Cultural conversation about the "Basics"

Two presidential councils discuss what the "Fundamentals of the State Cultural Policy of Russia" will be

Members of the two presidential councils - on human rights and culture - will devote today's meeting to discuss the draft program "Fundamentals of State Cultural Policy". The document was prepared by the working group, headed by the head of the Russian Presidential Administration, Sergei Ivanov and is currently submitted for public discussion.

This is the formal side of the event. But there are many other issues of completely informal ones that require attention. The head of the Permanent Commission on Cultural Rights of the Presidential Council of Human Rights Daniil Dondura is going to be on them.

Daniil Dondury

- It seems to me that this meeting has direct goals and indirect ones. The direct goal is obvious - to conduct a public discussion of the topic at the request of the president, since today it is fashionable and important to consult with society. And if the cultural basis of state policy was created, at least in one of its versions, it would be nice to put a checkmark and report ... Since the next element of development of this will be the creation of a culture law. That is, it is a direct order. As for the true meaning, it seems to me that it is very useful today to use any format and any opportunity to talk about the cultural programming of modern Russian life. The true meaning for me is to declare that our culture is understood viciously, very narrowly, only as a sphere of artistic or permanent life, as some space subordinate to the Ministry of Culture, and not at all as a way of making broadcasts, assimilation of life, creating some values and goals, and realizing them. Therefore, the fact itself is important - at least to utter these issues under the guise of public interest, to ask and put them.

The current composition of the Council for Culture and Art raises a large number of issues, since some of those who are part of this council, for objective reasons, cannot actively participate in its activities. In addition, unlike the HRCs, the Council on Culture almost does not attempt to protect cultural figures from the problems arising in connection with their political position. Member of the Council of Rights, a person, TV presenter and historian Nikolai Svanidze is sure that, despite many contradictions, such meetings and discussions are needed and useful.

Nikolai Svanidze

-Firstly, it is always better even with a very weak hope of dialogue to talk to each other, like a mouse on a cereal. It is always useful to listen to each other. Secondly, in this case, I think that you can agree to something, because there are also different people, and you can try to influence them. Eliminate incorrectly. They carry water to the offended. I think such meetings are still useful.

Recent events forced to talk about the pressure of policy on culture, about the emergence of forbidden topics. The censorship scandal led to the boycott of the book festival in Moscow, experts from the military-historical society refused the scenario of Peter Todorovsky “Meeting on Elbe”, the Ministry of Culture refused to issue a rental certificate to the film Hussein Erkenov “It was ordered to forget ” about the deportation of Chechens, such a fate may expect the tape of one of the laureates of the Cannes Festival of Andrei Zvyagintsev "Leviathan ". The question of the fact that censorship is becoming a reality, it is necessary to discuss, according to Nikolai Svanidze, a member of the Human Rights Council.

Not at all they come up with this, they receive orders from above

- And the return of censorship, and the general tonality that the Ministry of Culture has chosen recently, and the general ideological tonality in our country recently does not depend on whether professionals are sitting in the Ministry of Culture or not. In general, they do not come up with this, they receive orders from above. And I think that they could be more educated, less educated, but we are talking about trend, and this trend is quite definite, unfortunately.

Today's censorship is not so much dictated by political expediency as the stupidity of officials from culture. This is the opinion of the head of the Commission on Cultural Rights of the Presidential Council of Human Rights Daniil Dondurey.

The official can prohibit the play about pillows, but he cannot forbid hundreds of thousands of texts, visual information, films

-We can only talk about some trend and actions in this direction. We, and in particular, thanks to my age, lived in a situation of censorship. In a situation of censorship, which concerns millions of cases a day when neither Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, nor Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, nor Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev and the mouse will not run. Today, not only mice run, but there are individual cases that show only greed, often the stupidity of people who do not understand how culture is arranged and want to get to be okay, since loyalty is a very important capital for the official. This is all mostly coming from officials, and the official is trying to show something to his employers. But he is not powerful, since new technologies, new civilization, new cultural prescriptions, the country's new integration into world contexts does not allow. The official can prohibit the play about pillows, but he cannot ban hundreds of thousands of texts, visual information, films. This is about the same as thinking that in Russia some situations can be prohibited when obscene vocabulary is used. This is Naiv, who also has a task - to report on time and put a box of “we stir,” says Daniil Dondurey.

It is expected that in addition to members of the two presidential councils, cultural figures, representatives of public and creative organizations, as well as the head of the Russian Ministry of Culture Vladimir Medinsky, will take part in the discussion.