"Grandchildren will be ashamed to tell where grandfathers and grandmothers served." The last word of Oleg Orlov

In the Golovinsky District Court of Moscow, the repeated process of the co -chair of the Memorial Oleg Orlov, accused of “discrediting” the army, is nearing completion. Last fall, he was appointed a fine, but the prosecutor's office appealed the verdict, and the case was sent to a new investigation. Finally, today the state prosecutor requested the human rights activist a real term - 2 years and 11 months. The verdict will be announced tomorrow. Orlov, who in protest refused to speak in court, today violated the silence and said the last word. "Mediazona" publishes it completely.

On the day when this trial began, Russia and the world were shocked by the terrible news about the death of Alexei Navalny. She shocked me too. And I even thought to completely abandon the last word: well, to the words now, when we still have not moved away from the shock caused by this news? But then I thought: but all these are the links of the same chain - death, or rather, the murder of Alexei Navalny, and judicial reprisals against other critics of the regime, including above me, strangling freedom in the country, the commissioning of Russian troops into Ukraine. All these are links of one chain. And I decided to say.

I have not committed a crime. I am judged for a newspaper article in which I called the political regime established in Russia, totalitarian and fascist.

The article was written more than a year ago. And then it seemed to some of my acquaintances that I was too spoiling the paint. But now it is already quite obvious - I did not exaggerate at all. The state in our country already controls not only a social, political, economic life, but also claims to be full control over culture, over scientific thought and intervenes in private life. It, the state, is becoming comprehensive. And we see it.

For only four months, which passed since the end of my first trial in the same court, many events have occurred, showing how quickly and deeper and deeper our country into this darkness is more and deeper.

I will very briefly list a number of different ones both in scale and in the tragedy of events:

- In Russia, books of a number of modern Russian writers are prohibited;

- The non -existent “LGBT movement” is prohibited, and in fact this means impotant state intervention in the personal life of citizens;

- The Higher School of Economics is forbidden to quote “foreign agents”. Now applicants and students, before studying the subject, must study and remember the lists of “foreign agents”;

-The famous scientist-sociologist, left-wing publicist Boris Kagarlitsky was sentenced to five years in prison. For what? For a few words that he said about the events of the war in Ukraine, which differ from the officially voiced position;

-And, finally, the person whom the propagandists call the “national leader of Russia”, speaking of the beginning of the Second World War, said the following, I quote: “Still, the Poles forced, they began to play and forced Hitler to start the Second World War with them. Why did the war begin with Poland? She, Poland, was intractable. Hitler had no choice but to implement his plans, how to start with Poland. ” The end of the quote.

What should be called a political system in which everything that I have listed now is happening? In my opinion, the answer is not in doubt. Unfortunately, in my article I was right.

Under the ban, not only public criticism, but also any independent judgments are banned. The punishment may follow the actions that, it would seem, have nothing to do with criticism of power and politics.

There is no field of art where free artistic statements are possible, there is no free academic humanitarian science, there is already no more private life.

Now I will say a few words about the nature of the accusations put forward against me and put forward in many similar trials against those who, like me, opposed the war.

At the opening of the current this trial, I refused to participate in it and thanks to this I had the opportunity to re -read this book during the court hearings - Kafka’s novel “The Process”. Indeed, our situation in our country today and the situation in which the hero of this book found himself has common features-this is absurd and arbitrariness, arbitrariness, which is masked under the formal observance of some pseudo-law procedures.

Here, please, we are accused of discredit, without explaining what it is and how it differs from legitimate criticism. We are accused of distributing deliberately false information, not bothering to prove its falsehood - just like the Soviet government acted, declaring criticism, any criticism, a lie. And our attempts to prove the reliability of this information themselves become criminally punishable. We are accused of the fact that we do not support the system of views and worldview, proclaimed by the leadership of our country correct. And this despite the fact that state ideology in Russia cannot be, according to the Constitution. We are sentenced by convictions for doubts that the attack on a neighboring state aims to maintain international peace and security. Here is the absurdity.

The hero of Kafka, until the end of the novel, did not know what he was accused of, despite this, he was sentenced and executed. And we are formally announced to us in Russia, but it is impossible to understand it, remaining within the framework of law and logic.

However, unlike the hero of Kafka, we understand why we are actually detained, judged, arrested, sentenced, killed. In fact, we are punished for allowing ourselves to criticize power. And in today's Russia it is absolutely prohibited. Of course, deputies, investigators, prosecutors and judges never pronounce it openly. They hide this under the absurd and illogical formulations of the so -called new laws, accusatory conclusions and sentences. But this is so.

Now in colonies and prisons they are slowly killed by Alexei Gorinov, Alexander Skochilenko, Igor Baryshnikov, Vladimir Kara-Murza and many others. Why are they killing? They are killed for protesting against bloodshed in Ukraine, because they want Russia to become a democratic, prosperous state that does not pose a threat to the world.

And in recent days they grabbed, punished and even deprived people of people only because they came to the monuments to the victims of political repression to honor the memory of the murdered Alexei Navalny. A wonderful person, brave, honest, who, in incredibly difficult conditions, did not lose optimism and faith in the future of our country. Well, of course, this was a murder, regardless of the specific circumstances of this death. And the authorities are fighting even with the dead Navalny, she is afraid of even his dead - and she is correctly afraid. They destroy the spontaneously created memorials of his memory. And those who do this hope that in this way it will be possible to demoralize that part of Russian society that continues to feel its responsibility for its country. So, let them not hope. We remember the call of Alexei - "Do not give up." But I will add from myself: do not lose heart, and do not lose optimism. After all, the truth is on our side.

Those who brought our country to the hole in which it now ended up, represent the old, decrepit, obsolete. They have no image of the future - only false images of the past, mirages of imperial greatness. They push Russia backward, back to the anti -utopia described by Vladimir Sorokin in the "Oprichnik Day". And we live in the XXI century, we followed the real future, and this is the key to our victory.

Concluding my performance, I probably unexpectedly for many, I want to turn to those who are now moving the rink of repression forward by their work. To government officials, law enforcement officers, judges, prosecutors. In fact, you understand everything perfectly. And not all of you are convinced supporters of political repression. Sometimes you regret what you have to do, but you say to yourself: “What can I do? I just follow the instructions of the authorities. The law is the law. "

I turn to you, your honor, I turn to the prosecution. Are you not scared yourself? It’s not scary to observe what our country is turning into, which, perhaps, you probably love too? It’s not scary that in this absurdity, in this anti -utopia, maybe you will have to live not only you, but also your children and, God forbid, your grandchildren? Is it not obvious to mind - a rink of repression can ride earlier or later and on those who launched and pushed it? After all, it has been in history more than once.

I repeat what I said in the previous process. Yes, the law is the law. But, I remember, in 1935, the so -called Nuremberg laws were adopted in Germany. And then, after the victorious 1945, those who performed them were judged. I have no complete confidence that the current creators and executors of Russian anti -laws, anti -constitutional laws themselves will bear judicial liability. But the punishment will be inevitable. Their children and grandchildren will be ashamed to talk about where they served and what their dads and mothers, grandfathers and grandmother did. It will also be with those who are now pursuing orders to crimes in Ukraine. And in my opinion, this is the worst punishment, and it is inevitable. Well, the punishment is obviously also inevitable for me, because it would be the height of naivety to hope for an acquittal in the current conditions. And now very soon we will all see what the sentence will be. But I do not repent of anything and do not regret anything. All.

Editor: Dmitry Tkachev