March from Revolution Square to Bolotnaya

The move of the site from Revolution Square to Bolotnaya, imposed by the authorities, instantly became a time bomb, creating a lot of threats to maintaining the peaceful nature of the protest. Many reports from Bolotnaya have already been posted. I want to talk about the most dramatic moment of December 10 and reveal a little about the efforts and nerves with which everything was carried out without a single arrest and without a single bruise.

Let me remind you that short-lived differences among the organizers were quickly overcome, and the joint statement by Chirikova, Udaltsova and Nemtsov finally confirmed the mood for the peaceful nature of the action.

The organizers faced the following difficulties:
- what to do with those who come to the square. Revolutions, because doesn't know about the transfer
- what to do if some of those who came there do not want to leave and will carry out the action on the spot and they will be detained
- and, finally, can one seriously trust the guarantees of safe passage to Bolotnaya

I will not retell what the organizers told me, who met with the police authorities, representatives of the mayor’s office and tried to convince them not to provoke and not to detain people for nothing, to just let them go to Bolotnaya. I think you yourself understand that the negotiations were not easy. I am grateful to those of the organizers who managed to insist that riot police cannot push people into the subway (as some hot police heads suggested).

Another obvious point was that on the square. Revolutions were going to come from all sorts of people with their own personal beliefs. And none of them, naturally, was obliged to obey the organizers. In other words, there must be someone on the spot who, in the possible chaos, could at least somehow call people to calm.
It so happened that Zhenya Chirikova took on this difficult mission.

We made an appointment in the center of the hall of the Ploshchad Revolyutsii metro station. They waited there for Kolya Lyaskin and Denis Bilunov, and Danila Lindele arrived. In general, we were surrounded by reliable people.
The police began to drive people out of the subway, swearing at them through megaphones. Zhenya Chirikova talked to the elder and asked him not to escalate the situation. assured that at exactly 13.50 everyone would go upstairs. She calmed the policeman down, he told his friends and stopped swearing into the megaphone.

At 14.00 we go to the square. Revolutions.
There are frames and a lot of press here. The press does not understand the situation and strives to interview Chirikova. She speaks a couple of times about the peaceful nature of today’s events, and then gently but firmly asks the press not to interfere with the most important thing - to make sure of the safety of those who came to the square.

We go through the framework, call up representatives of the mayor's office. For some reason they are standing at the monument to Zhukov and asking Zhenya to come to them. She reminds them of the agreements and asks them to come to the scene.

Representatives of the mayor and police authorities arrive. Zhenya asks for a megaphone, as agreed with the police. It is important for those gathered not to learn from the police that there is a rally on Bolotnaya.

They bring a megaphone, Zhenya notifies everyone. Everyone calmly moved towards Bolotnaya. However, the megaphone turned out to be defective and stopped working after a short time.

RETREAT.
Everyone who had previously planned to be on the square in any case behaved absolutely heroically. Revolutions. They made concessions to the illegal actions of the authorities and some moved to Bolotnaya in order not to expose civilians. Respect to the Limonovites and everyone who helped citizens not end up in a meat grinder. The peaceful nature of the action is largely their merit.

The column took the most incredible route, turning into the largest mass march in the capital that has happened so far.

I don’t know which smart guy from the authorities drew up the route, but he went past the buildings of the Presidential Administration, past the Lubyanka, past the Kremlin. It so involuntarily turned out that the postponement of the meeting by the authorities made possible the impossible - a march along the central streets of the capital.

So here we are, in the middle of a march of more than ten thousand people. But the problem is that there is no megaphone. And the risk of provocations or problems is high.
It must happen that a column of anarchoantifa joins the march in front of the column of nationalists. Zhenya Chirikova becomes a kind of buffer between them. But it turned out that our worries about the situation were in vain. Both of them shouted the same slogans about the party of swindlers and thieves. Well, except that the anarchists added “higher, higher, black flag,” and the nationalists added their own “Russian flag over the Kremlin” at the back.

By the way, Chirikova, as an organizer, restrained herself and began shouting slogans only when they reached Bolotnaya. I can imagine how hard it was for her to restrain herself.

Everything seems to be fine, but then... a flashing light drives into the crowd. With a quack, he crosses the police cordon and freezes right in the middle of the march. Anarchs are already beginning to surround the car. The nationalists begin to buzz behind them.
Chirikova is yelling at the top of her lungs at the police, REMOVE THE CAR FASTER!!! In fact, she said all this in much stronger words. The police seemed to realize that the flashing light had no place here and the black foreign car quickly dived into the passage opened by the police.

But even here the dangers did not end. We go to the bridge. And then the wide stream is suddenly pushed only onto the sidewalk (previously, one lane of the road was open for passage.

The stampede begins.

Chirikova is trying to shout to the senior people responsible for the chain. They are waiting for orders from above. Zhenya calls the mayor's office. They promise to help, but they don’t. And all that is needed is for the cordon to take a few steps back and give way. Moreover, there was no traffic moving in that direction at all and the road was clear.

Luckily, no one was run over and Zhenya managed to calm people down and slow them down without people getting caught there.

Well, you know the rest. A huge column came to Bolotnaya and joined the protesters.

Key. The main reason why everything worked out was the mood of the citizens. No megaphone, no politician could have done anything if not for the peaceful mood of all those present. And this is a huge merit of the citizens. Thanks to everyone who walked with us, who helped, who calmed the violent ones and extinguished all possible conflicts with their calmness.

Below is a video about how it all happened.

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