During the conference “Quality Journalism in the Digital Age” held on May 18-22 in Almaty, Kazakhstan, a well-known Russian journalist, publicist, former State Duma deputy (“Yabloko” faction) and former Secretary General of Russian Union of Journalists, Igor Yakovenko, slammed the state of affairs in the Russian press, calling it a “mediaphrenia” – systematically poisoning own people, filling their heads with chaos and so on.
After his speech, “Aravot” asked to answer a few questions about the atmosphere in our strategic partner Russia.
– “Every country has the government it deserves.” Do you agree? Do our people: Russians, Belarusians, Kazakhs and Armenians deserve this kind of government?
– This phrase is generally true, because, eventually, Putin did not fall down to Russia from the Mars, and Nazarbayev – to Kazakhstan… Lukashenko was born in Belarus, grew up and was supported by Belarussians, like Russians to Putin. Hence, yes, it is a true phrase, but as with all admonitions, it contains some black spots. Let’s take the Soviet Government. Certainly, it was not created by aliens, certainly, the Russians decided to set up such an unnatural government. But later, the people who were born a few generations after the establishment of Soviet government, they already have not taken part in the formation of this government, they were just born in this country. And it’s already hard to tell about them that they deserved their government because this system was established by the grandparents, while the grandchildren are not to be blamed for it. And the grandchildren, who grew up and decided to fight against it, were simply destroyed because the Soviet government was already established firmly and it was much more difficult to fight against it. Hence, the definition that every country has the government it deserves contains some internal contradiction that needs to be seen, but, in general, it is, indeed, true.
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– But if we look at this same grandchildren-grandparents contradiction from the perspective of what is going on now in Russia, we see quite a bit unclear thing. Today, the acquittal of Stalinism, a Stalin re-glorifying process is evidently going on in Russia. How do you explain this? Don’t they know what happened to their grandparents and parents? The people who personally suffered coercions and are bearing the consequences of persecutions on their skin are still alive.
– You know, there is no need to go even so far and no need to talk about the present generation whether they do remember or not. Let’s talk about the then exiled. It is a fact that still then there were communists in the Gulag, camps and the Soviet prisons who were justifying what was done. Many imprisoned communists during the Stalin period were justifying those repressions; some of them were saying that he was detained mistakenly while the rest of the detained are definitely public enemies. There were people that were even worse, they were thinking, “Well, perhaps, it is necessary that it is done so.” And the most amazing is that there were people who were thinking, “Well, if I’m in jail, then I guess I am a public enemy.” This is amazing, of course, but such a thing existed. As for the current situation, then the fantastic idiotic feature of the mass media influence which we are talking about constantly is obvious.
There was a period, yeah, when people were told about the corrosive impact of Stalinism and were not supporting Stalinism. But suddenly, something changed, and today’s situation is perfectly associated with monstrous propaganda and refusal phenomenon. Each new era rejected its predecessor’s era, todays’ period does not recognize the 90-ies. Today, the terms “damned 90-ies”, “false democracy”, “Yeltsinovschina” and «Gorbochovschina» have become blaspheming, and the refusal from the previous period, when Stalin was sentenced, today has led to the fact that everything is turned upside-down, the signs are changed. And the people gladly accepted the idea that every bad thing comes from the 90-ies, even though 20 years has been elapsed since then. The government is playing on it and has started to create myths about the 90-ies being bad, about the democracy and liberalism being a destruction. And this myth extends to Stalin as an effective manager, about the generalissimo, who almost alone won the war. Well, yes, they slightly remember that apart from Stalin, there was also the Soviet people who had a minor role in the victory…
– … Also Putin’s father (Ahead to May 9, the Russian mass media commented on V. V. Putin’s father’s heroic deeds in the Great Patriotic War, which was also addressed during the conference – M. B.).
– … Oh, yeah, of course, Putin’s father, they both won the war (saying ironically – M. B.). Truly, after a while it will turn out that Putin’s father won alone, no, rather, Putin’s father would be put aside and it will turn out that Putin alone and in person conquered Berlin … I have no doubts on it. An impression will be created that Putin himself has defended the Stalingrad, has set fire in the suburbs of Kursk and has erected the flag over Reichstag. It will definitely happen and it will enter into the main Russian myths. And the exaltation of Stalinism, indeed, contributes to it. It is a very important part of the mythology, because if Stalin was a criminal, then Putin is a criminal too, and if Stalin was the father of the nation and a great leader, then so is Putin. This is absolutely such a parallel story. In fact, Stalin’s myth exists solely to maintain Putin’s regime.
– Do you see any light at the end of the tunnel because there is no opposition, and the public is reluctant to change anything? … What can happen?
– You know, when people look into the tunnel and want to find a light, as a rule, it is the light of the train coming to you. I think that any person who tries to make any serious projections about Russia about what will happen or what might happen, he either is a quack or does not know the history very well. Russia is a completely unpredictable country. It is because of a number of peculiarities of its structure. No one could predict that Russia, as said by Rozanov, would fade (слиняет) in three days after the October revolution. On the eve of collapse of the Soviet Union, on the threshold of the moment when the socialist world order collapsed, the Berlin wall collapsed, the CPSU was liquidation, and on its threshold, no one could predict. People who say that they knew that it was going to be so, either they fall into a misunderstanding or are simply lying. There has been no such a thing, and no one could imagine such a thing.
Even the Democrats coming to power on the first channel, for example, Gavriil Popov and others, were saying that they as an opposition were preparing for a long, agonizing and endless struggle, and the power, they do not know how, suddenly fell into their hands. Russia is an unpredictable country, it is a very dangerous thing, but, on the other hand, it gives also hope. Yes, currently, any dismantling of Putinism seems to be something incredible. I can say that it is today that they retroactively declare that the USSR collapsed because of economic problems. There is no such a thing. No economic issue could destroy the USSR. They would tighten up the belts and unite around the CPSU, around the subsequent Leonid Ilyich, and everything would be fine. Rather to say, as always, it would be bad for the people, but the USSR would not collapse.
It was a historical coincidence, an absolute coincidence that Gorbachev came to power in March 1985. It is very likely that it could be otherwise, and, let’s say, Grishin, or worse, Romanov would come to power, and we would live under the Soviet rule until now. As a result of purely historical coincidence, it turned to be so. I think that there would be again such a coincidence. It can be brought closer, it can be planned and do something to avoid the revival of Putinism with any other name after the dismantlement. This could and should be done. Therefore, it is necessary to start doing some things. Indeed, the international public tribunal is required (he also spoke about this during the conference, saying that those who incite hatred and war through the media should be condemned in such tribunal – M. B.), there should be a mandatory lustration. During the new splitting of its transformation, Russia should pass a lustration. The moment when the Soviet Union collapsed and Russia emerged, it did not happen, then it was impossible to do it because the bet was placed on Yeltsin. Passing a lustration by having someone on the head of the country who was a candidate for membership in the Politburo and the First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the Communist Party, it, of course, was impossible. It should be done now.
– Now? During Putin’s tenure?
– No, certainly, not at this point. Now, we need to be prepared for it, to bring this moment closer, the elite should be subjected to demoralization, including the media elite, the special services and so on. We need to create an international public tribunal, and it would also somehow create a social atmosphere as in Russia so as in the world, which will show that the collapse of the Putin regime is inevitable, and those who are now engaged in all-permissiveness, incite war in their squares and are a serious threat to the entire humanity would be brought to responsibility.
– You’re talking about the international tribunal. What should prevent Putin from disregarding those decisions, not to obey the decision by any international organization at all, especially the NGO’s?
– Certainly, he will not obey and will laugh at. Everybody will laugh, but it would be a hysterical laughter because now, when any of them is not allowed to travel to the US, Europe, it is a strike to their businesses, and it’s a serious blow. All our these newly appeared ones, the elite: media and political, are used to living in two countries – to work in Russia and consume in Europe and the United States. Their children are studying abroad … If they are unable to travel to these countries, they would be deprived of their properties in those countries, and it would be a severe blow for them. Now, everyone treats it with a laugh, ironically, actually, it is a very crooked smile, they understand very well that it is serious. I think that the attitude in Russia would also be changed, because the public tribunal is a complex process, and pieces of evidence should be presented. They constantly say, prove that we are fighting in the Ukraine, prove that we are cheating … It needs to be proved, it needs to collect the pieces of evidence and to keep them. When I prove it in my articles, it is one thing, but when it comes to the public tribunal, it is a process, a public process, transparent, which will be on air by all channels, it’s a completely different story. It would also unite the international public opinion that all of this is a crime, because there are still many people in the world who do not understand what’s going on and justify Putin, thinking, yeah, he is a scoundrel, but he is fighting for the multipolar world, he is fighting against the hegemony of America …
– Not to mention that they have other interests: gas, oil, …
– Yes, of course, there are also commercial problems. Today, a common Schroederization of the European elite is going on (Gerhard Schroeder is the former German Chancellor, who was hired at the gas industry on high wages, which was assessed by the international community as a corruption – M. B.), and many European parliamentarians and the full-staff factions in the parliaments of different countries are simply bought. It is very well known and it is the other side of the problem, the situation is dangerous. And all of this: concealment of Putin’s deeds, with mediaphrenic influence on the public opinion, should be broken and crashed, and the International Tribunal is capable to do it.
Melania BARSEGHYAN
Almaty – Yerevan
“Aravot” daily 28.05.2015
