The voice of the past

How Russia is trying to become the future, and special departments are created to control the future - the New Times watched

Order of the chief chief

Modern Russia, no matter how wildly it sounds, is a country without the past. Despite the constant conversations about the sacred memory of the ancestors, Russia does not have the past. One continuous indivisible present, in which the war, revolution, the direct line of the president, the invasion of the Batu and success through the import substitution of milk with his native palm oil coexist. All this is equally real or, conversely, it is unrealistic, if only because a inaccurate judgment about the past can break the real, today's life of a living person. And if anyone in reality, the modernity of the past doubts - it immediately reminds of itself. He sends telegrams and even records a video message.

In the week, such a video message was famous for a prominent policy of the self -proclaimed DPR, the mayor of Gorlovka Stanislav Kim. It may seem that this is not our past, but neighbors, but no. This is ours. This is climbing to us and our present breaks. So, Kim informed the shocked world that Carl Marx and Lev Trotsky were going to destroy the race of the Slavs, but nothing came of them. The Slavs created the Soviet Union, and it was time to revive it. Or save. Kim declared himself the “Commander -in -Chief of the Ukrainian SSR,” in confirmation of which he presented the order signed by the acting President of the USSR Taraskina. And he called on the ATO troops to go over to the side of the Soviet Union. And this is almost funny, but the chief brief in his hands is weapons and people's lives.

And if there are still doubts that this is about our past, then another news: during the holidays, the Moscow Youth Parliament at the MSD plans to launch a “victory patrol”. Activists will walk the streets and check: whether citizens wear St. George ribbons correctly and whether the “front -line hundred grams” restaurants appeared on the restaurants menu. Because so to call vodka means insulting the memory of the fallen. And the distance from this news to the appeal of the chief chill is less than from Moscow to Gorlovka.

The point of view of the executioner

April 12 - Cosmonautics Day, one of the few common holidays for the country, not quarreling, but unifying, and this year - also an anniversary: ​​55 years, Yuri Gagarin’s flight. On such a day, everyone has something to say, so the current employees of the Perm 36 museum did not be silent.

The word “current” is important here: the museum that was once created so that people do not forget about the Stalinist camps, undergo many attacks, changed the leadership, and now his expositions talk about the heavy work of the Federal Penitentiary Service. And on the site on April 12, an article appeared on the contribution of prison sharashki to the development of science in general and astronautics in particular. The text reported: "From the point of view of the effectiveness of the sharashki, they justified themselves." And one more thing: “The concentration in one place of talented people, the absence, due to their prison status, the opportunity to compete for positions - all this gave brilliant results. In addition, in the context of the impending war, the “sharashki” were protection against espionage and the physical elimination of leading Soviet scientists with hostile forces. ” That's lucky by the Soviet scientists! You look, and the Russians will survive to their luck.

It is impossible not to say: the publication caused a scandal, the local Minister of Culture had to make excuses to the journalists, the museum’s website lay down for two days, and when he woke up, there was no longer the articles that sets the point of view of the executioner for the happiness of the prisoners. But the words were said and hello from the unwritten past, the present received the present.

Algebra and harmony

The sung by the ancient art of the forestry, Yuri Loza, ascended the new peak of popularity. He already managed to condemn the skill of foreign rock musicians (glory began with this), the late composer Mozart (this is careless, of course, Mozart wrote for the cello), and even the Soviet-Russian anthem. And last week - also singer Zemfira.

These words of Loza became the famous: “Here they tell me that Zemfira collected 60 thousand out of 15 million people living in Moscow, 60 thousand elitist comrades, thinking that they understand the meaning of Zemfira’s songs, is within the framework of a statistical error.” But in fact, the continuation is more interesting: "Putin out of 140 million Russians watch 100, but they understand that he said, 50. This, I understand, is a figure."

The president is flattered abundantly and varied. A person, for example, turned on the TV after a “direct line”, would risk just choke in bare and drowning in a panic. But, it seems, no one before Yuri Loza claims that he remembers all our cracks better than Zemfira. And this is also an art of the recent past, which really wants to become real.

The Ministry of the Future

Valentina Matvienko, Chairman of the Federation Council, unlike our other today's heroes, prefers to look forward. In connection with which he suggests thinking about creating two new ministries in Russia - the Ministry of Happiness and the Ministry of the Future. In the United Arab Emirates, says Matvienko, there are such ministries. The first thinks how easy it is to guess, how to make all citizens happy, the second - how to live if oil suddenly ends. Why not we have the same? - The head of the upper house of parliament asks the head of the upper house. “The point is that each person needs to make happy, build happy schools, provide such services to the population so that everyone is happy ... Every happy person can also then make the unhappy happy that a happy person will not strive to become a terrorist.”

A good idea, especially since the news from the future, which is difficult not to confuse with the past, come every day. For example, the building of the Moscow Library No. 183 named after Dante Aligieri, who is probably known to everyone at Moscow State University, is reported to the Investigative Committee. Or here is a slightly less optimistic, but also good news: a bill is introduced to the Duma, allowing Russians to collect a valernik in the forest for free.

Working materials for the creation of the Ministry of Science

7%

Russians believe that the situation in the economy is better than the media report

25% -

such as media reports

48% -

worse than the media report

Source: FOM

Photo: Tristan Tan/Shutterstock, Peter Kassin/Kommersant