School of Delone

It is rare when a person is equal to himself

My relatives.

Sergei Sharov-Delone always said so when he turned to his own.

“New” to him, of course, was his own, my relatives.

Sometimes we learn the whole truth about a person only after his death. The king lived, the dictator, the director - and the peoples composed odes and oratorios about him, and as Maxim died, and to hell with him. Or vice versa: who is this artist, who is this writer, what a bright genius of mankind, what a pity that recognition did not come to him during his life.

It rarely happens when a person is equal to himself and does not want glory or money, but wants only ideals such as freedom, equality, fraternity, but not only wants, but knows how to achieve them in a separate life. And spread around you.

Sergei Sharov-Delone knew how to achieve the ideals of mankind. He loved justice and tried to achieve it for others, and he succeeded. He appreciated the truth and honesty, but did not demand this from others, it was simply impossible to afford to wrinkle himself next to him. He sensed a bad. He sensed and warned that he was sensing, doing a rack-you’re your work to choose: to hear it and get out of dusk or let Sergey Sharov-Deelon be disappointed in you. In extreme cases - up to contempt.

But it was difficult to disappoint him, he forgave many sins. And one could argue with him, he generally loved this business. But if he refused to accept something or someone, then as much as he wanted to shrug and not take to heart. And then make sure of how Serge was right when he saw an important one. Immediately sensing a big bargain.

Once - it was immediately after the “protest of the shkolota” in March 2017 - he defended a young guy in court. The Tver court of Moscow stamped his decisions, as usual, as all the courts, without analyzing either evil or good - fines or administrative arrests to everyone in a row. As usual, the guy was accused of “violation of the established procedure for organizing or holding a meeting, rally, demonstration, procession or picket”, Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. And as usual, the report on the detention of the guy was not those who delayed him, and what was really there, no one knows, well, so the court to figure it out. Theoretically.

In general, the scene is. The court, judge, two of the judge: a very young guy (client’s client) and the defender actually, Sergey. He was 60, but he always looked both older (being outwardly thin Santa Claus), and younger (eyes, very lively and greedy to life). And then Sergey is almost impossible with the judge: to call for the testimony of two servants who made a report on the detention. Its goal is to prove to the court that the report is false, that there is not true, and therefore the guy must be justified.

Two servants enter the hall, they are presented. The judge says:

- Under what circumstances and whom did you detain on Tverskaya Street?

The servants turn and both point a finger at Sergey:

- Here is him, grandfather!

The judge begins to be nervous.

- Please look carefully exactly who you detained.

- Yes, here, gray -haired! Bearded! And he resisted and cursed.

Well, it would seem - everything is clear. But this impressions did not make this impressions, he did not take into account the strange testimony of the servants, and none of the experienced people was surprised when the steam was soldered. And how else, our courts are arranged. It is very useful for young people not to have illusions.

But why did Sergey, knowing all this and having gone a thousand times, still went to court?

Sergei understood well that he could not protect anyone here, but still got up and went to court every day - not because the idealist (although in fact), but because he understood that many cases could reach the ECHR. Or on the basis of decisions for several cases, it will be possible to go to the Constitutional Court and cancel some idiotic norm. And most importantly - to show the defendant boys and girls that they are not alone. That there are adult uncles who do not climb to them, do not teach them how to live and properly protest, but respect and protect.

He would be more restrained, we would call him a guru, he would be colder, we would call him a sensei, he would be easier, we would call him a grandfather, would be more assertive - a leader. But he was a teacher who does not teach, but next to whom you study.

He was the founder and permanent director of the school. School of a public defender is a joint project of Rus Sitting and the Sakharov Center. For four years, four thousand people became the audience of Shoz. And many of them remained to work as defenders in the courts - like Sergey. At first, I told him that I did not like the name - “Public Defender”, this seemed to immediately speak of our incompetence, because in the current codes there is no concept of “public defender”, but there is simply “defender”, while “public” is an echo of long time when it was. Sergei said: “There is no idea? Well, you have to return it. ” And he was right. Rather, he returned it himself, without asking anyone.

He taught ordinary people the basics of protection in the courts, and not only in the courts. How to behave during a search, what is operational-search actions, spoke about the jury and a forensic examination, about the judicial investigation and the procedure for appealing the sentence, as well as how to use the defender status when serving a sentence. And you know what? Graduates Shoz - and he carefully followed them and tried not to lose communication - they achieve very good results, including acquittals. He was terribly proud of this. Like all of us.

Of course, the school should live and work on. But the name will still have to be changed.

Now it will be Delona's school.

He managed to write a school textbook - he finished it in the summer, when he already felt unimportant. He gave lectures on history in Prague, at Karlov University, they were very popular, and he was going to continue to read them in the fall. But something became bad with his feet, he thought-arthritis, began to walk with a wand. He conducted full-fledged classes at school in September, having graduated from exactly on his 63rd birthday on September 27. Then he got worse, he already knew his diagnosis, it was cancer. He managed to receive compensation for his illegal detention and administrative arrest - this was the decision of the ECHR. I received money - and divided it equally between several human rights projects, leaving nothing.

Well, what does it mean to yourself? He has a family. The beloved wife, whom he always talked about with aspiration, the son and daughter, whom he was very proud of. They understood him. Such a strong rear can only have a very good person.

And a good person cannot stand aside when this happens. He is an architect, restorer, scientist, author of a brilliant monograph “People and Stones of North-East Rus'. XII century ”, could talk for hours about the first political prisoners in Rus', and from him I know about the first mention of that - his name was Daniel the sharpener. When we traveled in prison, Sergei on the road could quote Old Russian poetry by heart, for example, the origins of a strange fairy tale about Kolobok find there. He told how the Andrei Bogolyubsky and his temple of the Intercession on the Nerl with the Cathedral of the Parisian Mother of God were connected - the same international brigade built a church for the ner and part of the Gallery of Kings in Paris. He had his own communication theory between great scientific discoveries, the heyday of architecture and medieval expectations of the end of the world. He knew by heart all the verses of his cousin Vadim Delone, a participant in the “Demonstration of Seven” in 1968 on Red Square, it was a protest against the introduction of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia - “dare to enter the square?” (Alexander Galich).

He always went to the square.

And he defended those who dared to go to the square, for the first time becoming a defender in the process in the case of May 6. He not only defended - he went with programs to the zones, was friends with the parents of the convicts, and helped after the release. He argued, cursed, called for conversations - he did not throw it.

If our country someday recovers, it will be Delune's street. The street of those who physiologically could not accept totalitarianism. It seems to me that in this place Seryozha would have joked to reduce pathos: “And write more that I specially died on November 7!”

So I wrote, Seryozha. Your school.