Translated material
World numbness
On February 26, Muscovites will take hands on the garden ring - this will be the last peaceful protest before the “elections” on March 4. The initiators inspired the famous Baltic Way and other similar shares of civil solidarity. We decided to remind you how and why the "living chains" in Russia and abroad were built.
RUSSIA
Politzek's day on Lubyanka. 1989
The first action of this scale in the center of Moscow. On October 30, on the day of the political prisoner, people stood at the KGB building in a living chain with burning candles. About this historical day on the faces was written by Dmitry Borko. Here is his story and photographs .
Photo: Dmitry Borko
The chain around the house of the government of Udmurtia. 2007
On February 3, with a 25-degree frost, about a thousand participants in the protest in Izhevsk demanded the resignation of the President of the Republic of Alexander Volkov. After the rally, a march around the Government House took place, then another short rally, after which the protesters cordoned off the building from three sides, raised large yellow leaflets with the words "corruption - no" and chanted "Volkov resigned!" Volkov heads the republic so far.
Photo: izhevsk.ru
Promotion of the FNPR. 2007
On May 24, trade unions held a stock throughout the country under the slogan "For a decent life." In Moscow, they organized a live chain from the Government House to the State Duma building. According to the organizers, 7 thousand people participated in the action, according to the police - 5 thousand. The skeptical press reported that the chain turned out to be intermittent, the participants were no more than 2 thousand and they lacked enthusiasm.
Photo: Radio Liberty
Similar shares were held in Vladimir (about 1000 people), in Vologda (200 people) and other cities.
The second trial of Khodorkovsky and Lebedev. 2010
On December 15, people came to the Khamovnikiye Court, where they were supposed to announce the verdict in the second case of Yukos. The police did not agree on a picket. At some point, people silently held hands. Nobody agreed on this in advance. The chains stretched out on both sides of the alley.
Photo: svobodumbh.ru
The format of "chains" in different years was used by the defenders of homeless dogs , organizers of the celebration of the anniversary of Veliky Novgorod and the actions of the memory of those who died in the Great Patriotic War. In Tyumen, they thought of handing bouquets from hand to hand so that all those standing in the chain would participate in the layers of flowers to the memorial.
Last winter, at the rink in Gorky Park, they tried to build the longest "train" on ice .
The strongest, albeit short, live chains are smoked by participants in inconsistent protests - on the triumphal, near the Solovetsky stone, at the CEC. The police have to work hard to break these chains. Most often, activists adhere to their elbows, sometimes handcuffs, climbing ropes or even large banners with slots for several heads are used. Stopping the equipment, fighters for the Khimkinsky forest and Moscow city defenders got into live chains. In one of these chains,Lyudmila Melikova died .
Exactly a month before the last Duma elections, on the Day of National Unity, unicorn and Mgerovtsy built a living chain on the banks of the Neva. According to official figures, more than 8 thousand people participated in the “Unified City” action, correspondents of independent publications consider this assessment very high. Supporters of "Osra" sustained the English and university embankments, Blagoveshchensk and palace bridges.
Photo: Er.ru
Baltic countries
"Baltic Way". 1989
On August 23, 1989, on the 50th anniversary of the Molotov -Ribbentrop Pact, two million inhabitants of the three Baltic countries held hands. The Baltic Way stretched by 600 km, connected Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius. The result was one of the main peaceful manifestations of the century. UNESCO included this action in the international register of the Memory of the World program.
Photo: random.lv
UKRAINE
Coateness Day. 1990
On January 22, 1919, an act of reunification of the Ukrainian People’s Republic and the West Ukrainian People’s Republic was proclaimed into a single Ukrainian state. On January 22, 1990, Ukrainians for the first time massively celebrated the Day of Coateness. Several million formed a live chain, which began on Sofia Square in Kyiv from the poet and public figure Ivan Drach, stretched from Kyiv through Zhytomyr to Lviv, and then to Ivano -Frankivsk. Since then, Ukraine annually celebrates the Day of Coateness.
Photo: Territoryteror.org.ua
The tradition of living chains was revived in 2008. This year, a thousand people held hands on the Paton bridge in Kiev and united the two banks of the Dnieper with a live chain. The symbolic association of two shores occurred on the central bridge of Dnepropetrovsk.
Photo: gorod.dp.ua
In 2003, the Kyivians built a live chain on the rally of memory of the murdered journalist George Gongadze.
GEORGIA
Stop Russian. 2008
On September 1, tens of thousands of Tbilisi residents took to the streets with a state flag in their hands and formed a live chain. Residents of the country called on the international public to oppose the actions of Russia in Georgia in August 2008. The "Stop Russian" campaign was held on the day of the special summit of the European Union, convened by the President of France to discuss the Russian-Georgian conflict. The chain of people was lined up along the central streets of Tbilisi, from Square of Freedom to the building of the Russian Embassy in the Vake area, and from there along parallel streets to the patriarchal Cathedral of Sameba (Holy Trinity). Similar shares were held that day in many cities of the country.
In 2007, the Georgian opposition built a live chain around the parliament.
ISRAEL
Gush -Catif - Jerusalem. 2004
On July 25, a mass action was held against the liquidation of Jewish settlements in the Gaza sector. 150 thousand people stood in a chain 90 km long from the gush-catifa in the gases sector to the crying wall in Jerusalem. At the beginning of the chain, there were veterans who created the Kfar settlement in 1946, and at the end, at the crying wall, children from this village.
Photo: Spectr.org
In February 2008, about 40 thousand Palestinians, mainly women and children, lined up in a live chain from the southern to the northern border of the Gaza sector in protest against the Israeli blockade.
In January 2009, several thousand Jews and Arabs in Northern Israel held hands and formed a "live chain of the world."
GERMANY
Shares against nuclear power plants. 2010-2011
On April 24, 2010, the largest action against nuclear energy has been held in Hamburg in recent years. The organizers built a 120-kilometer chain of 100 thousand participants with children and pets. The chain stretches from the nuclear power plant in Brunbuttel through Hamburg along the Elba to the NPP in Kryummel.
Photo: AP
On March 14, 2011, an action was held against nuclear energy caused by an explosion at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant in Japan. Tens of thousands of people in 40 settlements formed a live chain of 45 kilometers long, leading from the nuclear power plant in Necarvestheim to the city of Stuttgart.
"Dresden without the Nazis." 2012
On February 13, 13 thousand people got into a live chain so as not to let the neo -Nazis into the historical center of Dresden, where they planned to hold a torch march in memory of the victims of the 1945 bombardment. One and a half thousand neo-Nazis, due to the cordon of citizens, could not get to the city center, in fact their action was disrupted. The Nazis was attended by the mayor of Dresden Helm Orz and Prime Minister of Saxony Stanislav Tillich.
Photo: AP
UNITED KINGDOM
Fighters for nuclear disarmament in the county of Berkshire, 1983
The Greenham-Comon Women's Camp arose in 1981 near the American air base. On April 1, 70 thousand opponents of American cruise missiles stretched 22.5 kilometers in the so-called "nuclear valley" between the American base in Greenham-Common and the military plant in Bergfield. The Kremlin propagandists were delighted.
The stories of the Greenham-Common camp participants in the magazine "Around the World". 1985
Anti -globalists in Birmingham. 1998
In July, the Coalition "Jubilee 2000" was able to combine about 70 thousand people in a live chain. They cordoned off the center of Birmingham, where a large eight summit was held, demanding the debt to the poor countries.
A similar action was held in 2000 in Germany with the participation of 50 thousand people.
USA
America is taking hands. 1986
On May 25, about 6.5 million Americans participated in the Hands Across America charitable campaign. Participants contributed $ 10 to take a place in a living chain, which stretched 6.6 thousand km across America. Money went to the aid of the poor, starving, homeless.
Photo: mentalfloss.com
The campaign roller of the action:
PORTUGAL
The action of solidarity with Eastern Timor. 1999
On September 8, the 20-kilometer chain stretches between the UN representative office and the embassies of Russia, China, Great Britain, France and the USA. 300 thousand people participated in the action.
FRANCE
Pope in Paris. 1997
In August, John Paul II took part in the World Wide Day. About a million young Catholics gathered in Paris. About 200 thousand people formed a 36-kilometer "chain of fraternity", facing outside and surrounding Paris.
TAIWAN
"Hand in hand". 2004
The action in memory of the " massacre 228 " and against the military threat from the PRC. According to various sources, from one to two million people stood in a living chain.
INDIA
This is a country-commander in terms of the quantity and length of living chains. In 2008, 60 thousand people in Mumbai thus protest against terrorist attacks. The manifestation in defense of the Lankan Tamils was twice as large. In 2009, in Kerala, from 3 to 4 million people protest against an agreement on free trade with ASEAN. In 2010, 5 million separatists of Telengana (the region in Andra-Pradesh) stood in a 500-kilometer chain. More recently, a 30-kilometer chain against abortion on a sexual basis was lined up in Kharian. And this is far from a complete list of shares.
Over the past couple of years, a variety of living chains have been found in the news: in Simferopol, they take hands in the framework of the “Hour of the Earth” , in Washington they protest against the construction of the oil pipeline , the Australians are lining up on the bridge in defense of animals, in Guatemala a living chain on a volcano fights domestic violence, a yellow ring in Mexico City Diseases - with cancer. The last year’s Shiite revolution in Bahrain and the presidential election in Iran did not do without a living chain. There is also an international project " Living Chain " for the abolition of the death penalty in Iran and the liberation of political prisoners. And this week, students of the Estonian Art Academy cordoned off a new building of the university yet.
Muscovites, in order to close the chain on the inside of the garden ring, need to go out in the amount of 35 thousand. Participants of the promotion are registered on the website FEB26.ru . The Moscow authorities admitted that such an action does not require a notification.