Vyacheslav Igrunov. It was a shock

It was a shock
Vyacheslav Igrunov

Publication date: December 29, 2000

The 20th century and the world are, first of all, the magazine itself, a small, worn-out book, completely unexpected, unprepossessing, in which is written something that you cannot read anywhere else. This is conformity shock. For me, the 20th century and peace meant a lot. It was the very end of 1986 when Pavlovsky offered me cooperation. I was completely stunned. I could not believe it. And even when it seemed to me that my texts could be published, I did not believe it until I received the magazine. That's it, I realized, a new era has begun. Shock, surprise. Something impossible. Another thing is that it did not last very long. Perhaps from 1987 to 1989. But these year and a half left memories of this magazine for a huge number of people of my generation. When you meet complete strangers now, and you mention the 20th Century... - they remember. But he was not the first among publications of this kind. At the same time there were Moscow news and Ogonyok . But they were secondary. They wrote about what each of us had known for a long time. And in the 20th Century... you discovered new people. It was a new perspective, a new state. Let's say, like a bud, when it is still a little compressed, now it blossoms a little - after all, this is the most beautiful state of a flower. Century... is a half-opened bud, a hint of something grandiose, a hint so significant that even in this sense it was more interesting than Ogonyok or Moscow News .

Believe me, nostalgia is not speaking in me, since I am quite critical of my texts published in the magazine. My article, with which I debuted in the 20th Century... is basically noodles cut from my letters to Pavlovsky. Unfortunately, the main texts that I wrote for the 20th Century... were never published. They seemed too pessimistic in an era of democratic fervor. I predicted a crisis, I predicted destruction. This is what I regret most. Some warning should have been sounded: maybe at least someone would have a different attitude towards what was happening. So, my texts - now I perceive them as milestones of the time, what was possible, what was not, how all this happened. This is terribly interesting (for historians - I think)...

However, it's not even about the texts. People were gathering. The twentieth century and the world served as the starting point not only for literary, but also for political activities of that time. It was in Vek... that the first - perhaps even the only - meeting took place, where we agreed to gather a large democratic rally before the First Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR. By and large, the history of the development of the regional deputy group begins with this meeting. The magazine contributed to vibrant political processes in society. This is probably his main merit.

Today, for various reasons, nothing like this is possible. It takes some fantastic coincidence of circumstances, a fantastic depth of analysis, for people to pay attention to such a publication. But even in this case, no magazine will ever occupy such an important place in society as the 20th Century and the world occupied during those crazy year and a half.