Seventeen moments of spring 2012

Photos – Evgeniy Nadalinsky,

Stas Nadalinsky

We will tell you about some of the events of the last military Moscow spring... In three months, fascism will be defeated, President Putin will have a new government, and now there are battles...

Do you think this is a comic paraphrase of the prologue from Lioznova’s series? But here's a different prologue for you. This is the beginning of a dialogue between Boris Akunin, a writer concerned about the events in Moscow during the May holidays, and Vladimir Platonov, chairman of the Moscow City Duma from the United Russia party. That is, a public figure and statesman. Or quite simply – a dialogue between society and government:

Akunin: ...a very dangerous event happened in Moscow... On May 7, 8 and 9, the police grabbed people without any reason. Simply because a person was walking along the boulevard or had a white ribbon tied to him... Where was the Moscow City Duma all this time?
Platonov: On Petrovka, 22.
Akunin: What does this mean?
Platonov: This is the building of the Moscow City Duma...

This is not a joke from a prominent statesman, nor is he playing the fool. This is rudeness. And this rudeness is caused by the desire not to listen to society, but to dictate its terms and rules to it... Did you shout “We are the power here!”? Well, now we’ll show you who the real power is here... And they showed...

Organizers of the Million March said 5,000 participants took part in the event. The authorities announced 6,000 armed police for the same event (wow ratio for a peaceful march?).

1.

Much more than the announced 5,000 came to the march. Several tens of thousands of people came. Peaceful citizens.

2.

With political demands. How could it be otherwise? And political activists. Where would we be without them...

3.

But despite the fact that the film crew of the NTV channel could not resist, and were reminded that it is not good to lie, even under the flags of the “Left Front” there was no belligerence observed! It was a peaceful march...

4.

In defiance of them, 6,000 armed police officers, treacherously violating agreements with the organizers of the march, blocking the square and reducing the space of Bolotnaya to a minimum, created a crush that was degrading to human dignity... After which they did not allow the rally to begin, forcibly pushed people out of the territory of the procession and arrested its organizers! For what? And then for four days (!) throughout the center of Moscow they persecuted everyone who was even remotely similar to the participants in this protest event... Why???

Dmitry Oreshkin believes that the authorities do not know how to behave... Either to indulge the opposition (at one time they tried to imitate - for example, the television broadcast of a meeting of Medvedev’s open government is just a copy of the Internet broadcast of meetings of the organizing committee of rallies for fair elections - and even to seize the initiative from using the pseudo-political supposedly independent programs of Solovyov and Gordon on TV), or by force to impose your own rules... Unpleasant, of course. But there is a desire to look, like Stirlitz, for one of the power structures who is capable of separate negotiations with the opposition...

However, it seems to me that everything is simpler. And worse. There is no dialogue. And it never was. From the very beginning, since December last year, the authorities have been doing the same thing - ignoring the opposition! Because according to their idea, there can be no non-systemic opposition. Only city crazy people or aggressive outcasts. What kind of dialogue can there be with such people?

And here all methods are good. To outright deceive, violate rules and agreements in order to make opposition leaders look bad. Accuse of non-existent offenses and violations. Ban and disperse by force... Anything! It’s probably impossible to shoot everyone to hell. This could damage formal legitimacy before the obedient majority and Western colleagues...

Hence, by the way, the rudeness that constantly breaks through.

And now, with a “new” president, the authorities seem to have a new method. They decided to nip in the bud any political activity at all. And the events of May 6 on Bolotnaya, it seems to me, were the beginning of this special operation. I would like to be mistaken... But, I’m afraid, everything is being done to put those who are especially zealous (Navalny and Udaltsov) in prison for a long time, and for those who are less zealous, they are legally prohibited, under pain of huge fines, from participating in political rallies. Well, in political actions, of course...

There is only one hope left. To civil nonviolent protest. Based on the ingenuity and creativity of those Russian citizens who have ceased to be indifferent and passive... Well, and on the courage of socially significant figures... Navalny came up with a mobile Maidan and the slogan “protest is fun.” Akunin invented walks around the city...

And it works! The writer Akunin did not heed the warnings of officials. Self-esteem turned out to be stronger. And he went out onto the boulevard.

5.

Boris Akunin: “People didn’t come for us. For themselves”...
And other famous people came out with him. And behind them are ordinary citizens of Moscow. More than ten thousand people walked around Moscow without fences, without a cordon, without armed riot police, and there were no provocations, no fights, no violation of public order! All previous fears and preparations of the authorities simply turned into nonsense! And people will not forget this now.
6.

What a walk it was! So many beautiful people...
Here, together with Akunin, is Lyudmila Ulitskaya:

7.

Viktor Shenderovich: “In the twenty-first year of freedom, democracy in Russia has reached such heights that people must fight for the right to simply walk around their hometown without the permission of the boss...”

8.

Dmitry Bykov for radio Ekho Moskvy by phone: “There are many more readers in Moscow than we expected!”

9.

But Yuri Rost, Georgy Satarov, Lev Rubenstein and Sergei Yursky
11.

13.


Irina Yasina: “We must support any movement against lies in power”



Dmitry Oreshkin: “The authorities are hesitating and don’t know how to behave...”

15.

Yulia Latynina: “It is quite obvious that anti-protest legislation will now be tightened, and rallies will be banned or almost banned. Akunin has found a brilliant formula. We will go for walks.”

16.


Latynina is right. The only question is: will we really go for “walks”?
This is what these people were like at the Abai monument. But they are called marginalized, clowns and city crazy people. It was 6,000 well-armed police officers who were sent against them. They want to ban them from going to rallies without permission...

17.

An artists' walk is scheduled for the 19th. The nomadic exhibition will go to the Museum of Modern Art on Petrovka. And then the musicians will join in... Is this stupid? Kindergarten? Well, great. Let them think so. We know that this is not so.