I treat it as a job

Medusa journalist visited a rally on the occasion of the three -year anniversary of Crimea as part of a group, whose participants paid 300 rubles for this

On March 18, in Moscow, a rally concert was held on the Sparrow Hills in honor of the three years since the release of Crimea to Russia. At the request of Medusa, journalist Irina Kravtsova went there as part of a group of people who were recruited on the website Massovki.net, promising everyone for 300 rubles for participation in the event. Members of the group depicting representatives of the “Independent Trade Union of Theater and Cinema actors”, accompanied by the coordinator, spent two and a half hours on the Vorobyevs mountains and received a fee at the end of the rally.

A message about the recruitment of people in the mass for a rally on the Sparrow Mountains appeared on the Massovki.net forum on the morning of March 17. They searched for “neatly dressed people” who would like to get 300 rubles in three to four hours of presence at the event. From those who wish it was required to write a message to the WhatsApp number with their name, age and phone number; In response to this, the curator reported on the place of the meeting of his group: on March 18 at 17:00 in the center of the hall of the university near Vorobyevs Metro.

It was not so simple to find Vitaly in the metro hall-there were at least eight groups of five to eight people there, which other people gradually joined. In response to the question of which organization they gathered from, people reported that "they know nothing." From the seventh time it was possible to find a group gathered by an ad in the “Masses”; A few minutes later, the coordinator, introduced by Vitaliy, also approached - a young man of about thirty years with an earring in his ear, long hair tied in a ponytail, in a camouflage jacket and a cap with a visor. Each of the group members showed Vitaly his correspondence with him in WhatsApp; The coordinator checked the data with his list, which included 22 people, set the boxes and brought the group to the street. Another member of the group was discovered there - with it there was a flag with the inscription “Independent Trade Union of Theater and Cinema Actors” (the last news in time on the organization’s website reports that the department of the trade union in Sevastopol was created); During the time, while the group was waiting for several more protesters, similar groups with leaders were already returning to the subway.

There were only a few men in the “team” of Vitaly; The vast majority of the protesters were women. One of them, Anastasia, seeing the confusion of the journalist Medusa (the coordinator did not explain anything to the participants in the event at all), explained the essence of what was happening. The members of the group depict actors from the theater and cinema union; It is not necessary to chant anything; It is enough to reach the observation deck with the group and stand there until the moment comes to receive money.

According to Anastasia, approximately in this way she has been visiting four rallies per year for ten years; As a rule, a rally of the LDPR, May Day, a rally on the occasion of Victory Day and something irregular like an event on the Sparrow Hills. It all started when she studied at the university - at the Moscow Pedagogical State University for visiting the rally, she said good grades. “Student has ended, and the habit remained,” the 30-year-old Anastasia summarizes: she works as a chemist in the laboratory, her monthly salary is 10 thousand rubles. Anastasia is sure that such a practice is widespread not only in Russia. “And who, in your opinion, are all these people in the pink caps who support Clinton? She asks rhetorically. “Of course, this is the same as we are here.”

“How do I feel about the fact that the Crimea was attached? Thank God that they joined, but what? But now we can go to them without a visa. And they are to us, ”says Anastasia, who, however, was never in Crimea herself. "Have you been annexed for a long time?" - the father of the girl whom she took with her is aware: all the same, he is bored to sit at home.

Other members of the group are also expressed in a similar way. A student of the Faculty of Psychology, who for the first time came across an announcement of a paid rally, says that “far from politics” and the accession of Crimea, in general, is indifferent to her. Another woman says that she worked as a teacher at a Siberian school, and when she was closed, she moved to Moscow, and now, as a part -time job, she goes for money for money, like “let them talk” and “health” (there, according to her, they pay even less than at a rally). “I live slowly, it’s actually neither cold nor hot from the fact that the Crimea was attached,” she argues. - I did not come here for the idea, but just to get the money. And what? I am not obliged to empathize with each hero of the program “Let them talk”. And then the same. I treat it as work. ” The work, in particular, implies that people from the group try not to step aside: “If the coordinator loses sight of us, how will we prove that we were here? And then he will take and will not pay. ”

The coordinator Vitaly himself describes himself as an apolitical person, but to some extent a patriot (when a solemn message is that now 50 thousand Crimean students can learn from the rally scene, Vitaly sardonically remarks that the dormitories of Moscow State University are falling apart without them). Its main work is to look for participants in the masses for different television programs like “carefully, scammers”. When asked whether the participants in the masses are paid in rallies by the state, he responds as follows: the state demands to hold people from the party, the party brings up this to the trade union, and the trade union - Vitaly.

People on the observation bar gathered from four o’clock in the afternoon, and soon after the start of the concert, many - all the same in groups - preferred to retire; At six and a little evening, a dense crowd of people is already going on to the metro. One of them is an employee of the Housing State Budgetary Institution Ibrahim, who says that this is his tenth rally. "They said - you can already go at home, cold!" - Ibrahim reports and goes with a folded flag to the metro even before the start of the party leaders (the representatives of United Russia, Fair Russia and the LDPR made speech on the Vorobyevs; Vladimir Zhirinovsky, in particular, assured the audience that “we are the kindest people with the most powerful army”).

According to Anastasia, the case is really in the weather: coordinators are afraid that people do not survive in the cold for four hours, so groups replace each other; The main thing is that throughout the rally there is a feeling that there are many people on the square. Anastasia believes that those who were sent here from work, and those who are paid for visiting the rally, are the majority here.

Indeed: most people on the Sparrow Hills are in groups - a maximum of 25 people; Family couples and people who are not tied to groups are almost not visible. However, near the group in which the Medusa journalist was a family of four. A man, a woman and their two children are very rejoicing in the stage of the singer Valeria - according to them, they came to a concert from Serpukhov to listen to their beloved musicians.

The group is not so optimistic from the actors' trade union - people ask all the time when it ends, and especially rejoice when Vitaly clarifies that the final of the event was transferred from eight in the evening to seven. Closer to the final, Anastasia finally starts a conversation with the coordinator on the topic. “And what maybe it’s not bad that Crimea was attached. You can now go to Yevpatoria. Although, of course, I am a pacifist, I am for peace, and I want our countries to make peace again. But after what we did, of course, this will not happen. And I would like to, ”she argues, to which Vitaly answers phlegmatically that other people will be resolved in any case. “Oh, yes, I’m generally a blonde,” Anastasia is kidding. - This is not my business. In vain I started about it. Tell me better, and when will there be a salute? "

After the rally, the whole group reaches the metro in the general stream of people. There, Vitaly takes his way to the side and gives each one for 300 rubles. Having received money, people finally stop holding on each other - and go home alone.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a rally on the Sparrow Hills was visited by 150 thousand people.

Irina Kravtsova , Moscow

Ilya Zhegulev participated in the preparation of the material