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Chapter 46: Let Them Shout

The news of the guilty verdict from The Hague, followed by Yashina's shocking arrest of a high-ranking minister, was a potent cocktail for the Russian public. The initial euphoria of liberation had curdled into a raw, furious thirst for vengeance.

A vast crowd, tens of thousands strong, swelled in the square before the Tauride Palace. This was not a celebration. It was a reckoning. They carried not flags, but poster-sized photographs of their dead sons, brothers, and husbands. The air was thick with their chants, a guttural, brutal roar for blood. “SMERT VRAGAM!” Death to the Enemies! “POVESIT’ IKH!” Hang Them!

Inside the palace, Alexei Voronkov watched the scene on a security monitor, his face etched with worry. “This is dangerous,” he said to Elena Petrova, who stood beside him. “If this turns into a riot, if they start hunting down anyone associated with the old regime… all our work, our claim to a civilized state, will be for nothing. The world will just see us as another mob with pitchforks.”

Elena watched the furious faces on the screen, a deep empathy in her eyes. “They are not a mob, Alexei,” she said, her voice quiet. “They are us. They are the people who paid the full price for the old regime’s crimes. Their anger is pure. It is a righteous anger. But,” she added, turning to him, “it is a fire that will burn down the new house as well as the old if we let it rage unchecked.”

Against the frantic advice of his security detail, Voronkov made a decision. He and Elena would face them. They walked out onto the grand stone steps of the palace. The roar of the crowd was a physical force, a wall of sound. Voronkov stepped to the microphones, trying to speak of legal process, of the new constitution, but his words were swallowed by the chants for executions.

Then, Elena stepped forward. A ripple of recognition went through the crowd. The chants softened, then died down as people strained to hear the mother of their movement.

“I understand your anger!” she began, her voice ringing out with a surprising, powerful clarity. “I feel it in my own heart. The man in The Hague… the men who now sit in our prisons… they are monsters who stole our children, who lied to us, who treated our lives as nothing. A part of me, the mother in me, wants to see them hang from these very lampposts!”

A massive roar of approval surged from the crowd. Elena let it wash over her, then raised a hand.

“BUT!” Her voice cut through the noise, sharp and clear as a bell. “My son, Sergey, did not die so that we could become them! He did not die so that we could replace their lawlessness with our own! For twenty years, we lived in a country where the law was whatever the man in the Kremlin said it was. The only thing, the only thing, that separates us from those monsters is the law! If we abandon it, if we give in to our own righteous rage and start dragging men from their cells, then we have lost. Then, they have truly won.”

Her words landed in the silence, a powerful and unexpected truth. A profound shift began to move through the crowd. The furious, primal roar for blood began to subside. The chants of “Hang Them!” were slowly, haltingly, replaced by a new chant. “SPRAVEDLIVOST!” Justice! It was a subtle, but monumental, transformation.

At that exact moment, an aide rushed out onto the steps, a tablet in his hand, his face alight with excitement. He handed it to Voronkov.

Voronkov glanced at the screen, and a slow, wide smile of profound relief erased the lines of tension on his face. He stepped back to the microphones, his voice booming with a newfound strength.

“The first results are in from the national referendum! The people of Russia have spoken!” He held the tablet up for the cameras to see. “The new constitution has been ratified! With a majority of eighty-two percent! The rule of law,” he declared, his voice ringing with triumph, “is now officially the will of the people!”

A new sound erupted from the crowd. It was not the roar of anger, but a massive, sustained, and joyous cheer. A sound of hope. They had been heard, their rage had been honored, they had been shown a better path, and in the final moment, they had collectively, officially, chosen it.

The Discourse, 46: Transitional Justice vs. Victor's Justice

Section 46.1: The Peril of "Victor's Justice"
The crowd's initial demand for summary executions represents what is known as "Victor's Justice"—a form of retribution in which the winners of a conflict unilaterally punish the losers, often outside the bounds of established legal principles. While emotionally satisfying for a traumatized population, Victor's Justice is politically and strategically catastrophic for a new democracy. It delegitimizes the new government in the eyes of the international community and, more importantly, it establishes a precedent that political disputes are ultimately resolved by force, not by law. This is the "fire" that Elena correctly identifies as capable of burning down the new house as well as the old.

Section 44.2: The Moral Authority to Channel Rage
Elena's intervention is a masterful demonstration of the use of moral authority to channel, rather than suppress, popular rage. A purely political figure like Voronkov is unable to quell the crowd because he is seen as an elite actor, disconnected from their suffering. Elena, however, possesses unimpeachable moral authority. She is not an outsider to their grief; she is its most prominent symbol. Her speech works because she first validates their anger ("a part of me wants to see them hang"), earning their trust. Only then does she pivot to the difficult message of restraint. This is a crucial sequence in conflict resolution: emotion must be acknowledged and honored before it can be redirected towards a more constructive outcome.

Section 44.3: The Referendum as a Democratic Catharsis
The almost simultaneous announcement of the referendum's success provides a vital "democratic catharsis" for the crowd's anger. A key driver of mob violence is a sense of powerlessness and a belief that the system will not deliver justice. By ratifying the new constitution, the people have just participated in a massive, nationwide act of empowerment. The referendum result proves that they do have power, and that the new system of laws is not something being imposed upon them by elites, but something they have chosen for themselves. This act of collective, constructive power is the perfect antidote to the temptation of destructive mob violence. It allows the national mood to pivot from a desire for revenge to a sense of ownership over the new, lawful state.