Plague barracks, forever beloved

Bykov is upset by the dictatorship of nonentities, which, as he believes, "turns into mass corruption." From what? Chernenko was replaced by Gorbachev...

I have two texts in front of me: "Scale and Vector" by Mikhail Epstein, published in "NG-exlibris", and Dmitry Bykov's answer "Plague and Distemper", published in "Novaya". I understand the thoughts expressed by the author of The Independent. I am unable to comprehend what Bykov said. For example: “No one likes the Soviet Union today,” and you immediately rub your eyes in amazement: that is, how is it - no one? ..

I have two texts in front of me: "Scale and Vector" by Mikhail Epstein, published in "NG-exlibris", and Dmitry Bykov's answer "Plague and Distemper", published in "Novaya". I understand the thoughts expressed by the author of The Independent. I am unable to comprehend what Bykov said.

For example: “No one likes the Soviet Union today,” and you immediately rub your eyes in amazement: that is, how is it - no one?

Putin himself has been mourning for years the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century. His press secretary speaks of stagnation and its creator with great warmth. On the other hand, the irreconcilable Limonov, who once sang of the "great era", never renounced his National Bolshevik ideology. The glorious Soviet past from the young scout Isaev to the chicks of Andropov's nest is a trend and brand of numerous television series. Yes, and the people in Runet are still not tired of vilifying the "crap" who ruined the "great country".

Like the Soviet Union and the author of "The Plague".

But here again is a mystery. As Bykov rightly writes, the USSR has many faces. And if you follow the logic of the text, then the “first-rate dictatorship” is Stalin, and everything that happened afterward is more like Putin. Moreover, the “epoch of great evil” gave birth to “whole generations of fighters against this evil, and first-class fighters,” in contrast to the “epoch of semi-freedom,” which gave rise to “semi-generations.” And all because "absolute evil ... causes a desire to fight." Whereas "semi-freedom" interferes with moral self-determination.

That is, the country, shot, dispossessed and singing marches, brought up first-class fighters. Unlike thaw Russia, with its half-truths about the horrors of Stalinism. Well, yes, the most courageous fighters come out of the concentration camp.

Perhaps another explanation. The generation of dissidents was the generation of children who read Khrushchev's report at the 20th Congress. However, this picture does not correspond to the historical truth either. All Soviet generations were conformist, and we learned about the heroes who went to the square only because the regime had grown decrepit and did not shoot dissenters on the spot. Plus technological progress. Western radio voices have become a powerful source of information since the 1960s.

In general, it is not clear what era Dmitry Lvovich praises if he has Vysotsky, Sakharov, Bulgakov, Grossman on the same list. If all in a crowd, then the announcement of the full list will become a sad synodic of the tortured, trampled, drunken with despair ... at best - those who left, but there are also enough brilliant losers like Belinkov and suicides - like Yakobson. If he compares the timelessness of the 70s with the current era of total badminton, then he contradicts himself. Although the comparison is quite legitimate.

As for foreign experience - Thomas Mann mentioned by Bykov, the German classic émigré after the war wrote in a well-known address to Walter von Molo: “I have a feeling that books that could have been printed in Germany from 1933 to they are worth nothing... The smell of shame and blood is inseparable from them, they should be put into waste paper en masse.” Which, of course, would be unfair to Soviet literature, in which the smell of blood is inseparable from the smell of flowers breaking through the asphalt.

In general, if we talk about the German experience, which is of interest to us, then the period of “first-class dictatorship” in this country has long been studied and damned. The generation of fathers in the eyes of children was never able to wash off their red-brown past. Some of the children, having deeply comprehended the precious experience of first-class fighters, were carried away by left-wing terror. However, direct analogies are not entirely correct: the Germans were defeated, and we defeated ourselves. But it is possible to compare, suppressing a heavy sigh, the modern German society with the Russian one.

Bykov is upset by the dictatorship of nonentities, which, as he believes, "turns into mass corruption." From what? Chernenko was replaced by Gorbachev, and then society and power, which seemed to be in a state of irreversible insanity, suddenly became human before our eyes. So, it's not about what the leader leaves behind - mountains of corpses or a pile of historical reports. And the fact that a Russian person gratefully responds to this sweet word - "freedom". True, it is very easy to fool his head, as history shows, and to assure him that with a noose around his neck he lived more fun. Mikhail Epstein calls it "totalgia". I would, following Bykov, talk about cyclicity. The cyclicity of unconsciousness, from which many of our troubles.