The demonstration held on the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution, November 7, 1927, was the opposition's first non-violent public protest in Moscow. Alas, it was also the last such protest in the Soviet Union during Stalin's reign.
Non-Violent Public Protests in Moscow
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Non-Violent Public Protests in Moscow
December 5, 1965 was the starting point of the dissident movement and public demonstrations, which were new forms of protest in the post-Stalin era. According to “the progenitor of the genre,” Alexander Yesenin-Volpin, “if such demonstrations would have taken place in the 1920s and 1930s, if they would have then formed the background of life in Moscow, Stalin simply would not have been able to seize the power that he gained.”
Until perestroika, there was no law regarding meetings or the regulation of demonstrations, so the authorities were not used to opposing new forms of protest. Thus, they often referred to Article No. 125 of the Constitution of the USSR of 1936, according to which freedom of demonstration was allowed only to promote the “interests of workers and to strengthen the socialist system.”
Demonstrations also took place on Pushkin Square, Red Square, and Mayakovsky Square (now Triumfalnaya). Moreover, Jews often held popular demonstrations on the steps of the Lenin Library across from the entrance to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic).
Vadim Konovalihin requires permission to emigrate. August 12, 1982. He was detained and forced into а train to Kaliningrad after spending the whole day in the Matrosskaya Tishina Prison. Photo: Memorial Society Photo Archive