Bolshevik revolutionary Vladimir Shimanovsky [ru] wrote in his last letter to his wife before his execution: "Russia will be free, no matter how hard its enemies try, and this faith gives me the opportunity to die in peace".[1]Leon Trotsky, in a lecture delivered on June 16, 1918, said: "Fellow brothers! I call on you to proclaim with me: "Long live the Red Workers' Army and long live the honest labor Workers' and Peasants' Soviet Republic!“ It will not be a slave and will fight to the last drop of blood. Russia will be free! Russia will be popular! Russia will be happy!".[2]
Boris Yeltsin during the August 1991 coup attempt wrote in the Obshchaya Gazeta [ru]: "The days of the conspirators are numbered. Law and constitutional order will prevail. Russia will be free!".[3] In 2010, the Memorial organization and the Yabloko party organized a march in honor of the victory over the 1991 coup, which was held under the slogan "Russia will be free".[4]
Subsequently, the slogan was often used at opposition rallies, including those during the 2011–2013 Russian protests: at a rally on Sakharov Avenue in December 2011,[5] rally in March 2012,[6] rally at Bolotnaya Square in May 2013, where many people ended their speeches with this slogan, including Alexei Navalny,[7] funeral of Valeriya Novodvorskaya in 2014[8] and the March in memory of Boris Nemtsov in 2017.[9] Also, the slogan was repeatedly used at 2021 protests in support of Alexei Navalny.[10][11][12] According to political analyst Vladimir Gelman, "the slogan of the participants of the opposition rallies — "Russia will be free" — may not just be a call, but become a key aspect of the political agenda for our country in the foreseeable future".[13] Economist Andrey Zaostrovtsev [ru] expressed the opposite point of view: "if Russia - then not free, if free - then not Russia." In his opinion, the democratization of societies belonging to a "power" civilization is possible only due to a special combination of circumstances arising after external shocks and crises.[14] Alexei Navalny, after returning to Russia after poisoning, at a court hearing on February 20, 2021, proposed changing the slogan and saying that Russia should be not only free, but also happy.[15]
^Zykov, Dimitri; Timofeev, Yuri; Tatarskii, Nikita; Chevtaeva, Irina; Kirilenko, Anastasia; Gutkina, Elena (29 December 2011). "Митинг на проспекте Сахарова" [Rally on Sakharov Avenue]. Радио Свобода (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2022-02-04. Retrieved 27 March 2022.
