Fear

“God, how afraid they are!” - such text messages went to the phone as soon as it became known that hackers consistently brought down the entire liberal corner of the Internet. Periodically collapsed and Livejournal.

“They” is power. Facebook and Twitter, which our Chekists and their colleagues from the Ministry of Internal Affairs have not yet reached, literally blazed with irritation: all the feeds were filled with messages and videos about violations - in Yekaterinburg, three teachers were filmed on the video camera of the phone, how three teachers tick off a pack of ballots, in Moscow - how students were paid for participating in the "carousels", in Barnaul - how the observers of the "Voice" were blocked, etc. and so on. Parallel reality flowed through state channels in a continuous stream: there citizens voted unanimously, and local law enforcement officers reported that there were no violations.

Why, for the first time in 20 years of post-Soviet Russia, the authorities began to act so brazenly? The answer is fear.

The same fear that endlessly tormented the Soviet authorities: God forbid, a wave of protest will spread from one city to another. When there were famous unrest in Novocherkassk in 1962, where the authorities shot down a demonstration of workers, the rest of the country knew nothing about it. And in Novocherkassk they understood: they are alone, no one will support them, the protest will be suppressed. And they suppressed it.

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Through social networks, people from Moscow to the outskirts are beginning to solidify in their discontent

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Exactly according to the same scheme, the government operates now. The last weeks before the vote showed: grassroots civil protest is gaining momentum, irritation against the duumvirs, the impudence of their castling, disgust towards the representatives of United Russia is growing. It's one thing when Moscow or St. Petersburg demonstrates discontent, it's another thing when the same thing happens in Tver, Yekaterinburg, and Vladivostok. Citizens in different parts of a vast country suddenly realized: it’s bad to live (option: disgusting, impossible to breathe) not only in their city of Ensk, but also a thousand kilometers away from them. This means that not only the local chief is to blame - something is not right with the main bosses in Moscow. It's scary to think: Putin is to blame? This is the rink of protest that the Kremlin is afraid of: they remember how the ninth wave covered the Soviet government, and they understand that the same can cover them. A month ago, statistics recorded: more than 51 million citizens have access to the Internet. This means that a third of the country learns about what is happening in the Fatherland not only from the good news of Channel One or the Rossiya channel. But not only does he learn: through social networks, people from Moscow to the very outskirts are beginning to solidarize in their discontent. One of the tools for uniting the country was the “Map of Violations”. People visibly saw that what the ruling party does in their city during the election campaign, it does in others. Exactly for this reason, in the last week before December 4, the entire power of the repressive machine - from the TV box to the prosecutor's office - was brought down on the "Voice", and on the voting day - on the Internet resources where the "Map of Violations" was posted (echo.msk.ru, newtimes .ru, slon.ru).

It is easy to see: where access to the Internet is limited, as, for example, in the national republics of the Caucasus, where users make up hundredths of a percent, there the authorities received almost 100% turnout and close approval. The picture is exactly the opposite in big cities, where people have stopped believing in the “box” and are reading the Internet.

Not only that: live magazines, Twitter do not allow quietly trampling protesters in towns remote from Moscow. As soon as information appears in one blog, it begins to be posted in thousands. This is very important, because heroes are capable of a single protest, the support of thousands gives rise to the protest of millions - the very collective action that the Kremlin is so afraid of.

One of the bloggers wrote in his LiveJournal: there is an uprising across the country. No, not yet: but if the government does not come to its senses, it will rise to its full height. They will wait.