Demokrabus (from the English demo craсy bus) is a bus used to evacuate citizens forcibly seized by the authorities at democratic rallies, marches, and pickets. Residents of Nizhny Novgorod are loaded into the demokrabus by two or three police officers apiece (see "cosmonauts") and remain inside until it reaches the district police station.

Background

The name comes from the British series "Absolute Power", where the Democrabus is a promising bus invented by British scientists for pre-election meetings with the public and for gathering citizens' requests; the purpose of the demokrabuses is to raise the level of trust in the authorities wherever they appear — that is, on the streets of London. In Russia the demokrabus acquired a second, more expansive meaning: "demo," a demonstration of capabilities, and "krabus," Putin regime (the nationwide internet Meme Putin the Crab), while retaining its original meaning as well: transport-democratizer accessible to everyone.

As a result, in Nizhny Novgorod the term demokrabus came to be applied to any vehicle disguised as a standard passenger bus and used to bring the broad masses of the people to a common denominator.

Interesting facts

  • Demokrabuses are built on the basis of standard medium-capacity passenger buses used in cities for trips of 5-10 kilometers. As a rule, the rear door of a demokrabus can easily be opened from the outside with a simple turn of the handle, which protesters have repeatedly used to escape.
  • People being taken away in a demokrabus are customarily seen off with a raised clenched fist — the international symbol of the struggle for rights and the people's will, whatever form it may take.
  • The demokrabus is sometimes confused with the avtozak. Unlike the demokrabus, an avtozak is a bus for transporting the arrested and the convicted, that is, citizens whose guilt has been established. The bars on such buses are heavier, and the body is built on the chassis of off-road trucks.
  • To be placed in a demokrabus one must simultaneously meet the following conditions: be in the middle of a rally and insist on one's civil rights. A respectable appearance and a pronounced inability to resist improve the odds (see Intelligentsiaism).

See also

  • Cosmonauts