I want to quote him

Following the deaths of Yeltsin and Gaidar, the death of Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin is that it finally converts to us the political era of the 1990s into a historical one. Now this era has finally gone the past - not only “physically”, but also psychologically.

Chernomyrdin headed the government in December 1992, and in the then Kaleidoscope of appointments and resignations, no one perceived him as a person who actually determines (himself and his policy) of the 90s-a decade of the most violent public transformation in our memory. No one expected that he would last a long time, he was perceived more like a temporary compromise. Meanwhile, Chernomyrdin worked as the prime minister until March 1998, and back in August of the same year, after the financial crisis and subsequent resignation of the government, Kiriyenko was appointed acting chairman of the government - although it was not supported by the Duma.

Of course, in the political sense, the 90s was, first of all, the Yeltsin (and, oddly enough, largely Gaidar) era than Chernomyrda. Chernomyrdin - with his practical mind and common sense - rather played the role of a kind of stabilizer from too sharp movements and throwing , which could be expected then almost every second, at every historical fork. But this role in that event, which was saturated with events, turned out to be quite in demand - even more sharp improvisations than those that were then, the system simply could not withstand.

The highest peak of the political independence of Viktor Stepanovich, perhaps, was that short historical moment (in November 1996), when Yeltsin for almost a day, during the operation on aorto -hunkering, the presidential powers transferred to Black Semser. Of course, this was a purely formal act, which is only important from a purely psychological point of view - barely coming into consciousness, Yeltsin, as they say, croaked “Decree!” (about the return to him of the fullness of the power) - and Chernomyrdin ceased to be. O. president. But nevertheless, for this short time, power was transferred to him, and this at that time, with its greater deficit of trust in the political system, was not so trivial.

Chernomyrdin enjoyed the trust of Yeltsin, and in general justified this trust. If Yeltsin took responsibility in a peculiar way-so sometimes it seemed that it would be better not to take it-then Chernomyrdin still coped with the solution of problems not always successful, but not a failure. This was especially noticeable in acute moments, as in 1995, when Chernomyrdin led the political movement “Our House - Russia” (the next, as unsuccessful as the previous ones, attempts to create a “party in power” in New Russia) or during telephone negotiations with terrorists who seized the hospital in Budennovsk. It’s not that Viktor Stepanovich after that had nothing to blame - the shaft of criticism, and in many respects fair, was then heard from all sides - but it was not very clear that the principle, within the framework of his capabilities, could be done better then.

It seems to some paradox that the years that Chernomyrdin's reign had been the worst years in relation to the oil and gas conjuncture. Chernomyrdin has always been perceived as a representative of the oil and gas complex in the Russian government , which is not surprising - back in Soviet times, he, as it is customary to express, “went” from a locksmith at the oil refinery to the USSR Minister of gas - the path is really considerable. Later, the ministry was actually renamed (at first without any structural changes) to the Gazprom concern, and this happened with the direct participation of Chernomyrdin, which became his first chairman of the board. “What is good for Gazprom, it’s good for Russia,” Chernomyrdin once said, paraphrasing a well-known American expression-but this slogan was realized in the 2000s, when Gazprom turned almost into the freezer of our statehood. At low oil and gas prices in the 90s, it was still impossible.

The resignation of Chernomyrdin in the spring of 1998 struck like a thunder in the middle of a clear sky - just when everyone had already begun to get used to the idea that Viktor Stepanovich at the head of the government was almost forever. As usual, nothing was explained at the same time, and only later it became clear that Yeltsin thought about finding the successor, and decided to implement this search in the most radical experimental way - through the change of young politicians at the premiere’s post and checking everyone in the case. In 1998, it was still few people who were still clear - and Chernomyrdin as well. The memory retained the political caricature of that time - a politician put up from the office and as a farewell gesture - the order on his back, with a presidential hand. The resignation of this style was preserved by Chernomyrdin after that, apparently, for many years, but Yeltsin, it seems, simply did not know how to do otherwise. He had an ordinary manner of manner for any resignation - put a signature under the document, after which a person simply ceased to exist for him.

The experience of Chernomyrdin was no longer in demand after that, he changed his sphere of activity and took up international relations, which was a clearly peripheral sphere for him. At the same time, however, in the settlement of the crisis in the Balkans in 1999, and for many years of work as an ambassador in Ukraine, he still proved himself brightly, his activity attracted attention and remembered. It even came to the point that in February last year the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry issued him a warning - that “according to the Vienna Convention on diplomatic intercourse,” he can be declared Persona Non Grata. The reason for this was the following statements (in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda): “You cannot agree with this Ukrainian leadership. Other people will come - we’ll see ... Be sure to come, normal. ” Viktor Yushchenko, according to him: “He did not fall from the sky. It looks like a normal man. He draws such a warehouse, collects the shards. He can walk around some kind of hemp for three hours, examine him, fantasize. At home he picked up this - mills, millstones, to huge ones! I drove windmills in Kyiv ... ”Apparently, these characteristics seemed to the country's orange leadership too free and free. The threat of the announcement of the ambassador by Persona Non Grat, however, did not work too much on Viktor Stepanovich , as he put it then: “They scared the woman with high heels with high -heeled shoes. This does not bother me, I'm not in that rank to scare me. "

The figurative language of Chernomyrdin is a topic, perhaps, for a separate philological study. None of the other Russian politician and statesman, the humor, was so organically felled into language fabric. Not a single obituary will now do without the famous Chernomyrda aphorisms that mix us, no matter how sad the reason, by which we remember them: “And whoever tries to interfere, we know about them in the face! True, you can’t call it a face there! ” Or: “We were, there are and we will. Only this is being done now ”(in response to the question whether the NDR movement is going to self -expand in connection with poor forecasts in the elections to the State Duma). “In Yugoslavia, a disaster. Disaster is always bad! " “Everyone says that they are dissatisfied with the results of privatization, and I am unhappy, and not saying.” “For the first time in many years, a reduction in the reset of livestock is noted.” "Yes, and I won, in my saddle of the premier - only the wind in the ears." "Zyuganov, speaking somewhere on Sunday at some meeting or meeting, he also allowed the unacceptable." “In any language, I can speak with everyone, but I try not to use this tool.” "They did not see this, and here again!" Viktor Stepanovich I want to quote endlessly.

This peculiar humor in difficult for everyone-both for the people and the government-the times of the 90s brought a completely special note to the then perception of power-it was impossible to imagine from the lips of Gaidar or Yeltsin . And a living folk memory will remain about this - when much more will be forgotten. Let this humor be close to such a specific “surgical” black humor - well, then the authorities then had to do a surgical operation, without anesthesia. Of course, of course, there could not be a substitute for this anesthesia, of course, but still it was somehow easier with him.