Anthropologist among security forces

The monologue of the accused who began the study of the prosecutors

On April 14, seven addresses of journalists of the student project DOXA and their parents were searches. Later it became known that against the editors and editors of Volodya Metelkin, Armen Aramyan, Natasha Tyshkevich and Alla Gutnikova, they opened a criminal case of “declining two or more minors to commit unlawful actions for their life” - for a video where they urged not to be afraid of threats from the administrations of educational institutions. On the same day, the Basmanny Court, in fact, put journalists under the actual “house arrest”, forbidding them to leave the house from 00.00 to 23.59 and use the Internet and any means of communication. They will stay under such an “arrest” until June. The New Gazeta, together with DOXA, publishes Armen Araman's monologue.

On April 14, my life, as they say, shared it on “before” and “after”.

At first there was a noisy search. I was woke up after two hours of sleep and after the question of whether I could contact my lawyer, began to break inside. Probably, I am still a little stuck in this feeling of fear, when a crowd of people in an unknown quantity very loudly breaks the door to you.

However, this was followed by a very boring day. Boredom on the way to the Investigative Committee and the court, and then - the boredom in anticipation of the meeting was painful. In order to distract myself from anxious thoughts, every time I overdoing myself, I tried to think about something pleasant and fascinating, which could capture me with my head. For some reason, then I decided that I needed to figure out what kind of anthropological study I could make from this experience out of a search, interrogation, court, alleged prison and home quasi-arrest, under which I found myself now. It’s funny, but I was tormented that I could not come up with any theoretical texts on which I could rely on such a study, except for conditional Foucault. This was one of my exercises, so as not to think what was outside the police car, like my family, whether they had a search - to think over the bibliography for their auto -ethnographic research.

Many of those who fell into the millstones of some kind of political violence machine describe a sense of derealization: so I lived my life, walked along the street, making plans, and now I am locked up, I am no longer the same free person, I am holding the walls and boundaries that were not present yesterday in my life.

And while this day continued, this feeling only intensified. So I am sitting in one part of the corridor in the court building, and in the other-my family and friends-journalists. But I cannot talk to them, because we are separated by a living wall of cops and bailiffs. At first, they attempt to talk or exchange bottles of water, they stop very hard with formidable gestures and sounds. But, it seems, over time, this hedge itself forgets about what meaning it fills its actions and its presence in this place. The bailiffs relax, ignore part of the contacts between us.

Symbolic violence and distance to maintain over time becomes more difficult.

Here is my mother chanting “Let me feed the children!”, And this distance is again subjected to a decisive test. And then the trials of the court are ending, and this distance is reformatted - it is now not between me and my relatives, but between me and my “accomplices” and “accomplice”, with whom it is now forbidden to communicate. At some moments, I am overtaken by a very strong sense of absurdity from the fact that four or five of the guys unfamiliar to me in different rather ugly uniforms are sitting, which for some reason determine my status as a free or non-free person. Sometimes there is a subconscious desire to just leave. Why can't you leave?

In the Utopia of the Rules, David Greber writes that police officers are bureaucrats with trunks, and this image really grasps a lot in representatives of law enforcement agencies. One and the same person tries to get your password number on the iPhone with threats, and then carefully records your personal data at the computer under dictation. What makes him do what he is doing? At what point does he listen to you with interest and perceive the information, and in which he is just a bureaucratic machine for recording text for dictation? What makes him a cop (well, or an investigator, is not the point)?

Perhaps there are outdoors of the research issue, or maybe this is just a shock from a collision with state violence. But the main emanciper sensation that I at times experienced is the feeling that these structures of symbolic violence and domination, no matter how the authorities would like the opposite, are extremely mobile and bending. The distances are weakening and changing, the eshnik can become an interlocutor in left -handed politics, parents will feed the children, and the corridor and hall of the court can be replaced by a street where there will be no bored faces of people who do not understand what they are doing here, but will only be joyful and loving faces chanting: “We are also doxa!”

I’m just getting used to the conditions of my “house arrest”. It is very difficult when there is some big story around, and you will learn about everything the last, if you know something at all. It is difficult not to see the guys from the editorial office, it is very sad to remember about projects, which most likely got up without me. First of all, I really want to continue my work on them.

But of course, I try to distract a little reading, because I have “so many books” at home ( the policeman was indignant at this fact during the search . - Ed. ). On the first day of the “arrest” I tried to read something, in the end I opened books 10, in each I read 8-10 pages and could not concentrate on any. But I began to re-read the “duty” of Rowber (David was once again able to drag me out), and also turned to “Montaeny’s experiments-there the first essay in the beginning is just about what mood to maintain when something threatens your life and freedom, yesterday in the Investigative Committee all day recalled it. Read!

Interrogations are a holiday. The sensations are mixed: from the ironic "me, the campaign, they arranged to work in the UK" before understanding,

What if they want to take away all the free time that I could spend on work or on some meaningful activity.

In these interrogations in the UK, most of the time I just sit and wait for something to happen, so I try to brighten up the expectation of reading books. It seems to my investigator does not seem to like this: he sits and misses, and I am enthusiastically reading a book. Yesterday he even made me a remark about this! For the last interrogation, he came with the book “For Democracy” by Sasha Zamyatin, and the coincidence of its content and surrounding reality was impressive. In general, if every day is on interrogation, then, probably, I need to master one book every day.

It is clear that endless summons are a pressure tool. You will go to us every day until you tell something. Well, Okay, I’ll walk, I'm only for daily walks.

Support is very important when they are trying to isolate you like this, it would be very difficult without it. Unfortunately, I can’t read all the materials about who and how I supported our editorial office and bio -iklov, and I can learn about it only from the stories of relatives. But the family also supports me very much: my mother, two brothers and sister are doing everything so that I feel good these days.

But while I am under the “house arrest”, I want to read, work, as far as possible, to see friends and colleagues who will visit me. I spend a lot of work on myself so as not to lose heart, and so far I am more likely, on the contrary, too awkward, I come up with all sorts of jokes. I hope this condition will not change depressive.

Support DOXA , together with you we can change something. They cannot defeat youth.