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Valeriya Novodvorskaya (1950-2014)
Valeriya Novodvorskaya passed away on July 12, 2014. I met Novodvorskaya for the first time in front of Embassy Moscow during the anti-Iraq war demonstrations in March 2003. She was one of the more reasonable and likable Russians I ever knew. Strangely enough we were on opposite sides of the issue. I was officially supporting our Iraq policy, while privately being against it, while she was actually leading one of the few Russian demonstrations in favor of the Iraq war.
U.S. Embassy Moscow
Russia Update: Thursday,
March 27, 2003
No. 040 Reporting from Moscow
Turnabout is
Fair Play: For Once, a Pro-U.S. Demonstration
On Thursday afternoon, followers of two miniscule
political movements, the Trans-National Radical Party and the Democratic Union,
took their turn to demonstrate across the street from the Old American Embassy
Building. In contrast to nearly everyone
else, however, the twenty
followers of Democratic Union leader Valeriya Novodvorskaya (Note 1) and Radical Party leader Nikolay Khramov (Note 2) actually demonstrated in favor of U.S. actions in Iraq.
 |
• A pro-American
demonstration, for once. There were only
20 of
them, but I suppose short help is better than no help at all.
|
The day started off normally enough. At noon, about a dozen LDPR volunteers and
half a dozen "Working Russia" supporters took up their customary
positions at Novinskiy Bulvar 18 to conduct an unsanctioned protest against the
Iraq war. The Communists (Note 3) were once again
absent. Around 2:00 p.m., however, the
Radical and Democratic Union supporters arrived and began putting up their
banners. LDPR and "Working
Russia" were miffed: first, because the competing demonstrators were
outnumbered by cameramen from the local TV stations, and second because the
militia came up to the unsanctioned
demonstrators and told them they would have to leave. The LDPR protesters did so quietly, but the
more fanatical "Working Russia" types hung around outside the
barriers and hurled insults at the Radicals and Democratic Unionists. On their way out, a couple of LDPR protesters
turned to one Radical and asked snidely, "Who paid you to do this?"
to which the Radical replied, "Who paid you?"
With the situation under firm police control (there were
lots more of them than everyone else put together), the Radicals and Democratic
Unionists got their show on the road, unfurling banners that read "There
is no peace without democracy," and "No to Saddam." While giving TV interviews at a mile a
minute, Novodvorskaya stood with a sign around her neck that said "America
is fighting for humanity, including Russia." Other demonstrators, including Khramov,
carried American and British Flags or Radical Party banners. Both parties also passed out "manifestos"
that stated their support for the United States and the United Kingdom, and
condemned all those who had conducted anti-American and antiwar protests, and
thus given Saddam Hussein false
hope. The demonstration broke up
peacefully at 3:00 p.m.
Outside
the narrow confines of Novinskiy Bulvar 18, antiwar demonstrations have
continued in other parts of Moscow as well, though not with the same pace and
fervor as in the first week of the war.
On March 25, Gennadiy Raykov's
pro-Putin "People's Party" (Note 4) conducted an antiwar protest on Slavyanksaya Square. About a thousand people watched as ten
demonstrators dressed in camouflage uniforms covered a large globe with the
American, British and Spanish flags as other demonstrators yelled out
"Occupiers!" and explosive sound effects reverberated through the
square. The American/British occupiers
were then "ousted" by other demonstrators, who carried placards
proclaiming "Stop the Expansionist War in Iraq" and "What Goes Around Comes Around." (Note 5) Another demonstrator bore a
placard with a picture of President Bush. Unfortunately, the demonstrators had also
thoughtfully painted a beard and a white cap on the picture to make the
President look like Osama bin Laden. The placard included the caption
"Terrorist Number One." In
keeping with the demonstrations run by pro-Putin organizations, the protest
meeting appeared to be well choreographed and lacked most of the inflammatory
rhetoric that characterizes LDPR and Communist Party protest meetings.
Outside
the capital, other anti-war demonstrations were also held. In Vladivostok, Independent State Duma Deputy
Viktor Cherepkov and the People's
Deputy Club led a demonstration paralleling that of the larger "People's
Party" demonstration in Moscow on March 25. American and British flags were burned, and
passersby were asked to kick a dummy representing an American soldier. Cherepkov, who is known for his eccentric
behavior and his short-lived but successful term as Mayor of Vladivostok, is
very popular in Primorye's capital city but is unpopular almost everywhere else
in the Maritime Province. He has taken
numerous trips to Baghdad in recent years, and has been an outspoken critic of
U.S. policy toward Iraq.
While Cherepkov and his supporters were protesting, a group
of veterans in Vladivostok was making trouble in its own way by preparing a
legal complaint against President Bush for presentation to the Hague War Crimes
Tribunal. The veterans were apparently unswayed by arguments
from media representatives that the Tribunal was created only to consider war
crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia, and maintained that they would
demand that the Tribunal consider their "case" against the President
for his war crimes against Iraq.
Apparently, folks in Vladivostok have nothing better to do these days.
Interfax also reported that on March 25 there was a large
antiwar demonstration in the city of Cherkessk, the capital of the heavily
Moslem republic of Karachayevo-Cherkessia.
According to Interfax, the demonstration was organized by local youth
groups, including the Republic's own Commission on Youth. Reportedly, over 5,000 students marched down
the main street of Cherkessk to Lenin Square and then to the Republic
Government building, where they chanted anti-U.S. slogans and held up protest
signs. Organizers said that actually
more than 15,000 participated, but in all likelihood the protest was far
smaller than the 5,000 originally estimated by Interfax. Virtually no one in this country can count,
and when they do, they are prone to guess high.
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Note 1. Valeriya Novodvorskaya. Novodvorskaya is a well-known dissident from
the Soviet era. Born in 1950, she first
came to the attention of the Soviet authorities at the age of 19, when, as a
student at the Maurice Torres School of International Languages, she organized
an underground student group calling for the overthrow of the Communist
regime. She was convicted under the
all-purpose Article 70 (anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda) and sent to a
mental institute where she was "treated' for schizophrenia. After her release from psychiatric detention,
she helped publish and distribute samizdat materials. In 1977 she was one of the founders of the "Free Interprofessional Union of
Workers" (SMOT). As a result of her
political activities, she and other SMOT activists were repeatedly sent to
psychiatric hospitals for additional treatment, and she was convicted for
dissident activities in 1978, 1985 and 1986.
In 1988, she helped found the Democratic Union, a human rights group,
and took part in numerous unsanctioned protests against the Soviet authorities. In May 1991, she was jailed for seeking the
overthrow of the Soviet regime, but then released on August 23, following the
failure of the hardliner coup against Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. After the fall of the Soviet Union,
Novodvorskaya continued her human rights activities, succeeding in earning the ire
of Russia's new rulers. In 1996, she was
charged under Article 74 ("incitement of public discord") for her
strident anti-Government statements on Chechnya. In July 2000 she participated in a
demonstration protesting the raid on Media-Most, the crown jewel in Vladimir Gusinskiy's financial empire, calling
it an "anti-Semitic act" and comparing it to Kristallnacht. Novodvorskaya has also endeared herself to
the FSB, calling it "our Gestapo," and she has urged people to oppose
President Vladimir Putin since he is
a "butcher, murderer and fascist" who is "carrying out a
genocide of the Chechen people." In
1995, one of Novodvorskaya's friends characterized her as a perpetual
revolutionary, and cites this as the reason why she and so many other
dissidents of the Soviet era have been unable to adapt and prosper in the New
Russia. For additional biographic
information on Novodvorskaya, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valeriya_Novodvorskaya
Note 2. Nikolay
Khramov. Some bio
information, but not much, is available on Nikolay Khramov at the
Trans-National Radical Party's website: http://www.radikaly.ru. Often the site is blocked in Russia.
Note 3. Communists. KPRF officials have explained to media
representatives that they have decided to continue their protest "by
meeting with constituents," rather than by standing across the street from
the U.S. Embassy.
Note 4. People's Party. Raykov's party controls the 53-member
"People's Deputy" faction in the State Duma. The faction is one of the centrist groups
that make up the pro-Kremlin coalition in the Lower House.
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