Partial May Day – Kommersant

For the fourth year in a row, the traditional celebration of May 1 will be held for the Communist Party in a truncated format. As Kommersant was told in the Communist Party, in a number of regions, party members could not coordinate the holding of demonstrations and rallies. Somewhere, local authorities refer to the still existing covid restrictions and already planned events, and somewhere, to special regimes introduced in connection with a special military operation. Therefore, in a number of cases, instead of columns and banners, the Communists will have to confine themselves to car rallies, laying flowers or May Day meetings.

As Yury Afonin, the first deputy chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, told Kommersant, in some regions the party was faced with the unwillingness of the authorities to coordinate May Day events. According to him, in each case, the party members are confident that they are right and will challenge these refusals in the courts.

“The party is determined to celebrate the Day of International Solidarity of Workers as widely as possible in the formats that allow it,” Mr. Afonin added.

In many regions, the communists are denied due to the still existing covid restrictions. For example, the mayor’s office of Nizhny Novgorod twice refused to allow the regional committee to hold May Day events with reference to epidemiological requirements: first, officials did not agree on holding a motor rally, and then a rally on Lenin Square. “The city authorities, apparently, considered that the rally could become some kind of breeding ground for this infection,” says Vladislav Yegorov, head of the regional branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

They continue to fear the spread of coronavirus in St. Petersburg. At the end of March, Governor Alexander Beglov signed a decree extending covid restrictions, including on mass events, until May 31. The St. Petersburg city committee applied for a march along Nevsky Prospekt and a rally on St. Isaac’s Square, but the mayor’s office did not approve any of the actions. “We are now trying to agree that we should not be touched too much in order to lay flowers at the Aurora,” says Roman Kononenko, first secretary of the city committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. “Just come and speak without microphones and megaphones, but so far there has been no success in the negotiation process. Covid and the terrorist threat, according to the authorities, are high.”

In Moscow, too, a decree by Mayor Sergei Sobyanin is still in effect, banning public events.

Therefore, the capital’s communists will celebrate May 1 by meeting deputies of the State Duma, the Moscow Regional and City Dumas with voters near the monument to Karl Marx on Theater Square.

Communists of Transbaikalia, Sverdlovsk region, Udmurtia, Tatarstan and Altai Territory complain about problems in coordinating events. The authorities of Biysk, for example, refused to approve the procession to the Communist Party because of the “inaccurate wording” of its purpose, and the authorities of Barnaul referred to the events already planned on the squares of the Soviets and Veterans. The Communists went to court and defended the holding of the procession and rally in Biysk. But in Barnaul, this was not possible.

In Krasnodar, after squabbling with the mayor’s office, the communists themselves waved their hand. There, the party filed a notice to hold a demonstration in the city center. The procession for 500 people wanted to start at the corner of Krasnaya and Long streets. However, the Krasnodar authorities allowed the event to be held only in the park of the 30th anniversary of the Victory, explaining the ban on the march in the center with security issues. “We were offered to “walk” in the park. Neither the purpose of the demonstration nor the format of the event are simply suitable for the park,” says Alexander Safronov, deputy of the Krasnodar City Duma, member of the bureau of the regional committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. According to him, on the festive day, the party members will simply lay flowers at the monuments of Lenin and hold May Day meetings.

In Ulyanovsk, the Communist Party was denied permission to hold a demonstration, citing a “basic level of readiness” that was introduced in the region “in connection with the conduct of the NMD and the increased threat of terrorist danger.” The authorities suggest that instead of a demonstration and a rally, the Communists hold a “meeting of a deputy with voters in the courtyards in small groups.” Now the party is deciding what to do, noting that “in any case, the traditional laying of flowers at the monument to Lenin will take place,” says the first secretary of the regional committee of the Communist Party Alexei Kurinny.

“The party applied to hold a rally, but the locations proposed by the city authorities are not suitable for large-scale events,” says Irina Kislitsina, secretary of the Rostov city committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation for ideology. A similar format will be used in Vladivostok: a meeting of citizens with parliamentarians will be held on the outskirts of the city – on the square near the Youth House. “This is Hyde Park, so actions at this place do not require approval,” explains Anatoly Dolgachev, first secretary of the regional committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation.

Khafiz Mirgalimov, the first secretary of the Tatarstan branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, says that the Kazan mayor’s office agreed with the party members to hold a rally in the city center, near the monument to Mullanur Vakhitov. The communists also planned a march to Svoboda Square, where the monument to Lenin and the house of the government of Tatarstan are located, but they were not allowed to do this.

In many subjects, party members themselves do not plan anything large-scale.

For example, the Chelyabinsk communists want to hold a motor rally, and the Bashkir ones intend to lay flowers at the monument to Lenin, and then go to the site of the first “May Day” in 1905.

In a number of regions, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation had no problems. For example, Dagestan communists will celebrate May Day with actions in Makhachkala and in almost all other cities of the republic, as well as in some regional centers, Samir Abdulkhalikov, the first secretary of the republican committee, says. The Novosibirsk branch of the Communist Party plans to hold a demonstration, which is agreed with the city administration: up to 300 people will take part in the festive procession. In Tomsk, the Communist Party will hold a rally and a procession without blocking traffic. “We will go to Novo-Sobornaya Square, then there will be a laying of flowers at the monument to the Liberator Soldier,” the regional committee said.

Andrey Prakh, corset “Kommersant”