"Only we, Georgians, can so"

The Ukrainian crisis barely struck, it became clear: the famous “Republic of Kazantip” in the new, Russian Crimea will most likely be refused. So it happened. After that, the leadership of the festival decided to hold it in the city of Anaklia, on the very border of Georgia and Abkhazia. About what came of it - in the report of The NEW Times

In fact, everything was decided even before the festival-from August 20 to 30-found out the population of Georgia: the organizers received all the necessary sanctions of the Georgian authorities, and managed to spend several million dollars on the “preparation of the event”. Nevertheless, there were no surprises: the news of the festival gave rise to a wave of protest. Moreover, such a force that the fate of the Georgian “Kazantip” instantly was under a big question.

"No drugs, no sex"

In response to the first wave of protest, emanating from the clergy, the founder of the “Republic of Kazantip” Nikita Marshunok was forced to amend the regional regulations, saying that “this year there will be neither drugs nor free sex in Anaklia, but there will be sound, lighting, good mood and love”. However, it was not so easy to calm the guardians of moral purity.

On July 25, the Patriarch of All Georgia Elijah II made an official statement, in which he called the Republic of Kazantip with debauchery, and the invasion “into a blessed country storing the robes of the Mother of God” - “violent imposition of sin”. The strict warning of the Patriarch sounded like this: “Do not take part in this event, because this entails serious consequences for both the country as a whole and for individual citizens.”

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“We will not let you turn Georgia into Sodom and Gomorrah!”, “Kazantip is debauchery!”, “We will not allow the corruption of our youth!”

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The last words looked almost like a threat, since all “individual citizens” remember the last year’s incident between the church and representatives of sexual minorities, which made it clear to everyone that could happen if your actions do not fit into the framework of the “only-kind religion”, Orthodoxy. (May 18, 2013, on the International Day of Protection of the Rights of Sexual Minorities, a dozen Georgian gays decided to loudly declare to the main square of Tbilisi about their existence. But on the same day, about 20 thousand armed with stools of priests, outraged by this “group of perverts.” The Georgian gays then saved the Tbilisi police).

Against this background, the news of the holding of Kazantip in Georgia sounded like a thunder among a clear sky. The statement of the patriarchate was followed by the speeches of individual clergymen. “Kazantip is a Satanic ritual, and his chef is a magician, they will make our youth bow to Satan!” - they repeated. For this reason, the clergy considered it necessary to disrupt the festival, "even if there is no debauchery."

"Fourth power" against those in power

It would seem that everything is clear: not to be Kazantip in Georgia. But then the population of Anaklia intervened in events. Locals gave a serious rebuff to the clergy. “When we had nothing to eat, they did not remember us, and now, when we had a chance to earn money, they threaten to disrupt everything. If the priests come here, we will cut them! ” - residents of Anaklia were indignant. And this position is not amazing, since many residents of Anaklia previously took loans to convert their homes, making them suitable for tourists.

Despite this, a week before the start of the festival, believers from Tbilisi and the priests nevertheless paid a visit to Anaclia. The matter did not reach excesses: the police blocked the road and did not let the “guests” “sprinkle the city with holy water”. But the latter was not the only intention of visitors. On their posters it was possible to read: “We will not let you turn Georgia into soda and Gomorrah!”, “Kazantip” is debauchery! ”,“ We ​​will not allow the corruption of our youth! ”.

The priests who came to “save Anaclius from evil spirits” behaved quite militarily, threatened journalists, demanded the expulsion of Nikita Marshunov from the country of Kazantip. In response to this, Marshunov once again promised that he would personally take care that there was no “debauchery” and invited priests as observers. But he could not fulfill his promise ...

"Do you want sex - come to Kazantip!"

SMS of this content received part of Georgian citizens shortly before the festival. Nikita Marshunov categorically rejected the version that such messages come from the leadership of the Republic.

Be that as it may, the festival started. On August 20, musicians from 160 countries of the world came to Kazantip (including Ricardo Vallolobus, Guy Herber, Sonja and many other famous performers). Together with 300 DJs, as well as lighting specialists and expensive special effects, they began to entertain the arrived guests, as well as fearless Georgians, who, despite the prospects promised by priests, still decided to break away “in full” after death. And although 21365 Georgian and Ukrainian girls previously registered at the festival (from whom they did not charge a “visa” fee in the “republic” in the amount of $ 200 - 250), there were not many guests as the organizers suggest. Instead of 40 thousand people who were expected from Ukraine and other countries, much fewer guests came to the festival.

The reason, perhaps, the news was widespread on the Internet that tourists are arrested in anaclia for “smoking of grass”, as well as for “indecent behavior”, etc. YouTube appeared a video in which Moscow girls said “what was actually happening in the Georgian Kazantype”: they say, Kazantip is not the same, “there is nothing before, you can’t do anything here, you can’t do anything here, you can’t lie on. Asphalt, the police pester and scold people, and Georgian men hunt for us for a day, so we are forced to fight back, and they are angry and screaming. ” In general, Russian girls on Kazantip “it’s so boring, because there’s not even“ cherry secret ”here, everything is expensive, much more expensive than in the best Moscow restaurants, but here restaurants, I must say, are not the best ... No one knows who Jim Morrison is ... where is freedom, that freedom that always pleased everyone on Kazantip? Where is freedom, where is happiness? "

"Nikita, what have you done to Kazantip?" - the guests of the festival exclaimed desperately, paying considerable money for tickets to Georgia. Meanwhile, Nikita, in all likelihood, was hard, since he only did that that every day he made new initiatives, how to make a cauldip more decent. His statements every day became more and more “Kazantipic”, up to the point that he spoke about the “purity of Georgian traditions”. “The government of Kazantip,” he said from a high rostrum, “against immoral behavior that offends the original traditions of Georgia.”

In order to reconcile the spirit of Kazantip with Georgian traditions, Nikita - in cooperation with the Georgian authorities - it was necessary to take measures that were not heard over the 22 years of the festival: more than 1000 police officers who “strictly controlled the situation” were placed on the territory of the Republic. All the funs with which this festival traditionally abounds (naval battle, the war with paints, the war pillows, etc.), the guests of Anaklia had to engage in sober condition.

Meanwhile, God did not postpone the punishment “for the desecration of the Holy Land” and began to immediately use punitive measures. In any case, it seemed to the monk to John Medlishvili, who stated that less than twelve hours after the opening of this “disgusting festival”, as an avalanche fell in the Daryal Gorge, which, in his opinion, was nothing more than “surgical intervention of higher forces in earthly affairs”.

Well, how could it be not to intervene with heavenly forces when gay pairs at the festival began to make marriages? Even Nikita Marshunov could not interfere with this, because According to the fifteenth paragraph of the “Constitution of the Republic” on its territory, “love is welcomed in any of its manifestations.” The republic traditionally provides love couples with the services of "quick marriage." "May the Lord bless your union!" - Recorded in the Constitution.

Unexpected revolution

Kazantip in Georgia was not destined to “spread the wings”, but for Georgia this festival turned out to be a kind of litmus paper. For the first time in the history of the country, priests appeared who condemned not “debauchery”, but the church itself. "If you do not want Kazantypes," forget about expensive jeeps! " - The monk Ilya Vashakidze spoke with such an initiative: “There is nothing to condemn the cauldrop when we ourselves in sins - we write the icons of Stalin and living people to the saints. If you follow your logic, then everything must be closed - and the Philharmonic, and the circus, and theaters. Completely fucked up! "

In the days of the Festival "Republic of Kazantip" became the main theme of the Republic of Georgia: it was discussed on the street, in offices, in beauty salons. The statements were made by politicians and businessmen. For example, the famous millionaire Levan Vasadze in the country was among the organizers of the action against Kazantip, and the TV presenter Inga Grigolia was indignant that the festival turned out to be “wrong”. Original thoughts sounded. Political Salome Zurabishvili, the leader of the Georgian Way, saw immorality not in sexual excesses, but in the fact that Ukrainians came to the festival - “instead of protecting the country”, as well as in the fact that the Russian, that is, “invaders” held the festival.

As a result, Kazantip nevertheless divided Georgia into two irreconcilable camps.

The boundaries of freedom in Georgian. Instead of the afterword

“Kazantip” provided the Georgians with an occasion to think about the issues of freedom, about democratic values, about the boundaries of morality and infinitely immoral. And about the role of the Church in everyday life.

At the end of the eighties of the last century, there were about a hundred churches in Georgia, and out of the four -million population of the country, about four hundred thousand were members of the party. If you add about the same amount to this, four hundred thousand Komsomol members, it turns out that each family had at least one of her member in the party. Acting militant atheism.

But only ten years passed, and the situation has changed dramatically. But the background of total devastation, dismantling of factories and factories (parts of which were exported to Turkey, where they were handed over to scrap metal), in each village, in each district the temples of God were built.

Today in Georgia there are more than a thousand existing churches, and atheists or simply “neutral” citizens look as white crows that the religious population seemed until the very end of the eighties. Countless religious holidays successfully replaced the “holy holidays” of the communist era, on May 1 and November 7, and overnight they became the same generally accepted and mandatory. In modern Georgia, the presence of church holidays is secretly considered a necessity, which is almost impossible to dismiss, since this will cause serious suspicions even among loved ones. They do not joke with attitude to religion in Georgia, because it threatens with excommunication from society.

Despite this, democratic institutions of power are quite developed in the country. The greatest merit of the reign of Shevarnadze and Saakashvili can be considered that the country's concepts of “democracy” and “human rights” have become the same unconditional criticism of categories that the dogma of “unity and trinity of God” can be classified in the Christian world.

“Kazantip” provided the Georgians with an occasion to think about the issues of freedom, about democratic values, about the boundaries of morality and infinitely immoral. And about the role of the Church in everyday life.

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The consciousness of the average Georgian is bifurcated today, more than ever. On the one hand, he recognizes the church as a higher authority. And the church continuously tries to teach Georgians that virtue is not the freedom of personality, but humility.

On the other hand, there is another “latest Georgian religion” (judging by the strength of its impact on the consciousness of the masses). This is European integration and democratic values.

The intransigence of these two religions, as a rule, is not realized. As a result of this, in the head of the average Georgian, as a rule, there is a belief that “democracy is mandatory”, and the belief that everything that threatens the “faith of the ancestors” somehow must be mercilessly exterminated.

This conflict, it doesn’t matter whether it is realized or not, is heated every year and becomes more tangible. The mass passion for religion in the nineties of the last century arose as a protest against no longer dominant, but quite boring materialism.

At the beginning of our century, a conflict appeared between the so -called “identity that threatened to take away” and the irreversibility of globalization. This conflict to this day remains relevant. In Georgia, you can still hear a phrase that, if you translate it literally, sounds like this: "Our weight is taken away from us!" What does this mean specifically, no one knows. And maybe for this reason over the past decades, the Georgian Church has turned into the only symbol of identity, that is, what needs to be protected and preserved.

The intimidated eccentric and strange “freedom” of the times of Saakashvili, who tried to introduce Western democracy using extremely oriental methods, Georgia found a pier in a good smile of the church patriarch of Catholicos Elijah II, whose rating has been exceeding the ratings of politicians for a year.

And now the rights of the clergy are not limited: the police and even the supreme state power are retreating to their authority. According to the “Concordat”, concluded between the state and the church, the Georgian Orthodox Church enjoys “special rights to other faiths”. The state transferred large plots of land to the church possession. Every year, the church receives a subsidy from the state in the amount of $ 25 million. And of course, the activities of the church are not taxed. We can say that the dream of a famous character from the novel by Ilf and Petrov “12 chairs” to build a “small candle factory”, happily came true in Georgia of the 21st century. Only this "factory" is not at all small.

Photo: Kazantip-republic.com