From Angleterre to Isaac

Perestroika came to Leningrad in the spring of 1987 with protests against the demolition of the Angleterre Hotel on St. Isaac's Square. Thirty years later, townspeople came to the Field of Mars to defend the museum status of St. Isaac's Cathedral. But the Champ de Mars itself is directly related to the sad consequences of street protests.

The Field of Mars was once the Field of Amusement, as well as the Tsarina Meadow - a square for parades. Not only did soldiers march on it, but on Maslenitsa booths, roller coasters and other infrastructure of simple folk joys appeared on the field. However, the holiday sometimes turned into tragedy. The censor of the era of Nicholas I, Alexander Nikitenko, noted in his diary that once a booth-theater burned down with artists and spectators, and the police, who had not received an order, prevented volunteers from putting out the fire. In Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov, walking towards the Trinity Bridge, dreams of greening the dusty Poteshnaya Square.

Both the purpose and appearance of the Amusing Field completely changed after the February Revolution of 1917. Victims of street fighting in Petrograd were buried on the Field of Mars. Perhaps these were victims, and not heroes of the revolution: not only dead proletarians, but killed soldiers and policemen.

Later they were joined by red commanders who died at the front, and red Finns killed by a white terrorist, and a young red artist thrown under a tram either by a counter-revolutionary or a hooligan. In Leningrad, the Field of Mars was called a “communal cemetery.” Majestic free verse by Anatoly Lunacharsky appeared on the granite walls, like: “Not victims - heroes lie under this grave. It is not grief, but envy that your fate gives birth to in the hearts of all grateful descendants.” The Great Terror and the blockade lay ahead, so, cynical as it may be, someone could envy the fate of those lying on the Champs of Mars. However, Raskolnikov’s dream came true - a garden was laid out around the memorial.

In any case, the Champ de Mars was associated with revolutionary victims. And at Saturday's rally, some revolutionary realities were evident. For example, men in Cossack uniforms who tried to prevent people with white balloons from entering the NDC event.

A hundred years ago, street protests were dispersed by Cossacks. Recently, Cossacks guarded a mock rally against the Central Bank, which can be called historical progress.

The timid Smolny lacked the resolve to allow a full-fledged rally for the museum’s defenders; megaphones were banned. Therefore, the deputies found themselves in the position of revolutionary speakers a hundred years ago. Then - whether you speak from a podium or from an armored car - the only amplifier was your own vocal cords. Today's speakers did not possess the art of revolutionary shouting.

Their audience was also anything but a revolutionary crowd. Most of the people who came to the Field of Mars were St. Petersburg residents who took part in the defense of Angleterre and in rallies near the Kazan Cathedral in the late 80s. There were also young people of school and student age. At first glance, the difference in the rally experience of generations was visible. The veterans did not forget their sweaters and hats, and the hatless youth in jackets thrown over T-shirts were clearly freezing.

The entertainment of generations was also different. Someone took a selfie and immediately posted it on Facebook. Someone was handing out and reading a black and white newspaper, indistinguishable in design from a Soviet-era factory circulation newspaper or a perestroika-era leaflet. Sometimes clouds rose above the crowd, but fortunately it was not tear gas or a smoke bomb, but the vaper was warmed by aromatic steam.

It is debatable how many participants there were in the rally – three or five thousand. It is indisputable that thousands came to protest against the obviously unfair decision of the authorities, and dozens of people came to support this decision.

The slogan “Georgy Sergeevich - thank you” did not attract supporters. In contrast to the slogan “Let's protect Isaac!”

And one should not blame the organizers of the meeting for abandoning the format of the rally and not reminding the police about the Constitution and not ordering them to leave. Neither side had a conflict mindset. Maybe the meeting place contributed to this. Maybe the revolutionaries, who rested in mass graves a hundred years ago, quietly whispered to their descendants: “Try to come to an agreement.”