Rally. More precisely - memory action

Two events were held in Moscow in memory of those who died in Kemerovo; one organized the city authorities, the other - ordinary Muscovites

On the evening of March 27, two promotions were held in the center of Moscow in memory of those who died during a fire in the Kemerovo shopping center. One, on Pushkinskaya Square, the day before, they began to cook on Facebook, the other, on Manezhnaya, decided to urgently hold the Moscow authorities. Despite the fact that the shares were organized differently, the Medusa correspondent Evgeny Berg and at the walls of the Kremlin, and at the traditional place of opposition rallies he saw sincerely mourning Muscovites.

Tourists from Asia did not understand very well why they were given carnations. They stood with flowers in the middle of Manezhnaya Square, looking around helplessly. Around with the same cloves, several hundred people went. At 17:00 in the evening of March 27, in the center of Moscow, the city authorities organized a rally of memory of those who died in a fire in the Kemerovo shopping center "Winter Cherry".

A day earlier, the editor -in -chief of Kinopoisk, Elizaveta Surganov, and the co -founder of the Arzamas educational project, Philip Dzyadko called Facebook users to honor the memory of the dead on March 27 at 19:00 on Pushkinskaya Square. According to the source of “Echo of Moscow”, the “Higher City leadership” in Moscow decided to “intercept the agenda” when the opposition politician Alexei Navalny repaired the link to this event, and organized his own.

Apparently, the action on the style was prepared in a hurry - the city hall reported it only at one in the afternoon, and at the beginning of the sixth, when the event has already officially began, the organizers still pulled a banner with the inscription "Kemerovo, we are with you." In front of him, on a long pedestal lay soft toys with store tags on his ears, red carnations, stood lamps from which they did not manage to take off the labels, and photos of children with bald faces.

Cloves and soft toys were handed out by young people in white capes with hoods; The girl, carrying a box of lamps into the crowd, told the Medusa correspondent that they are all “volunteers from different organizations”, in particular, she herself is from Mosvolonter. Flowers and lamps were handed out to everyone, including tourists, but many came to the square with their colors.

At the very beginning of the action, flowers near the memorial were laid by the mayor of Moscow Sergey Sobyanin; Without giving comments to the press, he quickly left. Following Sobyanin, Senator Valentina Petrenko and artist Timati came to Manezhnaya Square. In total, several hundred people were at the same time on Manezhnaya Square, but they constantly replaced each other; Many of those who laid cloves did not linger for a long time near the monument. Some were baptized, looking at the Kremlin wall - and quickly moved back towards Tverskaya.

Several large groups of men and middle-aged women stood near the monument to Marshal Zhukov, waiting for something. One of the women in this crowd told the Medusa correspondent that she and her colleagues came from the “one institution” without specifying from which. The woman noted that on their own initiative they decided to come to the Manezhnaya when they learned that the memory of the dead could be honored in the square. The man, who stood in another part of this crowd, to the question of what prompted him to come to the action, replied: “It is better for us not to spread. There are many people who came, ask them. ” At some point, the whole crowd went with flowers to the memorial.

There were many young people on Manezhnaya Square. Three girls who introduced themselves to the students of the MPSU and the RSU, they said that they came, because "even if you can’t support the families of the dead financially, it is important to support them morally." Several people who introduced themselves to the employees of the “Young Guard” said that they had come to Manezhnaya, “including because my colleagues in Kemerovo died.”

Forty minutes after the start, the action on Manezhnaya Square began to come to an end. Several dozen people continued to carry flowers, volunteers shot white capes; A man in a black leather jacket carefully collected fragments of a broken lamp. Near the monument to Zhukov, with both hands pressing a plush bear to her chest, a woman stood silently.

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“So we just went to the square, and we already see young people with the black poster Kemerovo,” the journalist said to the microphone, dragging the operator behind her. - A lot of people gathered at this rally. More precisely, for memory promotions. "

At seven o’clock in the evening, approximately two thousand people gathered around the monument to Pushkin, half an hour later - twice as much. Unlike Manezhnaya Square, where several ambulances were on duty, only police officers followed the action on Pushkinskaya - several dozen people in the uniform went along metal fences that fenced the crowd from the roadway. Three more or four tanks lurked under a wide platform connecting the Pushkin Square and the Russia theater. Almost exactly a year ago, on March 26, 2017, one of the most numerous protests of the opposition was held here - then there were much more police.

The organizers decided that it would be a silent action - and indeed, at first everyone was silent in the square. In this silence, people with cloves and roses of slow streams flowed to the pedestal of the monument; On it, among the mountains of flowers, stood the same as at the Kremlin wall, lamps and lay soft toys - also with tags from shops. A few meters from the monument, in the center of the crowd, several people were laid out with candles on the granite tile the word "Kemerovo".

“Pass the lighters,” the activists asked. Together with lighters above the heads, they began to transmit flowers. Someone distributed black sheets with the date “03/25/18” and the inscription “Remember”, some lit church wax candles in their hands. White balls flew into the sky. For some time, Alexei Navalny appeared in the crowd with his wife Julia, politicians Grigory Yavlinsky and Dmitry Gudkov; They did not give comments and tried to dissolve in the crowd.

At about 20:00, several women standing in the center of the crowd began to call the audience to the Manezhnaya Square: "We will burn if the power remains the same." For several minutes they did not pay attention to them, then - they began to ask not to make noise, after - they began to scold. The crowd suddenly ceased to be silent. Some began to chant the slogans: “Russia without Putin”, “Tuleyev’s resignation”, “Putin is the executioner of Beslan”, less often - “Kemerovo, we are with you” and simply “Truth!”. Others tried to reassure them.

Standing a few dozen meters from the crowd of Elizabeth Surganov told Medusa that he did not know how to relate to what was happening. “When only everyone gathered, there was a ringing silence, I never saw this. It was somehow closer to me, ”she said and headed for the subway. The crowd began to thin. The young man with the black poster “Kemerovo” climbed onto the pedestal and tried to start the assembled new chants; He was supported by less than half of the remaining in the square.

At about nine in the evening, someone offered to arrange a minute of silence-not immediately, but the audience managed to achieve silence. After that, young people who laid out candles on granite tiles asked the audience to transfer all the flowers and lamps to the pedestal of the monument to Pushkin.

The action ended, but about 500 people remained on the square. The slogans shouted from the pedestal, in the crowd they fiercely argued about the number of children who died in the “winter cherry”.

A mountain of flowers composed at the monument to Pushkin reached human height.

Evgeny Berg