Russia: Practitioners Raise Awareness about Falun Gong in the Parks of St. Petersburg During the Summer

Russian Falun Gong practitioners' activities in St. Petersburg every Saturday have been ongoing for several years. Practitioners have stayed at every subway exit and walked through almost every street in downtown St. Petersburg. In the summer, parks are the most popular place for St. Petersburg’s residents to spend their leisure time. Most of the major municipal parks are occupied with people during the weekends. On three consecutive Saturdays (August 11th, 18th and 25th), practitioners hosted a series of activities in several municipal parks to introduce Falun Gong and expose the Chinese communist regime’s brutal persecution against compassionate practitioners in China to local residents.

This elderly lady is a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. Angered by the Chinese communist regime’s organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners, she said the Chinese regime’s atrocity exceeds the Nazi brutality.

On August the 11th, practitioners performed a simulated demonstration of the organ harvesting in Aviatorov Park. An elderly lady, who survived the imprisonment in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, said she witnessed the gold artificial teeth of some prisoners being forcibly removed in Nazi concentration camps. However, the organ harvesting in China nowadays is completely unimaginable also. “The Chinese communist regime is even crueler than the Nazi fascists,” she said. Some people told practitioners, “You have the courage to expose such a brutal criminal regime. You are really admirable!”

On August the 18th and the 25th, practitioners hosted activities in the “300th Anniversary of St. Petersburg” Park and the park located on Tukhachevsky Avenue.

Practitioners set up benches in the parks. While coaching people how to fold paper lotus flowers, practitioners also played video tapes about Falun Gong’s truth. Accompanied by peaceful music, practitioners utilised speakers to introduce the beneficial influence that Falun Gong’s spread has brought to the entire world and the persecution that the evil Chinese autocratic regime has inflicted upon Falun Gong practitioners. It was also highlighted that those persecuted Falun Gong practitioners in China still hold steadfast to their belief in “Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance” and continue to reveal the truth to people in the world. Lotus flowers, holy and pure, are the symbol of this magnificent spirit.

Practitioners also demonstrated the graceful Falun Gong exercises and distributed flyers to passers-by. A practitioner also took his grandson to join the activity. The young child folded a big lotus flower and placed it in front of the banner which read “The World Needs Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance.”

A Russian young man, who served as the janitor in the park, said he had never experienced true compassion in his life and he did not believe that true compassion really exists in the world. After he read through the newspaper that practitioners gave him, he returned to practitioners and said in an emotional tone, “I have seen the true compassion today in you. You are all great people who always do good things to others!”