Pushkin, 5G and curfew: the most popular rumors around the coronavirus pandemic

Popular science edition about what's happening in science, engineering and technology right now.

When a disaster occurs, man-made, natural or humanitarian (and pandemic coronavirus refers precisely to such situations), people begin to quickly and massively exchange information about the event. The reasons for this behavior can be very different: the desire to support each other, warn, lack of information or its inaccurate assessment. That is why the massive spread of rumors, memes and jokes can be considered an attempt to express deep and not fully reflected feelings about an incomprehensible situation in conditions of uncertainty. Such texts, spreading through social networks, by word of mouth become overgrown with details, vary, get into the media and are perceived as fake news. However, the "malicious author" of disaster narratives in most cases does not exist. These are legends, rumors, rumors - texts, the origin and patterns of transmission of which can be found out and put on the shelves.

A team of urban anthropologists and folklorists from the RANEPA School of Contemporary Humanitarian Studies collects such reactions: stories, rumors, all sorts of amazing news that appear right before our eyes and are directly or indirectly related to pandemic. The updated "Encyclopedia of Rumors" was created to analyze such stories, explain how and why they arose, to understand what part of the information is fictional and what is exaggerated.

In the "Encyclopedia" you will find several types of texts.

The first is pseudo-medical advice, allegedly given by "a young doctor from the Russian Federation Yura Klimov, who works with virus Wuhan "or" famous Israeli doctors. "

The second type is folk or religious recipes: these stories, with reference to an authoritative person, tell you that to protect yourself from infection or help cure the virus, ginger tied to the leg, garlic or a cross on the door, applied with olive oil.

The third type, very common - alarm warnings about what will happen in the near future or is already happening somewhere: "Tonight black helicopters will disinfect the city from the air, move away from the windows, do not go out into the street, tell everyone."

The fourth type is panic "evidence" about what is happening in the first person. It is worth noting that, in and of itself, these testimonies may not potentially be fake, although they may contain exaggeration of certain facts or be overly emotionally colored. However, they often break away from the author and, keeping the structure of the story "from the first person", begin to roam the Web, acquiring more and more details.

We refer to the fifth type of manufactured goods, that is forgeries of official documents.

And finally, the sixth - stories about the etiology of the virus, that is, stories (usually conspiracy theories) about its origin.

Rumors can have signs of different types, move from one type to another. The appearance of new types is also likely.

Coronavirus spread by 5G towers

• Type: mixed, includes stories about the etiology of the virus, alarm warnings.

Telecommunication communication new 5G standard, which was specially developed by agents of influence, suppresses the human immune system, as a result of which the weakened body of the victims is more susceptible to infection with the coronavirus. At the same time, the coronavirus can use radio waves from the mobile network to select victims and accelerate its spread. Quarantines in different countries are introduced so that people do not interfere with the installation of new communication towers.

Comment

Panic narratives about the disastrous impact of 5G telecommunications have been on the rise since 2018. Probably, the spread of this rumor began with an articleDésintox. Non, la 5G n'a pas provoqué la mort de centaines d'oiseaux aux Pays-Bas about the mass death of birds in the Netherlands - in those places where there are new generation communication antennas. In the spring of 2019, videos are actively distributed5G IS BEGINNING. Be careful on YouTube with comments like this:

“5G is dangerous! Manufacturers are silent about the dangers of 5G networks. Telecommunications companies are starting to set up towers near residential buildings. Dissenting people living in these houses set fire to, break down the stations. "

In Wuhan, the capital of China's Hubei province, the 5G network went live a few weeks before COVID-19. Probably, this fact becomes the basis for the emergence of narratives linking these two facts. Texts and videos are distributed in English-speaking groups like Anti-5G on Facebook. Their participants claim that mobile networks and electromagnetic radiation, acting on the human body, are the "conductor" of the coronavirus. In one of the first videos the band members re-posted, conspiracy theorist Dana Ashley talks about an hourWireless Warfare Exposed. Includes ways to protect your family about the dangers of 5G and that its introduction in Wuhan has led to an illness with symptoms of radiation poisoning.

In Russian social networks, rumor has been actively spreading since the 20th of March, the most interesting form is Russian-language videosKatasonov. Coronavirus is Vaccination and Slow Death + Chipization:: Bill Gates, Money Masters with the recommendations of "qualified specialists" - from bloggers to scouts and doctors of science. News channels on April 3, 2020 record cases of destruction of telecommunication sources. So, according toUK Citizens Burn Down 5G Hell Towers BBC, people take to the streets and set fire to antennas in Liverpool, Birmingham and other cities. This probably comes after the massive spread of an article on the COVID-19 and 5G link on the Instagram of Hollywood star Woody Harrelson (2 million followers)

Signs that we are faced with a rumor that does not correspond to reality are connected, firstly, with the general framework of the conspiracy theory, where it fits as one of the elements ("us" wants destroy the "domineering other"), secondly, using folklore models to explain how radio waves affect the human body and how they can be carriers coronavirus.

Experts say that this theory is unsubstantiated: the radio waves of frequencies used in 5G are non-ionizing, they do not damage DNA.

In addition, they indicateIs there a link between 5G and coronavirus: expert commentarythat in Russia there are patients with coronavirus, but there are no towers or other necessary infrastructure for networks of this telecommunication standard.

At the heart of the panic over 5G networks can be seen, on the one hand, conspiracy theory that humanity or Some powerful agents want to destroy part of it ("the world behind the scenes", "owners of money", Bill Gates, Americans, Chinese); secondly, the motive of fear of scientific and technical progress and eschatological rejection of innovations (“the time will come, and the living will envy the dead”).

In the book by Maria Akhmetova "The End of the World in One Separate Country", the mechanisms of this fear are described in detail and a number of parallels are given. In peasant eschatology, these are images of iron birds and a web that enmeshes the entire sky - airplanes and power lines.

Known facts when the storytellers of the 19th century refused to record their voice with a gramophone and be photographed - it was believed that the Antichrist could take a person's soul through his voice or through picture.

In eschatological logic, first of all, not the very means of scientific and technological progress are interpreted, but their "Disastrous" impact, which, in turn, through "coding", "chipping", "radiation" leads to death humanity. Similar stories were widespread primarily in the church environment, when payment cards, TIN, barcodes were massively introduced, but here the mechanism somewhat different: in the accounting of surnames and names, they saw the account and control of the devil over people, and the label in the passport and bar codes on the products were perceived as a seal Antichrist.

The harmful effects of technology and innovations are explained through folklore models, in particular, the influence on a person with the help of magical means is described in a similar way. Unusual and new technique in such narratives can act as a mediator (mediator between “influential strangers "who want to harm), and have agency and lead to a deterioration in well-being, diseases and death. For this, the terms "zombie", "radiation", "exposure", "radiation" are used. As a parallel, an interesting text given in Akhmetova's book of 2003 about computers from leaflets distributed at the Diveyevo monastery:

“The radiation field was cleverly invented in front and behind, for people who have a computer in their house, all things and walls are irradiated, there is an oxygen-free environment in the room, your child’s brain is irradiated” (page 150).

Under this logic, the "harmful" effect of TV towers and cell towers is also understandable. For example, according to the portal of oral histories of cities pastandnow.ru in the Ostankino area "the suicide rate is high due to harmful radiation", and about the Konkovo ​​area they talk about the harmful radiation of the antennas of the scientific center of roentgenoradiology: “There were also tales that, they say, they were destination. Painted in olive green, and therefore they are sent and, therefore, operate different military satellites. They say that this is why there are no houses nearby, because such powerful installations [irradiate] ”.

Such stories are readily picked up by the media: in 2017, the Rossiya 24 TV channel releasedThe connection that disconnects: how to protect Muscovites from cellular antennas? “The connection that disconnects: how to protect Muscovites from cellular antennas?”, Where residents talk about headaches, insomnia and other health problems associated with cellular antennas.

The new communication standard turns out to be a sign of the end times, the destruction and death of humanity.

The coincidence in time with the coronavirus pandemic triggers a causal relationship, where the virus infection is the result of the work of towers that are configured to transmit the 5G signal. Quarantine is interpreted as a pretext for the "quiet" introduction of a new technology - when everyone is sitting at home, no one will prevent it from spreading all over the world, and this, in turn, will lead to diseases, the spread of cancer, the growth of coronavirus cases and, ultimately, the death of a part humanity.

Nikita Petrov

Robbers-disinfectants

• Type: alarm warning.

The robbers in the costumes of disinfectants enter the apartment where the children are left and rob people. The full text of the message looks like this (the spelling and punctuation of the source is preserved):

ATTENTION!!! People go home! in medical and chemical suits, they say that a case of coronavirus infection has been recorded in your house, apartments are being disinfected! They go into the apartment, put them to sleep with gas and take everything out of the apartment. Be careful, pass on! Immediately call the hotline and the Russian Guard! Human insanity grows stronger and leads to dullness! Now children are not studying, everyone is at home! Especially warn them and pensioners !!!

The warning is disseminated on social media in the form of voice and text messages, and sometimes street announcements. The details of the Russian-language message may vary, places (from Grodno to Murmansk) and dates change. Below is the text of the voice message receivedManiacs in chemical protection and Pushkin's "quarantine" poems // Checked by Ilya Berom journalist Ilya Berom from a friend who took him from the WhatsApp group of Moscow school principals:

Taking into account the fact that children are now alone at home, many parents are at work, give clear instructions to the children. Now there are already cases... This is information from the primary source, from a fairly high level of the Solnechnogorsk District police. They ring the doorbell, look through the peephole, people in protective suits are standing, they report that a coronavirus outbreak has been identified in the house... either in the next apartment, or in this entrance. We need it urgently... “Open the door, we will process your premises, you have no right not to open it,” and so on. A person opens, they put him to sleep there with gas, and so on. They enclose an apartment, there are even cases when a person is deprived of life. This is not a fake, this is, as it were, serious information from the primary source.

Comment

The alarmist warning widespread in Russia appeals to the plot about cunning robbers and marauders who, using the panic that gripped the population, penetrate the apartment in different ways.

Fake widely distributed from 18 March 2020. But if the information in such reports about the robbers were true, then the police would receive statements from the victims or from eyewitnesses of the event. On March 19, the press center of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs saidThe Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia urges citizens not to react to fake newsthat “in a number of subjects an audio recording is being disseminated containing information that intruders allegedly penetrate the dwellings citizens under the pretext of compulsory disinfection from coronavirus, after which the owners of the apartments are lulled and commit serious crimes. The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia officially declares that these messages do not correspond to reality and are fake. No such facts have been registered. "

The spread of fake news about the robbers-disinfectants may have been influenced by the fact that, simultaneously with the direct refutation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on the website Petersburg administration, a text appears, which is essentially the same fake warning, only retold by a more bureaucratic language:

Be carefull. No services conduct door-to-door rounds of citizens in connection with the coronavirus. If unknown persons come to your home, claiming to be doctors, disinfectants or some special services, then do not open the door for them and contact the 112 service.

Fake becomes popular, and articles appear in the media, the authors of which, on the one hand, deny the existence of such cases in Russia, on the other, they argueRobbers at a "remote location" and inhumans in white coats: how the coronavirus changed the underworldthat editorial offices “send such 'fakes' most often from abroad, from the same Ukraine, where the police really began to increasingly face the massive disguise of robbers as orderlies”. Constructing an external enemy who is trying to "destabilize the situation" is a technique that is used not only by the media to increase the rating of the material, but also by official sources of information (see. analysis of the story about the fake commandant's chat order).

The fake nature of the message is not difficult to identify: this is the general alarm tone of the message; increased emotional temperature (exclamation marks); uppercase, not lowercase letters; words, in the semantics of which there are shades of motivation to action, calls ("ATTENTION"); details linking the message to a specific addressee and space ("in your home") and others.

To understand that we are facing a fake, it is enough to search for the keywords of the message in any search engine. The texts that some people are trying to get into the apartment by cunning and with the help of disguise have appeared before, they can be easily found on the Internet in different languages. Interestingly, the invasion of private territory is delegated in this newsCoronavirus: Sinister people are knocking on doors claiming to be part of official disease response, police warn traders who took advantage of the situation, who want to enter the apartment in this way and sell something. In Russia, the message is associated primarily with robbers.

Disinfectants / Inspectors - an image often used both in cinematography and real criminals. In 2017, Russia arrested members of the Samara "gang of disinfectants" who committed crimes by hiding their appearance under respirators. In the film "Duhless" (2012) based on the novel by Sergei Minaev, the actionist group "Free Radicals", using the costumes of disinfectants, penetrates the restaurant.

A more distant analogy, when criminals committed robberies using masks and images that affect the emotion of fear, is the criminal group "Jumpers" or "Living Dead", which rampaged in Petrograd in the 1917-1920s years. The gang members were dressed in white shrouds and caps (like the dead who rose from the grave), suddenly jumped out (sometimes even on special springs attached to their legs) and attacked passers-by. "Jumpers" entered urban folklore and became known thanks to the story "Kortik" by Anatoly Rybakov, including in the Slavic countries - he writes about thisMýtus o Pérákovi: městská legenda mezi folklorem a populární kulturou Czech folklorist Petr Janeček.

Why this rumor became popular during the coronavirus and more specifically with the beginning of the practice self-isolation? We are afraid of encroachment on our property in circumstances where no one is in control of the situation. At the same time, the hearing uses the images of defenseless victims - a child and a pensioner, who are left at home alone and as a result cannot defend themselves and protect property.

When we are away from home, we have an increased concern for children and elderly relatives and thus create chains of solidarity, spreading such messages.

On the other hand, it is also an attempt to take control of the situation, warning the widest possible circle of acquaintances about it. The image of robbers / salespeople / cultists who hide their appearance behind masks and disinfectant suits, is being updated due to the alarming situation associated with the pandemic.

Nikita Petrov

Athonite elders and a cross with olive oil

• Type: folk / religious recipes.

At the end of March 2020, all messengers, social networks and oral conversations began to appear stories about how the revelation of the Mother of God was given to the Athonite monks - all Orthodox must for protection from epidemics draw a cross with olive oil on the doors of houses.

Last night, all the monks of Athos prayed, with us the Patriarch of Jerusalem at night in the Holy Sepulcher prayed with the rulers, everyone in Greece and in Russia, many prayed all night. The will of the Mother of God was revealed to the monks: to convey to all Orthodox Christians that today, before nightfall, they make a cross on the front doors of the house, or paint with oil. The Holy Fathers of Mount Athos call today all Orthodox Christians to make the Cross on the back of the doors of houses. If you do not have a Cross, you can make one with your finger by dipping it in olive oil. This is serious, because yesterday the Paraclis of the Mother of God was served and these instructions were given (revealed) by the Mother of God herself to the monks on the Holy Mountain.

Sometimes the message is accompanied by an image passed off as the appearance of the Virgin on Mount Athos:

Comment

In fact, we have before us one of the options “traditional medicine"- a description of the practice of protecting against the virus with reference to an authoritative source. However, in this case, the fake does not appeal to "rational" arguments (for example, the useful properties of certain products), but to the Orthodox tradition.

The message is often accompanied by illustrations depicting Mount Athos, monks or icons. Some users of social networks, publishing text, attach to it the images of crosses they made. The publicity of this practice makes it socially acceptable, and other people are beginning to follow the example of these users.

During the discussion about the credibility of the message, users of social networks say that, regardless of the veracity of the text, an additional prayer and the image of the cross is absolutely pious practices that you can resort to "just in case", protecting your home from danger infection:

Forgive me, please, but what's wrong with once again making the prayer of the Mother of God, praying with trembling and making the Cross at the entrance to your house?

When I was informed about this, I immediately realized that it could be spam or someone embellished something on the broken phone. But, on reflection, I went and made the cross a holy oil. Because it is necessary. Because it's not a sin. Because it is quite possible to believe that it is pleasing to God.

The message about the Athonite elders begins to spread on social networks and instant messengers (primarily in Orthodox groups) on March 28, 2020. On the same day he was posted on Instagram by the famous boxer Vasily Lomachenko (his account has 1.8 million followers) - this is became an impetus that led to his going beyond the rather narrow audience of religious channels and contributed to the further distribution.

According to Brand Analytics, messages with an exact quote - both fakes and their debunking - have been reposted at least two thousand times. Since March 29, denials of the fake by priests-bloggers have been actively appearing on social networks.

Despite this, the text continues to circulate in the following days: “This information came from my Spiritual School on March 28, but is still relevant now. These are measures of protection against the Coronavirus, so that your home bypasses the trouble. "

The authors of the refutations urge not to spread the text further, not to participate in the practice (although some recommend not to erase the painted crosses). On March 29, the Union of Orthodox Journalists issued a refutation of the appeal of the Athonite elders with reference to the Greek edition of Romfea. There was no official denial from the ROC. Refuting the message, users point to a number of signs - both common, characteristic of fakes in general, and and outstanding ignorance of the authors of the text of certain features of Orthodox culture and the current policy of the ROC:

• Lack of official communication from the Sacred Film of the Holy Mountain regarding the appearance of the Virgin and the recommendation to draw a cross.
• The “Meeting of the Elders” is a non-existent body.
• “Holy Fathers” is a designation not accepted in Orthodoxy for monastics.
• No indication of a specific source of information (names of residents, names of monasteries).
• The absence of a call to prayer, individual or conciliar (it is only suggested to draw a cross) - the call contradicts the prayer practice of the Orthodox Church.
• Difficult relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and, accordingly, with Athos (lack of prayer communication), with the exception of the St. Panteleimon Monastery.
• The possibility that the schismatics located there spoke on behalf of the Athonites.
• Attempts to create an apotrope by a non-professional can lead to complacency, but does not really protect the house.

The attentive reader will find that the text contains "seams" that reveal a forgery:

• In most cases, the text is supplied with a random illustration that does not correspond to its content, but reinforces the association with Athos (the image of monasteries, monks).
• There is no indication of a specific source of information, and the text contains a reference to a nonexistent governing body.
• Links to the authority of some Russian monks / nuns who sent the text to the user (friend-of-a-friend communication): “Friends, this message was sent by the abbess of the Nikolsky monastery”; "This was sent to me by the abbess of the monastery, and our archimandrite was sent to her from Athos."
• An appeal to emotions: "the holy fathers call", "this is serious."
• Appeal to the broadest possible group identity: "call on all Orthodox Christians" (it is understood that only those who participate in practice).

Texts about the appearance of Christ or the Mother of God, accompanied by an order to disseminate this message or create one or another apotropy, circulate in the form of so-called "holy letters" throughout centuries. Thus, at the beginning of the 19th century, the text of the "Jerusalem letter" appeared in Russia, which then circulated until the 1940s:

Such texts often appear during crises: for example, during the cholera epidemics of 1830-1831 and 1885-1892, such letters are already spread as a talisman:

In the Slavic (especially West Slavic) tradition, the use of the cross is widespread as an apotrope against fire, floods, and pestilence. For example, according to the postEthnographic review in the journal "Ethnographic Review" in 1893 in the Oryol region during the time of cholera, they painted a cross with tar on the gate. However, the painting of crosses as a pious practice is widespread, including among modern Orthodox Christians. So, there is a tradition on Maundy Thursday to draw a cross on the doorframe with soot from a candle brought from the temple from the service at which read "Twelve Passionate Gospels", as well as drawings on doors, windows, ceiling, gates of the cross with chalk on Epiphany Eve ("Baptize the house"). Orthodox priests do not condemn this practice (although they rarely actively support it).

Why was the call of the “Athonite elders” to make a cross on the door so popular for the Russian audience? First, the text contains a reference to the ultimate sacred authority - the Mother of God. Secondly, it relies on the high authority of the inhabitants of the Holy Mountain among the Orthodox: texts Athonite elders are almost mandatory in the reading list of a modern Orthodox Christian. Thirdly, the proposed practice of creating a talisman is rooted in the Russian folklore tradition: both as a calendar ritual and as a defense against threats. Fourthly, this practice is very easy to implement, does not require any special efforts - vegetable oil (including icon lamp, which is attributed to special sacred and healing properties) is in almost every home.

Daria Radchenko

The story "Polina from Italy"

• Type: panic "evidence" of what is happening.

On March 23, 2020, Polina Golovushkina, a native of St. Petersburg, living in Como, Italy, published on her Facebook and VKontakte page the text"I think everyone knows that I live in Italy ..."starting with the words "I think everyone knows that I live in Italy."

In the very first paragraph, the author explained her goal - to warn Russians about the danger threatening them using the Italian example: “I cannot personally tell everyone what is going on here, I am writing here. Rather screaming. With the last bit of strength I am trying to reach at least those who are dear to me. " She went on to describe everyday life in Italy, comparing it to a “waking disaster movie” and to a war, and drew a terrifying picture of mass infections and deaths, which neither the health care system nor public utilities can cope with service:

The text ends with an urgent appeal to the Russians - to stop any social activity outside the home and to isolate themselves, since "it will be too late in a couple of weeks."

Comment

This is a text written on behalf of an eyewitness, but in reality it describes not only those events that the author observed personally, but also those that the author could only learn from the media or from the stories of others persons. Such texts themselves may not contain fake news, but include appeals to personal emotional experience, individual exaggerations and distortions of facts, as well as information from the media submitted as eyewitness account. Texts of this type are sustained in alarmist tones and are intended to warn the audience about the danger threatening it.

This text does not contain fake information in the full sense of the word. But this appeal text is structured in such a way that data taken from the local Italian media or from other secondary sources looks like eyewitness testimony.

For example, while in Como, Golovushkina could not observe with her own eyes the lack of trucks for the removal of corpses from Bergamo.

Some fragments are distorted or exaggerated. Polina says that “In the north, bodies are taken out by trucks. There are not enough trucks, "and adds that" the military equipment is not coping. " Journalists did writeCORONAVIRUS IN ITALY: CREMATORIES DO NOT COPY THE DEAD, THE DEAD ARE TAKEN OUT BY TRUCKS about military trucks removing corpses, while referring to the Italian news agency ANSA. The dubiousness of this information lies in the fact that the agency referred to some anonymous eyewitnesses, and the media did not say at all that there were not enough military trucks.

The story "Polina from Italy" became incredibly popular - it received hundreds of thousands of likes, reposts and comments on social networks, and then appeared in several media outlets. The text was published in VKontakte public pages of various profiles - from pages like “Typical Novosibirsk” to guitar training groups. The very next day, Golovushkina's panicky testimony began to be actively disseminated in the Telegram, WhatsApp and Viber messengers.

People from various cities received this text in parental, house, district and work chats, as well as in private messages from relatives and friends. After March 25, when Vladimir Putin declared the next week non-working and urged citizens to observe the regime of self-isolation, the story "Polina from Italy" became even more relevant: now it confirmed the correctness of the recommendations of the Russian authorities and at the same time responded to the growing fears audience.

Panic testimony was published on March 26Polina Golovushkina, Rome: It will be late in a couple of weeks on the website of the radio station "Echo of Moscow" under the heading "Polina Golovushkina, Rome: it will be late in a couple of weeks" and was quoted by a number of other media outlets.

And on March 29, the popularity of Polina Golovushkina reached a new level: fragments of her story were aired on the NTV channel, in the program "Vanga's Prophecy: When the Killer Virus Retreats."

On the same day, he referred to her testimony“TODAY OUR FATHERLAND GOES THROUGH HARD TESTING” Sermon on the 4th week of Great Lent in his sermon, Patriarch Kirill, urging believers to observe the regime of self-isolation recommended by the authorities.

Thus, there was a transformation of a personal story into a folk "testimony" that lives in accordance with the mechanisms of variation characteristic of this type of texts. During the first week of active replication, Golovushkina's text did not change, however, its attribution changed. Sometimes it was sent out on behalf of an anonymous "Russian woman from Italy", sometimes Polina was called by other names (Dasha or Anna).

It is worth noting that many users passed on Pauline's "testimony" to friends, relatives and colleagues in such a way that the recipient was sure: the information was received from someone personally familiar to the sender. For example, many people received this story with references to “a friend from Italy”, with phrases like “a girl sent a friend from Italy ...”, “my Italian sent it” or “POLINA WRITES FROM GENOA, ITALY. EVERYTHING IS TRUE ".

In some cases, a complex chain of personal ties was drawn between "Polina from Italy" and the recipient - for example, Golovushkina was announced "The second cousin of the husband of the chief accountant of my organization", "the acquaintance of a girl with whom they previously worked together", or "the daughter classmate ".

Patriarch Kirill, referring to the panicky testimony of Golovushkina in his sermon, presented her as "one Orthodox woman from Italy" (although in the text of Polina, nor in her social media accounts, not a word is said about her confessional affiliation), from which he allegedly received a personal letter.

These changes in text attribution almost invariably followed the same rule. Almost every sender of a testimony tried to present the author as a person included in the set of “friends”. The difference was in the size and composition of this set. In some contexts, “ours” are all Russians, and “Polina from Italy” is “our man” who talks about what is happening “there”. In others, “friends” are people personally familiar to the recipient, or the acquaintances of his acquaintances. In the patriarch's sermon, “ours” are his flock, Orthodox Christians.

Before the publication of the story, Polina Golovushkina, the owner of a wedding agency in Italy, was an ordinary user of social networks. Her Facebook posts averaged 23 likes and 7 shares (the panicky testimony got 4,000 likes and 5,800 shares in a week). Golovushkina was a little more popular on the VKontakte social network, but there, too, the usual number of likes and reposts on her page (on average 235 and 1) did not bode well (180 781 likes and 39 350 shares), which received her panic certificate.

Adding media success with multi-million dollar audiences to social media popularity, it can be argued that panicky testimony allowed Polina Golovushkina to earn a huge symbolic capital.

Why did she do it? What did she offer the audience so valuable? And why did the proposed offer turn out to be valuable for such different audiences as Facebook users and viewers of the "Prophecy of Vanga" program on NTV channel?

The text of the story "Polina from Italy" contains two messages. The first is a warning of danger: save yourself before it's too late. The second, less obvious one, is the message of personal presence: “I live there myself, I saw it all with my own eyes, I experience deeply personal (but at the same time, understandable to everyone) emotions about this”. The combination of these two messages contained in the text of "Polina from Italy", provided it with a "viral" spread.

The message of personal presence made this story a reliable source of information in the "space of suspicion", where almost every information must be checked for truth

People passing on the text to their friends, relatives and colleagues tried to strengthen this message, making “Polina from Italy "by a friend, second cousin of an accountant acquaintance or an" Orthodox woman ", including her in different circles "Their". They did this because the feeling of uncertainty and fear creates a need for a reliable source of information, and the institutions of power do not inspire much trust.

A poll that we conducted among Facebook users (N = 4,298) from March 15 to 30 shows that they are not too trust official statistics: 69% of users believe that the Russian authorities are hiding the true scale of the epidemic in country. TO mass media are also often treated as an institution of power, suspecting it of deliberately hiding information. So, the administrator of the VKontakte public called Saransk. Shame Board "published"Over the past day, we have been sent a post by Polina Golovushkina four times ..." Golovushkina's testimony, presenting it as a voice of truth that breaks through the silence and lies of journalists:

Over the past day, we have been sent four times a post by Polina Golovushkina, published a week ago. Millions of Russians have already read it in various media, but not the residents of Mordovia, because Natalia will not show it Makarova on the KhTM TV channel, Anna Opravkhat will not write about this in "Capital C" or Vladimir's pensioners-PR specialists Volkova. It is not known how long this information will take to Saransk. We fix the error.

In this situation, when information about the nature of the threat is contradictory, and official statistics and media reports are not trusted, the greatest trust begins call information received from "our man", who brings his testimony to us directly, through the chain of "friends" and without the mediation of the authorities institutions.

It is characteristic that those users of social networks and journalists who were skeptical about the testimony of "Polina from Italy" confirmation of their skepticism, they turned not only to official statistics and the media, but also to personal testimonies of other Russians, living in Italy. So, for example, the journalists of the Smolensk news portal Smolnarod.ru to refute the story of Golovushkina turned toBodies of people are taken out by trucks - fake or not? What is actually happening in Italy now to Victoria - "Smolyanka, who has been living in Italy for many years." To question one personal testimony, you need to present another, but necessarily coming from "your own" (in this case, from a native of Smolensk).

Facebook users acted in the same logic, trying to challenge the veracity of Golovushkina's story in the comments to her post: they referred to the testimonies of their own relatives and acquaintances (as well as friends of their friends) who now live in Italy. Their opponents, in support of Golovushkina's story, also referred to their relatives and friends living in Italy.

The message of danger contained in this panicky testimony was also important.

This is evidenced by the fact that he “survived” when the text itself began to disintegrate and change, adapting to different audiences. On social networks, messengers and electronic media, the story of "Polina from Italy" was circulated unchanged (as a rule, it was simply copied in its entirety). After reaching a wider audience, the text began to "mutate", which is natural: it is quite large, and in a popular TV show or sermon it is difficult to quote it in its entirety.

Folklorists are well aware that in the process of such a mutation, fragments of the most significant for the audience remain from the text, which in a "condensed" form express its main messages. These fragments turned out to be not only markers of "personal presence" (a description of the author's emotions and feelings from what was happening), but also horrifying images of mass deaths. In a program on NTV, descriptions of her emotions were taken from Polina's story (a passage about a memorial bell, from the sounds of which “I want to shrink and hide in the far corner of the apartment "), as well as the most frightening fragments - about the bodies that are" taken out by trucks ", about the death of young people, children and doctors, which, in the words of Golovushkina, "die like flies."

Patriarch Kirill, retelling the "letter of an Orthodox woman from Italy" in his sermon, strengthened these terrible images and added“TODAY OUR FATHERLAND GOES THROUGH HARD TESTING” Sermon on the 4th week of Great Lent their new chilling details:

Today we are all sitting in our houses, morgues and even stadiums are filled with corpses, it is impossible to even burn them. People die the way they can die during a terrible epidemic. We are often left without food; with great fear we reach the nearest store where we can buy groceries, and immediately return home; and if we do not return, we are subject to repression by the police.

Anna Kirzyuk

Unknown poem by Pushkin

• Type: manufactures.

Alexander's poem has been circulating on social networks since March 21, 2020 Pushkin, which he allegedly wrote during the autumn of Boldin 1827, when he was in cholera quarantine.

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This text was sent to each other by people on social networks and instant messengers all over the country, the posts gained hundreds of likes. However, it is quite easy to understand that the text is not Pushkin's, besides the famous "Boldinskaya Autumn" was in 1830, at the height of the cholera quarantine. What does 1827 and the "Spring Festival" have to do with it?

It quickly became clear that the author of the original poem is a Kazakh poet and blogger, writing under the pseudonym Urri Grim. On March 21, with the help of this poem, he congratulated all readers on the Nauryz holiday - the very "holiday of spring", which is an important event in Turkic and Iranian cultures. The signature "Pushkin" and the date "1827" were not there. According to the investigationManiacs in chemical protection and Pushkin's "quarantine" poems // Checked by Ilya Berom journalist Ilya Bera, this text was seen by a Facebook reader Grimma named Seoul. On March 22, she sends a poem to the chat of classmates to joke, putting the signature "Pushkin" and the date 1827 (this information and the screen of correspondence were provided to Ilya Beru by Urry Grim). After 3 minutes, according to Seoul, she wrote that it was a joke, but it was too late.

The poem, along with the signature, began a journey on social networks and instant messengers. Moreover, many who sent it on their own initiative did not pay attention to the date and said that it was, of course, a poem from the times of the "Boldin autumn", that Pushkin writes it in cholera quarantine, that this is a "message descendants ". So the factory was overgrown with an accompanying "legend".

It would seem that we have a very simple case. But just such an example sheds light on the frequently asked question - who comes up with a fabricated product? So, there is Urri Grim - author number 1, there is Seoul, who gave the text authorship of Pushkin, - this is author number 2, there is classmates in Seoul, who carried the poem around the world, giving it the actual "Boldino-cholera" context.

If you ask directly - who is the author, then the answer will be - everything and nobody.

Each of the "authors" invested in the chain of creating the poem, while it is important to emphasize that none of the participants had an intention to commit a forgery and deliberately mislead the audience. But the poem arose - largely due to the expectations of the audience, which wants to find confirmation from authoritative authors of a similar emotional state in a similar situation.

Such examples are not isolated - a fake letter was widely distributed Scott Fitzgerald, “Isolated in the south of France in 1920 due to an outbreak of Spanish flu,” beginning with “Dear Rosemary! The day turned out to be fluid and bleak, as if suspended from the sky in a grid. " In a situation of social stress, in which we all find ourselves, the audience has a great demand for texts loaded with positive emotions.

The ideal case is when a wish from the series “everything will be fine, spring will come after winter” comes from an authoritative source. And who can be more authoritative than "Pushkin, Our Everything"? Therefore, the correct answer to the question of who created the fake is the audience.

Alexandra Arkhipova

Curfew in Moscow

• Type: manufactures.

Shoigu's order to impose a curfew in Moscow from March 30, 2020.

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Before us is a fake document - a forgery of a document, which, as a rule, is sent with minimal comments, and its structure does not change (unlike chain alarm warnings). Time of appearance on the Web - March 18, 2020, it is distributed through social networks and parental chats.

Rebuttal appearedThe Ministry of Defense called a fake order that appeared on the network to impose a curfew on the same day, March 18, while, according to the Ministry of Defense, he was "thrown in from one of the neighboring countries." After that Roskomnadzor demanded to remove the image from Twitter.

In this text, it is easy to see the "seams" that betray a fake. Firstly, these are features "in shape":

• Inconsistency in the form of the document. There is no coat of arms of the Russian Federation at the head of the sheet, the stamp, the executor is not indicated, there is no mark on the registration of the order with the Ministry of Justice.
• Incorrect fonts used, text formatted in the center (instead of width formatting). The text contains errors: "Curfew" with a capital letter, a period in the title, a number of punctuation errors.
• The collage is obviously based on the original order of the Minister of Defense of the same issue from 2015.

Secondly, the features "by content":

• Inconsistency with actual reality: non-existent organizations and officials are mentioned (“Moscow defense headquarters”, “district precinct police officers, and the like).
• The objectives of issuing the "order" ("for the purpose of defending Moscow" in the absence of real military operations) were formulated incorrectly and incompletely. There is no addressee of the order.
• In the text of the order, there are no references to normative acts of greater legal force (optional, but important feature).

Cases of the appearance of “fake orders on behalf of the authorities” are not uncommon in Soviet times. In 1946, “Marshal of Victory” Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov was exiled to the Odessa region (appointed commander of the ODVO troops). Many contrasted "our Russian hero-general who really cares about people" to tough Stalin. In 1951, an epidemic of leaflets began in the Odessa regionNationalist myths of the Soviet statewhich are fake appeals and decrees of Marshal Zhukov - that "he is gathering an army against Stalin", "is going to Moscow" and much more.

In 1953, during the "Doctors' Plot" on the streets of Soviet cities, especially in Ukraine and Belarus, pasted up fake Politburo decrees with a proposal to "beat the Jews" appeared. In the late 1960s, all the inhabitants of the USSR were waiting for a war with China, and the KGB officers barely had time to record panic rumors that on November 7, 1967, on the red day of the calendar, China will simultaneously attack the USSR, and Romania.

On September 4, 1967, a "decree" appeared on the territory of a plant in the Donetsk region, allegedly signed by the then chairman of the Council, Minister Alexei Kosygin. The “decree” warned that the war had already begun, and explained to the citizens what to do:

“Comrades! War! Stock up on food and water. "

The authors of the “decree” were two 7th grade students. For them it was not a prank: they heard adults talk about danger, sincerely worried that no one does anything, and they decided to help the population “take the right measures” (Alexandra Arkhipova, Anna Kirzyuk "Dangerous Soviet Things: Urban Legends and Fears in the USSR”, Page 148).

The author of the fabric, most likely, does not work in the structures of the Ministry of Defense and, in general, in law enforcement agencies, since he is not familiar with the relevant office. In addition, the author of the forgery is a person who writes little texts, perhaps a schoolboy, who encounters the realities mentioned in the text only at the philistine level. This is an additional argument against the version that the text was allegedly specially created by "enemies from a neighboring country" in order to misleading a lot of people at once and sowing mass panic is the standard rationale for conspiracy theories.

If this were possible, the text would be much better. The possible original purpose of the text is a practical joke. Pupil / student trolls panicked parents and authorities - and such cases are known.

Alexandra Arkhipova, Boris Peigin, Nikita Petrov