Nawalny and Beyond
or Chanting for Spring to come
Sankt Petersburg Flowers for Alexej Nawalny (IMAGO / ZUMA Wire / Artem Priakhin)
Alexej Nawalnys death (16th of Feb 2024) has been with many of us over these last two to three weeks. In parallel his ‘investigative journalist colleague’ Julian Assange is waiting for a decision from the UK court. Why are these two men walking in parallel through the first pages of our European Media these days. What does this tell about the time spirit?
Stefka: None of the seven Worldwork Journalism Meetings before was as difficult to get started as this time. Being ill, I just wanted to participate in a passive role and hand over facilitator responsibilities, for two hours and then lay down again. Just before the start, I noticed that my (more than 40 minutes) Zoom abo had ended. That was quickly solved, but at 9 am (CET) only very few people were there and we found out that the calendar invite and email had communicated two different time slots (time zone confusion). We agreed to come back for the later option and to cancel the calendar invites. This caused even more confusion.
Finally, we were there at 10.30h CET again and had lost more of our people on the way, it is now three of us, and we concluded, we would finally cancelling the whole thing for today … we just stayed one moment longer to speak about Nawalnys funeral …. at this moment Vlad appears on our screens.
The mood suddenly changed completely, no doubts anymore, all of us fully present, forgotten all struggles before. What Vlad was bringing into our space mattered to all of us. Referring to the last WWJ article, it made it to the first page of our personal attention - media screens. Not rationally, but on an emotional level, we felt a voice coming, we all needed and wanted to listen to.
Vlad had been at Nawalny’s funeral the day before and to hear him talk about his ‘still raw’ experience, felt like diving into it, becoming part of it. He shared the feeling of walking 7km in a ‘cheerfully grieving’ and chanting crowd (over 10.000 people). But listen to himself …
I’m going to Navalny’s funeral, to farewell and to be among the like-minded, to be not alone. Those are two drives: the personal grief (which I reflected upon here, in Russian, but can be translated – I felt like adding it here though); and the collective.
I’m late for the beginning of the church ceremony, so I’m not even trying to follow the queue’s end which is reported to stretch for 2+ km by now, taking 30 minutes to walk along the line. I’m in front of the church instead, with the countless crowd spreading around and behind the cathedral, chanting: “Navalny! Navalny!’ and clapping together with the church’s bells. People look into each other’s faces, recognizing we all share the same sentiment here, no words are needed. The feeling is both very secular and… religious in a sense. The feeling is both full of grief and… cheer in a sense.
The crowd is very diverse. The young, the adults and the seniors. A little richer, a little poorer, obviously the “middle class”. Men and women. One mother with a child in a stroller. School students are locked up in schools for today (media say some of them were shouting “Navalny” to the crowd from a nearby school. Chances are they are gonna be in trouble). But there is something similar in the faces. They are bright, intelligent, open, and easily starting to converse with one another.
The crowd starts to move seeking a way to the cemetery. The police squeeze the crowd into a single narrow path to follow, blocking all other ways. Perhaps, they wanted to create a bottleneck so that people realise they’ll need to wait and will start leaving. Indeed many did leave. But with the rest being dense, all the more impressive picture one could observe from above. All the more solid we are inside.
Guards, countless guards… Police, FSB, special forces, horse police, police dogs, police cars, city tractors and trucks… Cops stand every 5 metres along this long narrow journey, like lampposts. I guess even taking all the cops gathered there would make a crowd bigger than most public events in modern Russia (while official media either ignore the whole thing or pretend it’s some 200-ish people coming). Half of the cops have their faces covered. Still, eyes are visible. They are polite and calm, and their eyes are surprisingly… human.
The crowd stops some ~300 metres before the cemetery, blocked by the cops. They seem to let people through in small chunks, but it’s unclear to everyone whether they let anyone in or just block us here. The crowd accumulates. Rather quiet during the journey, chants and slogans start to come. Louder, more confident and frequent as we realise the cops don’t react.
Navalny, Navalny, Navalny! Navalny is Russia’s true hero! We are not afraid! We won’t give up! Love is stronger than fear! Russia without Putin! Russia will be free!
And the obvious ones, being suspended for a while out of caution, but breaking out:
Putin is a killer! Putin killed Navalny! No to war! Peace to Ukraine, freedom to Russia!
How relieving. You couldn’t shout “No to war” in public and not get arrested immediately for quite some time now… It’s all too obvious for all of us: it’s not only and not so much about Navalny. It’s about us.
Some more archetypal ones come as well:
One for all, all for one! We are the power! Power to the people! We don’t need a Tsar! Shame on you! (to the police forces)
And some more violent ones:
We won’t die with Putin! Putin dies before us!
We are free now. Perhaps we are delusional and once the steam is off, nothing changes. Perhaps, we are naive. And since they have cameras on every inch, many are gonna be arrested at home and at work in the days to come. But that doesn’t matter. Now we are free, we are real and we are together.
6 hours in this long prolonged line. No idea how many people are still behind. I enter the cemetery, they only allow me to get in, make a small circle around the grave (with the mountain of flowers) just by the entrance, and with no suspension left. That’s where the cheerfulness and freedom are once again replaced with pure and very personal grief. Some people leave with smiles, slogans and encouragements for those still in line: “Thank you! You are the conscience of the country!”. Some, like me, with a quiet tear.
The next day it feels like a dream: I’m not sure if it happened, I feel a hangover. And share it in our Worldwork space here.
Hope is not gone with Navalny. It’s on us now. Whatever he represented for so many of us – it’s up to us to own it now. And walk the path. The path of courage, integrity, cheerfulness and hope. Even in the darkest and coldest winter. To feel the spring will come.
Vlad from Russia
Picking up the impulse to find or own Nawalny’s spirit in ourselves. I play with the Pantoun Structure above (Tibetan writing contemplation) to find this energy/tendency in myself. This of course does not mean that this is all of him or all this was him.
Now, I keep chewing on … where do I want to take my stand and connect to the courage to walk my path - fearlessly.
What about you?
Nawalny’s funeral. The most disturbing, unexpressed and ghost role for me is Putin. But somehow I do not want to focus on it. It wants my/our attention and fear. I prefer to focus on my feelings around the dead person, Aleksiej Nawalny. I feel relief his suffering is finished and he is not tortured any longer. He paid the highest price for being himself. I respect it deeply. He is a role model for me to go my way the way I feel, see and understand it. At the same time, I feel deep respect and gratitude for every person who took part in the ceremony and every person who goes even in the slightest way beyond the role of bystander. From the other side, I have an understanding of those people who do not or are not able to go beyond this role. It could be too much in CIRCUMSTANCES OF PRESENT RUSSIA.
Zbyszek from Poland
I feel tired and old. I am a bystander in many ways. Can I rest on my laurels for what they are worth? Self-pity, disillusionment. Small steps taken in a long life of passion and commitment to social change don’t seem to have amounted to anything much. But that’s from a personal point of view. From a big-picture view, it’s different. Much has changed in my lifetime. It takes a whole generation and generations before and after for change to happen. It’s not always about the ‘big leader’, it’s about all the small steps people take.
Sometimes change crashes into view, like an avalanche. Waiting to happen, for when conditions are right; freakish moments cascade into momentous change overnight.
I’m sure Julian Assange had no idea the price he would pay when he blew the cover on war crimes. But he must have known it could rock his world, and the ‘world’. Surely? That takes courage! Willingness to risk everything for a cause, because it’s the right thing to do. ‘Do what you must’ though you don’t know where it might lead. But I sense a recklessness to not care about the consequences, or to care, but do it anyway.
I deeply honour the Russian people risking their safety, and their lives, to march at Nawalny’s funeral.
Inspiration shines out of this young Russian’s face as he describes his experience! Risking the safety of himself and his family, soberly weighing up the risks and going out onto the streets. Hopeful, sage. United in grief.
No room for bystanders here. No room for resting on laurels. No room for disillusionment. Cautious hope pushes that all into the background, no judgement on those who choose safety, of a kind. My heart expands for this young generation walking in the funeral procession along dark streets, red roses held high for Nawalny and all he stands for– liberation alive in their hearts, as yet they grieve for the loss of a mighty beacon. ‘Now it’s up to us’, they say.
Penny from Australia
A poem written by a friend of mine at the aftermath of the funeral and our conversation in Russian:
Кричу "Долой Путина!", а сам иду под конвоем -
каждые пять метров росгвардеец - и только
собаки не скрыли лиц. Ноги ноют
и холодно, но нас столько,
что не страшно. У тротуара ангел
траурно притих, цветы на прутьях,
колокола зазвонили нагло
и легко. Из бесцветной жути
спальной суеты поглядятся в окна
жители, силовики на крышах.
Всë ограждено и нет связи, дрогнув,
голос пролезает через затишье.
Кричу "Долой Путина!", а сам иду под конвоем -
каждые пять метров росгвардеец - и только
собаки не скрыли лиц. Ноги ноют
и холодно, но нас столько…
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Worldwork is an application of Processwork also known as process-oriented psychology. As a psychological and conflict-resolution approach developed by Arnold Mindell in the 1970s, it's based on the principles of Jungian psychology, Taoism, and systems theory, and it is used in various settings, including therapy, organizational development, community building, and conflict resolution. At its core, Worldwork aims to explore and understand both individual and collective processes in order to address conflicts, promote personal growth, and transform tensions into co-creative energy in relationships within groups and communities. It focuses on bringing awareness to marginalised or ignored perspectives, as well as the deeper layers of consciousness within individuals and groups.
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Penny Watson (MACF) works as a coach, group facilitator and community development worker. She loves working with people in nature using process-orientated earth-based practices. She lives in Mparntwe, Alice Springs, and is deeply inspired by the people and lands of the Central Australian Desert.
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The ghost role of Putin. The tyrant, despot, murderer, liar. I immediately think this is not me and don’t want it to be me.
The tyrant role seems to want to silence any dissent and not loose control/power.
There are times I feel like wanting to kill off people like Putin. Do exactly what they are doing to others. And then there are parts I want to silence in myself.