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27-year-old Katya Mineeva wanted to change Russia for the better and died after Navalny’s funeral. Here is her story
On February 17, Ekaterina Mineeva, a 27-year-old programmer and civilian activist, laid flowers in memory of Alexei Navalny in Moscow, and then called her friends to visit to remember the policy. Two weeks later, Mineeva died in the hospital-and the news dispersed on social networks and telegram channels that the activist committed suicide because of Navalny's death. “Cold” talked with loved ones and friends of Mineeva to talk about how she lived and why she died.
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Friendship Minister
In September 2022, the elections of municipal deputies were held in Moscow. In the area of Vernadsky Avenue, Ekaterina Mineeva, a 25-year-old developer of Yandex, nominated their candidacy. Her photo immediately attracted the attention of potential voters: Mineeva had blue hair.
In the south-west of Moscow, the positions of opposition politicians are traditionally strong, and several more of its associates and comrades were running for the council of the same area in parallel to the council of the same area. Some - of those who are older - believed that hair color could work against Mineeva, but she did not agree with them: she said that she plans to become a "politicess with colored hair and sparkles" and prove that "generally accepted standards are stupid and Nekruto."
In the past, liberal -minded candidates were able to successfully perform in municipal elections in Moscow, but in the sixth month of the war in Ukraine, power spun nuts at this level. In order to become deputies in the Council of the district of Vernadsky, candidates needed to get into the first five based on the voting results. All these places went to nominates from the current government. Three independent candidates took the sixth, seventh and eighth places; Among them, Ekaterina Mineeva received the most votes.
It was unlikely that it was in the color of the hair: Mineeva also very openly talked about herself and spent a lot of effort on the campaign. “The entire municipal campaign is built around the apartment bypass, it is made by the forces of the candidates themselves, and many are getting tired and philony,” explains Ilya Lviv, who nominated in the same area. Many, but not Mineev: she went around the voters until late in the evening, sometimes calling other people's doors in the half-one-fifteenth. “She made a channel for donors who were given to our campaign, recorded circles there, made reports on the past day,” continues Lviv. - And it was not mechanically, but from the heart. She had a lot of internal heat, which she was ready to spread even to strangers. For me, this is an example of how to act in accordance with my own principles. ”
This example was not the only one. Mineeva regularly went to the courts to political prisoners. I donated money to help Belarusians during 2020 protests, independent Russian media, human rights organizations - and urged to do the same. I donated blood like a donor. I added cats from the shelter. She helped to prepare the newspaper by March 8 for women-poisoned. Once she met the homeless, gave him money for a hostel and tried to help him find a job. As a result, nothing came of it - Mineeva honestly told her subscribers about it and added: “Be that as it may, I continue to believe in people.” One of her friends said that if he became president, he would appoint her Minister of Friendship.
Mineev retained this energy even after the war in Ukraine began. When she was asked why she was engaged in a campaign, if she still was not allowed to get out, and is she not afraid to go to jail, Mineeva answered this way: “My way to overcome dark times is to follow her values. One of them is at least a little closer to the advance of that Russia where there will be freedom of speech, where people will not be awarded for the truth “novice”, polo, bullets, tortures, and years in prison. Although politics takes a lot of effort and time - and now there are few of them - it gives something much more important: meaning. ”
As part of the campaign, independent candidates printed a brochure with the main theses of their program. When the circulation was brought, Mineeva, as Elena Dominich recalls, also running into the council, "with the ease of the cat jumped in full growth on the stool and began to read out the text with a feeling - with a serious look that she performed in front of huge stands, and not in front of friends in a small kitchen." “There was a wonderful chamber atmosphere,” Dominich continues. - She laughed and said: “I will still become your mayor!” We laughed, clapped, said that we would vote for it. She was so charming! She had such a powerful natural charisma, she knew how to live here and now. ”
When it became clear that the campaign in the Council of the district of Vernadsky Avenue was lost, its participants responded differently to this. “Lena Dominich [who also ran for and did not go anywhere] began to scribble complaints,” recalls Ilya Lvov. -I didn’t think anything at all, because I hadn’t slept for several days, and Katya poured wine into a thermos, sat in a cart from the “Crossroads”, which for some reason ended up in the PEC building, and rode in it, drinking wine. A guard ran behind her and shouted: they say, what kind of birth do you arrange a circus here. And Katya just laughed. She quickly realized that the story ended on this and it was worth letting it go. And that, in my opinion, was the most correct reaction. ”
Live Katya Mineeva at that moment remained a little more than a year and a half.
A heightened sense of justice
Katya Mineeva grew up in the "average Moscow family," says her sister Irina. Dad is a programmer, mom is a defectologist speech therapist. “It seems to me that she has a heightened sense of justice since birth: everything should be honest, right,” says Irina. “If she saw that someone was offended, infringed, she could always say directly, even if a person was 60 years older than her, and she herself was not 10. It was always polite, correct, but very straight:“ Aunt Sonya, you are wrong. ” And they listened to her. ”
Katya looked at the example of her grandparents who completed graduate school and became candidates of sciences, and tried to correspond. In the eighth grade, on her own initiative, she transferred to one of the most prestigious Moscow schools-the 57th: “She decided to take exams there, and then went to this school on the metro on her own.” Getting out, she entered the MIPT, and then transferred from there to the Higher School of Economics and, having graduated from the university, began to work as a programmer.
Kati's comrades say that she shared liberal values already at school: she read independent media, watched the investigations that Alexei Navalny did . “Politics as an opportunity to express their position, fight, was natural for her,” says Irina. “The injustice that occur with people, she took it very close to her heart, really lived with this.” “Two years ago, she had a crisis, after which she decided that political activity was what would help her make life better and she needs to devote more time,” adds a classmate Mineeva Timothy Gorchakov. “She understood that she could go to jail, but she said that she would be in Russia to the end.”
Katya Mineeva reached her first single picket after the poisoning of Alexei Navalny: she stood at one of the Moscow shopping centers, demanding that the doctors would be allowed to be released. When on February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine, Mineeva wrote on Facebook that she would go to work with the poster “No War” on her chest. When they announced mobilization, she went to the protest; She was detained and taken to the ATS "Tushino". “Katya did not give her phone and refused to communicate with the police,” says her friend Ivan Shmatin. - I wrote to those who stood next to the department on the street, as they have inside them. And, despite threats and coercion, she did not give up. The “devils” surrendered and took her to another police department. ” As a result, Mineeva spent 10 days in a special -reception, where, according to acquaintances, she also managed to ensure that she and the Indians sitting in the same department was provided with special nutrition as vegans.
In June 2023, Katya painted in the courtyard of the house of Graffiti "Freedom Navalny." “She said that for her Navalny is very significant, because through his investigations she came to the political sphere,” says Mineeva Dasha’s friend (she asked the “cold” not to indicate her last name). “He played a very big role in her life.”
“At some point, she even left work. She had a very good job-“Yandex”, then “Tinkoff”-but at some point she decided to engage only in political activities, completely direct her forces to attempts to change something, ”continues Katya's sister. “Of course, it was a strong act.”
The meaning destroys from the inside
On strangers, Katya Mineeva almost always made the impression of a loaded, aimed at the action of the activist. What was it worth it, only relatives knew. The first time Katya was diagnosed with depression when she was a student. “The main thing she treated the doctors is the lack of energy,” her mother Julia tells the “cold”. - Sometimes it was difficult for her to even get to the institute. She always held very well, cheerfully, cheerfully, was friendly, friendly, but all the exhausted came home. ” It was not only in politics - Katya experienced shocks in her personal life - but also in her too: according to Katina’s mother, “she wanted her country to be different.”
In September 2020, Mineeva wrote that she was drinking antidepressants, and said that she had recently turned to a specialist in cognitive-behavioral therapy-and this helped. “A few years ago we had a conversation,” Julia continues. - I saw that she was not good, and she said: “Mom, it seems to me that I will never cure.” This was her first phrase when she was not afraid to share with me that [medicine] did not help well. We found a very good, very expensive doctor. He offered her to go to the clinic, but she refused because she wanted to work, do something, and not sit on my neck. Confession in the clinic, even if in private, was unacceptable to her at that moment. ”
In civilian activism, Mineev found the meaning of life - but the same activism often made her mood more depressive. “The guys and I are joking that in the concept of psychological happiness, health, enlightenment, which is often broadcast on the same instagram, political activism does not fit completely. He is not a job and not a hobby, ”says Ilya Lvov. -A heightened sense of justice is a problem in a sense, it is such a contradictory reason for a policy that greatly exhausts. It is impossible to constantly demand from yourself something to change in the world around you. You cannot decommission ( divide into clear components. - approx. “Cold” ) the tasks and goals that you set for yourself is an unbearable internal state. The meaning that you create for yourself simultaneously seizes you, destroys from the inside. ”
On February 16, when news appeared about the death of Alexei Navalny, Mineev, who had already shaved her blue hair to zero, published a video on her Facebook that she was going to reach the protest: “I propose to prepare for the worse. And it’s better to get together now, because in the evening there will be more bustle and it will be more difficult to do it. ”
“Katya wrote to everyone that she needs to go out, gather, lay flowers,” recalls Ilya Lvov. - By that time, I began to see politics more cynically, lost the opportunity to act symbolically. And she retained the approach in which there is a place for this impulse. ” Mineeva called the district police officer to warn her about the risks, but she stood on her own: “I don’t think that something connected with the prison was scared,” Lviv says. “She somehow stoically treated this.”
On February 17, Mineeva laid flowers to the wall of sorrow on Sakharov Avenue, put a candle and called friends to her home to remember Navalny. “She was upset, cried a lot,” says her friend Dasha, who was present in the apartment that evening. - We reviewed this piece from the film many times, where Navalny says what to do if they kill him. He said: Do not give up. And Katya agreed with this. ”
Late at night, when friends have already left, a post with her photo appeared on Facebook by Mineeva: “Hello. We can handle it. Otherwise, none. " The last word was not completed.
Why are you so worried?
At first, no one suspected anything. “When we diverged, the only thing that excited me was that she had a candle. I was afraid that she would go to bed and there would be an open fire, ”Dasha continues. - We wrote to her: “Get out, please, a candle.” She extinguished her. It is clear that she was very bad, but she was able to do some rational things. ” The next time they had to see Katya on Monday, but when on the evening of Sunday, Dasha saw that her friend was not online from 4 in the morning, she was worried. Katya did not take the phone. Dasha had the keys to the Katya apartment - and she decided to check if everything was in order.
There she found Katya unconscious. On the night of February 19, the ambulance took her to intensive care. Soon in social networks there were reports that because of the death of Navalny Mineev tried to commit suicide. Her relatives and relatives believe that this is not so. “In the hospital, the doctor said that her psyche was completely stitched,” says Mineeva Mineeva. - To take alcohol was contraindicated to her against the background of her medicines. She had five drugs in her blood - antidepressants who were prescribed to drink at the same time. Plus alcohol. Plus, she lived alone, lay unconscious, this toxic effect lasted for a long time. There was severe poisoning. How she survived, I do not know. "
For several days, Katya Mineeva spent in critical condition in intensive care, but came to her senses. Waking up, according to loved ones, she did not remember anything and was surprised that she could do something with herself. The psychologist who visited her told her sister and mother that she had no suicidal thoughts after awakening. On the contrary: she asked the doctor when she could write out and return to work - after dismissal from Yandex and Tinkova, Katya became a tutor and was engaged in mathematics and informatics with students.
A week after the ambulance took her to the hospital, Mineev was transferred to the usual department. “Her older sister Irina, as soon as she found out that Katya in intensive care, flew from London with two babies,” says Julia. - The doctor said: "There is no sense in, we cannot let you go." On Monday, we made another attempt. We went to the hospital, went up to the factory, he did not even have time to call anyone, when suddenly the door opened and Katya was taken out on a gurney. We saw her, and she saw us. I shout: "Katya!" And she says: "Oh, what are you worried about?" Here is Katya all. She first began to worry that she causes us such experiences. ”
“I talked every day with the attending physician,” Julia continues. “Everything was better, better, better, until this terrible news was informed on the weekend.” On March 2, a few hours after Alexei Navalny was buried in the Borisov cemetery, Katya Mineeva died in the hospital. This was a surprise even for doctors: at the moment, the cause of Katya’s death was not established, her body was sent to a forensic medical examination. The results will be ready only in April.
There is enough pain
In parting with Katya, dozens of people came-some specially arrived from abroad; In a chat organized for the funeral, there were about three hundred participants. For many acquaintances, her death became an occasion to once again think about how important it is to stay together.
“During this time, I felt a lot of support from my friends,” says Dasha. -Sometimes it seems that everything is in some of their affairs, but in fact many are ready to support you. I thought a lot about the causes of suicides, and now, leaving the person at night, I will keep the option in my head that he can do something with himself. People in this state cannot imagine this, but after death, many people around will be very painful. And it turns out that with many problems, people around are ready to help. ”
“There are people who always choose a difficult path from a philistine point of view. At least they go to the media, at a maximum - to civil activism and politics, ”says journalist Larisa Shamikova, who was familiar with Katya. - When the onlookers are standing, such people rush to the rescue. As a rule, they are open, not protected sincerely. Если бы они были закрыты, то не чувствовали бы боль и проблемы других. Но бывает, что своей боли достаточно, а тут еще и чужую впускаешь. Сейчас часто говорят, что самый темный час — перед рассветом. Но такие люди не могут затаиться, не могут сидеть и ждать [этого рассвета]. Им надо действовать. И иногда они просто не справляются».