Andrey Madison. Pen club smoke

Pen club smoke
Andrei Madison

Publication date: February 16, 2000

On February 15 of this year, two significant events occurred at once: the Estonian Pen Club and the local journalists who joined it turned to the acting. The President of the Russian Federation with a call to restore order (as they imagine it) in the Babitsky case, and - a document form called “Application for a temporary residence permit / for the extension of a temporary residence permit” fell into my hands, which all non-citizens are required to fill out Estonia, if they want (are forced) to live in it.

First, a few words about the first one. More precisely, about the context in which the initiative of Estonian humanitarians fits. It is known that the so-called “singing revolution”, which led to Estonia’s secession from the USSR, was initiated by a joint congress of creative unions of the then Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic. It was after him that permanent pickets with slogans appeared on the streets of Estonian cities, completely legally, in which the “Russian occupiers” were asked to “get out.”

Information support was provided to them by Estonian intellectuals, who depicted in the media the sheer horrors and abuses that the poor Estonian people had to endure from the Russians. I emphasize that it was from the Russians that the word “Soviet” was practically not used in these lampoons. That is, it was the ethnic aspect that was deliberately emphasized, and not only the historical retrospective was purposefully distorted, but also the foundations of the national policy of the future independent Estonian Republic were laid.

It makes sense to mention two more circumstances, without which the panorama of bullying would be incomplete. First, the producers of anti-Russian propaganda mostly lived in luxurious individual cottages, and its objects, that is, the “oppressors,” lived almost entirely in standard apartment buildings. And - the Moscow liberal intelligentsia strongly sided with the “oppressed”, effectively betraying and abandoning the Russian population of the Baltic states to their fate. Yeltsin's tour of the heads of the Baltic republics in the summer of 1991 legitimized this arbitrariness at the treaty level.

From the moment Estonia declared its independence during the notorious August putsch, the Estonian creative intelligentsia simply ignored the problem of the situation of Russians in Estonia. Her humanitarian efforts continued to be aimed at discrediting the Russian people as incompetent in all respects. At the level of reality, this was nothing more than ideological support for the appropriate state policy in relation to the “national minority” of half a million people (out of one and a half million of all residents of the Republic of Estonia).

One of the culminations of this policy was the next parliamentary elections, when one of the “right” parties - naturally, with the permission of the authorities - decorated lampposts on the central streets of Tallinn with the slogans “Estonia - for Estonians!” The result of this action was the suicide of the excellent poet and actor Johan Viiding, who in his suicide letter clearly stated the reason for it - shame for his people, who were capable of such a thing.

Not much has changed since then. And you don’t have to look far for evidence of this. As recently as February 8, Estonian President Lennart Meri signed a decree awarding the highest state awards to a number of individuals who “contributed to the restoration of the independence of the Republic of Estonia, the consolidation of Estonian society, the strengthening of general democratic values ​​and the European cultural environment,” and among them nineteen so-called “ Estonian freedom fighters", that is, simply put, those who fought during the Second World War on the side of Nazi Germany.

From the same opera is the document that was mentioned at the beginning - “Application for a temporary residence permit.” In terms of its degrading idiocy, it has no analogues - including in the damned times of the Soviet ("Russian") occupation. The most “terrible” question in the questionnaires of that time was “do you have relatives abroad.” In the Estonian ksiva we read: “Do you work in the intelligence service or security service of a foreign state?”, “Have you undergone special training or preparation for landing operations for sabotage or sabotage?”, “Have you participated in punitive operations against the civilian population?” etc. and so on. Exactly the same questions need to be answered regarding parents, spouse and children.

I don’t remember that the Estonian intelligentsia has ever united in joint indignation at this kind of slap in the face of elementary morality. I remember only the lonely voice of protest of another excellent poet and publicist - Jaan Kaplinsky. And it's all. And the Russian Foreign Ministry had to react to the decree of the Estonian president by expressing “indignation” and indicating that such an approach—glorifying Nazi collaborators—“cannot be justified.”

What to hide - they wanted to sneeze in Estonia at all these “outrages”. As the Americans once did to the next “1001st last warning” of the Chinese in connection with the violation of their airspace by the US Luftwaffe. Estonia is a member of the EU at five minutes and a member of NATO at ten minutes. From such a height you can afford a lot. Including the double standards and double morality that have already become common in Western policy towards Russia. Which, by the way, can easily be registered by the department as, I will say, “kitsch policy.” The anxiety of the Estonian pen-club and K╟ for the fate of Babitsky is a typical example of such kitsch.

Naturally, Radio Liberty reported on the demarche of Estonian humanitarians. I hope no one else bothered to do this.

And one last thing. The “Babitsky case” certainly needs to be clarified. And not just in words, since they become increasingly crooked. The “new hypocrisy” is demonstrated by both sides litigating around it. If a split in society occurs along this line, then both halves will smell bad.