"Tru-la-la for three rubles"

The song of the Soviet bard again quarreled supporters and defenders of the transfer of the St. Isaac's Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church.

In St. Petersburg in the Isaacievsky Cathedral on February 23 at a concert in honor of the Day of Defender of the Fatherland, the concert choir of St. Petersburg performed a song about the nuclear bombardment of the United States. The song is called "on the submarine, or on the salary of military personnel." On February 26, when the video of the concert diverged on social networks, many users were horrified by the very fact of the performance of such a song in the St. Isaac's Cathedral. It soon turned out that we were talking about a comic and in some ways even an anti-Militarian song of the 80s, written by Bard Andrei Kozlovsky. Now the dispute about the appropriateness of the performance of the song moved to another plane - supporters and opponents of the transfer of the St. Isaac's Cathedral to the ROC were again on different sides of the barricades.

On a submarine with an atomic motor
Yes with a dozen bombs under a hundred megaton
I crossed the Atlantic and the call of the gunner:
"Lay, I say, - Petrov, to the city of Washington!"

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These words really sounded on February 23 in the St. Isaac's Cathedral - where during the liturgy completely different, for example, the commandments of bliss from the Nagorno -High Pretezer of Christ are sung, one of which reads: "The peacekeepers are blessed, because they will call the sons of God." Nevertheless, the concert choir of St. Petersburg (the former "Chamber Choir of the Smolny Cathedral") included in the program of the festive concert not only the songs of Vysotsky, Solovyov-Sedogo and Shchedrin, but also the composition of Andrei Kozlovsky, written back in 1980 as a parody of the foreign policy of the Soviet Union. The song ends with such a verse:

Sweet in Norfolka lights along the shore,
Tired toys are sleeping, blacks sleep quietly,
Sorry, America, good America,
But five hundred years ago you were opened in vain.

Completes the picture of a dashing chorus:

Tru-la-la, Trou-la-la,
I can do all for three rubles!
In half, the land
Enemy!

The artistic director of the concert choir of St. Petersburg, conductor Vladimir Belytov explains that the Isaacievsky Cathedral is not only the cathedral, but also the museum that the song was performed not in the service, but at the concert, and in it he does not see anything reprehensible - neither militarism nor threats of America. According to the conductor, this is only a joke, and his innocence is confirmed by the reaction of the public, which not only did not leave the concert, but smiled and was very pleased. In addition, fugitives are perplexed that the cheese brow has erupted only now-it turns out that the choir has been performing this song at festive concerts for 10 years, including twice performed it in the Great Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, and then no one was indignant.

When asked about whether he likes such jokes himself, the fugitives answer that the question is not this, but that the concert is arranged so that the public likes it - and after the end it stood for a long time and clapping it for a long time. The conductor emphasizes that he tries to be political correct: at concerts in the walls of the Orthodox Church, ballet performances, playing musical instruments, non-normative vocabulary, rap, or performances of rock bands are not allowed. The fugitives believes that his choir did not violate anything and did not insult anyone.

The activist from the group “Protect the Isaac's Cathedral” Christina Verman also sees anything bad in this song. She also believes that this is only a joke, just in our country recently everyone has been offended, so people without humor took a song in bayonets. At the same time, Christina insists that the song sounded in the walls of the museum. In her opinion, the priests of the cathedral already consider themselves the masters in it and want to subordinate everything exclusively to the Orthodox topic. In fact, says Verman, Kozlovsky’s song can be considered as a protest against this trend - they took the Smolny Cathedral , and now they are still dictating their conditions in Isaacievsky. Christina supports the conductor, considers him a real professional. She recalls that there was already one scandal with the chorus of Belyglytsov-when he, still called the "chamber chorus of the Smolny Cathedral", performed the song "Aluminum cucumbers" in his walls, who really did not like someone from the clergy.

Attempts to intervene in the repertoire of the choir Christina Verman considers unacceptable censorship. Vladimir Belymitsov himself, who also remembers the case of "aluminum cucumbers", indicates that the Smolny Council at that time was not yet transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church, but was a secular concert platform.

It is very upset by a concert in the Isaac's Cathedral Professor of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy Archpriest George Mitrofanov . He believes that the song, generated by the Brezhnev era, a parody of the aggressive style of Soviet foreign policy, being primitive and vulgar, did not become a big public phenomenon, and that it would be appropriate in dissident cuisines of the early 80s, but not now within the walls of the Isaac Cathedral, which personifies the best traditions of Russian culture. Most of all about. George Mitrofanov is striking in the approval that this song has gained in many people, both church and not church: he considers this to be evidenced by a deep degradation of society. Archpriest recalls recent debate about whose wing the cathedral will be better preserved - secular or spiritual authorities, and with sadness states that it is under the leadership of the secular authorities that the monument becomes an arena for events that can be called cultural with great difficulty. True, about. George is not at all sure that the church authorities would protect the temple from such incidents, since he knows many clergymen who believe that this is in the order of things. Nevertheless, he rejoices that the choir is no longer related to the church, as well as the fact that the reproach for what happened can be addressed to the secular authorities of the city, but not church ones.

Promotion against the transfer of the St. Isaac Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church, February 12, 2017

In the St. Petersburg diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, the festive performance of the concert choir of St. Petersburg in the Isaacievsky Cathedral was condemned, calling the composition and the place chosen to its execution inappropriate and itself. At the same time, the head of the communication sector of the St. Petersburg Metropolis, Natalya Rodomanova, regrets that due to the raised noise, many did not understand the situation and sharply condemn the head of the church choir of the St. Isaac's Cathedral Lev Dunaev, although he has nothing to do with it. Natalia Rodomanova pays tribute to the skill of the concert choir of St. Petersburg, but believes that his leader simply changed his taste.

The Orthodox priest Nikolai Savchenko is confident that any threats, even a joke or song clothed in the form, is a sin and that such phenomena must be "decisively exposed from their midst." In his opinion, this is an insult to "another people, to another state."

At the end of 2016, the authorities of St. Petersburg decided to transfer the cathedral for 49 years for free use of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Committee for Property Relations of St. Petersburg then issued an order on the plan of measures to prepare for the transfer of Isaac. According to this document, the contract with the church was supposed to be concluded until December 2018. Representatives of the museum community opposed the ROC of the Isaacievsky Cathedral, several rallies were also organized against the decision.

On January 10, 2019, the Committee of Property Relations said that the order on the transfer of the St. Isaac's Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church "lost force". On January 25, the temporary acting governor of St. Petersburg and the applicant for this post in the election planned in the fall, Alexander Beglov said that the cathedral remains in the city’s management. "Today there are agreements between the city, the museum, the Russian Orthodox Church to take worship in the cathedral. There are no contradictions today: the church does not interfere with the museum, the museum does not interfere with the church," Beglov said in an interview with the St. Petersburg television channel "78".