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I was wrong when I claimed that there were no “people of good will” left in Russia. They were found after all. Through the efforts of some Russian human rights activists who are not close to the Kremlin, a letter appeared in defense of the lawyers Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev. Signatures are collected in

, and their number is increasing every day. I love studying the signatures under such letters. Most of the names are unknown people. Their names do not appear on the pages of newspapers, they are not shown on TV. But these names will say much more about the development of civil society in Russia than many fashionable discussions on this topic. The letter in support of the lawyers was signed by real Russian intellectuals. Those who still retained the remnants of a moral sense, which, alas, most of our contemporaries have lost. The lawlessness committed in the case of the new Khodorkovsky-Lebedev case continues a long list of countless violations of the law that our prosecutors and investigators fearlessly indulge in every day. And who prefer not to be noticed by the same servants of the “dictatorship of law” supervising them.

In this case, everything is frankly simple: the authorities desperately need a second trial of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev. But the memory of demonstrations and protests at the Meshchansky Court causes a grimace of irritation in some. This means that it is necessary to ensure that court hearings are held semi-closed. And since this is against the law, then we need to find another way out. So an ingenious, but completely illegal solution arises: the investigative actions and trial are transferred to Chita, thousands of kilometers and six time zones from Moscow. And the problem is solved: a minimum of press, a minimum of sympathizers. But the trial and verdict are a matter of technique. The fact that this is a direct violation of the law, according to which the trial must take place at the place where the crime was committed, is absolutely unimportant. No one except meticulous lawyers will be indignant about this. And he won’t risk his name for the sake of some legal snag.

That is why “status” figures of the Russian intelligentsia are in no hurry to sign a letter in defense of Khodorkovsky’s lawyers. And no Booker laureates, best-selling authors, or national artists are going to write their own letters. To be honest, this is completely unclear to me. Explain to me what threatens famous writers or cultural figures today by signing such a letter? I suspect: nothing special.

In the mid-60s, when a letter appeared in defense of Sinyavsky and Daniel, the “signatories” took a great risk: writers were expelled from the Writers’ Union for this, and many were deprived of their jobs. Is it really all about genetic memory? And in the fear that still sits in post-Soviet people? Or maybe famous people prefer to “give” their names to safer and, most importantly, more profitable enterprises?

For example, the presidential representative in the Constitutional Court, Mikhail Barshchevsky, is creating his own party - “Civil Force”. He, like no one else, must understand that by starting a new trial in Chita, the Prosecutor General’s Office is breaking the law. And that such a violation is a serious precedent. Why shouldn’t he, as a prominent lawyer, express his opinion and thereby attract the attention of the intelligent electorate to his nascent party? Barshchevsky is silent. And with his silence he increases lawlessness.

Vladimir Lukin, the Commissioner for Human Rights under the President of the Russian Federation, is also silent. However, our ombudsman always has an explanation for his silence. It turns out that in order to respond to any violation of human rights, he needs to receive a request from the victim. Then, having studied the case materials, he will be able to decide on his position.

Quite a lot of people came to the Moscow House of Journalists, where a public meeting was held last Thursday in support of Khodorkovsky-Lebedev's lawyers. All the seats in the Great Hall were occupied. The age of those gathered is pre-retirement and retirement age. These are the people who in Soviet times read samizdat in their kitchens, and in the 90s went to democratic rallies. Then they voted for Yabloko or SPS. They are sensitive to lawlessness and continue to believe that they can represent a real civic force when they come together. They are unlikely to vote for Mikhail Barshchevsky, Masha Arbatova, Mark Rozovsky and others who have devalued their names by supporting the puppet party.

They chose to sign a letter in defense of the persecuted. And their names, unknown to the general public, will over time be valued more than the names of those who will never understand the passionate words from Alexander Galich’s old song “The Prospector’s Waltz”: “This is how easy it is to get executed: keep silent, keep silent, keep silent!”