MOSCOW – "The Master and Margarita," the famous Russian classic by Mikhail Bulgakov, has been on the bill of the Moscow Art Theatre for more than eight now years now. But on Sept. 23 it ended its run on an unusual note – with a call to rally.

"On Sept. 29, there will be an authorized demonstration (in Moscow) in support of those who were unfairly prosecuted under the so-called 'Moscow Case,'" actor Anatoly Beliy, who played The Master, told the audience as the actors gathered on the stage for their final bows. "We think it's a matter of honor for everyone who cares about their country to be there," he said. "Freedom for political prisoners!"

Beliy is among tens of thousands of people who have expressed their outrage at the crackdown that followed a series of protests in Moscow this summer. For five consecutive weeks, thousands of people gathered in the city center for the largest rallies since 2011-2012 after Moscow authorities banned opposition candidates from running for City Council.

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At that time, three rallies were violently broken up by the police. More than 2,500 people were arrested, dozens sustained injuries, and 13 men faced criminal charges of "fomenting mass riots" for acts ranging from throwing a paper cup or an empty plastic bottle at police officers to gesturing to the crowd "to turn right."

Several prison terms handed down in the incidents – dubbed the "Moscow Case" – earlier this month sparked unprecedented waves of protests from a wide variety of social and professional groups, many of which have never before criticized the Kremlin.

Famous actors, many of whom say they prefer to stay out of politics, picketed the presidential administration. Priests of the Russian Orthodox Church, a longtime ally of the Kremlin, signed an open letter to the authorities, calling on them to stop prosecuting people on unfounded charges. A similar letter was signed by more than 3,000 school teachers, and similar letters followed from novelists, IT specialists, doctors, scientists and artists.

By Sept. 20, more than 12,500 people from across Russia had signed one of the letters of protest.

Analysts say such solidarity is something people in President Vladimir Putin's Russia have always longed for, but have never seen. Courts sending young men to prison for peacefully protesting struck a common chord and unified people with different political views.

"Many – not everyone, but still many people – saw this is as an insult to ordinary people," says Denis Volkov, a sociologist with the independent Levada polling center. "In cities (other than Moscow) people didn't think much about the opposition candidates barred from running. They just felt like the government treats them as second-class citizens."

This unprecedented unity from disparate groups also reflects the Russian public's growing frustration with the government. A weak economy, falling incomes and raising the pension age have hit the approval ratings for the Kremlin approvals. Putin has routinely enjoyed high levels of popularity, but in August his public approval a record low – a survey by the Public Opinion Foundation showed that only 43% of Russians were willing to vote for him, the lowest figure since 2001.

Bringing Food to Arrestees

Russians have long organized around protests but on a much smaller scale. In December 2011, journalist Grigory Okhotin attended a rally protesting what was widely seen as rigged elections in Moscow. The rally wasn't authorized by city officials, and many people were detained that day – including some of Okhotin's friends.

In trying to find out which police stations they were taken to, Okhotin realized there was no easy way to learn an arrestee's location. That's when he and his friends started a project called OVD-Info (OVD stands for "police station" in Russian).

At first, OVD-Info monitored arrests at protests and helped families of those detained find them. Soon enough they formed a nonprofit group funded by donations and, working with human rights groups, began offering legal aid.

"It was hard at first," Okhotin says. "Hard to find volunteers and explain to people that we were doing something significant, and hard for ourselves, too, to stay motivated – especially at times when there were no big protests."

By July 27 of this year, when the police in Moscow arrested almost 1,400 people, OVD-Info had established a 24-hour hotline and a chat bot in the messaging app Telegram for people who have been arrested. The group had several hundred volunteers on call and dozens of lawyers ready to go to police stations and ensure arrestees' rights were preserved.

Two years ago they were joined by another group of activists willing to help people in jail.

"In March 2017, after the first mass rally since 2012 that provoked mass arrests, a lot of people were being held in police stations for hours on end without food or water," says Yelizaveta Nesterova, another journalist who organized the group. She began bringing essential items such as food, water and clothing to detained protesters. She also wrote a post on Facebook seeking volunteers.

"My phone immediately blew up," she recalls. "So I decided to set something up to coordinate the effort." Nesterova created a chat group in Telegram called "Deliveries," and the initiative took off. Volunteers spanning age and socioeconomic status buy items and bring them to jailed protesters. The group basically runs itself.

Until this summer the group had around 1,000 volunteers. But as the protests in Moscow gained momentum in late July, 2,500 more people have since joined.

"There is clearly this demand to help, to do good," Nesterova says. "People go to protests for years and don't see results. And here you can do this simple thing – to bring water to someone who doesn't have it. You did it, and the person is no longer thirsty. People see that their actions result in something."

Signing Open Letters

Olga Millich started volunteering with the Deliveries group this summer. She lives across the road from a police station, and for her it was only natural to help.

"It's about solidarity," Millich says. "Solidarity and lending a hand to others – and expecting them to lend a hand to you, if something happens to you. I think this unites people a lot."

An English teacher, the 45-year-old Millich signed the collective letter school teachers wrote in support of the men prosecuted in the "Moscow Case."

The letter, signed by 3,473 teachers from 75 Russian regions, reads: "It is impossible to talk to our students about … choice, morals, a person's responsibility for the society they live in… and pretend that nothing is going on outside the classroom; that flagrant lawlessness isn't taking place in our country. It would be hypocritical, and we don't want to teach hypocrisy to our children."

Millich was surprised so many of her colleagues – mostly apolitical and fearful of authority – signed it. "It was a pleasant surprise," she says. "Too many school teachers usually just sit there and tremble in fear."

Unlike Millich, father Andrei Lorgus, an Orthodox priest in a Moscow church, was not surprised that more than 180 priests and clerics from across Russia signed a similar letter. Lorgus, who was among them, stood by his decision even though the Russian Orthodox Church spokespeople denounced the letter as a politicized and meaningless gesture.

"How could I not sign it?" Lorgus asks. "Common pain and caring united different priests around this letter; priests who feel responsible for their flock."

A Changing Society

In addition to frustration with the government, sociologist Volkov notes the unprecedented public solidarity is due to Russian society itself slowly changing – which projects such as OVD-Info and Deliveries contribute to.

"There are more support systems out there, more experience," Volkov says. "The people have changed a little – they don't fear the authorities as much, don't depend on them as much, especially in big cities."

In that respect, this year's solidarity campaign is a big step forward compared to the fear and apathy that paralyzed Russia's protest movement in 2011-2012, after those mass rallies resulted in a dozen convictions.

"However, one shouldn't overestimate it either," the sociologist points out. "For now we see that people are not afraid to speak out, voice their position, but it doesn't go beyond that. (Civil society) is still rather weak, even though it mobilized itself in a crisis."

Last week, as the number of signatures under dozens of open letters exceeded 12,000, a Moscow court suddenly released Pavel Ustinov, a man convicted to three-and-a-half years in prison for participating in a rally, on bail pending appeal.

Last week, another judge ruled to drop all charges against Alexei Minyailo, another activist in jail for allegedly "organizing mass riots," and released him from custody.