The printing press at a Moscow newspaper emits a continuous stream of tabloid-size papers.

In the process of studying the way in which Togliatti authorities functioned, we discovered that there had been a quiet coup d’etat in Togliatti in 1994. Back then the political establishment of our city, deeply insulted by the fact that the choice of the electorate did not coincide with their choice of leadership, virtually deprived the lawfully elected mayor (Zhilkin — we mean his first term in office) of his authority and passed it on to his deputy. The constitution of Togliatti was quietly rewritten to make this move legal. As a result, for two-and-a-half years the mayor served as a figurehead while the city was run by the bureaucratic apparatus and the commercial organizations allied with it. Naturally, the citizens were not informed about this curious development.

We were amazed. A coup happened in the city and nobody found out about it. The right of the electorate to decide who must rule their city was grossly violated.

The article describing this should have been on the front page of the first issue of our new paper (THE TOGLIATTI OBSERVER), which we were going to print on the eve of the new mayor’s election. In the same issue we were also going to publish the journalistic investigations our information agency had conducted about each of the mayoral candidates, believing that it might do voters some good to know the facts beyond what the candidates told about themselves.

By mid-August the issue was just about ready. Most of the articles had been typed up and stored in the computers. All we had to do was print the paper. That’s when our office was robbed. They stole our computer with the stored articles, the information agency’s archives, and all the documents to support our articles. The remaining equipment was vandalized and completely unusable. In short, the almost ready issue was destroyed.

At first we thought this was a random hit by some street kids. But if that was the case, why would they take a suitcase with some documents they can’t understand? Later some details made us suspect that the robbery was commissioned by one of the candidates, who really didn’t want our paper to see the light of day.