Boris Nemtsov - Life after death

Boris Nemtsov lived several lives. Some consistently: one ended, the other began. And some at the same time. So, being the boss, he always remained a dissident, and being an oppositionist - he wanted and was ready to return to the bosses. I knew him well, we met in 1992 and throughout his lives we talked quite intensively and confidentially. Although they also conflicts a lot. But a lot has been said about those of his lives - and those who were actually close to him, and, as it always happens, those who just came up with everything. But there are brilliant and completely true films of Kara-Murza and Fishman and Krichevskaya; I will not add anything to him, as well as to the statements of those who really were friends and worked. I just want to say a few words about that life that began after he was killed.

As someone said, they killed him, and he took it and did not die! We do a lifetime biography ourselves. With the participation of, of course, other people (“What biography is made to our redhead!”), But themselves. But the posthumous biography is enemies and friends.

Many politicians who fell at the hands of the killers became more popular after death than in life - natural sympathy and indignation. But then they were quickly forgotten. And the case of Bory, in my opinion, is unique. At least for Russia.

Let us pay tribute to the Kremlin. From the very moment of the murder, they did everything so that their opponents, and just normal people, rally around Nemtsov. They emphasized from farewell to a person who, due to his posts held by him, laid state funerals, the presence of the president, the flags and so on. And then they called the customer of the murder of the driver (!) Of the commander or deputy commander of the battalion and are still waging a war with the national memorial on the bridge. Result: Everyone understands that Boris, to which many people belonged somewhat condescendingly - lightweight, playboy and so on - was for the immoral, small, vengeful Kremlin authorities such a terrible enemy that they cannot relax even after his death.

But only by the actions of the Kremlin the fantastic posthumous life of Boris - its popularity, a huge role that his name plays in today's opposition movement - cannot be explained. Here is another. When a person is in love, this is the result of not only the unique properties of an object of love - this is an expression of his own need for love. Today's phenomenon of Nemtsov is a reflection of the state of society. Millions of people in Russia have long needed a hero. Not that he headed the country or raised pensions - just needs it. Just know that it is. Like us, but better than us - more beautiful, more successful, bolder. But, most importantly, alive, understandable, talking not about inflation or greatness, but about good and evil, truth and lies. Such with whom a man would like to be friends, and a woman to start a novel. Light, reckless, without animal seriousness and obvious estimates of their own benefits. And sinful, but not small and disgusting, like most politicians, but as in that song: “Where will you find one saint that he himself goes to the landing?”

Boris really was like that. But in our distorted, disappointed in the whole world, millions of people understood this, believed that he actually “went to the landing”, and not a fool, only when he was killed. Death, alas, is often the last and most convincing evidence.

How our life will continue - Putin, democracy, war - no one knows. But Borya will be needed for a long time. He will help many and many to maintain optimism, remember that they are people. And he will be remembered for a long time. He is precisely worthy of a long memory.



Photo: Russia. Moscow. May 15, 2012, co -chair of the Party of Folk Freedom, Boris Nemtsov during the show of the play "Berlusputin", represented by the theater.doc at the monument Abay Kunanbaev on Chistoprudny Boulevard. Aleshkovsky/TASS
2. Dmitry LovetSky/AP/TASS