Press Release, 24.08.2018

Archive photo by RIA Novosti/ Yuri Abramochkin

A rally dedicated to the anniversary of the victory over the reactionary forces of the State Emergency Committee was held in the Krasnopresnensky park, Moscow, behind the Russian ‘White House’ on 22 August, on the Day of the Flag of Russia.

The rally was organised by the All-Russian Public Movement “For Human Rights”. The Yabloko party has been taking part in the action year in memory of the events of 1991 and the victory of Russian democrats every year.

Participants and witnesses of the fight against the coup d’etat of 1991 spoke from the stage before citizens who gathered for the action. Today, 26 years after the victory over the coup d’etat, politicians have the opportunity to look at the then emergence of Russian democracy through further historical events that were gradually returning the political system of Russia to the path of authoritarian rule. All the participants of the rally were unanimous in the opinion that democracy and development of democratic institutions requires daily fight for.

Valery Borshchyov, mMember of the Bureau of the Yabloko party, politician and human rights activist, at the time of August 18-21, was a deputy to the Moscow City Council and Chairman of the Commission on Freedom of Conscience, Religion and Charity. He shared his memories of those days. There were tanks by the Moscow City Council, the military did not know what they should do, they were afraid to attack protesting citizens, because this would entail imminent sacrifices. Then Valery Borshchyov managed to persuade the military to remove the tanks from the Moscow City Council: “It was really a unique event, it was a general democratic process and all people who felt responsible for the country went out to protest rallies. The army was really frightened then. I got up ahead of the tank column and led the column to the Dynamo metro station area. Such were the times – a whole tank column went after a [Moscow City Council] deputy. The army really did not want to fight the people. Today, it seems to me, it is very important to remember that when the people’s protest is going on, the authorities  become powerless, and no power structures, no law enforcement bodies can resist it. Let us remember this tradition, this experience and say no to arbitrary rule! ”

Alexander Gnezdilov, Deputy Chairman of the Yabloko party, did not take part in those events, since he was only five years old in August 1991. Nevertheless, he is convinced that the freedom inherent in people of his generation became possible largely due to those events.

Alexander Gnezdilov expressed his gratitude to the people who gave the opportunities for his generation to freedom of education in Russia and addressed the audience with the following speech:

“In these August days, a Russian tricolor flag rose over the [Russian] “White House”, which I am proud of despite everything and which I love. We got a different state anthem, am anthem not stained with blood [compared to the Soviet anthem]. We saw the very word Russia on the geographical map of the world. We received a vast space of freedom. Despite the pullback that everyone is talking about today, we are far from the point of 1985 or 1984, either form [the country ruled by] Leonid Brezhnev or Yuri Andropov, or [from a country] George Orwell [wrote about]. These achievements of perestroika were then defended against the putchists’ attempt to curtail [freedom]. Certainly, while following a discussion in social networks about the results of August 1991, I see a lot of disappointment and frustration, also voiced by the participants of these events. Nevertheless, I would like to say that the rollback was largely predetermined by what had existed there before August 1991. These mechanisms were laid, and the victory that was really gained turned out to be not final, but became another page in the book of the centuries-old struggle for Russia’s freedom – from the conditions of the Supreme Privy Council [ constitutional document offered by the Council to Empress Anna Ioannovna in her accession to the throne in 1730] to the Panin-Fonvizin Constitution [a constitutional draft of 1760s], to the projects of the early 19th century, to the Decembrists, [writer, philosopher and supporter of reforms] Alexander Herzen, the Westerners, the great reforms, the Cadet Party and the Octobrist Party. This means that we simply must not give up, as [singer and poet] Bulat Okudzhava wrote in one of his songs. Because we see even in some countries of the European Union, such as Hungary and Poland, that democracy is not given once and for all. This is work that must be done every day, and as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote, “Only he is worthy of life and freedom, who every day for them goes to battle”. Therefore, I would like to express my deep gratitude to those who went to risk their lives for our and your freedom in August 1991. Democracy is an exam that society is taking every day”.