May 1 protest march in St. Petersburg

I am forcing myself to stay awake and get these photos posted, because by the time we get back next Tuesday night, they will be way too stale to put up. We were in St. Petersburg last weekend and accidentally happened upon a demonstration while on our way to (Russian Orthodox) Easter brunch at the Grand Hotel Europe. The St. Petersburg Times covered the Moscow demonstrations instead (or, rather, ran an AP piece about them). Although I'm sure some Russian-language SPB newspaper(s) covered this march, and there were some other people besides me photographing the proceedings, I still feel justified in saying, eat your heart out, English-speaking MSM...

OK, to be fair, the St. Pete Times did have one photo of the SPB demonstrations that I was able to find on their website.

But mine are more interesting:


This was what we saw at around 11:40am as we approached the Green Bridge (Nevsky Prospekt) across the Moika River. Clearly, I missed the first part of the demonstration.


There were lots of elderly people marching, here one of them is partially obscuring a banner proclaiming, "Workers of the world, unite!" - an old Marxist slogan.


Marchers carry photos of Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko (left foreground) and former Soviet leader Josef Stalin (farther to the left and farther back).


A sign telling off the United States using a uniquely American gesture. The last time I saw May Day demonstrations in St. Petersburg it was called Leningrad, and they had anti-American signs then, too. The difference (well, OK, one of the minor ones) was that the people marching then didn't know what the "middle-finger salute" was. I tell ya, you share your obscene gestures with people, and they use them against you.


In the same group of people as the anti-American sign above was this sign, which says, "Regime change is [would be] a blessing for the people!" No doubt these folks think that the US is conspiring with or exerting influence on the Putin administration in order to keep Russia weak.


The sign in the foreground says, in the format of a classified ad, "Will trade: Capitalism (with a wolf's teeth) for socialism (with a human face)." The sign farther back reads, "Shame! Shame! Shame! on Putin and his pocket government, United Russia - the main ones to blame for the social genocide of the Russian people."


If you look closely at the sign at the bottom and slightly to the right of center, you will see a message that requires no translation - "Yankee go home." Stalin and Lukashenko placards are once again visible here.


"Get the American-Israeli 5th column out of Russia." Um, OK...


Communist youth group, with a Komsomol banner, flags with Che Guevara's likeness, as well as the machine-gun-emblazoned flags of the Red Youth Vanguard (AKM) movement. Certainly this was not one of the larger groups demonstrating.


"Russian Communist Workers' Party."


"Down with Capitalism."


Looking past a fist-pumping marcher and a Belarusian flag (on the right) toward the golden spire of the Admiralty.


Detatchment from the Union of Soviet Officers, who were rather incongruously also flying a flag with the likeness of Jesus (although I guess that was probably a nod to the fact that May 1 was also Russian Orthodox Easter this year).


The Rodina group - they win the prize for most balloons.


This banner says, "The Russians are coming!" Given the small size of the group of people carrying it, one wonders what the desired or appropriate responses might be.


Backing up that small group pictured above, though, was the larger "Slavic Commuinity" group, with signs reading, "Illegals and immigrants - get out!" "Russian! Don't be a fool! Remember Yugoslavia and Iraq!" and of course "Glory to Russia!"


Here is the group from the National-Bolshevik Party, bringing up the rear.


Afterward, the city cleaned up any dirt left by the demonstrators with a motley group of streetsweeping equipment. This photo was taken at 11:57am, which means that everything I saw of the demonstration lasted for less than 20 minutes.


This guy, seen walking up Nevsky Prospekt in the direction that the demonstrators had gone 10 minutes earlier, must have missed his wake-up call. He was getting mileage out of his sign, though - "Yankee! Get out of Russia!" Ok, buddy.