The following is a translation by The Interpreter of the last blog post, dated 4 July, of Valeriya Novodvorskaya for Ekho Moskvy. Novodvorskaya, a Soviet-era political prisoner and veteran critic of the Kremlin died 12 July in Moscow of complications from a previous surgery. The Russian opposition leader, frequently the target of state media and even billboard campaigns around Moscow, was outspoken in her support of the independence of Georgia and Ukraine. A noted video blogger with a large following on social media, Novodvorskaya’s last videos were an appeal on 17 June to the pro-Russian separatists in the Donbass to lay down their arms as Putin would not help them and they would never achieve independence, and another post dated 5 July titled “Poroshenko’s Mistakes“.
Why are the Russian people silent?
This is not the Russian people.
This is a crowd with the world view of maniacally-depressive slaves. Where have you seen the Russian people in any large numbers?
I saw them on 15 March, 50,000 people who came to defend Ukraine, which Soviet TV continues to remember with hatred ever since. This was the Russian people.
The rest are the Soviet people.
For Soviet people, the selection was normal: rising from their knees, “we’ll show them,” poverty, destruction, the beloved leadership giving the boot — they have the right to crush everyone, and not let anyone go anywhere. We don’t need anything, what we need, we’ll grab ourselves if it isn’t tied down.
Normal Soviet psychology.
Why were they silent when people were driven to Magadan, when they were dekulalified?
They had grown accustomed to being silent.
And those who didn’t want to be silent were destroyed in 70 years of Soviet government.
Now there are only separate individuals, freaks, Boris Nemtsov, Kontantin Borovoy, who aren’t affected by the patriotic radiation of Ostaninko’s TV towers.
But the Black Hundreds — that’s not the Russian people, but its shame.
The Russian people still need to be invented somewhere.