Alexander Sokolyansky. I see option 2

I see option 2
Alexander Sokolyansky

Publication date: April 17, 2001

"Thank you to the dear Party
For care and affection:
They took the day off,
They crap Easter"

This masterpiece of folk poetry, if my memory serves me right, dates back to the spring of 1983, when Easter Sunday fell on April 25 (May 8, new style). Somehow, by manipulating between the May Day weekend and Victory Day, they managed to declare Sunday a working day. Was it Brezhnev's time or already Andropov's (Andropov's - Ed .) , I forgot - but I remember the ditty.

Literature: "...On that day, an event happened that was etched in the memory of millions for five whole years: an empty wine container, which before had cost 12 or 17 kopecks - depending on the container - and so, on that day it all began to cost 20 .
- So you think that no more significant event has occurred in the history of Soviet Russia over the past five years?
“ No, perhaps... I don’t remember... It wasn’t.” ( Venedikt Erofeev , “Walpurgis Night”).

As for April 14, 2001 (in the same style) - I don’t even know who to thank for the night assault on NTV . It was taken even easier than the Winter one in October 17th, and there are a lot of questions that will never be resolved. Who gave the command “Forward!”? Who disarmed the native entevesh guards? Why did she give up without a fight? What lists were compiled there, who compiled them and who was on them? What does Dobrodeev have to do with it and with whom (and most importantly, why) did he come? Was all this planned for Kiselev’s departure to Spain or vice versa? We are so inundated with information that we will probably never know the truth.

What kind of godless bastard, it would be interesting to know, decided to turn Holy Saturday into a day of general television hassle? That is, its layout is clear: people go to cemeteries, bless Easter cakes, take walks, because the matter is sacred, they are unlikely to go to rallies, even if they are called. Newspapers are almost never published on Monday - i.e. 25-30% of the scandal disappears automatically, and in three days you can take over not only a television studio, but, if desired, a telegraph office, a zoo, and even the Central Market (although there will probably be a shootout in the market). Oh, you smart guy, the remaining interest will cost you...

I’m running out of time and I write briefly: that is, I don’t even write, I’m just trying to figure out what’s what. Using paper, because it’s easier and better remembered. Sometimes, however, “long memory is worse than syphilis” (group “Aquarium” ): malicious readers of the Russian Journal , perfectly remembering my text ten days ago , send me fiery kisses, compliments on the style and add the indispensable question: when am I actually going to fulfill your reckless promise?

Journalism: Forecast: the creative team will soon celebrate their victory: incomplete, but well-deserved. The company will maintain its reputation as the most honest and independent. The state will maintain its reputation as democratic. And all this - at the cost of small, invisible to the world, concessions on the part of NTV. Are they, in fact, their own enemies, or what?/.../ If this whole mess does not end happily in the next week, I undertake to print and publicly eat my article raw." A. Sokolyansky , "I See option" (Russian Journal, 05.04)

Promises of this kind (in the Middle Ages they were called “vows”) must be kept either literally or not at all. I will eat the article - as promised. Let me get ready. When and where - I will specifically notify you. So far, I’m really worried about only one question: why, why didn’t everything turn out the way I predicted?

Irina Petrovskaya , the brightest and most intelligent of television analysts, was tormented by the same question live. There were, after all, quite obvious opportunities for compromise; who wanted to organize all this action-packed shit under the cover of the darkness of the night? Who benefited from this?

The authorities - no. They have lost their last opportunity to preserve a decent bourgeois-democratic image: they say, the shareholders are squabbling, but we are not interfering. NOT to intervene now means to show either your complete helplessness or your readiness for the next wave of the Great Terror.

The President - no. Vladimir Putin, in strict accordance with his habits, immediately retired to Chechnya, ensuring himself temporary inaccessibility. Translated from political into universal human language, this gesture could mean only one thing: don’t bother me. Clear up your mess: I will come back and support the winner. Provided that it looks more or less decent.

"Gazprom-Media" - no. Gusinsky - even more so. In the current situation, NTV shares will soon be sold at the price of toilet paper - I recommend gluing them into rolls in advance.

The NTV Guard, led by Evgeny Kiselev, is not. Proud slogan "We are one team!" now sounds like a sardonic joke. Almost everything has been lost: the pathos of unity, the technical base, self-confidence. Intermitting for the time being on TNT and Channel 6, the heroic half of the enteveshniks understand perfectly well: if you start something seriously, then you have to start from scratch - and with whose money, it would be interesting to know? To the Berezovsky ones?

The collaborators who remained on the fourth button are in very bad shape for these guys. From Moscow all the way to the outskirts, the same message is addressed to them - now sadly, now contemptuously, now sympathetically: what, brothers, are you getting into trouble? For a long time no one will be able to believe that Parfenov , Mitkova , Marchenko and others made their choice absolutely honestly: between two evils, you know...

Koch-Yordan-Kulisticov - even worse. Russian people are always ready to take pity on a prostitute - Dostoev's Sonechka or Kuprin's Zhenya . But no one ever (except, it seems, Babel and Steinbeck ) stood up for Bandera. We, as they say in the well-known film, brand them with shame. And all sorts of bad words. Here, I have listed, it seems, all the direct participants in the conflict: everyone ended up at a loss. So, excuse me, what the hell...

There is only one answer. The Kremlin, Gazprom, NTV, Turner - all of them could easily agree among themselves. If they didn’t agree, it means someone interfered with them. Someone personally did not want a peaceful resolution of events. And this, in turn, means: freedom of speech, profit, the split of the television company - all this is just a smokescreen. Very specific people are fighting among themselves. I think I know their names. I know, but I won’t name it: guess for yourself.

These people don’t care about society, the state, the country’s reputation, freedom of speech, shareholders’ money and each individual TV viewer. They just know: whoever of the two of us knocks down whoever will bite the throat of that one.

Why am I sure of this - simply because I once heard Alexey Venediktov , with his characteristic arrogant arrogance (or ardent arrogance - which sounds better?) open up live on air: so, they say, they began to publish information about earnings at NTV: Mitkova earns so much, Sorokina so much (however, Sorokina, it seems, has not been declassified)┘ I, says Venediktov, immediately called VGTRK and told them: what are you doing? What if we, that is, Ekho Moskvy, start telling us which of you gets how much? Well, he finished with satisfaction, all reports about our income, casting a shadow on honest journalistic names, immediately stopped. And he must have proudly raised his glasses to the sky. And I grabbed my head in horror.

You see what happens: THEY ALL KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT ANOTHER! No, not only about earnings - much more. Everyone has dirt on everyone. But as long as there is a balance of power, even if you choke on hatred, you cannot use subversive mechanisms. What happens is that you confiscate documents from us, but we have a bank statement about you; you snatch a person from our ranks, and we will divulge your secret agreements, so much so that it won’t seem too little...

I repeat: it is not difficult to understand who truly hates whom in this entire TV game - not as an ideological opponent, but as a personal enemy. I repeat: if it weren’t for these personal vendettas, everything would have worked out well to everyone’s satisfaction—the Kremlin’s, television’s, and ours.

Honestly, if only they, these elusive avengers, would hire killers and kill each other to hell! Or they just disappeared somewhere...

Literature: "In Alice in Wonderland, published in 1865, Lewis Carroll gave the Cheshire Cat the ability to gradually disappear until all that remained was a smile with no teeth and no mouth. Kilkenny cats are said to be desperate fought among themselves and devoured each other so that only their tails remained. This tale dates back to the 18th century." ( Jorge Luis Borges , "The Book of Fictional Creatures")