February 27, 2016

Bridge of Contention


Bridge of Contention
Photo: Mikhail Mordasov

The late Boris Nemtsov’s friends and supporters are not surrendering.

It has been a year since the opposition politician was shot as he walked along a bridge near the Kremlin, yet Russians continue to gather at his assassination site.

The authorities are also not surrendering in their effort to erase from the face of the city the memorial that sprung up in his honor. In 2016, attempts to “clean” the bridge intensified; in January the memorial was removed three times. Each time, police drove up to the site at three or four in the morning, claimed they were responding to a report of a disturbance, and then detained activists who are part of a team that guards the memorial around the clock. Municipal workers would then gather up the flowers, Russian flags and candles for disposal.

In one instance, when an activist tied himself to a chair and the chair to a flag post to make it harder to apprehend him, he was arrested for “organizing a mass event for five people by sitting on a wooden chair with a Russian flag and reading poems, which prevented passersby from walking.”

Yet people are still showing up at the bridge, and several online groups have organized themselves: one for people who staff the memorial in shifts, another for people who donate money to purchase flowers. Daily updates are posted, with pictures and interviews with Muscovites and those who visit the capital and stop by the bridge to pay their respects.

At press time, in Moscow the opposition was seeking to hold a rally on the anniversary of Nemtsov’s murder in late February.

In early February, police in Syktyvkar arrested local rights campaigner Ernest Mezak, nearly a year after he held a small rally last March to commemorate Nemtsov’s death. He faces a trial.

Over 30,000 people in Moscow have signed a petition to erect a permanent memorial on the bridge to commemorate the charismatic opposition politician who served as deputy prime minister. There have even been calls to rename the bridge, known as Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge, Nemtsov Bridge.

But Moscow authorities, normally rather casual about unveiling monuments to public figures or symbols, are adamant that there is “no sufficient consensus” in society to warrant a memorial to Nemtsov.

It is a strange, quiet, but fierce standoff, and it is likely to last until the Russian parliament passes a bill banning any form of public mourning.

After the latest “zachistka” (cleansing) of the bridge by municipal workers, a volunteer, Olga Avilonova, posted a picture on Facebook of new bouquets arranged on the site, with the Kremlin towers in the background.

“The memorial is doing okay, all has been tidied up and arranged,” she wrote. “It stopped snowing, the flowers are beautiful.”

You Might Also Like

Boris Nemtsov
  • February 28, 2015

Boris Nemtsov

On Friday night, just steps from St. Basil's Cathedral, one of the bravest and most vocal opponents of the Kremlin was gunned down by unknown assailants. How are Russians reacting?
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

Steppe / Степь (bilingual)

This is the work that made Chekhov, launching his career as a writer and playwright of national and international renown. Retranslated and updated, this new bilingual edition is a super way to improve your Russian.
A Taste of Chekhov

A Taste of Chekhov

This compact volume is an introduction to the works of Chekhov the master storyteller, via nine stories spanning the last twenty years of his life.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Murder at the Dacha

Murder at the Dacha

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin has a problem. Several, actually. Not the least of them is the fact that a powerful Soviet boss has been murdered, and Matyushkin's surly commander has given him an unreasonably short time frame to close the case.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.  

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955