When I was in the Communist Party

The OVD-Info publishes the memoirs of a trade union activist from Magnitogorsk, the Chelyabinsk region Olesya Romanova, who emigrated to Finland in 2014. She was the chairman of the city working public organization of Magnitogorsk (GROOM) and the independent working trade union “Protective” at the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Plant and at its subsidiaries. In 2011, a criminal case was instituted on Olesya Romanov under Art. 282 of the Criminal Code (excitement of hatred) for the video on the Internet "Nazis in uniform in the legendary Magnitogorsk." The case is still not closed. In 2015, a search was carried out at the place of its work before emigration and a new criminal case appeared in 2016 under Art. 199 of the Criminal Code (tax evasion).

I would like to tell one episode from the period when I was a member of the Communist Party. Since then, the actors have changed, in the Communist Party in Magnitogorsk they came to the management of a seemingly person with left -wing views, but actually werewolves. This was happening at that time when in our provincial city, corrupted through and through, the initiative group of the Communist Party of the Communist Party decided to change the chairman of the Communist Party of the Communist Party of the Communist Party Anatoly Kovalev, who did not conduct any activity in defense of the rights of workers, but was subordinate to the oligarch-billionaire Viktor Rashnikov, the owner of the Magnitogorsk Metallurgical Combine.

It was 2009, then the holiday of November 7 was still a little, small. I was a member of the Magnitogorsk Communist Party, and my husband was in the “Left Front”. And it seems that the program of both organizations was one - the protection of the rights of workers, but they could not come to terms with competition and did not consider each other like -minded people in political life. This was later, in Moscow, an agreement was concluded for help to each other, and many pickets and events were held with joint efforts.

On the sunny but frosty Saturday, November 7, 2009, the Magnitogorsk Communist Party decided to conduct a demonstration, go along the main street of the city, and then arrange a rally and laying flowers at the monument to Lenin.

I was "green" in every way. This was the first rally for me as a member of the Communist Party and the first detention of me by police. My husband, as a member of the “Left Front”, took two flags with the inscriptions of the “Left Front” on a red background. We built into a column, husband and Valentina Kulikov, a member of the Communist Party, but an active woman, struggling with injustice, voted to carry the second flag of the “Left Front”. They stood behind all the walking people so as not to interfere, but to express their position that on such a holiday we are all united, and, in principle, we have the only goal. During this period, a hunger strike of the committee of deceived shareholders of OJSC MMK took place in the city (assigning a fraudulent way of their action, Rashnikov became a dollar millionaire). My husband and I supported and will support these people. And Kovalev obeyed Rashnikov and “United Russia” and held the Communist Party not as an independent left -wing party, but for a checkmark, for visibility, for the balance of power, let’s say. And then the orchestra thundered, the column lined up and started up ...

As soon as Kovalev saw the flags of the “Left Front”, it was enough mandrazh. He went to her husband and began to yell that he was breaking something. Andrei calmly objected that he was in soluration with the Communist Party and simply pass with flags, especially since there are no extremist or fascist symbols on the flags, and the background is red, like the flag of the USSR. Kovalev ran away. I plyed on the column, then went forward, then approached my husband ... At some point, I turned around and see that my husband and Kulikov pushed a dozen policemen from the procession, surrounded the ring, and the PPS car is already approaching. I am back to them, the policeman does not let me into the ring, I call the name, show my passport, I go to my husband. There, a quarrel, police officers take the flags, tied Kulikov, put the PPS in the car, followed the hands of the husband. And then some particularly zealous cop pushes me to the door of the PPS car, like, climb. I ask: on what basis? He is to me - to establish a person. I say that I just presented a passport. He is to me - well, that means for resistance to police officers, Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses.

I was pushed by force to everyone, and we are going to the Leninsky police station, from which the column started, and which was a 7 -minute walk from us with a slow step. That's how far we were given to advance! They brought us to the department, put us in a receiver, guided in the corners, scorched walls, sprinkled with cigarette cigarette butts. No calls to a friend, no connection with the outside world. Two hours later, we took turns calling for interrogation. It turned out that the Chairman of the Communist Party of the Communist Party of the Communist Party and his deputy for some incomprehensible work, the 75-year-old old man Kayukin, who was leading a procession, gave us evidence. There were already protocols of survey of witnesses that we did not see point blank in the crowd of police officers. In short, the state car spun in full swing. Witnesses who wrote explanations were contradictory in their statements. Some Rakhmetov claimed that at the end of the column three citizens with flags (two pieces) with the inscription "Left Front" were going on. Someone Korostelkina claimed that she saw three citizens unknown to her who moved with the Front Front flags separately from the marching ones. So how many flags were there, and where did we go? Even during the trial was not clarified. In addition, not a single witness honored the court session with his presence. In the protocol on an administrative offense, the witnesses of Yyanzin and Gorsky were witnesses, and the names of Rakhmetov and Korostelkin appeared in the resolution. Kayukin, despite the fact that he led the column, testified that he saw how three members of the Communist Party carried flags with non -party symbols. Kovalev wrote in the testimony that there was Romanov with flags.

After interviewing us in the police department, they forgot about us again. Eight hours after our detention, we, again without explanation, late in the evening, Saturday, were loaded into the car of the PPS on the darkness and took it - where do you think? Home? Of course not! We were brought to the justice of the peace of the Leninsky district, which was urgently pulled out of bed. She read out a notation-sentence, slapped everyone in two articles of the Code of Administrative Offenses-Article 20.2 “Violation of the established procedure for organizing or holding a meeting, rally, demonstration, procession or picket” and article 19.3 “Disorders to the legal order of the police officer.” And a thousand rubles. This was the holiday on November 7, 2009! For six months, the judge was not honored with the presence of A.F Kovalev, nor Kayukin L.D, nor a bunch of witnesses and police performers.