Surprisingly, simple and seemingly obvious truths for a civilized country can suddenly become a cause for scandal.
People's Artist of Russia Konstantin Raikin, speaking on Monday at the All-Russian Theater Forum held in Moscow, said: "These groups of allegedly offended people who close performances, close exhibitions, behave arrogantly, to which, in a very strange way, the authorities are neutral - they distance themselves from It seems to me that these are ugly encroachments on the freedom of creativity, on the prohibition of censorship. greatest event of age-old significance in the artistic and spiritual life of our country".
"... And our unfortunate church, which has forgotten how it was persecuted, priests were destroyed, crosses were torn down and vegetable stores were made in our churches, is starting to act by the same methods now. It means that Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy was right, who said that there was no need to combine power with the church, otherwise it begins not to serve God, but to serve the authorities," recalled Konstantin Raikin.
According to the artistic director of the Satyricon Theater, art itself has enough filters from directors, artistic directors, critics, spectators, the soul of the artist himself (these are the carriers of morality). And he calls not to pretend that the only bearer of morality and morality is power.
"I remember: we all come from Soviet power. I remember this shameful idiocy! That's the reason, the only reason I don't want to be young, I don't want to go back there again. And they make me read this vile book again. Because, as a rule, very low goals are covered with words about morality, the Motherland, the people and patriotism," said Konstantin Raikin.
The All-Russian Theater Forum opposed the revival of censorshipForum participants intend to appeal to the authorities with a request to take measures to curb attempts to revive censorship and unconstitutional interference government agencies into creativity.Obvious things, no? It is clear that the state should not interfere in creativity, this is the business of recognized, authoritative experts - to criticize, advise, review, choose productions worthy of awards.
And it is clear that, according to the Constitution, ideological diversity should be recognized in our country. And "no ideology can be established as a state or mandatory" (Article 13 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation).
Contradictory reactions to Konstantin Raikin's speech
But the responses to Konstantin Raikin's speech are just the opposite: from "finally at least someone said this" to "what is there, at the Raikin Plaza center - problems, probably?".
For the first time in the history of the theater, the season came out, after which the troupe was idle for six months. While the main building is being renovated, "Satyricon" is forced to rent other venues in order to be able to play and rehearse new plays, and at the same time it takes a large number of earned funds.
According to Deputy Minister Alexander Zhuravsky, when the management of "Satyricon" asked for help in financing the rental of the IMC "Planet KVN" (due to the fact that the historical stage of the theater is under reconstruction), the authorities went to meet the theater and allocated more than 44 million rubles for compensation rent.
The rest of the "Satyricon" undertook to compensate from its own income (last year it was about 130 million rubles).
“It’s not entirely clear to me what kind of semi-annual downtime Konstantin Arkadyevich was talking about. Suffice it to say that the theater is actively touring and staging premieres,” Zhuravsky said.
After Konstantin Raikin made a resonant speech, his opponents easily connected these two events - financial difficulties"Satyricon" and a critical speech by its artistic director at the STD forum. It really is as simple as two and two: they didn’t give money - he went to criticize. However, let me remind you that the position of Konstantin Raikin is consistent, with
Claims against the Ministry of Culture and one of the deputy ministers, Vladimir Aristarkhov, were voiced, for example, back in May last year - then Konstantin Raikin, together with Georgy Taratorkin and Igor Kostolevsky, criticized Aristarkhov's statements about the theater award " golden mask"(he believed that the festival supports provocative and Russophobic productions).
Considering that the Satyricon theater now more than ever needs money to complete a protracted repair, Konstantin Raikin’s speech at the STD forum seems even more bold and weighty, because in this case the artistic director risks not only falling out of favor with those in power (which seems to be of little concern to him ), but also as a result - to be left without additional help to the theater.
Konstantin Raikin urged to "reason" the Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky. He made such a statement in a video message shown by the Dozhd TV channel. The reason for the statement, according to the artistic director of the Satyricon, was six inspections that took place over the past year in the theater he directed. Raikin considers them revenge for statements he made a year ago about censorship in culture at last year's congress of the Union of Theater Workers:
the speech about the unfree conditions in which the theater industry is forced to exist had a wide resonance and began to be discussed far beyond the theater community.
“Procurator checks are going on throughout the year,” Kommersant quotes Raikin, “they did not reveal any serious violations. There are some minor remarks, which always happen, but there are no serious violations. And why then all the same six checks? Their reason is not the desire to clean up and find out the truth, but
this is revenge and punishment that my immediate boss, Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky, wants to subject me and my theater to.”
According to Raikin, Medinsky is taking revenge for the fact that Raikin "convicted him of untruth several times and fought against his unfair decisions regarding the Satyricon Theater."
The loud statement did not go unanswered. At his briefing, Deputy Minister of Culture Vladimir Zhuravsky (his area of responsibility, among other things, includes theaters) said that there were two departmental inspections (the official does not know which department organized four more), and
they revealed a "conflict of interest" in the construction of a new theater and hotel complex "Satyricon".
Radio station "Business FM" on its website quotes Zhuravsky's words that "the shares in this investment contract (for the construction -" Gazeta.Ru ") belong to two heads of the theater, which is unacceptable under the law." True, the newspaper notes, the official did not give names or numbers. “The investment contract, which is already ten years old, unfortunately, is not being implemented,” the deputy minister quoted the source as saying.
Zhuravsky at the briefing did not rule out a "judicial way of resolving issues" in the case of the Satyricon. In response, Raikin called Zhuravsky "a liar, just like his boss."
This is not the first time that the Ministry of Culture and the Satyricon subordinate to it have come into conflict with an economic overtone. A year ago, the artistic director of the Satyricon, after a memorable speech at the STD congress, said that
his theater at that time was idle for a long time and had no funds for new productions due to the need to pay the rent of the Planet KVN theater,
which still plays performances of the current repertoire (in the main building theater is coming repair). Zhuravsky then told Gazeta.Ru that back in 2016, the Ministry of Culture allocated an additional 44.3 million rubles to Satyricon. to rent "Planet". “Thus, the total amount of funds for the theater for current activities amounted to 235 million rubles,” Zhuravsky cited the figures then. "Apparently anxiety artistic director(“Satyricon” - “Gazeta.Ru”) concerns 2017, the appropriations for which have not yet been brought to us by the Ministry of Finance,” the deputy minister said then. “In any case, we will support the theater.” In 2017, the theater was allocated an amount comparable to last year - that is, 213 million rubles.
However, as can be seen,
along with the financing of the current activities of the theater, the federal cultural department also organized inspections of the theater.
It should be noted that the relations of the theater community in Lately heated to the limit, and Raikin's statement was made just against the backdrop of other, no less hot events.
We are talking about the “Seventh Studio case”, which was opened in 2015 and was being investigated all this time, until in May 2017 it acquired a much louder and more public character. Kirill Serebrennikov, the creator of the Seventh Studio, and Sophia Apfelbaum, ex-official of the Ministry of Culture, were interrogated and then arrested; in addition, back in May, the directorate and economic unit of the Seventh Studio were under arrest - former general producer Alexei Malobrodsky, director Yuri Itin, accountant Nina Maslyaeva. The guarantees of the most eminent cultural figures for them were not taken into account by the investigation and the court.
In addition, about a month ago, the Russian branch of the global public organization Transparency International released its report on conflicts of interest in staging performances. From their research, it followed that some artistic directors of Moscow and federal theaters order productions for themselves and pay for their participation in performances as artists.
After a discussion between anti-corruption activists and representatives of the theater community, it turned out that such “conflicts of interest” are not illegal:
staging performances and performing roles in theaters is not included in official duties artistic directors.
It is interesting that the organization found a similar “conflict of interest” in the Satyricon, however, as the official representative told Gazeta.Ru Russian branch Gleb Gavrish --
in the case of productions of Satyricon, such a conflict of interest was agreed upon by the Ministry of Culture.
The corresponding response from the prosecutor's office, where the public activists applied, was received by the organization on November 14.
All this forced the Union of Theater Workers to convene an extraordinary meeting of its secretariat. Following its results, the chairman of the STD, Alexander Kalyagin, made a statement that an exposing campaign was being carried out against cultural figures.
"A campaign to discredit cultural sphere, carefully thought out and which is being conducted in several directions, ”said the chairman of the Union of Theater Workers. He considered both the Serebrennikov and Apfelbaum case and the Transparency investigation to be part of it. In addition, Kalyagin demanded from the Russian authorities
“to review the mechanisms of regulation creative processes”, as the acting ones actually force the representatives of theaters to break the law.
“We understand that the current legislative norms are of little use for regulating creative processes, and we need to come up with a proposal to the president to review the existing regulatory mechanisms, as well as with a proposal to start preparing a new law “On Culture” and involving representatives of the theater community in its preparation,” Kalyagin said after the meeting.
Famous actor and director Konstantin Raikin once again he was in the spotlight thanks to his loud statements.
This time, the reason was the words of Raikin, uttered in the poetic one-man show “Above the booth sky”, which the artist presented on the stage of the St. Petersburg Academic Philharmonic. D. D. Shostakovich.
Talking about the fate of the famous Russian poets, such as Nikolai Gumilyov, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Joseph Brodsky and others, .
"We have necrophilic state, it loves more dead than alive. Then we call streets, squares, metro stations after them, and before that we kill, ”the Petersburg Avant-Garde edition quotes the artist as saying.
Raikin noted that the persecution that brought outstanding writers to death often came from "beautiful and terrible" Petersburg, where these traditions, according to him, have survived to this day.
The artist expressed his regret due to the fact that in Russian society there is no “moral inoculation”, so nothing changes when the government changes.
"Ugly encroachments on the freedom of creativity"
Perhaps these words of Raikin would not have attracted heightened attention, however, they successfully lay on the ground, fertilized by Raikin's speech, which took place in the fall of 2016.
At the seventh congress of the Union of theatrical figures of Russia and the "struggle for morality" on the part of public organizations.
The artist called the ban on censorship in Russia “the greatest event of secular significance” in the history of the country and noted that he was worried about the “assaults on art” that have appeared recently.
“These groups of allegedly offended people who close performances, close exhibitions, behave very brazenly, to whom, in a very strange way, the authorities are neutral - they distance themselves. It seems to me that this is an ugly encroachment on the freedom of creativity, on the prohibition of censorship, ”he said.“Now I see how someone’s hands are clearly itching for this - this [censorship ban] is to change and return back. And to return back not just in times of stagnation, but even in more ancient times - in Stalin's times, ”Raikin said.
The artist also spoke out sharply against interference in this area of public organizations.
"No need at all public organizations fight for morality in art. Art has enough filters from directors, art directors, critics, the soul of the artist himself. They are the bearers of morality. There is no need to pretend that power is the only bearer of morality and morality. It's not like that,” he said.
The artistic director of the "Satyricon" urged colleagues to show "guild solidarity" and stop talking badly about each other in the media mass media and "institutions on which we depend." Also, in his opinion, people of art need to temporarily forget about "subtle reflections in relation to each other" and unite.
“What, Kostya doesn’t live well?”
Raikin's speech turned out to be quite controversial, causing conflicting responses both among artists and in society as a whole.
Eg, Director of the Theater of Nations Yevgeny Mironov support a colleague. According to him, all the time there are threats against cultural figures, their performances, films, exhibitions and books, from dubious organizations or some people who believe that they can judge art, taking on the mission of defenders of morality.
It is necessary that society in every field of activity learn to rely on responsible professionals, and not on idle ignoramuses, mummers and self-styled guardians of morality, ”the artist noted.
People's Artist of Russia Boris Klyuev in an interview with Arguments and Facts, he expressed a slightly different point of view: “What is he talking about, what kind of censorship? And why does he then receive money from the state, and not from sponsors, of which, by the way, he always had a lot? What are you talking about, friends? What, Kostya does not live well? He has a theater, he has Raikin Plaza, he has his own academy. Listen, he's in perfect order. To be honest, I don't understand this at all. Obviously, now some kind of failure has occurred ... And the liberals, having heard criticism of the state, immediately picked it up. Like a pack of dogs, they got up. It's always so cute - they don't even care what to bark about! For some reason, no one says: let's guys figure it out. Raikin has no money? Do others have it? Is there any in the Academic Maly Theatre, which is 260 years old and is a national treasure? What, actors get more there? No, less. Guys, you need to be objective, you need someone to tell the truth. Why don't they speak?!"
250 million from the "necrophilic state"
“For half a year we have been idle, I had to postpone the rehearsal and staging of a new performance, we have no money. This is a direct path to death, ”Raikin told TASS. Raikin also said that he had asked for help from the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation.
And after Raikin's speech, the Russian Ministry of Culture, represented by him head of Vladimir Medinsky promised to provide assistance to the Satyricon Theater in 2017.
January 2017 Chairman of the Public Council under the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation Pavel Pozhigailo said that "Satyricon" will receive funding of 250 million rubles.
Those present for guild solidarity and the fight against prohibitions and censorship, which, in his opinion, are becoming more and more visible in the country.
“I am very disturbed - I think, like all of you - by the phenomena that occur in our lives. These, so to speak, raids on art, on the theater in particular. These are completely lawless, extremist, impudent, aggressive, hiding behind words about morality, about morality, and in general all sorts of, so to speak, good and lofty words: “patriotism”, “Motherland” and “high morality”. These groups of allegedly offended people who close performances, close exhibitions, behave very brazenly, to whom, in a very strange way, the authorities are neutral - they distance themselves. It seems to me that this is an ugly encroachment on the freedom of creativity, on the prohibition of censorship, ”said the actor. He is sure that the prohibition of censorship is the greatest event of the century. The actor also said that he does not believe the offended feelings of many activists who allegedly commit immoral acts and “pursue low goals” in the struggle for morality.
Colleagues of Konstantin Raikin in the workshop reacted vividly to his speech. artistic director Provincial Theater Sergey Bezrukov in conversation with Metro said , that, in his opinion, in art there should be only internal censorship of the artist and no other. “The eternal Russian “No matter what happens”, unfortunately, sometimes progresses and takes on monstrous forms. The system of prohibitions sometimes destroys everything in its path, the wood is cut, the chips fly,” he said.
The position of Konstantin Raikin was supported by Evgeny Pisarev, artistic director of the Pushkin Theater: “I consider the main thing in Raikin’s speech to be a call for guild solidarity. We are terribly divided. We do not understand that people from the outside are using our internal strife against us ... And today we see the same intolerance and aggression towards a different view in art.
Artistic Director of the Lenkom Theater Mark Zakharov, in turn, noted: “It was an impulse associated with the theme of a certain power of darkness approaching us, which has already materialized in a number of actions. He called for consolidation against absolutely wild bans that fall on art, on exhibitions, on theaters ... ".
Kirill Serebryannikov, the artistic director of the Gogol Center expressed confidence that the customers of the theater are not officials, but society: “Who monitors the quality of the product made? Society. It simply does not buy tickets for bad performances, does not go to bad theaters, does not accept poor work. No official has the right to decide what kind of art should be - pleasing or not pleasing, protest or safe. Everything is decided by the viewer. Moreover, we often talk about culture and art. In this case we are talking specifically about art - about the work of an artist, director, creator.
In an interview with NSN CEO State Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky called Raikin's statements about censorship in the country premature, but supported his fears of "mob dictate". “Censorship is always dictate. The dictate of power or the dictate of the crowd. In our country, everything is now moving towards the dictatorship of the crowd, that even the government is beginning to be built. The crowd begins to say: we want this and that. If it was possible to cope with the obkom censors, something to come, to explain. Not always, but the intelligentsia knew how to get around these things. But the dictatorship of the crowd is terrible,” the director of the Hermitage believes.
At the same time, Mikhail Piotrovsky is convinced that there is no censorship in Russia yet: “We have not yet come to the old days. I would not say that we have censorship, it is just emerging.” According to him, only the state can save culture from the transformation of “pseudo-understandable democracy into the dictate of power”, no matter how paradoxical it may sound: “There is only one remedy for this - this is a broad discussion and a certain protection of culture. And this is the function of the state.
The performance of the actor was commented on by representatives of the authorities. Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said in particular : “Censorship is unacceptable. This topic has been repeatedly discussed at meetings of the president with representatives of the theatrical and cinematographic community. But at the same time, it is necessary to clearly differentiate those productions and works that are staged or filmed with state money or with the involvement of some other sources of funding, ”Peskov said during a conversation with reporters (quoted by Interfax).
The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, meanwhile, was surprised by the words of Konstantin Raikin. “We were very surprised by the words of Konstantin Arkadyevich Raikin both about the possible closure of the theater and about the presence of “censorship”, “attacks” on theaters. Theatrical figures have no grounds for such statements,” said the Deputy Minister of Culture Alexander Zhuravsky.
“I note that we do not demand anything related to creative indicators, we do not interfere in artistic activity, we do not control the choice theatrical plays, materials. But at the same time we want economic indicators improved,” Zhuravsky noted.
The artistic director of the Satyricon, Konstantin Raikin, connected the checks in the theater with the "revenge" of the Russian Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky. According to him, the head of the Ministry of Culture "cannot forgive" Raikin's words about censorship and the fight against "unfair" decisions regarding the "Satyricon". Raikin himself told Dozhd about this.
“This is revenge and punishment that my immediate boss, Minister of Culture Vladimir Medinsky, wants to subject me and my theater to. He cannot forgive me for my statement at the congress of the Union of Theater Workers and the fact that I convicted him of lying several times and fought against his unfair decisions regarding the Satyricon Theater, ”Raikin said.
According to the artistic director of the Satyricon, during the year six inspections were carried out at the theater, during which no serious violations were revealed. Raikin regarded these actions as an "official attempt" to intimidate the Satyricon.
In addition, Raikin believes, Medinsky is trying to stop the reconstruction of the theater building. In 2014, the City Planning and Land Commission of Moscow allowed to reconstruct the Satyricon building, as well as to attach a new facade with an expanded part for spectators, the area of \u200b\u200bwhich will reach 26.3 thousand square meters. Construction is carried out by the company Tashir" by Samvel Karapetyan.
Initially, it was planned that construction would be completed in 2016, then it was postponed to 2017, now - to the end of 2018. According to Dozhd, the Ministry of Culture is unhappy with the delay in construction, but this is not officially confirmed. In the theater, the delay was explained by the construction of the subway. According to Raikin, now Medinsky is interested in stopping construction.
“And to stop construction and prevent this theater from moving into your house, this means destroying it. To do this in general with his power is not difficult now. And this despite the fact that we are in such an intermediate state, ”explained the artistic director of Satyricon.
Metrostroy declined to comment on the situation. The Tashir group of companies did not respond to Dozhd's request about whether the Ministry of Culture really contacted them. The department itself was unable to comment on the situation in the Satyricon, noting that the ministry is in constant interaction with the theatre.
At the same time, a high-ranking official told Dozhd that soon the ministry would publicly voice its claims against the theatre.
Raikin also said that the Satyricon received a presidential grant, which "infuriated the minister," although such grants "are received by all federal theaters."
“Everyone but us would have received if I hadn’t fought against this decision. And we were crossed out by the Ministry of Culture. Why? Us, who need it the most, this money. Because then there is an opportunity to create something else in this space of homelessness in which we are now, ”said Raikin.
In October 2016, Raikin, speaking at the congress of the Union of Theater Workers of Russia, closing exhibitions and performances, also spoke about censorship in Russia. Medinsky, commenting on Raikin's words that there is no censorship in Russia, and theaters in the country enjoy "inconceivable" freedom. In addition, he stressed that “it’s simply ridiculous for anyone, but [Raikin] to complain about censorship,” since no one has ever banned anything to Satyricon. According to Medinsky, Raikin's words were motivated by some other reasons.
The press secretary of the President Dmitry Peskov, commenting on the statements of the artistic director of the theater, should not confuse the state order with censorship.
Before speaking at the congress, Raikin stated that the Satyricon was experiencing financial difficulties. He explained that the theater "is on the verge of destruction" because the building is closed for renovation, and budget resources, which are allocated by the Ministry of Culture, are spent on renting rehearsal venues. After public discussion The Ministry of Culture promised in 2017 to once again support the theater with subsidies.
