A rally against the transfer of the St. Isaac's Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church. How it was

At least two thousand people gathered on the Marse Field in St. Petersburg

On Saturday, January 28, an action was held on the Marse Field in St. Petersburg against the transfer of the Isaac's Cathedral for the use of the Russian Orthodox Church. At least two thousand people took part in it - despite the formal ban on the city authorities. The audience demanded to stop the transfer of the ROC museum complex, and the organizers of the action promised to start collecting signatures for a referendum. Medusa talks about what was happening on the Marse Field.

“There is a decomposition of society, and the state is only indulging,” - two elderly people on the Marse Field were talked among themselves half an hour before the start of the action. And obviously they thought globally. “Leningraders chopped,” the second complained, seeing that there were still few people around. “Yes, and where to come from now - real.” However, the pessimism of the two interlocutors was hardly acquitted-about two thousand people gathered for the action, there were no such mass rallies in St. Petersburg for a long time.

The first, rather spontaneous action against the transfer of the St. Isaac's Cathedral for the use of the Russian Orthodox Church took place in the city on January 13. It announced that a large protest rally will be held on January 28. Opposition deputies of the city legislative assembly tried to coordinate it with the authorities, but Smolny refused. The city authorities said that the square on the Marse Field has already been given to the rally to the movement of the GCD. Moreover, the topic of the rally, according to the application, was to be the policy of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.

The oppositions did not give up and decided to hold the action in the format of a meeting with deputies. According to the law, it can not be coordinated with the authorities.

In the square in the center of Marse Paul, eternal flame burns. On the one side of the square, participants in the protest campaign gathered. On the other hand, Activists of the GCD. The second was clearly less, only about 50 people.

“In general, I am a Muslim. And if I want to go to the temple, then not a single bastard will stop me. Therefore, I want the Orthodox cities to have such a right, ”the man said in camouflage form and with the Russian flag in his hands. He interrupted and stared at one of the journalists. “And what am I talking to you, go away, a rainbow hat,” the activist attacked, although the headdress of the press representative was ordinary blue.

The Medusa correspondent was introduced by Timur Bulatov, a member of the Russian Parents movement and a participant in the “First Moral Russian Front”. Timur Bulatov is a person known in St. Petersburg (and not only). With the help of social networks, he is looking for school teachers throughout Russia of non -traditional sexual orientation and complains about them to all instances. So, on January 24, after his complaints, a music teacher from Krasnoyarsk was dismissed .

Bulatov looked contemptuously at the crowd on the other side of the square and dropped: "Why are there so many of them, they would sit at home - they had a shabbat."

At the other end of the square, signatures were collected against the transfer of the St. Isaac's Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church and handed blue ribbons. There were people with posters like “ROC + FSB = Love” and “God does not need real estate”. In the center of the crowd stood an opposition St. Petersburg deputy Maxim Reznik and took turns passing the megaphone to his associates. Within a radius of ten meters from them, one could still hear what the politicians are talking about, then there is no longer, but this did not worry.

“Raise your hand, who during the war, during the blockade of Leningrad, died relatives,” said Oksana Dmitrieva, deputy of the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly. Hands raised almost everything. Dmitrieva - an experienced politician, a deputy of the past convocations of the State Duma - said that how then the Petersburgers were able to defend their city, this will happen now.

Andrei Pivovarov from the Parnassus party promised to bring to justice those who decided to transfer the ROCC of the Isaacievsky Cathedral: “You know that this will cost the city three billion rubles. Of course, this is a penny compared to the stadium, but it is enough to scatter the city with money! ” On the word “stadium” the crowd groaned-the arena for the World Cup in St. Petersburg has not been able to complete for more than ten years, and its cost has grown six times during this time.

“Everyone says that the decision [on the transfer of the St. Isaac's Cathedral] is made in Moscow. Okay, but why do we need the governor then? " - Pivovarov touched the crowd again. Police officers approached Maxim Reznik and demanded to remove the megaphone. He obeyed - the rest of the speakers were heard only by those who stood very close. Unless Maxim Reznik shouted loudly that he began to prepare for a referendum on which the townspeople themselves would say whether to transfer the cathedral to the use of the Russian Orthodox Church or not. He was clapped. Hot tea was handed out in the crowd.

The scattered, and then more and more cohesive chanting began: "This is our city!" The first time this slogan in St. Petersburg sounded exactly ten years ago, when the mass opposition “Marsh of the Non-Loschy” was held along Nevsky Prospekt.

The people from the NODs standing on the other side had one obvious advantage - a microphone and sound amplifying equipment. But with the content side, everything was not very in order. So, the next speaker simply tightened the song about "the city over the free Neva, the city of our Glory of Labor."

In a large crowd of opposition, they have long stopped even trying to hear the speakers. “I have been taught all my life that there is no God,” one of the protesting women complained to several comrades. - And now, it turns out, they say: go pray. And this is not in the sky something happened, we have a mess here. ”

The girl passed by, on her poster, someone similar to Jesus Christ bowed behind Patriarch Kirill sitting at the table. “Fail God,” was written on the poster.

Andrey Kozenko

Saint Petersburg