Du Hast you, boatswain!

Russia against the Rammstein group

For several days in a row in the sports press, a ban is discussed by the Russian skater Peter Gumennik to speak under the song “Sonne” (“Sun”) of the German industrial group Rammstein. The soloist of the group Till Lindemann openly supports Ukraine; In addition, according to some deputies, the name of the team refers to the air base, at which the generals of NATO countries discusses the supply of weapons to Kyiv. Even the Kremlin was asked about the reaction to the scandal. And this is not the only attack on the cult German rock band: a concert of the symphony orchestra, which was supposed to perform the Rammstein covers, was canceled in Novosibirsk-with the wording "And they remove pornlips here!" Vyacheslav Polovinko, a correspondent of Novo-Europe, is amazed to watch the tragicomic work of the Russian censorship.

Actually, Rammov loves the Russian-speaking public even more than the Germans themselves. In Germany, a chisly fleur of radicality is still stretching for Till Lindemann and his team: they say, they almost sympathize with Nazism. What is not true: the group has repeatedly explained that it was just engaged in shocking, and their song “Links 2-3-4” and completely wears an obviously anti-fascist orientation. Nevertheless, many are shocking the texts of Lindemann's songs, whose literary hero is most often a maniac, a sadomasochist, a man with a clearly crumpled psyche or simply embarrassed. But, as the saying says that the German is death, then the Russian is good, and in the territory of the former USSR there is a whole cult of Rammstein. The group is loved by the insanely exciting rhythm of music and the tendency to go beyond any boundaries of the permitted. Well, the texts - what are the texts? Good, something on a foreign one. At the concert, under them, to get down ( pushing in a crowd of fans. - Approx. Aut. ) - it is.

Rammstein generally paid love for love: he came several times with big concerts (for the last time - in the summer of 2019; before Pandemia in February 2020, Till Lindemann visited Moscow with his other project), they stably gathered a hundred thousand people. In addition, in the work of the group and personally Lindemann, reference to Russia is rather a rule than an exception. At the beginning of the zero, the song “Moskau” was written: “Pioneers are singing to Lenin here and here”; But the main text is actually about the fact that Moscow is like an old Putan into which the lyrical hero is still in love. Lindemann shot several clips in Russia, Russian stars like Alexander Revva and Aglai Tarasova periodically flickered in his video .

The culmination was the performance of Lindemann in Russian in 2021 by the song of Mark Bernes “Favorite City” to the release of the film “Ninths”-about the Soviet hero pilot and participation in the Festival on Red Square.

Given that the film actively promoted the propaganda channel “Russia 1”, many even thought that Lindemann was actually bought by the Russian regime. The soloist of Rammstein only added oils to the fire: in parallel in the country, they condemned the activist of the headquarters of Navalny in Arkhangelsk Andrei Borovikov - for the Pussy pornlip, which he placed on his wall in VKontakte - and Till did not even think to intervene or speak out about this. But this is the whole of Lindemann: he behaves so that no one likes, except for his loyal fans, who will forgive him everything, even accusations of sexualized violence (especially since the investigation was eventually closed ).

The Russian authorities just take violence normally and mainly live on the principle formulated by Putin back in 2006 in relation to the Israeli President Moshe Katsava (“It turned out to be a very powerful man! Ten women raped him! We envy him!”). What Russia could not forgive Lindemann, it was an anti -war mood. Immediately after the start of Russia's full -scale invasion of Ukraine, the Rammstein group publicly condemned the war, and Till Lindemann himself participated in March 2022 in the help of refugees at the Berlin station. In addition, the group had at least two clips hinting at their position (“zeit” - “time” and “angt” - “fear”), and the Rammstein concerts were canceled by the team itself. But for the time being, it was a common thing. So far, suddenly, in his new program, the young Russian skater Pyotr Gumennik has not decided to perform with the program for the song “Sonne” (you can remember the famous clip with Snow White and Shakhtera gnome).

It turned out that now this is impossible - but who specifically banned the rental, as a result, no one will admit.

Just evaluate this twist:

• Gumennik's coach Veronika Daineko said that Tamara Moskvina, a coach and one of the bosses of the St. Petersburg Federation, who represented the Gomennik, approached her-and showed a letter that stated that it was nonpatriotic to ride such music;

• The letter was written by Evgeny Kartushin-the administrator of the fan community of another skater Sophia Samodelkina;

• This actual denunciation came to the Ministry of Sports, and there they decided that “no matter what happened,” and decided to cancel the rental precisely under Rammstein.

Further, the figure skating and the Ministry of Sports alternately dissolved this decision, but in the end deputies joined the case - and there was no longer up to the rental.

• State Duma deputy Sultan Khamzaev : “Today, by ear, another Rammstein is the name of the NATO base, which is located in Germany. Its essence is to inflict a maximum blow to Russia. This is the position that they express every day. Therefore, you need to carefully choose the music and the meaning of your dancing. ”

• State Duma deputy Irina Rodnina : “You are interested in some small trouble, and not preparing the national team, not the level of performance - no! They found a footping, rot and now you are spinning it. ”

• Minister of Sports Oleg Matytsin : “Is this such a problem? This is the competence of the Federation to make a decision. We must more responsibly approach the choice of music. ”

Even about Rammstein and the Gumennik were asked Dmitry Peskov, he replied that the Kremlin was not following what was happening. As a result, the skater was left without a program - by the decision of the actually one scammer.

This could be a strange incident in Russia of the 2023 model, but on September 19 in Novosibirsk, a concert of the GACMO symphonic orchestra was canceled , which was supposed to perform caverses on the same Rammstein. And again a denunciation: this time from local activists from the "human rights" group "Raded". Rammstein, swings the “Radet”, calls Russia an aggressor, and Lindemann also removed two porklips in Russia (in contacting the mayor of Novosibirsk “human rights activists” carefully attached a link to the resource where you can see the most frank of them). And well, it would be just porklips: there Lindemann in a perverted form rape the girls, being dressed in the overcoat from the time of the Great Patriotic War!

The fact that this clip is two years, the “radio studios” does not bother: just before the war they watched it - and nothing, and now, coupled with the position of the group, the video excites them to act.

The fact that Rammstein fell under the distribution is not surprising. In parallel, the information campaign against Lindemanne also began in Ukraine, because he released a clip of 2021, where he was in the circus of the Zapashny brothers (and the director of the video also did not oppose the war, like Aglaya Tarasov, who again got into the clip). Such is the style of Lindemann that it always goes its own way, without clearly adjacent to any of the camps.

But on the example of the abolition of the group and its work, it is clear how quickly the entire system of decisions within the state was rebuilt to work on denunciations. It is easy to appeal to historical memory, and the rest of the agenda in Russia, as it were, hints that now political and public life is being built: the one who was the first to point to the other is right. However, in the history of Rammstein there is an element of dull censorship: it is forbidden what, in fact, none of the decision -making officials simply familiarize. The principle “first forbid, then let's see” becomes dominant not because Rammstein comes from the real danger, but because it simplifies all communication within the system as much as possible. By the slightest signal, press the switch is a completely reflex reaction at the level of Pavlov’s dogs. The fact that these signals go from do not understand who is also quite logical: the voice of the people cannot be heard. They drove the Germans from Russia, were able to repeat.

The degradation of the state apparatus, in general, is there, just at the local level it is now noticeable too much. The only problem is that no one will fight this anymore: someone is afraid to become a victim of denunciations himself, someone will simply prefer to wait until the system collapses itself (although in this state it can live for decades). This slide into the swamp will drown many. In this sense, by the way, the Russian authorities are not much different from it for the forbidden “male state”: only those demanded violence for those who starred in Rammstein clips, and officials complicate the lives of those who ride these songs.

Sometimes it seems that in the end only fans of Rammstein will survive in this. All of Russia now seems to live in their clips - and Lindemann fans not get used to violence.