Paul
Goble
Staunton, May 1 – Since 2004,
Russians have made fun of official May Day parades by taking part in
alternative marches they call “monstrations,” having dropped the “de” and
carrying slogans deliberately absurd, thus challenging officials to find them
guilty of violating anything. Not surprisingly, officials lacking a sense of
humor have again arrested many of them.
This year, the monstrations, an idea
that arose in Siberia almost two decades ago, has spread to the capitals and 30
other cities across the country. The
numbers of people taking part is relatively small compared to the officially sponsored
May Day parades – in Moscow the ratio was 100,000 to 3,000 – but the absurdists
may matter more.
Many of the slogans that
participants carry or shout are so absurd as to defy any effort at translation,
but that is just the point. And
officials not surprisingly recognize that such absurdist actions are a greater
threat to their power than more normal protests because they call into question
the entire governmental enterprise.
Moreover, authoritarian rulers can
survive almost anything except being laughed at in public; and so the rise and
spread of “monstrations” is a measure of the weakening of the Putin regime.
What one can no longer believe in because of its absurdities one can only laugh
at by offering absurdities of one’s own.
Among the most useful articles
covering these alternative demonstrations today are to be found at newizv.ru/news/society/01-05-2019/monstratsiya-shagaet-po-strane, fedpress.ru/news/77/society/2229591,
themoscowtimes.com/2019/05/01/russia-celebrates-the-absurd-and-illogical-at-annual-monstration-a65460,
sibreal.org/a/29913914.html,
kommersant.ru/doc/3961398, and zamanho.com/?p=7138).
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