After the elections to the State Duma of the VI convocation, a protest movement began in Russia. The protesters did not agree with the results of the elections, argued that the Duma should be recognized as illegitimate, since it does not reflect the interests of most citizens.
The concept
Protest movement - multiple massive anti-government movements of citizens. In the world in recent years, many countries have been covered in which they occurred. Some led to revolutions, others did not achieve their goals. However, almost all of them follow the same scenario. More on this later.
Protest Movement Scenarios
The protests in the Middle East and the CIS look approximately the same:
- First, elections are held in which any violations are recorded - In Russia, they were held on December 4, 2011.
- They are won by the current political forces - the president or the ruling party.
- It turns out the people, dissatisfied with these elections. At this stage, there is active propaganda using reports of all violations in the elections. People are encouraged to think that voting should be invalidated.
- Leaders and a symbol of the movement are chosen - In Russia, a white ribbon has become a symbol, but our opposition has not decided on a common leader.
- Next, the current government is removed from management, the appointment of people under control in the election commissions, central media, and regulatory bodies.
- There are new elections in which the "right" people win.
Our country does not know the last two points in recent history. It is noteworthy, but before the election, no one makes a fuss about the fact that the upcoming elections will be illegitimate. On the contrary, they are silent about the situation, fixing any minor violation. The purpose of election observation is not to build a civil society, to help establish an existing system, but to consciously use violations for future campaigning, to create an image of the illegitimacy of the power that won them. Although the number of violations, as a rule, does not affect the overall voting result.
"White (snowy) revolution" in Russia
In Russia, the protest movement after the December election in the media was dubbed the "White Revolution." The analogy was not chosen by chance: at that time in the minds of Russians, a negative attitude to all “color revolutions” strengthened. Our citizens already “know” that their organizers are “agents of the State Department”, “sellers of the Motherland”, that they “act on the orders of the Americans,” etc. The authorities, through the media, learned to use propaganda for their own purposes. They know the power of the “fourth power.” Control over consciousness is the main success of stability.
Using the negative experience of revolutions in the Russian media as a hopeless protest movement
In the world there have been many revolutions and protest movements over the past 20-25 years:
- "Bulldozer" in Yugoslavia (2000);
- “The Rose Revolution” in Georgia (2003);
- “Orange” in Ukraine (2004);
- “Tulip” in Kyrgyzstan (2005);
- “Cedar Revolution” in Lebanon (2005);
- “Lilac” in Moldova (2009);
- “Jasmine” in Tunisia (2010-2011);
- “Arab Spring” in Algeria, Egypt, Oman, Yemen, Libya, Syria (2011-2012), etc.
There were also attempts in Belarus - “Vasilkovaya” in 2006, in Armenia - in 2008, in Uzbekistan, etc. Since 2014, Euromaidan began in Ukraine, which led to the removal of the current government and unleashed an armed conflict in the Donbass.
From the above list, we can conclude that there were protests and revolutions in many countries. Many of them led to positive processes in the countries where they occurred. Some, on the contrary, are related to negative processes in the political and economic life of the country: civil wars, worsening of the economic situation, etc. However, most pro-government media in Russia use precisely the negative experience of the revolutions in Ukraine, Libya, and Iraq. Their goal is to label the protest movement in Russia as a hopelessness, a movement towards chaos, destruction. The idea that the overthrow of power from below will only lead to a worsening of the situation in the country, perhaps even to a civil war and the collapse of a single country, is instilled into the mass consciousness.
We do not know what can actually happen in Russia after the violent overthrow of power in the course of revolutionary manifestations, but never before in the history of our country have such actions led to a real improvement in life for most citizens. There has always been a significant regression in the economic development of the country, which inevitably led to social upheaval. The events in Ukraine after Euromaidan have also strengthened the belief in the hopelessness of protest movements in Russia among the majority of our country’s residents.
“For fair elections”
Mass protests in the Russian Federation in recent times began after the State Duma elections in 2011. Their symbol was a white ribbon, which seemed to our president a “contraceptive”. Their slogan is “For Fair Elections,” which said that the opposition does not consider the new Duma to be legitimate, since, in their opinion, it does not reflect the interests of most citizens. Mass rallies were held in 99 cities of Russia and 42 abroad. The most numerous of them was the opposition rally on Bolotnaya Square on December 5, 2011.
On December 24, 2011, an even larger-scale action took place - on Academician Sakharov Avenue in the capital. Many famous people, politicians, people of art took part in it. But this was not the end: on February 4, 2012, a mass march along central streets took place in Moscow. On February 26, 2012, the rally “Big White Circle” was held again in the capital. The protesters had white balls in their hands, and white ribbons attached to their clothes.
Fighting the protest movement
Events in earnest excited the government. It was decided at each polling station in the upcoming presidential election to organize live video broadcasting. Not without repressive measures: some were arrested and later convicted under various criminal articles, many paid fines. All pro-government and patriotic forces were involved: youth movements, Cossacks, military-patriotic circles - they participated in mass marches in support of the current government.
All the largest Russian media actively covered patriotic rallies and ignored anti-government protests. Some of them even spoke about the movement “For Fair Elections”, but only in a negative way: all the organizers became “traitors to the motherland,” whom the US State Department “hired” and others.
All government measures were unsuccessful: on March 5 and 10, 2012, after the presidential election, meetings were again held. Up to 30 thousand people took part in them. After this, the protest movement in Russia began to decline. As it turned out, only for a while.
The protest movement in Russia in 2017
In 2017, there was again a surge in anti-government sentiment. The experience of previous years was taken into account. This time, the organizers refused the call "For Fair Elections" and set as their goal "the fight against corruption." The reason was: the Anti-Corruption Foundation published a film that immediately caused shock in Russian society.
A. Navalny exposed Prime Minister D. A. Medvedev himself, accusing him of creating illegal schemes with state transfers, the damage from which is estimated at hundreds of billions of rubles. The oppositionist applied all known methods of influencing the mass consciousness: he voiced the problem of poverty, insufficient assistance to sick children, problems in the public sector, etc. Mass anti-corruption rallies were held in almost all major cities. The protest movement in Russia currently has a number of features: “street walks”, flash mobs are used, and minor children are involved.
The origin of the protest movement in Russia (1905-1907)
Let's delve into the story. The birth of the mass protest movement in Russia began after Bloody Sunday, January 9, 1905. A demonstration of many thousands was shot, after which the whole country plunged into revolutionary chaos. Then the state was able to resolve the situation for some time, introducing some political concessions, but in 1917 the authorities signed their powerlessness - the Great February bourgeois revolution took place.