The death of Irina Slavina: three versions, and all are true

Sergey Yakovlev, writer, member of the Russian PEN Center.

Everyone understands that the "Russian Federation" here is not a country or a people (although one involuntarily recalls the Blok "mother Russia", who senselessly devours her children like a piglet), but the government and the repressive regime. But what exactly pushed it became the last straw, here the opinions of people who knew Irina Slavina differ. Some talk about the mocking search of the journalist's house that took place early in the morning, which ended with the confiscation of personal property necessary for work. Others - about the months-long harassment inspired by the FSB, with damage to the car, provocative inscriptions at the entrance, and, finally, monstrous fines for the mother of the family, who earns her own labor, for almost any of her statements in her online edition. Still others believe that she planned her self-sacrifice in advance and performed in cold blood, hoping at least in such a terrible way to shout out to people and thereby shake up the society, stupefied from disastrous sleep ...

I think all three versions are true. All at once.

What is the Russian regime like? Those who fixate on one figure of Putin are mistaken. There will be no Putin, the regime will remain. If you look at it layer by layer, I would present such a rough picture. At the very top is the "family", or rather, several families-clans, forcedly connected with each other by common interests and common crimes. There is no control over them, they receive maximum dividends from their supreme position in power and economy. Slightly lower - the layer of top officials ensuring their viability (legislators, generals, judges, governors' corps, etc.), possessing enormous privileges and wealth in this system and, of course, ready for anything to preserve it. Even lower - the entire bureaucratic class, countless prudently fed by the top many small managers, constituting in Russia the main support of all regimes without exception (it was this tribe in the distant time of the USSR that Yu.N. Afanasyev called from the rostrum of the Congress of People's Deputies "an aggressively obedient majority")... Further, it is worth mentioning, perhaps, the apolitical burghers, in Russian - "Okhotnorodtsev", whose attitude to the authorities depends only on the degree of their material well-being (among them there are still many positively disposed). And, finally, the overwhelming majority of the deceived and robbed population, which in the conditions of a real democracy would just be called upon to determine the structure of the state, but now have meekly buried themselves in the TV.

A grandiose and eerie in its absurd nature, a mechanism capable of drowning out the crunch of the bones of not only one, but hundreds and thousands of those who disagree, being ground by their millstones. Fear is the modus that determines the behavior of both rulers and subjects. Under pressure from external conditions (here and there are "color" revolutions, and the human rights rhetoric of the West, and the global democratic trend in general), the regime loses its peace and intensifies repression. He would probably want to turn to concentration camps and mass executions for his peace of mind, but in today's interconnected world, this can deprive his beneficiaries of some of their usual comfort. And it is not relevant yet, with such and such a timid and intimidated mass of its population (who knows - all this may still wait for the country ahead). Therefore, not only power, but also propaganda and intellectual resources of the authorities are used. The latest sneaky innovations include exorbitant fines. Now, not everyone can afford to express their civic position. Any official convicted by a person of corruption or, moreover, of banditry, can not only jail this person, but also literally undress this person "on a legal basis". However, the new-made laws are such that no reason is required for this: people in black masks with weapons can break into every apartment in the morning...

Here is the background on which Irina Slavina deliberately turned herself into a flaming torch.

The "quiet" majority consoles themselves with the fact that the repressions concern only "troublemakers" and will never be affected. Well yes. Over and over again they saw the doors (at Slavina, at Navalny and his employees, at many others), lifted from the beds and put face down on the floor, yelling and beating, routing them, taking away valuable things on the basis of "evidence". Sometimes they are taken away and imprisoned, then the trial, then the taking of money. Just imagine what the fine of 70 thousand rubles, presented by Slavina, means for the budget of a poor family. And all this from time to time, methodically, without respite. Just save up for a new computer - they go again. Can a person withstand this? But ask yourself another question: will a person who is unlucky (unlike you) to see and understand HOW AND IN WHOSE INTERESTS all this is arranged, - will he feel like a person if after the endured ordeals he finally breaks down, will reconcile and , like millions of fellow citizens, stupidly stare at the TV? In which he will be shown, probably to his complete amazement, himself, driving around expensive foreign resorts and receiving millions of dollars from the generous State Department...

The day after the death of Irina Slavina, her daughter went to the square with a poster: "While my mother was burning alive, you were silent".

Indeed. In the United States, not so long ago, a police officer exceeded his authority when detaining a suspect and, through negligence, strangled him. Just a black thief and a drug addict. All colored America immediately took to the streets. It was not only police departments that were smashed. Many people had to repent for the crime of one geek. The echoes of the revolution that broke out to this day do not subside throughout the world.

Here, the best are persecuted. Some, leaving, manage to point out their killers to the whole world. The answer is silence.