Times don't choose...

Traditionally, when we say goodbye to the outgoing year, we say to ourselves: it was a difficult period. There are no simple periods. Work - home - family - troubles - health problems - issues that require immediate solutions, and so on in a circle... Unfortunately, this pandemonium is often interrupted by disasters, terrorist attacks, tragedies that do not affect you personally, but suddenly and terribly end the lives of a large number of people. In addition, every year someone dies, with whom you knew just a little, and nevertheless, the absence of this someone in the world becomes a monstrous hole in your personal space. For me personally, in 2009 there were four of them: Oleg Ivanovich, Vasily Pavlovich, Vitaly Lazarevich and Egor Timurovich. Four absolutely accomplished people, whose activities invariably aroused keen interest, whose human qualities were quite worthy of emulation and who, regardless of age, died untimely. Once again, each of them is my painful loss.

And I don’t want a word about power. With her, after the expiring turnover of the land, everything is already clear. Over the past 365 days, the Russian authorities have not surprised me personally with anything. Everything bad happened in the usual mode of hypocrisy and disregard. But I didn’t expect anything good.

As the classic said, it is impossible to live in society and be free from society. Society is perhaps more upset than it should be. They instill in society with all their might: nothing depends on you, sit down and don’t tweet. Chew your chips and keep quiet... Or how about another classic: bang in the ear - were you warned not to carry telegrams anywhere? Such signals come from above from the ruling caste, and from the side, from their own kind, who do not want to “drive the wave,” and from below, from those who are simply irritated by other people’s successes. As a result, society obediently becomes the hated cattle class. This process is irreversible. Because as a voter, I’m sorry, I don’t really need a parliament that refused to honor Gaidar’s memory with a minute of silence, but who’s asking me?

It is much more convenient today to accuse him of all sins, especially if he cannot answer. Gaidar gave me interviews several times. And each time he calmly, with numbers and facts, answered those who believed that they had been robbed. Judging by the reaction, I didn’t convince anyone. Because it is much more convenient to consider someone else to blame for your failures, because in this case the argument from the third classic comes into play: it’s your fault that I want to eat.

So, my era of lab heads ends - physically, with the passing of Yeltsin and Gaidar. And you can consider me an idiot as much as you like for not snatching the most amiable liberals from the most seedy oil well into your reign. I grieve for them without any material component. I simply miss these people somewhere out there in the world. And spitting after Gaidar is a medically diagnosed problem of a society that has not accepted the opportunity to become normal.

To complete the diagnosis, I cannot help but mention one more misfortune. A misfortune affecting the smallest layer of this society. I'm talking about the problems of the Bulat Okudzhava Museum in Peredelkino. And it doesn’t matter who is to blame for the current situation. But I think with horror that 2009 may be the last year of the museum’s existence. And this is our problem. For even if the number of visitors to this museum in relation to the population of Russia was negligible, but your will, this museum cleaned up the planet a little. And tomorrow he may stop doing this. And you and I will become qualitatively worse from this. Don't you understand? So, they have already become...

However, in the wake of the holidays in the last days of the year, miracles still happen. As soon as the Georgian Parliamentary Committee on Education and Culture announced that Tbilisi was seriously discussing the possibility of moving the museum to the historical homeland of the writer, the Russian Ministry of Culture almost immediately announced that the Okudzhava Museum in Peredelkino would be returned to federal ownership. Thanks to the principle “Eat it, Bug, otherwise I’ll give it to Bobby.” But be that as it may, at least some hope for the preservation of the Okudzhavsk museum is already bread... If only this story was not a New Year's re-enactment by the Ministry of Culture.

And one more thing about good things... Yesterday I was on the subway, and in the carriage three people were reading Novaya Gazeta, and two were reading New Times. On a national scale, of course, it’s very little, but on the scale of an individual Moscow subway car it’s already something. True, one smart person told me: this is because it is impossible to travel around Moscow during the holidays, and motorists, like you, moved to the metro. And motorists are people offended by the authorities. What can I say, we are all such people. But not everyone feels like that. This is a mystery - officials take bribes, law enforcement agencies do not enforce law at all, but on the contrary, social services, housing and communal services, roads, etc. are at a certain level, a mess, no matter where you spit, and pride about the great country just does not drip from the ears. Although now it’s no longer dripping - we got it. So thank God - we are getting smarter. Happy new year friends!