Anatoly Bershtein: “Who are the leaders?”

"...this is a “trumpet” if Ksenia Sobchak is ahead on a dashing horse. But what about respected cultural figures, representatives of the intelligentsia? Well, Akunin, Parfenov, Bykov are tired - they are creative people. They are not ready to put their books and television projects on the political altar . This is clear. And who replaced them? “That’s where it all ended.” According to Kharms, there are no more active figures on the political horizon. out of solidarity, I’m not a politician and I’m not going to study political literacy..." Oh, how few famous intelligent people are in our civil life who are not part-time. They are still mostly on the sidelines. They are apolitical, genetically insufficiently courageous. They are, as it were, " against", but not "with". They are from the USSR, they know the rules of the game, they do not go beyond the flags.
Hope is only for the young. Let us take a closer look at their leaders. Udaltsov, Navalny... with dubious ideas, Gudkov, Ponomarev... with parliamentary mandates, plus nationalists and several Soviet dissidents. Not too much. There are some local, network leaders, of course. And so all the hostages of the commanders of the “international brigades” - the same Yashin, Udaltsov, Navalny..., Thor, Potkin. Under red, red-black and black-yellow flags. ...So, what am I talking about? The Russian intelligentsia is old and cowardly. Yes, there are liberal journalists..., but basically, today’s white-ribbon youth have been “thrown away.” More precisely, they did not support en masse - they did not come, for example, to the same “folk festivals”, so as to use their authority to prevent the riot police from rampaging, disgracing the honor of the uniform and our city. They got excited in their blogs and in their kitchens. That's all. Where are Matsuev, Spivakov, Mironov, Khamatova? Oh, they are Putin’s confidants. Where is Makarevich, Yarmolnik...? They supported Prokhorov. Where is Prokhorov?.. I don’t blame anyone in any way. I'm like that myself. But I feel sorry for those who become hostages of Udaltsov and Nemtsov. And there are no other leaders on the horizon. No Mahatma Gandhi. No Martin Luther King. No Vaclav Havel. Not even Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Joschka Fischer. Yes, in fact, there are no French people and no French students. And why all?..”