Dla członków WP

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After a while, Strategy 31 became a staple of the liberal
armory. As more and more banned protests were held, and as more and more people got
rounded up, the differences between Alexeyeva's camp of establishment,
intelligentsia opposition and Limonov's cult-of-personality and crew of
ragamuffins seemed less prickly. They had a common enemy: Not a single
official request to hold a protest on the 31st of the month was
accepted by Moscow authorities. Ever. It became yet another one of the
soothingly predictable events in the political life of the country: Alexeyeva
and Limonov would file a request; the Moscow mayor's office would say something
along the lines of, "Sorry, it happens to be the exact time of the Winter
Wonders Fair!"; Alexeyeva and
Limonov would rail against the authorities and turn up anyway at Triumfalnaya
on the evening of the 31st. Like clockwork, they and their
supporters would be met by what seemed like a full division of special forces
and police who would then round up a few dozen and cart them away in their
scary-looking police buses. Once, a
pro-Kremlin counterprotester even whacked Alexeyeva on the
head. ?
His proposal: defending Article 31 of the Russian
Constitution, which guarantees freedom of assembly but has been all but ignored
by Putin-era authorities who crack down on opposition rallies with trucks of beefy, steely special forces, arrests,
and beatings. Limonov's plan was simple: organize a gathering at Triumfalnaya
Square, in the center of Moscow, on the 31st of every month (or at least those that have a 31st day). If they squashed
that, too, it would be a clear and embarrassing sign to the rest of the world:
The Kremlin has no use for the constitution, or the rule of law.
Which is why, in July 2009, it was somewhat odd that Limonov,
whose own politics are a combustible mix of old-school socialism, Russian
nationalism, and anarchist street theater, approached the queen bee of Russian
liberalism and head of the Moscow Helsinki Group, 83-year-old Lyudmila
Alexeyeva. Alexeyeva is the idealistic child of the Khrushchev thaw and a
decorated veteran of the Soviet dissident movement who has been waging a steady,
dignified human rights campaign for the last four decades. Alexeyeva has become the
doyenne of today's opposition, which is why Limonov wanted her -- and her cloak
of legitimacy -- on board.
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Limonov asked Alexeyeva to join with him and bring legitimacy
to his movement. "I thought it was a good idea," Alexeyeva told me recently. "I
liked it. And I said, 'I'm ready.'" She was a little hesitant, though, as all her
colleagues told her to stay away from Limonov, and she didn't have such a high
opinion of him herself. So Alexeyeva compromised: She could not attend the
first meeting -- she was away -- but said she would attend the next one as an
observer, to see whether it was something she could get behind. In July, she missed
a crowd of 200 -- labeled "the radical opposition" by the Russian media --
turning out to protest,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], about a quarter of whom, including Limonov, were quickly
and firmly rounded
up. She didn't miss much, though, as the same thing
happened a month later, on Aug. 31. "I went and I was horrified by the number
of special forces and by how they behaved toward citizens who were there
totally peacefully." So Alexeyeva joined, and, slowly, attendance from the
mainstream opposition grew. "People started coming only when Alexeyeva started
going," says former energy minister turned opposition leader Vladimir Milov.
Eduard Limonov has long been a black sheep in Moscow's
opposition circles. A louche, 67-year-old provocateur, he writes graphic paeans
to anal sex in his novels and runs a fringe political party, the National
Bolsheviks, whose ranks are stuffed with young'uns ready to brawl with the
police and go to jail for it. So Limonov is generally avoided, or at least
spoken ill of, by respectable Russian liberals.