Children of December

On the morning of December 14, people came out to Senate Square who disagreed with the accession of a successor to the Russian throne. This was 182 years ago, and history remembers those people, five of whom lost their lives for their beliefs, and the rest went to hard labor in Siberia, as the Decembrists. This year, about thirty people came to the same Senate Square to honor their memory, who also do not agree with the installation of another heir to the throne of the Russian Federation.

The event in memory of the Decembrists is essentially mourning. Therefore, the organizers, the UCF and the Youth Yabloko, came to it without political symbols, with white carnations, traditionally signifying peaceful intentions. The word “Freedom” was laid out on the ground from these flowers.
– Our flash mob was not approved because we did not submit an application. “I’m tired of senseless bans,” says Olga Kurnosova. “But the police never became interested in us.” Although, of course, if we decided to gather at the Legislative Assembly, there would be enough problems.
Yabloko leader Alexander Gudimov proposed to honor with a minute of silence the National Bolshevik Yuri Chervochkin, who died as a result of a brutal beating on the eve of the Moscow March of Dissent. And actor Alexey Devotchenko, known for his strong civic position, read a poem by Pushkin.
“What is happening now and what happened in 1825 are almost identical situations,” says Devotchenko. The autocrat of All Rus', Vladimir Vladimirovich, hands over the reins of power to Dmitry Medvedev, who became famous thanks to the national projects he ruined. So the heir will be the same as his predecessor.
The action lasted about 40 minutes, but even after everyone had left, St. Petersburg residents approached the Bronze Horseman with flowers and left them - in memory of those who decided on the feat.

Andrzej BELOWRANIN
Photo by Mikhail MASLENNIKOV

library "New"
Desert sower of freedom,
I left early, before the star;
With a clean and innocent hand
Into the enslaved reins
Threw a life-giving seed -
But I only lost time
Good thoughts and works...

Graze, peaceful peoples!
The cry of honor will not wake you up.
Why do the herds need the gifts of freedom?
They should be cut or trimmed.
Their inheritance from generation to generation
A yoke with rattles and a whip.

A. S. Pushkin, comrade of the Decembrists