Activism in Russia: before the war and today, Aachen.
Here go the materials of the discussion at the Autonomous Centre in Aachen on October 19th.
Full audio record:
https://archive.org/details/activisminrussia
Plan of the discussion and demonstrated materials:
1. Introduction. USSR. Putin 2000. Dissenters' marches from 2005.
2. Strategy 31. Yaroslav Nikitenko, «Putin be damned»:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQf-RirNz_o
3. Khimki forest. Nationalists. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova’s Livejournal:
https://wisegizmo.livejournal.com/35007.html
Vitaly Shushkevich, «Destruction of Khimki administration»:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqQFtJMBPbc
Dmitry Zykov, Grani TV. «Khimki forest - people against machines», May 2011:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv64HHMCIrM
Map of the road through the forest:
https://newtimes.ru/articles/detail/25074/
4. My arrest (arbitrary photo by Suren Gazaryan), https://gazaryan-suren.livejournal.com/62471.html).
5. Movement for fair elections in Russia. Late 2011.
6. Free Pussy Riot campaign.
7. Bolotnaya sq. 6th May 2012. 31 criminal cases. 300 detained.
8. Buchenkov case. «Man in black». https://yaroslavn.livejournal.com/121283.html
9. Foreign agents. Media. Roskomnadzor («Russian communication watch»). Social networks pressure. Fines for protests,
10. Zhivopisnaya. Death threats, 2017. Police.
Death threats on the wall. https://www.instagram.com/p/BSxjaOylpN5
11. Separate waste collection. Covid, meetings, authoritarian propaganda.
12. 2022-… Fakes about the army. German diplomats.
https://www.gov.pl/web/eu/joint-statement-of-the-prime-ministers-of-estonia-latvia-lithuania-and-poland
«We emphasise that this is not an outright entry ban and commonly agreed legitimate exceptions will remain in force for dissidents… We fully uphold the need to continue to support opponents of the Putin regime and provide them with opportunities to leave Russia.
** **
*****
NO TO
W***A
(WOINA = WAR, WOBLA = FISH)
As I said during the discussion, many materials just disappear from the internet, so I would recommend seeing them sooner than later!
This discussion was the start of my talks in Europe on Russian activism. I had very few ideas about how long it will take; my plan was one hour for a talk and then discussion. After 50 minutes I realised that I'm still talking about the Khimki forest campaign, and had to skip some other topics. However, the activists told me later that it was very good, because they have an important local fight for the Hambacher Forest, and it was interesting for them to hear more about our fight. Also this talk was the most emotional one; maybe it can be heard near the end. The photo was taken already after the talk, I just like that, but (I hope) I was not laughing during the whole lecture! :)
I can tell that this talk was organised best compared to following ones. The key was that the local collective Diskursiv Aachen makes such talks regularly; they are planned like several months in advance, and I was just happy to get a very quick slot (I wanted to talk about this topic as soon as I arrived in Germany). I'm thankful to the AZ, of course to Diskursiv, and also to Lukas and Benny for the organisation and materials. There were about 20-25 people; we had to wait for some time, but people cooked nice food, so that was comfortable. Two of my colleagues (including my scientific advisor) came, it was very nice. As I said, I didn't have to organise anything, and my speech was rather clear; my presentation was unusual; and also I had to turn on videos "simultaneously" on my laptop and telephone, but I think it didn't distract anyone. This format of presentation, with posts shown from the browser, I used later as well (it is also somewhat authentic to the source). During the preparation for the discussion there were some numbers like 50 expected people discussed, and I didn't see many in the beginning; but then I remembered that I always expected twice the number of people coming to my demonstrations than it turned out, so it was very sweet to see the same; if you overestimate ten times, then you are a bad activist, but if only twice, then you are an optimist and a good one.
In the beginning I said that it was not a well-structured discussion, but today I looked through a real scientific article on activism, and it was much worse. I repeat that this is not about all activism in Russia, but a selection of some of the most important events and those where I took part (people already told me about Manezhka and Navalny protests, please share what you think is also important).
Hope you find this talk and the materials interesting!
I heard that vk algorithms are not particularly in favour of many links in a post, so you likes and comments will be really appreciated.
