"Otherwise, there will be an offense"

Andrey Kozenko - about the weaker "Russian march"

On November 4, the traditional “Russian March” took place in Moscow. About three thousand people participated in it, that is, three times less than a year ago. The nationalists split events in Ukraine. The most fierce fans of Novorossiya even gathered separately in Schukino - away from Lublin, where “Russian marches” are usually held.

The Medusa specialist Andrei Kozenko , who was on many processions of nationalists, seemed to be the current Russian March turned out to be the most inglorious in its entire eight -year history. But the authorities in 2014, it seems, first managed to fill the “Day of National Unity” with the content: a procession and a rally demanding that Novorossia recognize, according to the police, 75 thousand people.

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At the exit from the Lublino metro station, a guy of about thirty in a black leather jacket stood. Under it is a sweatshirt with nationalist symbols. I asked him how to get to the “Russian March”. “I do not like journalists,” he told me. - They wrote about me once at MK, so I sat down for six years later. Nicola Korolev - heard about this (the nationalist, the head of the movement Savior, is serving a life sentence for terrorist attacks and murders - approx. "Medusa")? Here, and since the age of thirteen I was with him. ” I do not ask questions so as not to aggravate the already sad experience of this person’s communication with the media, but he himself continues the story: “In December, he left for Kyiv, to the Maidan. With the [leader of the “Right Sector” Dmitry] Yarosh did serious things. Three months ago I just returned ... I would now get the flag of the “Right Sector” and shout: “Well, almost, bitches, the memory of the“ heavenly hundred ”! Yes, only cops at once and at*boot, but now I have no need to communicate with them. ”

Because of the events in Ukraine, everything was mixed in the heads of Russian nationalists. They had not been a single movement before, but Euromaidan has completely split them-stronger than any other political force in Russia. Among the nationalists there are those who fanatically support Novorossia and the accession of Crimea. There are those who do not like Vladimir Putin so much that his policy in relation to Ukraine is also criticized. There are those who advocate the world and the cessation of the unnecessary war in the Donbass. And there are those who managed to fight against the separatists of Novorossiya. It was strongly impossible to conduct a massive and unifying “Russian march” in such conditions. If in 2013 about 10 thousand people gathered in Lublino on November 4, today only a couple of hundred appeared by noon (that is, by the time of gathering participants). And when two hours later the columns built and the procession began, there were hardly more than three thousand people in it. In the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Moscow, they will then declare two thousand; Nationalist Dmitry Demushkin will insist on ten.

One of the Western television channels accredited on the "Russian march" of a black correspondent. Russian nationalists accepted him as a native. “Lot of the Police - Ez Yuzhual,” they complained to him in good English during a short interview. New participants in the march came up, columns began to build. The header stood strictly under the advertising shield, inviting Muscovites to the festive procession "We are one." “Come and give friends,” the slogan of the event read.

According to the organizers of the “Russian march”, its participants should not even be built in columns, but in units of the ancient Roman army - cohorts. At the same time, so that political antagonists do not go one after another, but are divided. The first cohort, for example, was planned as nationalist - against “Chekist terror and political repression”; Supporters of the DPR and LPR should have been in the second cohort; In the fourth, there are supporters of Kievan Rus, no matter what it means. And so on.

Reality, as usual, turned out to be boring than nationalist texts. Only the first column turned out to be more or less mass. There were enough people in those that went from behind only to carry three -meter banners. One of the columns was under the slogan “Russians against the war with Ukraine”, the other under the slogan “Slavs, unite” and with a poorly stifled screaming behind Rus' from Kamchatka to the Balkans.

“The requirements of the“ Russian march ”from year to year are the same,” said one of its old organizers Dmitry Demushkin. “We demand that the Russians be devoted to the status of a state-forming nation, we are against the distribution of citizenship to everyone who came to, we are against the expansion of the Chinese in the Far East and we are abolishing the 282nd article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, punishing for extremism.”

Demushkin looked sad. There were few people around. One of the close associates of Demushkin and a participant in all the “Russian marches” Alexander Belov is in jail on charges of multimillion embezzlement. “He is in the fifth special block on Vyborg Street. Holds well, lawyers work with him, ”Demushkin said. According to him, the metropolitan authorities and law enforcement agencies this year asked not to hold a "Russian march" "because of a troubled situation." When the nationalists began to insist on their own, the negotiators from the other side allegedly said: "You will pay for this."

To the delight of photographic correspondents, two girls with imperial flags and in T -shirts with the symbols of the “Russian march” (one year old, the second - well if it went to school). Lieutenant Colonel Omon raised other young participants in the march, who decided to hide their faces: “It’s impossible in the masks now, well, they removed it, removed quickly! Otherwise, it will be offended. ” It became pretty cold, the front column was warming, bouncing and chanting at the same time: "Who does not jump, that chock, Hei-Hay!"

Meanwhile, two more processions started in the capital. Students and state employees under the leadership of the leaders of all four parliamentary factions moved on Tverskaya Street. "We are one!" - It was written on a banner, which was carried by the front rows. The metropolitan Ministry of Internal Affairs will then report that 75 thousand people participated in this action. It ended with a concert mixed with political statements - the leaders of the fractions demanded that Russia recognize Novorossia (meaning the territories controlled by the separatists of Donetsk and Lugansk) by an independent state. And in Schukino those nationalists who support the "militias" of the DPR and the LPR gathered in Schukino. They chanted “Won Bandera from the Russian land” and “Moscow - the Russian capital. Kyiv is a Russian city. "

In Lublino, on Pererva Street, an elderly man with a cardboard poster broke out in the front rows. "We are Russians, what a delight!" - The poster quoted the commander Alexander Suvorov. "Russian order on Russian land!" - The participants of the first column chanted. The crowd moved towards the Bratislavskaya metro station with a proven route of previous “Russian marches”. On both sides of the road, the lifting of the police who performed two tasks lined up: do not let citizens join the procession and not allow them to mix with civilians who go.

The nationalists shouted a lot of bad things about the Caucasians, insulted Allah and law enforcement agencies (the latter, apparently, developed a complete immunity for chants such as “garbage - shame of Russia”: not a single police officer in the course of the procession sprayed). Several participants in the procession began to chant the screaming in Ukraine, where Putin was called a swearing word, and in the chorus the La-la-la-la. However, this performance was so ridiculous that their associates looked at the instigators in bewilderment. There were no new attempts.

But the classic broke over the crowd: “Come on, come on, u*come from here, Russia-for Russians, Moscow for Muscovites!” Maybe in 2006, during the first “Russian march”, this also made an impression on someone. Now, in 2014, the feeling of what was happening was, for example, like from the concert of Deep Purple: it seems to be an event, but still knowingly know that these old people will play Smoke on the Water because they have been doing this for the past twenty years.

Several firewalks lit up, they were thrown almost immediately - it was worth only law enforcement officers to smell a pungent smell of red smoke. Meters in two hundred in front of the column, the road was blocked by a police car. Two employees with shepherds were on duty near her. Nearby, several people stood at the bus stop - optimistic enough to wait for the bus on the street blocked for movement. “This is the day of popular unity we have this, right? - Ironically asked the woman from the stop of the police. - They united people in such a way that they go as under escort, and even with dogs are waiting for them? Real holiday! " A policeman who was not configured for a skirmish turned away.

Nationalists reached the subway and parted in different directions. Despite the requests, the Moscow authorities did not agree on the final rally.

Andrey Kozenko

Moscow