Zakhar Prilepin - about what 12 former National Bolsheviks are being tried for in St. Petersburg

12 people are coming... On the now routine charge of extremism

Zakhar Prilepin, writer

The hearing of the criminal case against activists of the Other Russia party has resumed in St. Petersburg. More precisely and simply: the Vyborg court of the Northern capital, apparently, intended to imprison 12 former National Bolsheviks - supporters of Eduard Limonov, who continue to be actively involved in opposition activities. The position of the Russian media is surprising, if not touching: the case is not actually covered. Journalists react something like this: “You haven’t been jailed yet? Well, then this is not a news opportunity!” Well, we are aware: the news story is the bloody persecution of Ksenia Sobchak and the terrifying searches in her apartment. And 12 really looming prison sentences are just boring turnover.

For order, for show

The case was initiated in November 2010. The head of the St. Petersburg "drugorossy", Andrei Dmitriev, and two of his comrades, Pesotsky and Marochkin, are threatened with three years in prison, the rest of the accused - two years each. Article, already familiar to many Russian oppositionists, is Article 282, Part 1 and Part 2.

Not only is it familiar, it’s also legendary - I, for example, have already come across the magic numbers “282” in a dozen modern songs - oh, how powerfully Russian legislators work, one step into history!

Here, for example, is a current reference to the Criminal Code in the lyrics of the song of the group “25/17”: “Article 282 is like the sword of Damocles: for order, for show, serfs must be flogged.”

The St. Petersburg case is an ideal illustration of these words. Anyone familiar with the case materials will have a strong sense of the absurdity of what is happening.

Yes, there was such a party at one time - the National Bolshevik, one of the most interesting, to my taste, and significant political and cultural organizations of the last two decades. Dozens, if not hundreds of various important characters were directly related to the party - from the actor and jazz pianist Sergei Kuryokhin to the punk idol Yegor Letov, from the philosopher Alexander Dugin to many active publicists and writers of the new generation. The author of these lines is one of them.

The party did not commit a single violent action, that is, not a single person was harmed as a result of its activities. But more than 120 members of this mass organization, which was never registered by the state, received and served prison sentences over the years for their political activities. The most famous cases: the non-violent seizure of the tower of St. Peter in Riga with a call to stop the persecution of Soviet veterans, a non-violent seizure of the reception room of the President of the Russian Federation with a call to stop the monetization of benefits, a number of actions of “food terrorism”, for example, the former head of the Central Election Commission, Mr. Veshnyakov, shouting “Your elections are a farce!” was doused with mayonnaise in front of hundreds of people - despite the fact that at that time the Russian public for some reason did not consider the elections a farce; apparently, they were waiting for Churov, although there was plenty of magic before him.

In general, the party, along with its symbols and name, was eventually closed in 2007 as extremist - to the point that a ban was imposed on mentioning its name in the media. That is, Hitler can be mentioned, the devil can be mentioned, but the NBP cannot.

In my understanding, the explanation for this is elementary: it was impossible for the authorities to come to an agreement with the National Bolsheviks on any terms. The National Bolsheviks did not want financial assistance or other preferences, were not afraid of the loss of political or financial status, and were not even afraid of the loss of freedom - in general, they did not fit the respectable (and vile) definition of “systemic opposition,” but stubbornly remained “non-systemic.”

The party is gone, but party members in many regions have not disappeared. Most of them joined the “Other Russia” coalition, to which at different stages of its activity a variety of people were involved - from Garry Kasparov to Lyudmila Alekseeva.

Nevertheless, the former National Bolsheviks were always clearly distinguishable from other oppositionists. Simply put: it was they who turned out to be the ringleaders of both “Strategy 31” and “Marches of Dissent”, all that activity that preceded and in many ways prepared the mass actions of the last six months - the well-known rallies on Bolotnaya, on Sakharov, etc., etc. etc., etc.

This is where the snags in the St. Petersburg case begin to arise.

Victims

As far as we understand, opposition activities in Russia are not yet prohibited. No, you still can’t break the law, but it’s healthy not to love the authorities and talk about it out loud from time to time.

Personally, in general, I don’t like the government, but I show consistent intolerance towards it within the framework of the Criminal Code and media laws.

And if, nevertheless, our most uncontrollable courts in the world decide to put certain people in prison for rejecting the authorities, we have the right to expect the criminal guilt of the defendants to be weightily and reasonably proven.

To begin with, according to the case materials, there are no citizens or organizations who suffered any damage from the activities of the “other Russians”. There is none of them. But the indictment directly states the essence of the “crime” - organizing public events that are “aimed at expressing intolerance towards the leaders of existing government bodies.”

Translating from legal to universal, we explain: 12 people are being tried because they do not like the authorities.

Regarding my old comrade and a most worthy person in every sense, Andrei Dmitriev, the indictment states the following:

"Dmitriev A.Yu., being reliably informed that the activities of the interregional public organization "National Bolshevik Party" were prohibited, acting deliberately, out of extremist motives, decided to resume and lead the activities of the banned extremist interregional public organization "National Bolshevik Party" by convening meetings, organizing the recruitment of new members, mass distribution of extremist materials, holding unauthorized mass events.

Implementing the above criminal intent, Dmitriev A.Yu., realizing that achieving optimal criminal results is possible by involving persons with whom he is personally acquainted, who have experience and skills in organizing the activities of an interregional public organization, distributing criminal roles and developing a plan for them associations under his leadership, attracted A.A. Pesotsky to the interregional public organization "National Bolshevik Party". and Marochkin A.B., who expressed their consent to participate in organizing the activities of the interregional public organization "National Bolshevik Party" in St. Petersburg and to lead it by regularly convening meetings, organizing the recruitment of new members, holding processions and other unauthorized mass events ".

The quote is weighty, but all its weight will fall away if such terrible words as “National Bolshevik Party” are simply excluded from it.

Clearly aware that we don’t like jokes, all former party members have long and consistently called themselves “other Russians.”

Eastwood in the studio

The bottom line from all this magnificent abundance of words is as follows: Dmitriev and his comrades decided to continue legal opposition activities, instead of engaging exclusively in socially useful work for the benefit of the state.

This is all their fault.

The investigation gloomily reports that “during the searches carried out as part of this criminal case, a large amount of extremist literature was seized...”

However, not a single material included in the list of officially banned by the court as extremist literature was seized during the searches. Investigators seized legally published books and films. For example, during the search, Eduard Limonov’s novel “The Diary of a Loser,” a collection of biographies of Russian oppositionists from the Panorama information and analytical center, as well as the feature films “Children of the Cast Iron Gods” by Tomas Toth and “Flags of Our Fathers” by Clint Eastwood were confiscated from Andrei Dmitriev.

Let's bring Eastwood as a witness before it's too late, otherwise he's already old, 100 years old soon.

In addition, all cases of bringing participants to administrative liability over the past four years are included as evidence in the case.

It looks like young people are going to be jailed for, don’t laugh, swearing in a public place and crossing the road through a red light.

Rate the quote.

"Yashin A.M., acting under the organizational leadership of Dmitriev A.Yu., Pesotsky A.A. and Marochkin A.B., deliberately, out of extremist motives, with the aim of continuing the prohibited activities of the interregional public organization "National Bolshevik Party"" , located at number 18 on the street. Sadovaya in St. Petersburg, together with Marochkin A.B., Bashirov R.Kh. expressed the political views of the interregional public organization "National Bolshevik Party" of an extremist nature... for which on 08/03/2011, by a decision of the magistrate of judicial district No. 78 of St. Petersburg, he was found guilty of committing an administrative offense - a violation of public order, expressing a clear disrespect for society, accompanied by obscene language in public places, that is, provided for in Part 1 of Art. 20.1 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offences" .

Impressive, isn't it?

And one more, no less entertaining passage.

"Ivakhnik V.S., acting under the organizational leadership of Dmitriev A.Yu., Pesotsky A.A. and Marochkin A.B., deliberately, out of extremist motives, with the aim of continuing the prohibited activities of the interregional public organization "National Bolshevik Party"" - being at 69 on Bolshoy Prospect of Vasilievsky Island in St. Petersburg, expressing the political views of the interregional public organization "National Bolshevik Party" of an extremist nature by obstructing traffic, together with Dmitriev A.Yu., Pesotsky A. .A., Boikov I.A., crossed the roadway at a prohibiting traffic light signal, thereby interfering with the organized movement of vehicles, for which on November 21, 2009, by a resolution of the head of the 60th police department of the Internal Affairs Directorate for the Vasileostrovsky district of St. Petersburg, Major police, Levchenko A.N. was found guilty of committing an administrative offense - violating traffic rules, that is, under Part 1 of Art. 12.29 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.”

That is, add the words “national-Bolshevik” to any administrative nonsense - and you’re ready for a crime.

For example, “while expressing the political views of the National Bolshevik Party organization, he walked his dog in the wrong place.”

Or, “expressing the political views of the National Bolshevik Party organization, they flooded the neighbors’ ceiling with water.”

We can continue like this for a long time.

During the trial, Nikolai Strumentov, head of the department for the development and coordination of the multi-level crime prevention system of the committee on legality, order and security of the city, who is responsible for coordinating mass events in the city, and five more police officers who participated in the dispersal of opposition rallies were questioned. , according to investigators, are shares of the National Bolsheviks.

Strumentov said that he had never seen at rallies and marches the symbols of the banned NBP or any party symbols at all, except for Yabloko flags.

The head of the department for ensuring public order and interaction with executive authorities, Andrei Fedorov, also stated that after the ban on the NBP, party activists joined a new organization - “The Other Russia”, after which the National Bolshevik hammer and sickle, recognized by the Russian court as instruments of extremism, were not demonstrated at the rallies .

The remaining police officers were unable to identify any of the accused.

You're being filmed by a hidden camera!

In the absence of a significant indictment base, the “other Russians” are judged on the basis of the testimony of police agents embedded in the St. Petersburg organization.

The agents, who naturally act as independent witnesses, do not appear in court, and their voices are recorded in a distorted form. Secrecy, what are you...

These distorted voices can say anything - that’s the job.

But even the infiltrated witnesses, if I may say so, are confused at every step and do not add credibility to the case.

So, in order to somehow strengthen this shaky structure, a socio-humanitarian forensic examination was launched, conducted by the notorious experts of the Russian Institute of Cultural Studies V.I. Batov. and Kryukova N.N.

It is worth explaining that the Russian Institute of Cultural Studies is known as an institution that at one time recognized as extremist T-shirts with the inscription “Orthodoxy or Death!”, as well as the logo of the website rospil.info with a double-headed eagle and a saw.

In addition, Kryukova and Batov conducted an examination of leaflets on the case of the leader of the Moscow “other Russians” Nikolai Avdyushenkov, recognizing the slogan “Kill the slave in yourself” as extremist. They probably experienced some personal, intimate emotions about this terrible slogan.

That is, as we see, they are specialists. Let them get to the newspapers and magazines - we’ll all sit down.

The subject of their thoughtful examination was 27 discs with video recordings of meetings of activists of the “Other Russia” in St. Petersburg in 2009. Don't ask us where the recording came from. Better ask the fighters against the hydra of extremism - they know.

By the way, do you, reader, not have the habit of discussing pressing political news among your friends? Look around, if anything happens, it is quite possible that the unblinking eye of a video camera is looking at you.

To the question of the investigation: “Are the meetings of the groups of people found on the presented video materials meetings of the interregional public organization “National Bolshevik Party”,” our powerful experts answered, as expected, in the affirmative.

They can see in their eyes that the National Bolsheviks have gathered, rebels, freethinkers.

One can only guess what new surprises the judicial investigation will organize. But it is significant that the trial of the St. Petersburg “other Russians” continues in respectful public silence.

As for forecasts: a guilty verdict seems more than realistic to us. So that it would be distasteful to others.

...And finally, here’s something I often think about. Every week, mass media in Russia publish materials about the crimes and lawlessness of the Soviet regime. Oh, this is so relevant! It's so brave to talk about those atrocities out loud.

Lean out the window and ask what millennium it is.

---

Read the editor-in-chief's commentary in the article "Broken"

"This is not an ordinary crime"

Another opinion

"Ogonyok" managed to contact Vladimir Romitsyn, an investigator for especially important cases of the Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg, who signed the indictment in "case 12". Here is his opinion:

First of all, I want to refute the opinion that representatives of the Other Russia organization are involved in the case. The accused did not give evidence in the case and did not indicate any clear position regarding the fact that they are members of the “Other Russia”. According to our data, the accused are not members of the registered socio-political organization “The Other Russia”.

Based on the composition of the charges, I can say that, according to the law on countering extremist activities of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, there is a legislative procedure for recognizing an organization as extremist. We also have criminal liability for the continuation of the activities of an extremist organization. This norm was violated - the National Bolshevik Party was banned, and the accused continued its activities, in particular, promoting its principles. This is included in Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. There are several people involved in the case, one of them hid from the investigation: this is a man named Porokhova. The rest are being tried and a verdict has not yet been rendered. The case contains testimony from witnesses that indicate that the accused participated in the activities of the National Bolshevik Party, there is data from operational search activities - video recordings of meetings, from which it clearly follows that these persons continued the activities of the NBP. It is clear why this particular name was chosen to continue the activity - it has informational and political weight. In addition to meetings, the accused committed mass administrative violations and participated in unauthorized rallies. Administrative practice in relation to these persons was analyzed and it was found that the same persons repeatedly committed administrative offenses. All these facts fully confirm the accusation, as a result of which a criminal case was opened. I would not say that this is an ordinary crime. From the point of view of the criminal case, the Investigative Committee was faced with a lack of clear practice, but as a result, a methodology for investigating the crime was developed. In my opinion, Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is necessary because there is such a phenomenon as extremism, which consists in directing minds against society under various pretexts, which is why there is a need to ban the activities of organizations like the NBP.

Recorded by Sergey Melnikov

Magazine "Ogonyok" No. 33 dated 08/20/2012, p. 20

Themes:

A particularly ordinary matter