Marginal - does it sound proud?

To Moscow for the Conference of the Interregional Social Movement in Defense of Democratic Freedoms

(The conference is the highest governing body of the UCF) more than 120 delegates from regions came - from Murmansk to Pskov. The guests of the Conference, who opened its work with their speeches, were representatives of “sympathetic” parties and movements - from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation and the NBP to the “Republicans” and “Our Choice”. The event was covered by the press - the pseudo-liberal Izvestia even made custom jokes about the “thirst for power” and “the party of Kasparov and Limonov” and for some reason declared the Central Tourist House on Leninsky Prospekt (the venue of the Conference) “almost underground.” Overall, it's a success.

Moreover, the Conference was preceded by a very appropriate and clever event - the laying of flowers at Khrushchev’s grave at the Novodevichy cemetery, dedicated to the anniversary of his report at the 20th Congress in 1956. On the morning of February 25, these were the first flowers, so the UCF turned out to be the most historically memorable and grateful. And this is also a success.

The Front's programmatic theses, which the delegates discussed, with demands for fair democratic elections, the restoration of federalism, the elimination of the nomenklatura system, etc., should have been printed in the form of leaflets and distributed to citizens near the metro. The radicality of the claims here is coupled with their justification, and the rhetoric (“Russia’s future is in danger - it is threatened by the regime of Vladimir Putin”) only clearly captures the catastrophic reality. This is perhaps one of the few recent political documents that is written adequately and to the point. Also a success.

But, nevertheless, those who gathered for the Conference are smart, proactive, active people with great efficiency (pickets and actions of the UCF in different parts of the country were able to cancel the increase in housing and communal services tariffs, save parks and groves from deforestation, legalize right-hand drive cars, not to mention about purely political actions) - chose a mode that I would call the “style of despair.” Distinguished guests asked it. At first, Eduard Limonov said that the opposition “has everything except courage.” From the lips of a former political prisoner and ardent revolutionary, whose party really never tires of reminding itself of itself through real actions, this sounded at least somewhat convincing. But then Georgy Satarov, co-chairman of the All-Russian Civil Congress, with a good-natured smile, said that all those present were “marginals” in the best sense of the word (“Weren’t the French encyclopedists or the founding fathers of the United States?”). Then Irina Khakamada, the leader of the unregistered Our Choice party, in a brilliant and elegant speech, demanded that the opposition separate itself “on material principles” (they say, you cannot be friends with those who have gone on the warpath only because of resentment towards the Kremlin and the desire to quickly get through within its walls) and “learn dissident lessons.”

After the welcoming speeches of the guests were finished, the delegates took the floor. “Dissolve United Russia”, “civil disobedience”, “Limonov as co-chairman of the United Front”, “renunciation of presidential rule”, “transferring most functions to a multi-party government” - people gained not so much courage as juvenile maximalism. Which, as you know, is also a manifestation of despair.

But the UGF has real achievements, it already has local authority, it has a reliable and conscientious team. Members of the movement are not fringes or dissidents, just as Diderot and Franklin were not. The vitriol of the press and the repression of the authorities (for example, in Vladimir the OCF is really “pressuring” the local Ministry of Internal Affairs) also mean the viability of the organization. And the demands for refusal of its legal registration as evidence of complicity with the regime, voiced at the Conference, are completely meaningless. Registering, staying within the legal framework, doing things without going to the barricades is the only way for the UCF to function, which only in this case can unite within itself all the opposition parties and movements, including the barricade-radical ones.

The reality of the political lies in direct practice, far from the quasi-revolutionary romance that feels doomed. During the Paris riots of 1968, students took to the streets with the slogan “Be realistic - demand the impossible!” But Putin was not in Paris. And in today's Russia, that slogan should be reformulated - “Demand the possible - be dreamers!” We can already talk about the political viability of the United Front.

Therefore, the most gratifying items on the agenda of the Conference seemed to me to be the boring items “On the Charter”, “On Symbols”, “On the Election of Authorized Persons”. The UGF lives its own bureaucratic life - and is gaining weight. This is without a doubt a success.