Translated material
Careless
At the first “Civil Forum” in 2013, a small revolution took place. For the first time in the history of the Global Fund meetings, the authorities suffered a fiasco. We can say a lot that the “Civil Forum” is aimed at dialogues and communication, but let’s be realistic - people come to the forums to tell the authorities about problems, to be heard and to understand what the authorities want outside of offices, official comments and all this pretense. Mayor Bozhenov came once, came a second time to meet with bloggers - and most of those who saw him live are now spitting at their TV and monitor screens when the city manager talks about the next “Dubai”. But that’s not what we’re talking about now - never before has the public gathered together at the Pyzh Cafe been so unanimous in their desires, and the authorities have been so opposed to the people in their intentions. Moreover, the arguments of the “crowd” turned out to be not only more weighty than the arguments of the officials; the city’s top officials simply did not know the answer to a considerable proportion of questions from the audience. And when asked about the state order, Deputy Mayor Garmashev admitted that there was an error in the documents, and his colleagues were careless.
1. The atmosphere before the forum was heated by the skirmish between communists and nationalists - the latter suddenly began to support the city authorities and now even intend to hold a picket in support of the transfer of Lenin. The New Force party also came to the Civil Forum with two members. The leader of the Belgorod branch, Roman Strigunkov, first sat down with the Nazi Androsov, but immediately came to his senses.
2. Beginning of the meeting. This was the first “Civil Forum”, which did not require any announcements or other advertising. The topic turned out to be so interesting to the public that it was guaranteed to be a full house. Until recently, only one thing remained unclear - who would represent the city administration.
3. As a result, the head of the information and mass communications department of the city administration, Andrei Morozov, came, and the head of the Belgorod city administration, vice-mayor Alexander Garmashev answered all questions. The chief architect of Belgorod, the author of the project for installing the stele on Cathedral Square, and the head of the department of architecture and urban planning of the Belgorod region, Vitaly Pertsev, came with the officials.
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5. Theme "Lenin and old Belgorod". The two-minute rule, respect for the interlocutor - on this forum everything was the same as always.
6. Traditional presentation from moderators on the topic.
7. Then Garmashev took the floor. He began to describe in detail the whole story that set the teeth on edge - they say, the stele “City of Military Glory” should be in a popular, visible place; that the stele must be installed somewhere, etc... It became more interesting when the vice-mayor began to explain why the stele had no place in Victory Park - it turns out that if the monument is next to the Diorama, then the two monuments “are already like- it’s hard,” because the Diorama itself is already a monument. Then, for the first time during the meeting, laughter was heard in the hall. Later it will be heard more than once - this will become a natural reaction to the official’s words, while questions from the audience will be accompanied by applause.
8. At the end of his speech, Garmashev said that opinion polls would be held on the fate of the Lenin monument and the “City of Military Glory” stele. He also touched on the “words of local historians”—the city authorities’ favorite excuse on this topic. Like, the late Krupenkov said that there are mass graves near Lenin and a stele should now be erected there to honor their memory. sanchess_city31 , who is one of those local historians who are supposedly heard at the mayor’s office, shuddered at these words.
9. The presentation referred to the vote in “Belgorod. This is interesting.” Later, Garmashev will also mention the public, citing information from it. They are reading.
10. The first question was asked by Sergei Khakhalev. The administrator of "Belgorod. This is interesting" immediately asked about the state order, which clearly and clearly states that the stele will be on Cathedral Square. Garmashev in response doubted Khakhalev’s words, saying that the wording contains “or” - that is, Cathedral Square or Victory Park. From the very first answer, officials, firstly, came under fire from questions and comments, and secondly, into a hole dug, in fact, by themselves when they wrote this state order and began to develop the topic.
11. While some began to search for government orders on their tablets to show Garmashev how things really stood with his documentation, Sergei Lezhnev took the floor. He asked whether there was a political motive in the decision to transfer Lenin. “No,” Garmashev answered briefly and clearly.
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13. Garmashev was constantly interrupted by an activist of the “Essence of Time” organization. The gentleman persistently asked to define the actions of the authorities as “barbaric” and carefully disrespected his interlocutors. For this, the owner of the “Pyzh Cafe” establishment looked at him like this.
14. Then a man spoke online, known as Bogdan Khmelnitsky. He said that the majority of Belgorod residents support the relocation of the Lenin monument and, in general, that the authorities are idiots and good fellows. To this, a person from “The Essence of Time” asked Garmashev how he felt about the fact that only the Nazis supported the authorities. And again there was laughter in the hall.
15. But Tatyana Chernykh from AiF received sincere applause. She asked whether the issue of exhuming the bodies was now being considered - after all, even if the stele is placed over the mass graves, the dances and parades on Cathedral Square will never end. Garmashev said that it is not being considered.
16. Igor Gladkov traditionally spoke about entrepreneurs, or more precisely about his desire to collect money from them to build a hospice. Garmashev said it was a great idea. Apparently it was a short commercial break.
17. The advertisement ended and, in my opinion, the most significant moment of the entire forum occurred. Communist Dmitry Shitikov opened a state order for Garmashev, in which Cathedral Square was listed as the installation site for the stele.
18. Garmashev looked and... said that he could explain such a mistake only by the negligence of his own colleagues. That is, 40 million rubles can, it turns out, be explained so simply. Well, it's just a mistake.
19. Then there was a lot more interesting things - for example, a representative of the “Combat Brotherhood”. He became second after the man from “The Essence of Time” in terms of provocativeness at the meeting, every now and then saying that “all the veterans are for the transfer of Lenin,” assenting to Garmashev and supporting him.
20. And Koynov read out the federal law on cultural heritage monuments. The letter of the law states that such monuments cannot be moved or demolished. This was later confirmed by a lawyer who was present at the meeting. Garmashev, on the one hand, replied that the authorities were not going to break the law, but on the other hand, he could not explain how they were going to transfer Ilyich.
21. Architect Pertsev also received his word. He drew an analogy with the order that a warrior receives and attaches to his chest. That is, the stele should be located in the very center of the city, in its heart. From the audience they immediately reminded him about the monument to military glory, which for some reason is not located in the center of Belgorod.
22. For the first time in all the forums, even I wanted to speak out. He asked two simple questions: “How can you trust opinion polls conducted by the government when Mr. Garmashev publicly recognizes this government as negligent?” and “How can you mislead Belgorod residents with information about local historians when a living local historian sanchess_city31 sits in front of Garmashev and says completely opposite things?” Garmashev asked me to repeat the question three times because he “didn’t understand.”
23. I insisted that Sanchess take the microphone to better “clarify” the issue. He approached from afar and asked Garmashev which local historians’ words the mayor’s office uses when developing options for installing the stele. Garmashev named Krupenkov and Sanchess pulled out his white sword: “Krupenkov worked with us in our local history group, and he said that there are no mass graves near Lenin.” I don’t know how fucked up all this was by that time for Garmashev, but he said that “no one wants to make mistakes,” so he’s ready to start negotiations with Sanchez and with everyone who cares.
24. The meeting was ended by Masha Litvinova, who showed a sad presentation about the cultural heritage of Belgorod.
In theory, the meeting of the “Civil Forum” should become a turning point in this whole story. If local historians sit down at the same table with the authorities, the decision to place the stele in Victory Park, in theory, can be considered a resolved issue. And there will be no tent camps or hunger strikes from the communists. But if “careless” officials continue to place provocative government orders, then a small revolution could indeed turn into a far from small war.