Oleg Kashin: "Lessons of Vilnius"

"The fashion for the Baltic states has long passed in Russia, but three European Union countries, still involved in the orbit of the" Russian world ", in fact acquired today it is not very noticeable, but important-since they are nearby, they understand in Russian, there are some quite noticeable Russian political emigrants, Russian opposition forums are being held there, it is easiest to overthrow Russian and the most time for Russian and the Russian The pan -European clock and once again make sure of how different this watch goes, ”the journalist in the blog writes on the website of the Radio “ Freedom ” , summing up some results of the Free Russia forum in Vilnius.

"In the same Lithuania this year, the most important event was a mourning procession in Molevay, a place of mass murder of Jews during the Second World War. The discussion about the participation of Lithuanians in the Holocaust is no less painful than our discussions about our past, and, only this year, the topic, still supported only by some historians and publicists, became the society in Lithuania somewhat close to Lithuania The rethinking of previous defaults and excuses, of course, is not difficult to compare with the Russian Stalin Renaissance, monuments to Ivan the Terrible and other familiar news until the recent history of Solzhenitsyn’s scarecrow in front of the Gulag Museum.

The memory policy generally illustrates the state of society well, but, of course, not only it. It is clear why Russian television is so persistently hunting for plots from emigrant forums, despite the fact that its correspondents are driven away and offended in every possible way - yes, they are ready to endure it because it is very important for them to show the Russian viewer that this is an alternative to Putin ... "

"If critics of the regime are such that state propaganda television wants to show them, chases them (and they, on the contrary, counteract them in every possible way to show them) - it means that something is wrong with critics of the regime. It would be strange, of course, to give advice not to get together in Vilnius, and if they gather, it is not in this composition and not with these speech. Rather, it is probably worth it to be treated as a given, as if it was given to this. That the stability of the Russian authorities rests equally on the strength (tricks, insidiousness - anything) of the Kremlin, and on weaknesses (worthlessness, senselessness, even bad snoperia) of its public opponents.

“By the way, the Soviet Lithuanian press, too,, like the Russian, loved to make fun of the inadequacy of the emigrant meetings, and, why, there, not emigrants led Lithuania to independence. But without which there would not be sure (that is, it would probably be the same as the current Belarusian intelligentsia, without general confidence in the fact that there should be a Lithuanian people that there should be a Lithuanian people The only source of power, and without unlikely, among modern Russian opposition consensus nationalism - that is, all the disputes between the left, right and whatever "we are" we are Lithuania. "

“When the power is anti -national, it is most reasonable to oppose it precisely from the standpoint of the indigenous population, and not to remain in its paradigm with the“ friendship of peoples ”, as in the USSR, or with the“ Russians ”, as it is now. This unknown Lithuanian (he is Estonian, he is Ukrainian, he is Kazakh, or Chechen - yes, any) will still make itself felt in Russia, no matter what happened after Putin.

And another lesson is purely political and in a sense demotivating, although encouraging too. The word "Sayudis" memorable to many, the name of the Lithuanian Popular Front from the time of the struggle for independence, is translated into Russian as "movement", and its full name - "Lithuanian movement for restructuring".

In other words, the organization that led to Lithuania to independence was created under the most loyist slogans and formally welcomed the policy pursued in those years of Moscow. The Sayudis lesson boils down to the fact that successful changes more often initiate not irreconcilable radicals like those Russians who are now gathered in Vilnius, but people who are quite loyal to the regime. "