"God exists, the motherland is eternal, you will die." Zakhar Prilepin, the author of the sensational novel Sankya, is one of the most active and famous modern writers. He came to Moscow for a few days and told The New Times why he considers his generation "confused", despises the restorers of the USSR and hates Paulo Coelho
Material prepared by Nikolai Alexandrov
One of the greatest pleasures I learned to enjoy in my twenties was the pleasure of your contemporaries formulating thoughts. In youth, it seemed that literature was a matter of cast-iron monuments. And then suddenly it turned out that someone lives next to you, but in fact he is a classic, or at least the author of several classic things. This is such a pleasure, with nothing comparable!
In literature, in general, everything is in demand, any quality product. Crazy, by today's standards, the circulation of Shishkin or Slavnikova shows that refined, aesthetic literature is in demand. And how such a large number of the public reads it, what they find there, remains a mystery to me. The cry is in demand, the epic is in demand, good realistic literature is in demand (Aleksey Ivanov or the lesser-known Mikhail Tarkovsky), ZhZL...
Everything I Hate There is such a historical anecdote that Gogol came to some skete and there a monk presented him with a treatise on "Dead Souls". And Gogol exclaimed: “What a miracle, finally. You alone understood me. Why didn't you publish it anywhere? And the monk replied: “Why? I already wrote it." In a metaphorical sense, this is absolutely correct. Because the verbal text, which exists, already acts on the cosmos by itself. And I think this is the most important. Because politics, and the soul, and the fate of the motherland, and love are driven by irrational things.
Everything I hate
There is such a historical anecdote how Gogol came to some skete and there a monk presented him with a treatise on Dead Souls. And Gogol exclaimed: “What a miracle, finally. You alone understood me. Why didn't you publish it anywhere? And the monk replied: “Why? I already wrote it." In a metaphorical sense, this is absolutely correct. Because the verbal text, which exists, already acts on the cosmos by itself. And I think this is the most important. Because politics, and the soul, and the fate of the motherland, and love are driven by irrational things.
... Makarevich for me has never been a person whose “acceptance” of power can somehow influence me. But Boris Borisovich Grebenshchikov - yes, his "acceptance" of power surprises me, of course, due to the fact that he still writes talented songs and somehow adjusts this conformism of his own, for my taste, with the prolongation of his creative possibilities. But, of course, I am outraged by things that are obvious to everyone, including Grebenshchikov and even Makarevich. Things connected with a certain taste of the blatant shamelessness of Russian politics. This taste is felt on the tongue all the time. Dmitry Bykov recently wrote that politicians in Russia have learned to say very well: “Well, yes, it is. So what?" - and look with porcelain eyes. And this “so what”, of course, revolts me. Because what does "so what" mean? What does “so what” mean if all your gestures, your elections, all your rhetoric from TV screens is so reminiscent of my, in a sense, beloved, Soviet Union. Everything that I hate about him was brought to me and placed in front of me on a huge platter. Am I supposed to eat this again? I don't want.
cut off ear
"Sovietness" in the first place is the separation of the word spoken from the deed done. And such sluggish deafness and vicious aggression when you were told who you really are. Immediately, large scissors are taken in hand and an ear, part of a finger, or something else is cut off. This, of course, is annoying, because I would like to communicate with my state, with the people representing it. I would not like to listen only to them from morning to evening. I think they should listen to me just as much as I listen to them.
I have to say some banal things, but really the attitude of the authorities towards the people is based on the principles of manipulation. On the rejection of any ideology as such, because power easily takes on any form and color - red, brown. She can even turn orange if she wants to. It can become anything, and in this sense it is extremely difficult to be in opposition to the authorities. Because power - any. The Russian intelligentsia drilled into my brain in 1991, in 1995, arguing that it was impossible to live like this. Today, I always want to get up and ask: “Okay, I agree with you, you can’t. And like this - is it possible, yes? They say: "Yes, that's how it is possible."
I have no rational hopes for any generation: neither for my own, nor for the previous one. But by and large, my generation is a generation that has passed everything. Because, due to its age, it did not have time for the era of a big redistribution. He did not have time to participate in big revolutions, he did not have time to take part in the first roles in a new type of large economy and, at best, is at the level of managers or senior managers. It is not only lost, but it is so confused, not having time to grab at least one tail. It is not as shameless as the new generation, the next one. Because even we were not such shameful members of the Komsomol.
"We do everything for the loot"
I don't even know who taught the new generation this "Komsomol". They picked it up out of thin air. They claim that they were abandoned, no one raised them, and because of this they are such freaks. And with the same porcelain eyes they say: “Yes, we are freaks. Yes, we do everything for money, but what do you want? Nobody needed us." The Komsomol members of that time, whom I so devoutly hated—relatively speaking, this is the Kirienkov-Nemtsov generation—they turned out to be much more consistent in their views than these. Because these people can be anyone - patriots, liberals... What is Nashi doing now? I honestly declare: she is engaged in the fact that she writes everything from the Limonka newspaper for the 94-95th years and pretends that she invented it all. They fight Scientologists, they say: “Ruble yes, dollar no”, they organize actions near embassies, that is, what we did fifteen years ago and already consider unnecessary, senseless and vulgar today. And they pretend with a blue eye that they themselves came up with it. Well, just, well, what to do with you guys? Tomorrow they will do completely different things...
What did this Coelho do?
What unconditional value categories can be relied upon today? God exists, the motherland is eternal, you will die.
Of course, a person is an unconditional value, and in this I stand in solidarity with the liberal community. The state is also an unconditional value, and in this I stand in solidarity with the patriotic community. Today, this is the problem. Because some people think that the state is a monster and you can't do business with it. And others say that the state is absolutely and has the right to devour anyone, and in this sense, of course, Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin is an idol and a god.
I give my children to read everything that is possible. My eldest son, who has been reading by himself, probably since the age of three, has a library that I did not have at 25. He has read everything from Pushkin, Bazhov and Aksakov to Harry Potter. Children must, on the one hand, be adapted to earthly, vital values, and on the other hand, they must be absolutely adapted socially and, in a certain sense, internationally. They should know everything that worries any teenager today on any part of the globe...
Almost all modern foreign writers seem to me to be tired human material. I would talk to Coelho, how did he manage to compose this hu...nu and put the whole world on it. That's what I would ask him. I am sincerely convinced that literary success is determined not so much by texts as by human life. Consistency and honesty in all your actions determines your success. Not even a position, but behavior - a relationship with women, with children. So I would ask Coelho, what did he do, bitch, that the whole world reads him, and this is such a ... shit that it’s impossible to come up with ...
