Translated material
And don't ever call me again
When you call complete strangers, there is a high probability that you will be shouted at. Sometimes this really happens. The list of people I called at work and who sent me is not very long, but I remember all these names well.
I came to PublicPost as a middle-aged introvert. Talking on the phone with strangers was extremely difficult for me. I was shy, but gradually I learned.
The hardest thing was to call Mikhail Boyarsky. This soft hoarseness, the intonations familiar from childhood... “canal... a thousand devils...” and all that. Mikhail Sergeevich turned out to be a sensible interlocutor - he figuratively and fearlessly answered why it is worth supporting Putin in the elections, explained in detail why a confidant is hiding under his famous hat, clarified his position, as they say. True, I was very worried, was I a prankster? There are pranksters who harass celebrities over the phone.
I remember a lot! Oh, how much I remember!
I remember the time when Navalny stopped answering the phone, but had not yet created a press secretary and sometimes responded if you sent him an SMS.
I remember Limonov’s ferocious falsetto (the old man always felt if he was being “pressured” in a conversation, and he really didn’t like it).
I remember the cozy and detailed muttering of Deputy Burmatov, who has his own point of view on any issue of existence and is always ready to express it.
I remember characters with whom I did not want to talk under any circumstances. In such cases, my colleagues and I drew lots. Sometimes completely innocent questions led to metaphysical abysses full of horror and despair. Fortunately, this didn't happen often.
PublicPost survived for almost two years. During this time, the country has changed, turned upside down, if not everything, then almost everything. We started with the first wave of protests, we were everywhere and always, we were one of the first to launch text broadcasts from actions, be it the “ White Ring ” or “ Occupy Abay ”. The last broadcast we broadcast was the Kirovles trial , and it was a pretty hellish experience: cheerful posters at rallies were replaced by the monotonous muttering of prosecutors, which, it seems to me, will not subside for a long time. I don’t want to deal with political news yet. On the other hand, we have nothing left except them.