Translated material
The toys staged a mime rally in St. Petersburg. PHOTO
Photo: Valentina Romanova Text: Valentina Romanova In St. Petersburg, protest festivities are held in the format of “mimiciting,” which involves toys with banners. Their owners are waiting for May 31 to organize real city festivities.
In the Alexander Garden near the fountain there is a group of 30 people. Someone is sitting on the ground. Someone is playing chess. Who reads and conducts conversations. Sometimes they gather in a circle where they discuss, in their opinion, problematic topics: “How to give interviews competently,” “What is Center “E” and much more. Next to the walkers there is a bust of the great Russian poet Lermontov, at the foot of which not so long ago a toy rally arose.
It is usually called “mimiciting”, where multi-colored toys sit with posters. Most of all, such a “soft” protest interests children, who look with curiosity at the cute slogans on the “transparencies.” Sometimes a policeman comes in to see people walking, checks to see if everything is calm, and then retreats to a GAZelle parked nearby.
These days everything is calm. According to the head of the branch of the United Civil Front in St. Petersburg, Olga Kurnosova, the organizers of the “mi-meeting” are waiting for May 31, when the next “Strategy-31” will take place in the format of city festivities.
The format of the toy rally became popular in the winter, when protests for fair elections took place. For the first time, toys with posters came out to a “nano-rally” in the city of Apatity, Murmansk region, on the eve of the first wave of protests on December 10, 2011. They liked the idea, and soon rallies took place in Tver, Omsk, Tomsk and Barnaul.