Translated material
"Guilty of extremism and embezzlement"
The verdict in the case of Natalia Sharina, the former director of the library of Ukrainian literature, was left unchanged by the decision of the Moscow City Court of April 24, 2018. The chronicle of events is restored by the writer, a witness to the sensational process Marina Vishnevetskaya .
For the first time, I saw Natalia Sharin in April 2017 in a long, uncomfortable corridor of the Meshchansky court. And by myopia she took for a judge: a black jacket, a collar of a snow -white blouse, an elegant haircut. The face is pretty, but the eyes are not looking for anyone, on the contrary, they avoid meeting - the content under house arrest was excluded by communication with outsiders.
The case of the ball went to the finish line, and it was a shame to not come at least once and not to support the person for whom I fit in October 2015-along with other members of the Russian Pen-Center that had not yet brokenom into pieces. As soon as the first messages about the search in the library appeared in the media, about the detention of the director of the library, about the criminal case that threatens the director of the library (for what? For professional activities?), About 140 famous writers have published a statement in defense of Natalia Sharina demanding "stop the persecution of the library for absurd accusations." The statement said: “In the current political circumstances, the library of Ukrainian literature remains one of the latest evidence of the historical unity and spiritual proximity of the two great peoples, two great languages, two great literary traditions. <...> Even if the funds have publications that the Russian authorities for some reason consider it “harmful” or “undesirable,” this cannot serve as the basis for the criminal prosecution of the leaders of the cultural institution or to create obstacles to its normal work. Such claims can be presented, studied and regulated by administrative means ” [1].
But not for that since 2010, the “business ball” flared up and smoldered, burned to the ground and again swelled to end with anything. There were two cases; According to the second, Natalia was first accused of extremism, later the accusation of a major embezzlement was added ... And the more carefully I followed what was happening in court (having come once, I tried not to miss the meetings), the more incredible what was happening.
But about everything in order.
Natalya Sharina became the director of the library of Ukrainian literature (BUL) in March 2007. As one of the former employees of the library showed at the trial, “the Ukrainian diaspora negatively took the appointment of Sharina because she did not know the Ukrainian language and Ukrainian culture,” and the former library director Yuri Kononenko, whom Natalya Sharina replaced in this post, claimed that the authorities appointed Sharin to cleanse the library “from Ukrainian nationalism”. From the point of view of the leadership, the situation there really caused anxiety. “I ask you very much to go to the Bul, there is a difficult situation,” the ball that worked for seventeen years in the Book Chamber, the head of the culture department, Cao Romuald Krylov-iodko, admonished.
Before suspicion of extremism and [Ukrainian] radical-nationalism, there were no more than three years. Sergey Anatolyevich Sokurov, in the recent past, the chief librarian Bul, dismissed by the ball to reduce the states. In his statement to the prosecutor’s office, he said that the library has books that, in his “professional opinion”, are “Russophobic” and have a “clear anti -Russian character”. Soon, in fact, a student of the Moscow Financial and Legal University, a member of the political council of the "Local" Alexander Gnezdilov, wrote to the prosecutor’s office. As stated in the investigation documents, Gnezdilov signed up in the library in order to get acquainted with book publications in more detail, which, in his opinion, promote the activities of organizations and persons aimed at inciting national enmity.
The applicants were unambiguously marking in paragraph 2 of Art. 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: arousal of hatred or enmity using official position. And they did not miss: on the morning of December 21, 2010, nine people were included in the library director’s office, one of whom presented a ball to the ball. Thus began the first criminal case, initiated "for the spread of extremist literature." But the times were almost vegetarian. The fact that some books were in the library did not mean that Sharina performed "active actions to distribute them." And therefore, the investigation did not find in the actions of the director of the library the signs of a crime, and on August 5, 2011 the case was officially closed. Unofficially, it continued its secret trip to the instances. In August 2013, he entered the Tagansky Investigative Committee and began to patiently wait in the wings. We do not know exactly when he struck, but in January 2015, library staff began to call again for interrogations as witnesses. However, soon the investigation expired, and the corpus delicti was not discovered again. And in September 2015, the case was closed. That is the first thing. In order to open the second one month later, according to the same 282nd article. This time, the reason for his excitement was the statement of the deputy of the municipal district of Yakimanka Dmitry Zakharov.
Zakharov responded to the reproaches of the journalists who called the statement on his denunciation on his Facebook page: “Donation is an anonymous letter to the organs :))) And I struggle with liberal nits and Benderas openly and publicly. This is called a deputy letter. Literains :)))))) But thanks to it :) ”
And immediately after the famous many hours of search, which hit all news feeds on October 29, 2015, the deputy gave an interview with Lente.ru: “I, starting with the Maidan, are engaged in the theme of Ukraine tightly. And in the Crimea he was, and in the Donbass on various issues. Well, of course, I communicate in these areas, where there are many Ukrainians, and I complained several times to me that the library of Ukrainian literature in Moscow turned into a nursery of Bandera and Russophobia. <...> And after some preparatory actions that took a certain amount of time, the bodies spent this event ” [2].
How Zakharov turned out to be understood during the “this event” remains a mystery. As well as why the second understood was Nikolai Zhuravlev, a man, due to the statement of which in 2010, was liquidated by the Federal National-Cultural Autonomy of Ukrainians of Russia (and in life a friend and like-minded person of the very Sergey Sokurov, who became a shot of the first business).
So, at seven in the morning, Zakharov and Zhuravlev “accidentally” find themselves at the entrance to the library. I find themselves or sign the search protocol retroactively, I can’t say confidently. But some books were thrown into the library during this search, its employees will say more than once in court. At the meeting, during which these books will be presented as material evidence, I will find myself. I will see how the judge prints the box staged in front of her. How to extract books from it, one of which suddenly silently puts aside. At the same time, the library employees sitting in the hall unexpectedly revive, understanding something still unknown to me about this book. And in the meantime, the bailiff is already putting the seized books on the table in front of the ball and its lawyers Ivan Pavlov and Evgeny Smirnov.
I will quote my notes made at this meeting and immediately after it.
Judge E. Gudoshnikova. The book "Hunger in Ukraine 1946-1947." Documents and materials. Kyiv-New York, 1996.
N. Sharina ( carefully examines the book transferred to her with a bailiff, as he will do later every time ). Your honor, this book is most likely in our electronic catalog, it has an inventory number, it has passed the inventory in 2008, there is a stamp; According to the form, we see that the book was issued on February 1, 2010 ... But the most important thing is that this book was not returned to the library. <...> How it appeared on this shelf (apparently, we are talking about a shelf with an “extremist literature seized during a search.” - M.V. ) is incomprehensible.
Judge . The next book is Dmitro Dontsov “Rosia Chi Europe and other essays”, 2005.
Lawyer E. Smirnov. Your honor, there is no evidence on the book that it belongs to the library: there is no pocket, there is no cipher, there is no shape. On the first page, the stamp "Youth Nationalist Congress".
Judge. The next book is “Nationalism - the basis of the coming world order”, the publishing house “Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists”, Lviv, 1993.
E. Smirnov. Your honor, in the form there is no information about the issuance of a book.
Judge. The next book is “Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists“ Bandera ”, publishing house“ Spill ”, 2010.
N. Sharina. Your honor, there are no signs of processing it in the library on the book. There is no cipher, identification number, print on the seventeenth page. That is, not a single identification sign regarding its origin from the library is not here.
Judge. The next book. Author Bobrovich, “How Cossacks Caucasus fought”, 2010.
E. Smirnov. Your honor, this book does not contain a single sign of what was in the library of Ukrainian literature: printing, inventory number, pocket, there are no marks on the issuance of someone.
In total, of the twenty -three charges in the form of printed products, “evidence” seized in the library of Ukrainian literature turned out to be small booklets without any signs of registration and processing in the library. Two books were marked by the seal of the Kyiv organization "Youth Nationalist Congress". Two books were not returned to readers long before the first search. And seven or eight books (not everything managed to hear) did not have a library for processing them at all. In other words, they had no relation to the “ball of ball”. And yes, most likely, they were thrown into the library. However, this did not bother the judge at all. She held her main trump card in her hands (remember, a pre-posted book out of the box with material evidence?) And finally clearly said: “Dmitro Korchinsky“ Vyina at Tyovpi ”” (“War in the crowd”)*. But this trump card was also crawled.
(Ending follows)
2. Lenta.ru/articles/2015/10/30/zaharov/
*The book is recognized in Russia extremist.