Somebody has scrawled graffiti on one of the posters advertising concerts of dubious quality near our office. It says, “Glory to the Primorye Partisans,” and is written in a scrawl that was either taught in the uprisings on the sly section of the University of Revolution or because said graphologist was scared about getting caught.
The latter seems more likely, although the “Glory to the Primorye Heroes,” which can — so a Tweet photo shows — be seen from the train on the way to Sheremetyevo Airport, is of a different laid-back exactitude. Written in large red and white letters on a wall, the only thing that seems strange is that it is suspiciously similar to the spray-painted font used for “Fun Lovin’ Criminals” on a wall on Sushchyovsky Val.
Seeing support for partisans who are supposed to have killed police in the Far East was a surprise, but it was nothing compared with finding a few hours later a People’s Front ad for members in the classifieds section of Doski.ru.
Nikidem, who does give his last name (but which I am not printing to protect him from his own gullibility), wants to start a revolution and form a People’s Front.
In his advertisement, he quotes Archimedes, who said that if a man has a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, he can move the world. I think that Nikidem would be happy to move Russia — or even the town of Kholodny, or “cold,” where he says he is from in the Magadan region.
One day — you never know — his group might become the Popular People’s Front, but as I was only the 10th person to vote in his questionnaire titled “Do you want to change your country?” and one of those 10 actually voted for the “Everything’s peachy” option, it doesn’t look like it will be soon.
Nikidem hopes that his site will be a way of gathering information on how to fight the dictators of the world with methods that are not just “by automatic machine gun,” but the call to arms and earnestness are dampened by a problem that Lenin never had to deal with: large banner ads. SpongeBob SquarePants stares out from a T-shirt-touting rectangle on one side. “Which one of these is a woman?” asks another ad.
He lists a few things the front will fight for, including one instead of two passports for Russian citizens, electronic voting and being able to register instantly via an electronic terminal whenever you want. The only really fiery demand is to force companies to give at least 20 percent of profits to workers.
Perhaps it is all a cunningly inept FSB ruse to attract rebellious youth, but if it is not, Nikidem, the web site says, will celebrate his 24th birthday on Saturday somewhere in the Magadan region. Happy Birthday, Nikidem.