"I catch a buzz from music"

Yuri Shevchuk: "To be a citizen in our country is worth greater strength" (full version of the interview)

Yuryev day. On September 2, on the territory of the All-Russian Exhibition Center, Yuri Shevchuk and the DDT group gave a concert in support of the preservation of the historical and architectural monuments of Moscow. Yuri Shevchuk, who previously spoke with such shares exclusively in St. Petersburg (there he held several concerts against elite development and participated in the “Mark of the Disagent”) and reached the main capital. The current action is the second in Moscow after last year's concert "Do not shoot!" In the Olympic, which was directed against the war in Georgia and Ossetia.
Why did the famous St. Petersburg rocker turn his eyes to Moscow and is he going to engage in politics professionally - he recognized The New Times

Why was such a strange platform chosen for the concert - the VVC?
There is such a person - Seryozha Morozov, who at one time shot us a clip for the song “In the Last Autumn”. He is a native Muscovite, thoroughbred. The artist Repin even wrote a portrait of his grandfather - the composer. In general, my good old friend, fries the best scrambled eggs in your city. (Laughs). We sometimes stop with him when there is no money, and in the morning he prepares breakfast for us. And so he reduced us with the new Directorate of the All -Russian Central Executive Committee - very good guys turned out to be very good. Unlike the old administration - which turned the territory into the market, destroyed everything, stole and sold Gagarin and the first Soviet satellite with a helmet - the new one is gathering, contrary to all his obstacles, the VVC to revive. They asked us to support this idea - without any pathos and barricades there.

The word "revive" is a little scary. What do the new owners understand by it?
Suppose one of their projects is to create the All -Russian Center for Folk Crossings on the territory of the All -Russian Central Executive Committee. Open the workshops so that the people there are to study crafts there. They have already given the hippodrome and the equestrian pavilion to the famous equestrian theater Kantemirov - he will arrange his own performances there. They also want to build a platform for extreme sports, pavilions that are in terrible condition, lease theaters and museums, and make the entrance to the territory round -the -clock. There are a lot of ideas. At the same time, the directorate wants to completely maintain the architectural appearance of the ATC. This is the most important thing. I am already like a parrot, in all interviews, I repeat: you can’t ruin history. After all, she is not only in the Kremlin or Hermitage, she is in any landscape architecture, in any perspective, preserved from past years. It is necessary to protect it and restore it. And it is better to even preserve, as in Venice or in Rome.

Is there any visible result from your shares? I don't know about the visible, but I feel the increased attention to the problem from people

You have launched the most active activity in St. Petersburg. Are you already familiar with Valentina Matvienko?
A sign, only a little sense. I was a sign with Yakovlev, from which the destruction of the city began. Recently, we are only doing that we are fighting with the administration. It is incredible, what is happening on Nevsky. Last year, six historical buildings were cut down under the root in some two months. You come with a tour, go out to the avenue, bam - but there are no houses! And no one asked anyone. Of course, we, like many Petersbuzians, stood on our hinders. Therefore, there were rallies, and concerts, and collection of signatures. As a result, at least something was achieved. The historical part of the city is determined, which will be untouchable. True, she turned out to be twice as much as we demanded: to Ligovsky Prospekt - then do what you want. Nevertheless, it is already good that for the first time in many years in St. Petersburg, at least some rudiments of civil society appeared. People began to understand that if they did not constantly blame, then this corrupt bureaucracy, the shmariy, in a compartment with aggressive construction companies, would simply infuse them alive. There will be such a huge bulldozer exhibition. So I look at Moscow - and I understand that everything is already. The capital, as a historical city, we almost lost.

Your previous Moscow action called "Don't shoot!" was dedicated to the war in Ossetia. You yourself were in Tskhinvali?
Was right in August 2008. For me, that war is two grandfathers. I met one near our peacekeeping base, which, of course, suffered greatly, and people died. Next to her was a private sector, which was also fired by a “hail” from the Georgian side. And this Ossetian grandfather showed me his completely destroyed house, on which he laid his whole life, burned beds with tomatoes of a terrible, lead-gray color. And he cried non -stop. And the second grandfather is Georgian. He was pulled out by my friends, the “centrospasovites” from under the destroyed house in one of the Georgian villages of Ossetia. After all, the horror was also happening there: the villages were bombed indiscriminately, they robbed people, beaten to half death. And this unfortunate grandfather, crippled, lost everything, showed me his orders. He has two orders of glory, he took Berlin, understand?! Such two grandfathers. Therefore, "Do not shoot!"

Nevertheless, most of your colleagues accepted the action with hostility. Here is a quote from an interview with Konstantin Kinchev: “I fully support the actions of the Russian leadership to provide fraternal assistance to the Ossetian people, who could disappear as an ethnic group. And Shevchuk’s position for me looks blurry and populist. To whom "do not shoot!"? To whom is this addressed? Do not shoot - in the sense of not help, do not save, do not hold out a helping hand? "
I would just suggest that Kostya read more, watch, think, and most importantly - to be in hot spots myself.
Does it not happen?
No. He completely trusts the patriotic, in quotation marks, the media, like the first channel, and on the basis of their news makes ridiculous, I would say, conclusions

And what happened to him? He was a free -thinking person.
Well, he was - and swam. Let's not discuss this, I do not want to break away. He has his own opinion - and God forbid him health. There is such a saying: "Smart people discuss ideas, stupid - neighbors." About the concert "Don't shoot!" I can say that he was not, of course, directed against Russian soldiers. When the massacre had already begun, it was necessary to protect both them and civilians. We talked about something else: in the war in Ossetia we lost everything, and first of all, our policy. Why do you really need a policy? So that there is no blood! Our foreign policy has been working only in recent years only to ruin relations with all neighbors at the end. We reacted completely inadequately even to some little things. Yes, in Georgia, too, those “peacekeepers” are sitting, like Misha Saakashvili. But I saw: we did not try to prevent the war at all - we, on the contrary, waited for her, increased evil in ourselves. At the same time, we did not solve any problems with this war at all, but it got worse! We received another smoldering bonfire, which at any moment can flare up with even greater force. And this is not the only example. Take Ingushetia. The 95th year, Chechnya, the massacre is simply terrible-and nearby a completely peaceful republic, which was not involved in any war, as it seems to me-thanks to Aushev and its competent policy. And look that in Ingushetia now is a nightmare! Almost all stores are closed, they are burned with Wahhabis, all this local aggressive youth. In some places you can’t just go out into the street-either you will get a bullet, or you will be burned alive. The terrible situation was organized in some two or three years. And this is also the result of our policy. Instead of solving problems in the mind, we close them with small victorious wars, shaking imperial fists, we beat ourselves in the chest - what cool we are!

Surely you know such a saying: "Each nation deserves the ruler whom he deserves." Doesn't it seem to you that we have the same aggressive people for the most part?
Well, yes, we have people - slaves, dark, not educated, and so on. Chaadaev wrote about this very brightly and juicy. And Pushkin generally said: "The only European with us, with education, with brains, is the king." And I agree with this - little has changed. But I do not agree with another. If such a situation is why our central television channels (and the box is now the king and God) do not engage in enlightenment, do not promote humanism, good? Why are there no attempts to educate these dark people? Instead, constant anger is broadcast, the watches of the observers are only engaged in the fact that they incite enmity, pour mud on all neighbors with mud. Why is there not even this cat on the air who says: "Guys let's live together?" This is also a policy.

Have you ever thought to engage in politics professionally?
I don’t know ... I already have enough of it above the roof. I have always said that it is even a citizen in our country that is even a citizen. And then - while the songs are written, music is composed, until the Lord has taken my voice from me - it would be monstrously wrong to cheat all this. Still, everyone should do their own business. Unfortunately or fortunately, I am not Mahatma Gandhi and not Che Guevara. I still catch a buzz from music. We rehearse six hours a day, and this is my favorite pastime.

But you lose your grip. Today, your new song called "New Russia" sounded at the concert. Let me quote a fragment:
“She does not know who she hates.
He does not understand where the truth is, where is a lie.
She craves bread and spectacles.
She's rude - why a fork and knife? " (She is Russia. - Approx. The New Times)
Do you think this is poetry?
Of course not. This text is poster, in the forehead. I understand everything. My friends with good artistic taste generally pound me for such things. But in this case, I did not chase aesthetics, but specifically wanted to speak out clearly and directly. The new program that we run is in general will be social. Such a life came, I suddenly felt that it was not necessary to say, not metaphorically, but easier to clearly and clearly determine some things. It was such a task that I set myself when I wrote this song.

And to whom is it addressed?
Still young people.

Do you doubt the mental abilities of youth?
God forbid. But at the same time, we must understand that we are not only playing in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Now we’ll go to Magadan, there people know what you are used to? Far from the Radiohead group. And my goal now is to explain everything to them in the most simple language.