitary tactics to Iron March on the morning of May 17, 2017, and then his account on that website went dark.
Two days after posting the link to the book, Russell, who went by the handle 鈥淥din鈥� on Iron March, walked into his Tampa, Florida, home to find two corpses disfigured by gunshot wounds.
Devon Arthurs, one of his four roommates, who went by the handle 锘库�淭heWeissewolfe鈥� on Iron March, shot and killed Russell鈥檚 two other roommates, Andrew Oneschuk and Jeremy Himmelman. Oneschuk went by 鈥淏锘縪rovikov鈥� on Iron March. Himmelman鈥檚 Iron March handle, if he had one, is unknown.
The murders, and Russell鈥檚 subsequent conviction for , are 听of the violence that emerged during听Iron March's six-year run.
It鈥檚 not听difficult to imagine a different and bloodier scenario taking place, one in which Russell actually carried out his alleged plan to bomb power lines, synagogues and a Miami-area power plant, potentially killing thousands of people. Had such events transpired, an examination of the online environment in which those men were radicalized would have arrived too late.
Hatewatch conducted a scrape of Iron March spanning over 150,000 posts ranging from Sept. 13, 2011, to Sept. 24, 2017, two months before someone took the website offline under mysterious circumstances. It includes posts from the 18- to 22-year-old men whose fates were irrevocably altered in Russell鈥檚 apartment that day. The sprawling scrape, taken from a time when the broader white supremacist movement in the West was both evolving and thriving, paints a portrait of a largely young, white and male online community slowly talking itself into embracing radical, terroristic methods to achieve their political goals.
Arthurs, who was ultimately declared mentally unfit to stand trial, first posted on Iron March as TheWeissewolfe on March 18, 2015, when he would have been 16. In his first year on the forum, he was posting his opinion that protests in Baltimore over the death听of Freddie Gray in police听custody were evidence that 鈥渕ulticulturalism has FAILED.鈥� After murdering his roommates, he told police he did so because they mocked what he described as his conversion to Islam. Russell, who was 22 at the time of his arrest, first appeared on the forum on March 22, 2014, at age 19. Oneschuk, the murder victim, joined the Iron March community when he was 17.
The 1,653 users of Iron March believed they were united across the borders of white majority countries in a fascist struggle of an international scale. These users came to Iron March to debate what they believed to be universal truths about fascism, according to a 2016 podcast that featured one of the site鈥檚 founders and another contributing member. Fascism was a subject for which Iron March had a religious reverence, the Hatewatch scrape of the site reveals.
Russell,听as听Odin, introduced himself to the community on March 22, 2014, by saying, 鈥淚 wanted to join Iron March and further my knowledge.鈥� 鈥淚 am currently reading many different fascist books, currently听For My Legionaries,鈥� he continued, referring to a book by WWII era Romanian fascist Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, whose followers engaged in grisly blood-drinking rituals.听鈥淚 look forward to my time here.鈥�
Select Iron March users contributed to the community鈥檚 in-house magazine,听Rope听Culture, and more published memes advocating for the genocide of Jews and non-whites, which were later propagated on more mainstream platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Iron March users also came to the forum to push one another to take direct, sometimes criminal action in fulfilling their desire to live in a purity-obsessed world of explicit fascism. An Iron March user going by the handle 鈥淢yrrysmies鈥� wrote on June 21, 2017, in response听to听a听Hatewatch post听about Russell鈥檚 stash of explosives, for example: 鈥淭errorist movements Ironmarch is hosting: 2 and counting. It鈥檚 now 3. Congratulations everyone. Let鈥檚 make it 4.鈥�
In addition to Russell鈥檚 neo-Nazi group, Myrrysmies was likely referring to听听(NRM) of Scandinavia and听听of the U.K. Both of those groups embraced terrorism in the name of creating a reactionary world for whites only, and both are linked to Iron March.
Nordic Resistance Movement has committed multiple bombings, including听an听听in 2017. Zack Davies, a National Action member, attacked a Sikh man with a claw hammer and a machete because he said he 鈥渓ooked Asian,鈥澨齛nd听.
鈥淚t has been reported in ALL Z.O.G. owned media,鈥� a U.K.-based Iron March user going by the handle 鈥淔ascism=Fun鈥� wrote June 25, 2015, of Davies鈥� conviction, referring to the antisemitic slang term 鈥淶ionist Occupational Government.鈥� 鈥淭he reports use the 鈥榲ictims鈥� family in an emotional bid to [sway] the viewer to听sympathise听with them. 鈥� Who is the real victim?鈥�
鈥淚 mean wow Dylann Roof, Zack Davies 鈥� there have been so many heroic听autists听this year,鈥� 鈥淒addy Terror,鈥� another British Iron March user, who often posted in threads related to National Action, quipped on June 26, 2015. The user was referencing听a meme that falsely suggests autistic people are predisposed to be killers.
Iron March was ultimately affiliated with or offered support to at least nine fascist groups in nine different countries by the time the website mysteriously disappeared in 2017. The other groups included Serbian Action of Serbia, Casa Pound of Italy, Golden Dawn of Greece, Antipodean Resistance of Australia, Skydas of Lithuania and Azov Battalion of听the Ukraine. That total doesn鈥檛 even include Patriot Front or Vanguard America, white supremacist groups that descended from another Iron March-affiliated group that is now defunct. James Alex Fields, the man who murdered antiracist activist Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Aug. 12, 2017, in a brutal car-ramming attack, marched with Vanguard America at the 鈥淯nite the Right鈥� rally earlier that day. Patriot Front鈥檚 then soon-to-be-founder, Thomas Rousseau, also marched with them.
The 343-page textbook Russell posted to Iron March before heading into a murder scene in his apartment was called听Tactics of the Crescent Moon: Militant Muslim Combat Methods.听It purports to lay听out tactics used by groups like Chechen rebels and the Afghan Mujahideen. The text is dry and mostly humorless, detailing such subjects as Hezbollah鈥檚 proficiency with 鈥渁utonomous and remotely controlled mines.鈥�
But the book鈥檚 focus on paramilitary uprisings against different governments around the world, framed as reading material for young white men who fantasized about disrupting the liberal hegemony with violence, helps paint a portrait of how dangerous Iron March really was by the end of its run in 2017.
鈥淸Terror] watchlist here I come! :-D,鈥� an Iron March user going by 鈥淎nti-Gay鈥� wrote in response to Russell鈥檚 link, four minutes after he posted it.
Iron March users mostly eschewed the notion of voting their way into a fascist utopia. They wanted to see chaos reign.
Some dropped a few references on the site to 鈥淕od Emperor鈥� Donald Trump during the spring and summer of 2016, when the Republican nominee became a cause c茅l猫bre throughout the West, but others claimed to embrace him only because of the degree to which they thought he would aid in accelerating the planet to the point of collapse.
Russell, for example, thought of Trump as a 鈥渇aggot鈥� with a 鈥減ro-kike鈥� mindset, according to a post published to the forum on Nov. 22, 2016.
鈥淗e doesn鈥檛 look听bad ass,鈥� Russell railed about the president-elect while older white supremacists like David Duke touted Trump as the听
鈥淲hat I see is a faggot with a cucked worldview shouting to a crowd of sheep buzzwords that would naturally instill some energy in anybody. They鈥檙e literally at a rally, with a fag preaching to them about how much [they] love the president-elect of this SYSTEM, who is pro-kike,鈥� Russell wrote. 鈥淲HAT A CLUSTER FUCK.鈥�
Russell鈥檚 use of the word 鈥渟ystem鈥� is likely gleaned from reading repeated refrains in books like听The Turner Diaries,听a white supremacist novel beloved by Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, and听SIEGE,听a national socialist manifesto penned over several years in the 1980s听by Charles Manson acolyte James Mason. Russell kept a framed photo of McVeigh in his apartment, and听The Turner Diaries听is referenced scores of times on Iron March.
Mason鈥檚 book, which was adored and aggressively promoted inside of the community of Iron March across the six years of its existence, explicitly calls for the reader to commit acts of terrorism. Mason suggests at one point in the text that when revolutionary national socialism reaches the United States, 鈥淭here will be no need of concentration camps of any kind, for not a single transgressor will survive long enough to make it to that kind of haven.鈥�
Russell鈥檚 explosive building agenda, and the revelations that he attempted听to听,听indicate how seriously he took the statements he made on Iron March.
Montreal-based Daily Stormer collaborator Gabriel Sohier Chaput, an antisemite who went by the pseudonym 鈥淶eiger,鈥� posted frequently to Iron March and also wrote essays for the site鈥檚 in-house publication,听Rope Culture.听Chaput was outed by the听Montreal Gazette听in November 2018 and became a听. Today he is still fleeing the law on charges听of听.
Dissenting with some of his cohorts outside the forum, including Daily Stormer鈥檚 editor Andrew Anglin, who heralds Trump as听听Chaput predicted the degree to which white supremacists would eventually become disenchanted with the president鈥檚 potential to bring transformative, racist change to the West.
鈥淓ven if Trump were the new incarnation of Hitler himself, there鈥檚 very little he could do, surrounded as he is with the swamp of Kikes and shills which have festered at the heart of America for decades,鈥� Chaput wrote on Iron March as Zeiger. 鈥淎s such, his presidency doesn鈥檛 change our goals and the task at hand.鈥�
The task at hand was always to build a hardline fascist state regardless of what path it took to get there. Chaput summed up his nihilistic view of the world in听a Nov. 21, 2014, post on the forum, addressing the subject of what he perceived to be a plague of human degeneracy sweeping across Western countries.
鈥淭he degenerate man of today is a consequence of the degenerate world we live in,鈥� he wrote. 鈥淎s the age of darkness recedes, the new man will rise all by himself. The coming chaos (economic collapse, race wars, whatever) will kill off the degenerates and facilitate the rise of the best elements.鈥�
鈥淭hat鈥檚 fascism brah,鈥� he quipped later in the post.
Seemingly every news event discussed on Iron March was framed in the context of how it potentially could portend the collapse of society, giving way to a national socialist, genocidal planet. The convicted killer Arthurs even suggested in 2015, for example, that not Trump, but Jewish Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders, could be 鈥済reat鈥� from an 鈥渁ccelerationist perspective.鈥�
鈥淲ell, his policies would be suicidal for the state it would cost the state something like 24 trillion dollars,鈥� Arthurs wrote as TheWeissewolfe on Sept. 23, 2015. 鈥淔rom an accelerationist perspective he鈥檚 great, on the other听hand听he could have far more devious and terrible policies that could harm us.鈥�
Accelerationism refers to the idea that our neoliberal social order should be pushed to such an extreme degree that Western countries become failed states, giving rise to changes that would reshape our world in radical ways.
Alexander 鈥淪lavros鈥� Mukhitdinov, a mysterious figure believed to be听an Uzbekistani听man who emigrated to Russia, is often credited with founding Iron听March.听He distinguished his vision of a fascist future from that promoted by the 鈥渁lt-right,鈥� a mix of Pro-Trump racist writers, activists听and podcast hosts like Richard Spencer, Michael Peinovich and Matthew Heimbach, in a post on the forum dated Feb. 8, 2016.
鈥淵ou know how the Alt-Right talks about 鈥榙on鈥檛 punch to your Right鈥�? i.e. don't cause 鈥榠n-fighting on the Right鈥� so that they can have their听all inclusive听tent?鈥� he wrote under his handle 鈥溞愋恍敌貉佇靶叫囱� 小谢邪胁褉芯褋,鈥� which translates to Alexander听Slavros.
鈥淲ell fuck鈥檈m,鈥� he concluded. 鈥淭he only thing to our Right is the fucking Wall.鈥�
The wall in听Slavros鈥檚听prose is not Trump鈥檚 promised border wall; it鈥檚 the type of wall against which political opponents are executed by firing squad. This mindset of eschewing anything that compromises the most extreme vision of fascism can be seen in bulk supply in Hatewatch鈥檚 scrape of the site.
Iron March users helped give birth to the refrain 鈥淩ead听SIEGE,鈥� for example, which is now a ubiquitous battle cry in white supremacist internet circles and refers to James Mason鈥檚 apocalyptic tome.
Data compiled by Hatewatch shows the use of the word 鈥渟iege鈥� first appeared on the forum in 2011 and then was gradually used more frequently over time. 鈥淪iege鈥� then abruptly spiked between 2015 and 2017 鈥� going from roughly 200 appearances in a year to close to 700 in the next, as people began recommending the book to one another as an answer to their political questions.
The staying power and widespread dispersal of the meme is an example of the degree to which Iron March set trends among white supremacists. It鈥檚 also a testament to the community鈥檚 power to bowl over critics within the broader white supremacist movement, who sometimes fretted aloud about what the forum鈥檚 obsessions with purity and violence could do to their cause.
Matthew Heimbach,听founder听of the听now-defunct听neo-Nazi group Traditionalist Worker Party (TWP), spent time on Iron March at different points in its history. The street activist appeared to credit Iron March for radicalizing his worldview in a chat hosted on TWP鈥檚 Discord server on April 24, 2017.
鈥淚ron March has been a big net positive for me, drove me to read [national socialist] books,听SIEGE,听and evolve ideologically,鈥� he wrote.
Heimbach changed direction eight months later in the same Discord听server,听when it became apparent that the 鈥淩ead听SIEGE鈥� meme had infected his group. Heimbach听is听no听stranger to committing acts of violence in his own听right,听but nevertheless flinched at the idea of TWP becoming another Atomwaffen Division.
鈥淐onsidering we don鈥檛 use听SIEGE听as [inspirational] material, we can stop bringing it up in here, because the Farmers Almanac is literally more relevant,鈥� Heimbach advised his flock in a chat. 鈥淎nd fuck Charles Manson too, that goofball was a shitshow and a half with a retarded plan. So no听SIEGE, Mason, or Manson. So say we all.鈥�
Around the same time that Heimbach backtracked his endorsement of听SIEGE, Anglin publicly expressed concerns with the Daily Stormer鈥檚 potential role in promoting Atomwaffen Division on other forums. When fans of his neo-Nazi site began promoting Mason鈥檚 book in his Gab.com mentions with greater and greater frequency, Anglin lashed out.
鈥淔uck siege, fuck their cult, fuck satanism 鈥� this is so gay it makes me sick,鈥� Anglin wrote to his Gab followers, referring to Mason鈥檚 affiliations with the Church of Satan. 鈥淎utism doesn鈥檛 have to lead to joining a satanic death cult, friends.鈥�
One year after those words were published, far-right trolls are blasting the 鈥淩ead听SIEGE鈥� meme across the internet. The phrase has become so ubiquitous online that a pseudonymous Twitter user going by the handle @ReidSeej even tricked celebrity gossip columnist Perez听Hilton听听in a surreal, Christmas-themed video recording, which was published to that site on Dec. 18, 2018.
Dmitry Borovikov, a neo-Nazi听who听听in his native country of Russia, would be an unusual figure with whom to publicly associate yourself under most circumstances, but on Iron March, it was the kind of reference that would help endear a new person to the community. So, Oneschuk chose Borovikov as his handle for the site when he joined on March 28, 2016.
Russell found Oneschuk dead facing up on the floor of their apartment with a bullet in his head only a little more than a year later. Six months after that, Iron March was removed from the web for reasons that are unknown.
Some, including Andrew 鈥渨eev鈥� Auernheimer of the Daily Stormer, have speculated that听Slavros听ran the site from his family鈥檚 home in听Russia,听and received some kind of international pressure to take it down, perhaps in reaction to the blood spilled in Tampa in May 2017.
鈥淛ust now in the dead of night 鈥� Iron March disappears 鈥� Rope Culture disappears,鈥� Auernheimer听听on听a Nov.听30, 2017,听podcast听called 鈥淩ace Ghost, Roast to Roast,鈥� providing some insight into the timing of the forum鈥檚 disappearance.
Auernheimer, who featured his Daily Stormer collaborator Chaput on the episode to provide insider details about Iron March鈥檚 subculture, described the site as 鈥減unching above its weight鈥� in terms of influence:
鈥淭heir visual propaganda was leaps and bounds beyond anything that any other part of the community was doing,鈥� Auernheimer said, adding later that Iron March also created the foundation of 鈥渨hat it means to look like a fascist鈥� in the contemporary era.
By April 2018, a little less than one year after the Tampa murders, a new forum modeled after Iron March returned to the internet going by the name Fascist Forge. Fascist Forge is small but growing, and the posts in which users introduce themselves to the fascist community are designed to look like what was published on Iron March starting in 2011. New users sign up, just as Russell, Arthurs, Oneschuk听and听others did 鈥� and immerse themselves in a world of apocalyptic words and imagery.
The introductory posts were a common occurrence on Iron March, but in Hatewatch鈥檚 scrape of the site, only Oneschuk鈥檚 can be read with the foreknowledge that the author of the post is now a murder victim, dead at the hands of another forum user who readily told police he was part of a听
The Oneschuk post underscores both his youthful vulnerability and his willingness to flirt with the violent ideology that played a role in killing him.
鈥淕reetings,鈥� Oneschuk began. 鈥淚 recently started browsing [Iron March] and have taken an interest in some of the projects going on here. I鈥檓 located in the Boston area and hoping to get involved with like-minded individuals. Any group similar to [National Action] in ideology and action would be ideal. As for my political history, I鈥檓 only seventeen, but for most of my life I鈥檝e been interested in far-right politics and nationalism,鈥� he wrote.
When Oneschuk signed off from his first post, he did so while referring to himself as the rebirth of Anders Behring Breivik, the infamous Norwegian terrorist who murdered 77 people and injured more than 300 others in 2011 in the name of fascism.
鈥淭ill then,鈥� Oneschuk wrote, 鈥淏reivik V.2.鈥�
Photo illustrations by 人兽性交
An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Azov Battalion by the wrong name. We regret the error.
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