RUSSIA The Russian periphery protesting against the war

In the Siberian town of Chita, a demonstration promoted by local communists for May 1 became the opportunity to dust off pacifist slogans from Soviet memory in rejection of the current conflict in Ukraine. Many local demonstrations are also now being banned for May 9, Victory Day, to avoid protests.

Moscow () – In several Russian cities, public demonstrations for May Day have been used, a date traditionally very popular both for the ideological and symbolic value inherited from Soviet times and because it is attributed to the beginning of the thaw, with outings and parties in the forests and lakes, where the ice is broken to immerse themselves in the life that is reborn. In this case, it was also an opportunity to escape from the bellicose rhetoric, shared by the vast majority of the population out of conformism and submission, when in reality many would like to have the opportunity to express feelings of peace.

On the outskirts of the Siberian city of Chita, a group of protesters gathered with banners of Niet Voine, “No to war”, and Miru Mir, “Peace for the world”, because the authorities of the Zabajkal region denied the permission that the local communists of the KPRF had requested to organize the traditional party in the center of the city. Hundreds of people then went to the park in the town of Tekstilščikov, near the textile factories. The security forces tried to prevent access to the area, where only a few dozen finally managed to congregate.

According to regional Duma deputy Jurij Gajduk, members of the trade unions in the area were also organizing, but they received strict orders not to come to the demonstration. Only one union representative managed to arrive, although she did not dare to speak from the box. In addition to avoiding pacifist proclamations, as Gajduk explained, local authorities also feared protests against Governor Aleksandr Osipov in connection with the worsening social and economic conditions that are beginning to be felt especially in the peripheral areas of the Russian Federation.

The deputy explained that “what matters is not so much the small number of people who gathered, but the total absence of the media, which could have conveyed our message to the entire town… There were only a couple of journalists from the media from the government, who never tell the truth anyway.” On the other hand, even if independent journalists had come forward, they would not have been able to report anything either, because “they would have been thrown immediately in jail, even for life.”

In any case, the few participants spoke about the war in Ukraine, such as another regional deputy, Vladimir Kurbatov, who said: “I did not want to take the microphone, but this morning a woman who had had her power cut off approached me. home and her husband is fighting in the Ukraine. She has no money to pay the bills, and what her husband earns at the front is not known if or when it will arrive. All this was explained to the officials of the electric power company, and she said she was willing to borrow money to pay… Do you know what those capitalists did? They took the holiday and left her without power with three little children. The state promises to help our soldiers’ families, but in reality there are many cases like this; if it’s not light, they even lack firewood”.

The criticisms of those present were not limited then to the local authorities, but came to question the abilities and proclamations of President Putin, accused of putting the entire country in crisis due to the mania for the war in Ukraine. Lawyer Aleksandr Zhdanov, a member of the “Civil Solidarity” association, denounced that “although the Criminal Code clarifies which are the punishable formulas for discrediting the Armed Forces, in reality people are only arrested for a Niet Voine poster, which it was a slogan of the state itself since Soviet times, while propagandists are allowed to shout heinous and criminal things, which even encourage dropping atomic bombs.” Zhdanov warns that “even if 90% of the population supports propaganda, with nuclear war 90% of the population disappears forever”.

The effects of the economic crisis sharpen more and more the feeling of impotence and defeat in relation to the war. That is why they are banning everywhere until the demonstrations of May 9, a much more symbolic date than a Victory that seems increasingly improbable and false.