Domested memory

It is not necessary to go out to the square, although it is possible. In defense of some important values ​​or against something bad, under the watchful and friendly supervision of the police. Throwing to the tanks - why? And where did you see tanks, dear?

In a country where the main political issue - the issue of power - is being resolved in the elections, a person in public lives a rather fresh life. Even some activist who is passionate about the idea to forever clear the air of harmful fumes or protect a woman from a man. More or less predictable, including scandals in the personal life of the presidents and prime ministers, and the radical rebel, a flipping criminal code, knows exactly what a fine is soldered for a civilian feat. And the revolution, a putsch, a rebellion, tanks in the squares in the seething capitals are in the news from an obscure foreign life. Latin America, Africa, Romania, Ukraine, Russia.

However, in other totalitarian or authoritarian countries, life is even more boring. As in the same Russia under the Communists, where there was order and the average citizen knew quite accurately when he graduated from school, when they took it into the army, take the institute, distribute a small salary, then a little larger, they will accept it, they will be transferred with an increase, put it on a pension, put it on a retirement and dedicated to the cemetery. And it will become dissident, in nurseries, in the service or in the hospital - they will punish.

The object of history, that is, its victim, a collective Soviet person in real public life does not participate and cannot change anything in it. The subject of history, a non -impaired person selects and shifts governments, accepts and rejects politicians, actively, if he wants it, changes the landscape outside the windows. A free person is an adult. Next to him, the Soviet man is an eternal child, a slave of regulations and an internal routine, a tenant of a small -sized apartment with indispensable kitchen conversations and a tape recorder for a lonely soul, in which his favorite bard, sorting through guitar strings, is amazed with him: "I was given freedom yesterday - what will I do with it?"

But in his fasting life a miracle can happen, the so -called Western person is unknown. When the economy reaches the edge, and at the very top, where imaginary false old people still ruled, a generation will change, he suddenly gives freedom - from a leopard shoulder. Literally for no reason. He will be allowed to choose, or even be chosen. Read newspapers in which sudden rulers of thoughts write what they want. He will be allowed to have their own opinion and scold the authorities loudly with such words that used to be heard only in the narrow kitchen circle with respect to the ruling class, even though these words were called platform. And here he for the first time in his life will feel like a man, that is, the subject of history, and will be proud.

And when this granted, but they will try to take away such a familiar freedom from him by launching an immortal ballet on TV and filing the capital with tanks, he will resist. He will go to the square and with his bare hands will trample against tanks. He hesitates these tanks to death, and they will run away from him, howling from fear and longing. And he will still ride them in the end, as if saddled the story and curb his curve fate. And this sweet moment, when yesterday's object will feel like a citizen and creator of history, he will never forget. This minute will glow in his memory, like a torch in the night.

Of course, we are not talking about all former Soviet people, rather about the overwhelming minority - about those who, to put it mildly, did not like the old power and breathed in the air of freedom with full chest. In the sociological surveys of the Levada Center, conducted since 1994, one digit is almost not changing. The share of those who call the events of August 91st "the victory of the democratic revolution that committed the authorities of the CPSU" fluctuates between 7% and 13%. Today, 24 years after the suppression of the putsch, only every tenth perceives the defeat of the State Emergency Committee as its victory. And according to the already rooted tradition, those who mourn the USSR or believe that this is not his mind is the case - disassembly at the top. And more relatively many Russians who have difficulty with the answer. Generation has grown, which has not yet figured out this dark story with tanks - and is unlikely to figure it out.

In general, pretty soon, three years after the defeat of the party -gate rebellion, the tone in the country again began to set objects of history - and this should be explained what happened in Russia. It is believed that a person is born free, and this is true, but he does not remain free for long. And then society falls on it, and if the grandfather was sitting, and dad was trembling, then what do you want from the child? If the whole history of the country narrates about the sacrificial, in the most hopeless meaning of this word, the nature of citizens. If freedom is not perceived as value, and where to come from such a perception, when the eyelids have not seen.

In August 1991, we were too inexperienced subjects of history in order to gain freedom and cleansing the city from tanks, to be able to use the fruits of victory. We were in the minority, although it seemed that there were many of us around. And the trouble was not only that the new power, which we then applauded, recruited mainly from old frames and soon failed an exam in democracy. That's why she recruited, and failed that there was almost no one to rely on. And in October, two years later, the tanks already shot in the center of Moscow, freeing the White House from the villains who had settled in it, among whom were the heroes of Augustus, and supporters of democracy - from illusions about the bright liberal tomorrow. As for the fact that here and now we will be able to come out of the most difficult economic crisis, which in the eyes of the vast majority of Russians has become a symbol of liberalism. Soon they forgot about wild lines and deficits of the era of mature socialism, not to mention repressions. The new authorities had to pay on old bills and everyone who supported it, and the fee was exorbitant.

And then the subject came and not that he drove everyone into the stall - 88, or something, they themselves came there themselves, choosing comrades on the road. Closing yesterday's freedom, the world around him and glorifying the leader who gave them lost happiness: to pretend to be a rag, to become an object. Almost a quarter of a century after that victory, it is easy to understand, but living in the minority, having tasted freedom and losing it, is very bitter and painful. Even unbearable, and the memory of August, which we have lost, torments like a slow flame, every year everything is stronger. In a moment of weakness, I even want to say: it would be better if it was not there. However, at a different minute, bright, I want to say, looking back: thank God that we lived and defended freedom on those blessed days. Or just say names: mosquito, Krichevsky, mustache. Eternal memory.