Over the past two weeks, the Trinity Forest in New Moscow has turned into a war zone. From morning to night, local residents take shifts to protect centennial trees from lumberjacks. They are clearing the forest, on the site of which it is planned to lay two roads, build a kindergarten and a «giant school» for 2,100 students. “The new school is a good thing in itself, but why was the forest chosen as the place for its construction?” locals ask.
Already cut down firs and pines — the size of a football field. In total, the workers intend to cut down 12 hectares of forest. That is at least 10 more football fields. But the residents are afraid that they will cut down much more — those trees that, according to the plan, should not have been cut down are already falling.
“We don’t need your Moscow”
— Idlers, go home!
A tall man in a line of tall men in yellow vests is screaming and tearing himself up. On his head is an orange construction helmet, from under which curly blond hair crawls out. «Hey you bastards! Yes, you bums!” he shouts mockingly and spits twice into the snow. Under the feet of the people standing in front of him.
— Who are you to call me a loafer, I plowed for 25 years, you will not teach me life, kid! a blonde with a high bun in a dark green down jacket yells back at him.
Photo: Vlad Dokshin/Novaya Gazeta
A miniature grandmother walks in front of a line of men called here to push back the defenders of the forest, with a thermos lid filled with boiling water. She offers me her spare winter coat, which she brought here. With a thin hand, he brings hot tea to his mouth. Smiling: «We are all here as family.» Walking beside her is a short grandfather in a blue ski suit.
It is not clear where Vladimir Putin's speech comes from: «… Russia relies, among other things, on the unique resource of our forest ecosystems.» It turns out that the speech comes from a speaker in my grandfather's backpack.
On the trunks of the surviving trees, a photo of the President with quotes about the forests is taped: «We are fighting illegal logging and fires.» With these faces of the president, the forest is lined like a village, surrounded by fire, sometimes lined with icons. >
Photo: Vlad Dokshin/Novaya Gazeta
From the male line comes: “Do you have nothing to do? Moscow is trying for you. You won't have anything here! There will be a subway later!”
A girl with a loudspeaker in her hand shouts back: “We don't need your Moscow! We do not need your subway! I went down the subway four years ago!” At this moment
there is a feeling that we are not in Troitsk, which is 20 kilometers from the Moscow Ring Road, but much further from the capital.
“I've been hanging out here since the weekend,” Maria tells me. She has blond hair, a red jacket and a collar pulled over half her face. She is one of the loudest, screaming so that you can already hear her throat tearing. — I took the day off today. I saw how activists were beaten yesterday, I could not help but come. We stand up for trees. And the organizers of this felling hired incomprehensible people. This is not a CHOP. At first, there were just people like from hot spots — they said, here we are servicemen. Then they caught up with people of different nationalities. They look at us like fools.
Photo: Vlad Dokshin/Novaya Gazeta »
The line has an emotional conversation:
— I have a loan of 78 thousand rubles, I have to pay it back! — the man in the ranks frankly admits. All I see is his bright blue eyes. A black hat is pulled up to thick eyebrows, and a medical mask is on the nose.
— What, no other job? — asks all the same interlocutor with a high beam. “You are healthy and strong. Not disabled. Go to the construction site!
I ask a question:
—Where are you from? From what organization?
The guys laugh in response. They throw:
— We're from here.
But the locals don't recognize any of them.
This is where everything goes silent. Behind the backs of the «guards» a spruce flies to the ground. It flies straight — it was picked by an excavator. Two black crows almost bump into each other out of fright, but manage to jump off the top of her head. Snow from the paws in the fall soars up. A white trace settles on the ground like smoke … A crunch. Or not. Usually a broken branch crunches. Five thousand branches were cut down here at once. As if the bones were cracking. She is already on the ground, fluffy, with dried bumps, as if with New Year's toys, on her paws. Lies surrounded by his former «neighbors».
Smells like pine needles. Such a smell hits the nose, as if all its needles were rubbed together. Another living spruce.
Photo: Vlad Dokshin/Novaya Gazeta
“I want to give the head a coat of arms with a stump on it”
“There have been attempts on the forest for a long time, since the 2000s, but when we were just Troitsky, we somehow defended it,” recalls a tall smiling Larisa, a brown-haired woman with long hair. — I remember, even our sons — and they are already thirty years old — I remember how they climbed then on some tree, shouted something, we collected signatures, and everything stopped. But when we became New Moscow, everything became very complicated.
Troitsk Science City became part of New Moscow in 2012. In 2018, public hearings were organized on deforestation and the construction of a school.
— Of course, they were ugly organized:
administrative resources were driven into the library — all these unfortunate state employees dependent administration. Teachers, educators, — continues Larisa, — They, of course, were all in favor.
Cutted area of forest. Photo: Vlad Dokshin/Novaya Gazeta
Why should the school be in the forest? The head of the Moscow Department for the Development of New Territories, Vladimir Zhidkin, answering this question in an interview with Kommersant, said only that the place was chosen in accordance with the general plan of Troitsk and «taking into account the maximum coverage of the population, pedestrian and transport accessibility.»
The HRC has already stood up for the forest. Council members turned to Sergei Sobyanin with a request to assist in saving the natural complex. And they noted that the forest still has a special status. It is part of the green fund of the capital and a specially protected area. The legislation prohibits the development of these places.
Larisa swears at the indifference of the head of Troitsk, Vladimir Dudochkin, who refused to talk publicly with the locals:
— We have a forest on the coat of arms of the city. I so want to give him a coat of arms with a stump on it! This is what he wants to do with us.
Photo: Vlad Dokshin/Novaya Gazeta
A woman characterizes lumberjacks as follows:
“Someone says: I don’t care, I have to earn money, and I can’t get a job like that. But you earn money and sell your homeland! You are mercenaries who came to guard the bandits for five thousand rubles a day. And some people tell us: if you pay more, we will come to you. Can you imagine? Others were embarrassed. They say: “I didn’t sign up for this, I can’t stand it, guys.”
“Army of Defenders of the Fatherland”
— Well, let’s go!
A line of guys in helmets on someone’s then an invisible team begins to progressively push back the inhabitants. It's time to move on and cut down trees just where people are now standing.
And here begins the collision «wall to wall» under the buzz of chainsaws.
Men in helmets and vests, laughing, tear off the hats of the locals. They push them into a snowdrift and kick them a couple of times already lying down. Today they do without kulaks: apparently, the presence of the press is having an effect. The rank dangerously approaches small bushes with scratching branches, drives the defenders of the forest there. A thin branch springs and with all its might pours on the girl's cheek. She screams.
Photo: Vlad Dokshin/Novaya Gazeta
The strong Sergey, who has been broadcasting live on social networks all this time, with a tripod in his hands, has a swollen nose. Swelling from impact. Blood is flowing from the nostrils.
Three policemen are watching what is happening on the sidelines. They never interfere in the crush.
“After yesterday, everything hurts me,” says the fragile Olya, who is standing on a freshly cut stump. “Yesterday they beat women in the chest, guys in their twenties were knocked over and punched in the genitals. The fact that people gathered today after yesterday is really a feat.
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Photo: Vlad Dokshin/Novaya Gazeta
And then more than two dozen tall, powerful men step into the forest through the building net.
Most of them have their faces covered too. On the hands are fighting gloves. Some have Russian flags sewn on the sleeves of their jackets. And each has a bandage made of medical bandage on his sleeve — to distinguish his own.
They stand in a group to the side for a smoke. Discuss tactics. Two petite ladies carefully approach them, gently ask: “Boys, are you for us?” They nod. In response — with relief: «Oh, how good it is! Now ours has definitely taken it.”
I go up to one of the “fighters”. Name is Denis. He says that they organized themselves after a call for help from the residents. Dragging on a cigarette.
We are the army of defenders of the Fatherland. Local. Residents asked — we came. To protect you too. To protect women. I watched videos of them being pushed and shoved. We came here for them.
< p>Photo: Vlad Dokshin/Novaya Gazeta
Now the guys who have arrived have a meeting: “We are not marching. We react only if, for example, they beat her, — says the leader in this group and points to the girl next to her. Have you heard the formula? We don’t go to the chain ourselves.”
A couple of times he makes jokes about “Uzbeks who will not stand up”: “Who are they, these migrants guarding?! Listen to them more…”
People in helmets and vests at the sight of the arrived «defenders» retreat. Line up on a bare field. Hands in pockets. Some take out their phones, turn on their cameras. A woman with a shaman's tambourine comes out to them. She has red foxes painted on the back of a long down jacket. The face is not visible — a patterned scarf covers it completely. You can't even see the eyes. She taps her tambourine and hums softly.
Photo: Vlad Dokshin/Novaya Gazeta
A girl with a wooden pipe is following her. A little to the side, two guys drag on cigarettes. A couple of dogs humbly lay down on the icy crust of the earth.
***
The next day I got a call from a local resident Olya, with whom we talked in the forest. She told us what happened last night.
— At two o'clock in the morning, information came to our chat that they had begun to cut. I ran into the forest, I see — about 20 saws, and they are guarded by a huge number of migrants. Night, darkness. Trees fall like giants. And the crazy sound of drinking. As a result, we were able to break through to the cutting site in two groups. Our men were beaten, someone was hit in the eye, someone was hit in the jaw. Neighing over us in the open.
“We yell into the tubes, call the police. Orem, that there are massive fights. And it's absolute zero.»
The forest is cut down quickly.
Photo: Vlad Dokshin/Novaya Gazeta
