Eternal Leaders

The late Brezhnev, the eternal empire and the permanent Mugabe

On November 15, the Kultura TV channel broadcast (and I would like to add “live”, but not) the funeral of Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev. An endless line at the coffin, countless awards on red cushions, mournful officials. The mournful voice of the announcer. Funeral meeting and speeches from the mausoleum. The minister of defense, the president of the academy of sciences, and the grinder of the Moscow factory of information-analytical machines alternately speak of a faithful successor to the work of Lenin, a friend of ordinary people and Soviet scientists. The Minister of Defense reports that the soldiers and sailors responded to the concern of the Secretary General with sincere love. The grinder expounds cleanly, competently, without hesitation - apparently, this is a special grinder who sees the stands more often than the machines. The grinder draws attention to the fact that the general secretary knew firsthand the interests and aspirations of the working man. The President of the Academy of Sciences, on the contrary, stammers. But he nevertheless emphasizes the role that Leonid Ilyich played in the development of Soviet science. Leonid Ilyich, of course, played a huge, outstanding role. Above the crowd are identical portraits of the deceased. Immortal regiment, consisting of one marshal.

Members of foreign delegations, shaking hands with Andropov and others. Indira Gandhi (she will be killed in two years), Olof Palme (he will be killed in four years), Hafez Assad (you can kill him), Vice President Bush (he will have a completely different fate). But first - an endless series of leaders of the communist parties who still do not know that something has cracked in the empire, very soon the feeding will end and they will have to learn to live in a new way, without handouts from the great and mighty Soviet Union.

It is easy to imagine the same speeches - well, with minor adjustments. “A faithful successor to the work of Ilyin and Berdyaev” instead of a faithful Leninist, and so - a friend of soldiers who answered love with love, a patron of athletes, whose contribution to the defense of the motherland from meteorites is undeniable ...

Postcard from the future

Anniversary, 35 years, flash mob on social networks, everyone over thirty-five remembers what they did then. To join, but there is nothing to remember. There was a ruler at the school, a black ribbon on the flag, the director was crying, and, it seems, sincerely. There were no lessons, and this is a bad background for mourning. It's not easy to grieve when classes are cancelled, but we tried.

There is nothing to remember, and especially because these frames are read not as greetings from the past, but as a postcard from the future. It is easy to imagine the same speeches - well, with minor adjustments. “A faithful successor to the work of Ilyin and Berdyaev” instead of a faithful Leninist, and so a friend of soldiers who answered love with love, a patron of athletes, whose contribution to the defense of the motherland from meteorites is undeniable ... And, of course, there is a working man to tell about a deep understanding the interests and aspirations of a working person.

And it is quite easy to imagine a line of heads of fraternal parties - this time ultra-right, but what's the difference - extending their hand to the new bosses, perhaps for a greeting, but rather for another portion of alms.

The empire has reproduced itself - with an endless list of enemies and allies, looking at which, you begin to experience some awkwardness. The secretaries of the fraternal communist parties looked, perhaps, still more decent

It’s just impossible to imagine yourself as a spectator - after all, everything will happen in a hundred years or never at all, much after our grandchildren, and it’s not just about the success of medicine.

It seems that the empire turned out to be stronger than it seemed to many in the last twenty-five years. It reproduced itself - with an eternal boss, with a false language through and through, with an inexplicable impulse to dictate its will to the world and with an understandable desire, willingly ranting about a "working man", spitting on an ordinary person. With a red-cheeked pioneer, although there is a difference. I managed to learn, of course, in due time the obligatory: “Thank you for your immortal feat, Comrade General Secretary!” But neither I nor Comrade General Secretary could imagine a formation of stone-faced children dressed in the same uniform, who sing a song about their readiness to return Alaska and die for "Uncle Vova." The General Secretary died in ignorance, and I watched the video yesterday . Removed, by the way, on the initiative of the current deputy of the State Duma. What is there, it makes an impression.

The empire has reproduced itself - with an endless list of enemies and allies, looking at which, you begin to experience some awkwardness. The secretaries of the fraternal communist parties looked, perhaps, still more decent.

There are no eternal companions

And I don’t want to remember that, not quite real grief, the Octobrist, whose lessons were canceled. The past you were in is indistinguishable from the future where you won't be, and all that we have mistaken for change is like a ripple on the surface of a puddle for an eternal and inhuman empire. Thoughts retreat into hopelessness, gray as November.

But this is if you do not follow the news. The news is a riot in Zimbabwe.

Ignatius Tshombo, for example, the leader of the Patriotic Front, called the era of Mugabe's rule "a time of wisdom and unity." And other figures, who have now turned into supporters of the change of power, did not lag behind Ignatius

The military arrested Robert Mugabe , the great, permanent, oldest of the ruling leaders on Earth. Master of loud speeches and chairman of the Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front. By the way, the name is excellent - change a few words, and it will fit perfectly for our latitudes. But the party is already saying that this step is "necessary for the health of the nation," and everyone - from members of patriotic youth associations to ministers - speaks in unison about how useful the change of power is.

But quite recently, in December last year, when Mugabe announced his intention to go to the polls in the next, one can’t even count, time, the same people spoke completely different speeches. Ignatius Tshombo , for example, the leader of the Patriotic Front, called the era of Mugabe's rule "a time of wisdom and unity." And other figures, who have now turned into supporters of the change of power, did not lag behind Ignatius.

But Mugabe was probably a friend of athletes and even, probably, thought about fighting the meteorite threat.

History loves rhymes, but doesn't like quotations. There are no eternal empires, and leaders do not have eternal associates. Even November - and that sometimes ends.