Ivan Davydov. Interpol, issue thirteen: Happy B (as an apology)

Interpol, issue thirteen: Happy B (as an apology)


Ivan Davydov

Publication date: July 15, 2000

Prelude: Domestic traditions

Russian traditions, in the long term fraught with all sorts of ulcers and other troubles, in the near future turn into a headache in the morning and attempts to painfully remember what kind of holiday we had there... Or we are out of grief, it’s the other way around... Or for no reason ... The matter is, in general, usual. But today everything is different. Today I was trying to remember what I did when I was three years old. I didn't remember anything. And it’s not even about traditions, that is, not about their consequences. It’s just that not everyone is lucky, not everyone manages to do something by the three years of existence that they cannot forget. I was not lucky. But for Russian Journal - quite.

I remembered. His third birthday was celebrated yesterday. There will be no amnesia, as Ilya Lagutenko and Leonid Fedorov did not sing in chorus. This means that we won’t write a mantissa, but we will write a long greeting card in the (un)usual memoir-analytical genre. Or even a novel in postcards , like that of one verbose French graphomaniac, from whom a new French disease began in Russia, affecting only writers. And there is no vaccine for it.

Love lyrics

I love Russian Magazine, honestly. Firstly, of course, because there is so much strength, energy and other things... The blood of the heart is there, the juice of the nerves, what else did they list? This happens not only with magazines, it happens with women, cats, and other similar creatures. When you realize that you have made a mistake, but quitting, kicking out, leaving is simply impossible, because it is akin to a surgical operation without anesthesia. They say that businessmen treat all their shares the same way. They don’t even speak, they write. Vladimir Tuchkov writes in his wonderful book “Death Comes on the Internet”, in which, by the way, there is not a word about the Internet.

But not only for this. Moreover, if there is an opportunity to look from the outside.

Memories

For some time, as is known, the Russian Journal existed parallel to the Pushkin magazine , which was published on paper. In the declarations they wrote that the Russian Journal was more important, and besides, who would believe it now, the Russian Journal was then the only Internet project of FEP. Shouldn’t a corporate website be considered an Internet project?

With all this, RZh was still the younger, albeit more capable brother of “Pushkin”. Evidence of this is that there is no Pushkin, but RZh exists more, as the publisher of both said about the other.

But during the year of such parallel existence, the capable boy managed to do something. On the one hand, it’s not that he moved the then monsters of online journalism (Journal.ru, Evening Internet, by the way, I wonder how many of those reading this issue now know what it is?). The publication's place in Rambler was very modest. On the other hand, the online elite noticed the magazine and did not ignore it: after all, in 97 and 98 there were not so many places on the Internet where they paid money. Which also played a role.

And then RJ was born a second time and for real (by the way, we should celebrate). I even think that their relationship with “Pushkin” was not entirely fraternal. “Pushkin,” like a mediocre god in Japanese myth, carried the baby for a year and died in childbirth. And the baby began to cry with all his might at the grave of his androgynous father-mother. This happened in September around ninety-eight. A memorable time for many, right?

This was generally a very important year for the network, but that’s not what we’re talking about today. Let's put it briefly, life has intensified. And those who were among those making music in the information, excuse me, sector of the Russian Internet, looked back at the magazine. At least just out of habit.

Not that RJ actively used this. Quite the contrary: he continued to pretend to be a marginal figure, but in fact turned into a respectable publication with a clear circle of readers. RZh ultimately turned out to be a publication primarily for those who make other publications. And you don’t have to chase after your super-popularity-oriented brethren: their readers will still read what they wrote in the Russian Journal. They will be told. It's funny that the magazine got such an enviable position with virtually no struggle. The editors have been fighting all the time and continue to fight for some other things. And she wandered up to the commanding heights, seemingly lost, and stayed there. But the main thing is the result, right? And this despite the fact that the magazine has long ceased to be the only Internet project of FEP. After all, there were elections, political projects, a protracted information war... The impossibility of neutrality for everyone else... And about RJ - the project is not that purely, but primarily humanitarian - all these matters were somehow forgotten a little, and it managed to turn out to be above the fight and watch with interest the mouse scurrying around below. And in it things turned out to be possible that do not happen anywhere else.

Reflections

The role of the magazine in this whole (our, in the sense, Russian) history seems to me very peculiar. There are no unbiased traditional media, any baby knows this. Network ones, by the way, too. The word FEP is quite odious for many. For many, these three letters are tightly connected with certain forces and with a certain position. And all online media that are in one way or another related to FEP are, of course, no exception.

Everything except RJ. Possessing from birth the immunity of a humanitarian project, but inevitably (this is inevitable in Russia anyway) getting into political spheres, the magazine with enviable regularity, and not only without meeting resistance, but without washing it, overcoming it by rolling, played games forbidden to others games. Trying to create something like an objective picture of reality from different subjectivities.

What we call information is actually propaganda. One prominent, um, media manager once said in a private conversation that unlabeled information is not in demand on the Russian market today. People don't want to know. They want to be agitated. Some in order to increase self-esteem by solving a simple problem: why does journalist A in newspaper B persuade him to take these and not other actions? Some, probably, simply to get rid of an abandonment complex. And journalists, sensitive not so much to the trends of the times as to the demands of the public, seem to have already forgotten how to issue anything other than propaganda. There are no exceptions. There are none in RJ either. But RJ is a poster with the words “Down with autocracy” on one side, and “For faith, the Tsar and the Fatherland” on the other. And you won’t find anything like this anywhere else.

This opens up enormous prospects. The situation in the country can be described, for example, like this: intensive care unit. On the operating table is a patient named Civil Society. The patient is unwell. Two resuscitators are working on him - closer to the head is the Authority, closer to the feet is the Democratic Opposition. Both shout: "We're losing him!" But the Authority, instead of massaging the chest, diligently clamps the patient’s mouth, eyes and ears. And the opposition gently strokes the patient’s genitals, which in other conditions would, no doubt, be pleasant, but not now. At the same time, the Government and the Opposition exchange jabs. The authorities act with brass knuckles, but the Opposition aims below the belt.

And somewhere off to the side stands, not yet noticed by any of the characters in RJ. And he carefully records the actors’ remarks. Whether this will ever help save the patient is unknown. But historians read this, I think, with interest. Some day. When it's all over.

Dedication to Roman Leibov

And RZh is a completely unpredictable publication, which is very uncharacteristic for the Russian network at the current stage of its development. The vast majority of information publications are now busy stealing extracts from each other from RIA feeds, in full confidence that the beautiful packaging justifies the low quality of the contents. However, the beautiful packaging is not yet visible. And you can simply not read online publications, and it is already clear in advance what will be written in them. Especially if you start your morning reading with the RIA tape itself. It’s not the same with the RZh - when you open it, you don’t know what you’ll stumble upon. It may be smart, funny, brilliant, boring in the end, but you can never guess what it will be about. Neither by name, nor by announcement, nor by any indirect signs.

And generally speaking

But that’s not why I love RJ. Simply, colleagues, friends, writers, editors, readers and all, all, you are basically good people. Be. It's still just beginning. We'll show them again. Three years is not a term, it is given for petty hooliganism. We must strive for more serious achievements.