Web-based application to the federal weekly "Russian News" Riga.Rosvesty publishes an interview with Peter and Yuri, a member of the party "ZaPcHeL", the text is given below in full:
Do not you think that separation from the mother culture, that is from Russia, the impact on the identity of Russian abroad? They now express themselves tongue-tied, though, and remember his roots, as well as their descendants will remember them for white emigration, but the process of assimilation is inevitable ...
Naturally. It is a fact - tragic, but true. Although at the time of television, radio and the Internet, freedom of movement - separation from the mainland culture and identity gap is immeasurably smaller than in the days of white emigration. But the quality of communication is immeasurably lower.
"Language padonkaff" of the Internet, thank God, comes to naught - is interesting. But often the language of Russian mass media no less monstrous than the "language padonkaff." Only then was a protracted joke, but it - not a joke, a cruel reality. When you read the print Russian author programs "with buddies" - it's dark. Clumsy of phrase, the verbal garbage, absurd interjections, grammatical inconsistencies and logical inconsistencies - this is not something that can help preserve the Russian language in our foreign countries. And will remain Russian.
And the white emigration were Bunin, Kuprin, Nabokov, at worst - Merezhkovsky. It was a real culture exported to the blood - not only in memory. And there is little help. Although the language of the Russian Press in Riga and Berlin - it is really the Russian language for the most part. But who reads the newspapers these days?
The problem of preserving identity - is primarily a problem of competitiveness of identity. If to be Russian - that's cool, it inspires confidence it inspires, - seeking to preserve the identity will be millions. If the image is associated with the Russian helpless and formless politics of their historical homeland, and Russia as the all-powerful government officials and oligarchs, clearly and deliberately burn God-given natural gifts for the country's five-storey yachts and in Courchevel, with technical, organizational and technological backwardness, with the defeat of science and its humiliation of the Russian pop toshnotnoy ubiquitous flocks and mocking comedians, with second-rate television series entirely on disassembly, thieves and bandits - then people will slowly make their choice in favor of a self-identification - with the countries and civilizations, which dictate their will on others and defend their interests and their people not tearful complaints and lamentations about human values, and through sanctions and embargo - for a start. And then the other helper tools. Nobody likes to be insulted and humiliated. Masochism - not the basis for a mass identity.
What is your identity?
Russian. Is the same as identity of my wife, my mother and my two daughters.
What is your Russia?
Like many, but not for all my European counterparts and Russian for some young people - is the space of the native language and culture without any restrictions. What is called the "historical homeland" - Homeland of family history, ancestors - my and my wife's space kinship and friendship ties - on my line - from the Urals to the Altai and Krasnoyarsk, through his wife - from St. Petersburg to Smolensk, and the Volga region. Memory of Childhood - the annual protracted trip in the summer, when making the rounds of all the relatives - from Izhevsk and ending with the Novosibirsk and Tomsk. Siberian pine taiga hills of Southern Ural, Kama, carved frames and roofs of the old wooden skates Tomsk, houses, piles of half-meter larch beams - a three-storey with attic ...
A sense of belonging to the family history and people. Cloud, like the Colosseum, which stands over the endless steppe Ishym - the train goes all day, and a cloud all worth it. This feeling is immeasurably more powerful than words "civilization", "culture", "archetype," "State" - as rightly said in Umberto Eco's "Name of roses" - the words - only signs of signs.
You often speaks of the "European Russian", could you explain what means "European Russian"?
From a purely geographical point of view - is a Russian man living in the European Union.
A good example - a journalist Konstantin Ranks. He was born, as far as I know, in Riga, then lived and worked in Finland, Spain, and then again in Riga, and now again in Finland. It is quite absurd to call him a journalist Latvian, Finnish or Spanish. It is a European Russian journalist. Despite the fact that his ancestors, as far as I know - the Baltic Germans.
Among the Russian-born Latvians now these people very much - it looks like tens of thousands. More accurate data will appear at the end of the year, after the announcement of the Census in Latvia. Then it will be more or less clear how many of our departed the open spaces of Europe - probably forever. While with the Latvians significantly - about 300,000 people, far below the real numbers. Not always those people in the passport should record the "Russian" in the "nationality" - who in general have this record, it is done on special wishes of man. I and all my relatives there.
Now the bulk of the EU truly European Russian - the programmers, journalists, musicians, and students who attend the program "Erasmus". This means that one semester they are studying in universities in Sweden, the second - at the universities of Spain, then their home may be France, Denmark, Scotland. These people feel at home in Riga, and in Brussels and Dublin. Some how I feel at home and another in Tomsk, St. Petersburg, Smolensk, and - as in Barcelona or Venice.
Another slice of European Russian - more than the settled population in Germany, Spain, Latvia, Estonia ... These people are mass occupations, often for long periods living in one country, though more rarely in one place. If in Riga or London to find a job or other source of income is almost always possible, in the province's hard for a long time, and it gets harder. Many of these people living in the EU outside the Baltic countries - immigrants from Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan. They psychology differs significantly from the Baltic Russian - they often have not mastered in the host countries for real. But a lot of them - three million in Germany alone. Basically it is Russian and Kazakh-born Germans. They decorated the expanse of shops with German names, "Deli", "Bakery" and "Grocery" nostalgic restaurants and cafes, "Dacha", "Dnipro", "The Yerofeyich." They are not Russian in terms of ethnography and anthropology - but rather licensed Germans. However, their native language - Russian. They are the publishers who are and who the readers and listeners of Russian magazines and radio stations. They are the same - the main visitors of Russian clubs. So perhaps, they can be more precisely defined as, say, the "European of Russian Germans."
Is it true that the Russians absolutely do not understand the problems of Russian-speaking Latvian, considering that Russian resentful of the fact that until now has 300 thousand aliens, and the Russian language does not even have official status? Perhaps, the Russian media overloaded with information about the disgruntled Russian speakers, and to write and that Latvians and Russian are not enemies?
I honestly do not understand the question. What Russians do not understand our problems, it is true when it comes to many ordinary Russians - they often try on everything for themselves, and this is understandable - another life, someone else's problem. In a blatant form it manifests itself among the few Russians who immigrated to Latvia - there are very few, but they are. There is no more heinous assimilated than the immigrants. Based on the fact that they too are Russian, they preach to us - the indigenous Latvians, you need to know the place, behave quietly, "we are here visiting." On this there is one answer - "you're really here visiting, here and pass on, it is desirable to hell, far away in Germany. And sit there quietly. And do not you teach us how to live at home." Although this specific audience, not make the weather.
I do not presume to judge the Russian media for what they need and what is not needed. In my opinion, the best thing that can make the media - is to provide comprehensive, honest and competent information. And since absolutely neutral information is not possible because of the inevitable selection of facts, yet it would be good just to express the position of each media or the author, and not to deceive the public visibility of complete impartiality and objectivity of the material. There is nothing more deceptive than the press, depicting the complete impartiality. Many times convinced. Really open-minded can be a telephone directory, but do not press. No wonder the reader "Guardian" does not expect from a newspaper affectionate attitude toward conservative policies and views, and the "Times" will not glorify homosexuality value or the nationalization of airlines. Everyone knows it, and accept an amended text to the position of the publication. This is an honest editorial policy.
And then, "that Latvians and Russian are not the enemies' - this is about what, exactly? We are not enemies, just get along on the same land without any excesses, as in Northern Ireland. Or in Chechnya. But no friends. Entire ethnic groups can not be friends, only certain people. We are simply fellow countrymen - so work out. Even countrymen. But this is not a reason for joy. Just such is life.
The system of values which civilization you are living?
In the system of global postmodernism, that is full of arbitrariness in the choice of values. This is, firstly, just like saying Zoshchenko medical fact - because postmodernism - the only undeniable reality of a Europe where I am physically. And not only in Europe.
And secondly, I was a student a post-modernist, and when a word was not like this - in the 70s of last century. How to teach the classics of Marxism-Leninism, there is natural materialists, natural mystic, natural Communists, but here I am - a spontaneous post-modernist.
Since there are no normative values of post-modernism is not and can not be, because there reigns complete arbitrariness, for myself, I chose the values of Russian civilization - the civilization of the Orthodox in their core, but not only. This civilization is heavily syncretic.
In keeping with the values of liberalism and the priority of individual freedom, I choose what I want. My perception of the Russian civilization as a phenomenon shared by syncretic Oswald Spengler, Walter Schubart and Lev Gumilev, share and Samuel Huntington, Zbigniew Brzezinski - who respect and even awe mystical, like Spengler, who hopefully, as Schubart, who with hostility, as Zbigniew Brzezinski, and who just stated a fact, as Huntington.
By the Russian civilization, the Eurasian-sounding, belonged to Vladimir the Baptist, Aleksandr Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, Lomonosov and Stolypin, and Berdyaev Vernadsky ... In short all the people who know the outside of Russia as the Russian artistic and political elite, as great generals and the pioneers.
This is when it comes to values. And if the realities, I, like all Europeans live in a situation and not in the system of values, globalized and fragmented in Europe - a dying Europe. This anti-liberal Europe liberalistskaya and at the same time. Again, this is just a fact and value has nothing to do with it. Why do I need other people's values, if I have my own there? Although techniques and methods of take, if they are effective - with a totally postmodern disregard for consistency. As claimed the ancient, and followed by Hegel, contradiction is the source of development.
What is a Russian nationalism on the European Russian? Where is the fine line between nationalism and neo-Nazism?
Political Science between nationalism and Nazism is any form is not "fine line" and the whole field - first, aggressive nationalism, chauvinism and then.
However, here are two simple comparison: the first - normal nationalism is akin to the commitment to his family and their relatives. Anyone who loves his mother, his father, his family much more than other people's relatives - just because they own. Similarly, nationalist feels commitment to its people and their language, not to prityazaya superiority over other peoples and languages. This problem simply does not care about it - no one did not compare his mother with a stranger.
But if a man claims that his mother, his family, his people, his language is better, higher and more worthy than others - this is a step toward chauvinism. So far, only a step - is to encourage referees to the demon of state power, to chauvinism, hatched from eggs dragon. One more step - a statement that all other than just not the same, they are not just different - they are worse, not just good - they are evil, and from birth, and hopeless. One more step - the renunciation of personality, willingness to abandon his own "I" delight in self-abandonment for the sake of abstraction "nation" and "national power" - is often the best of intentions. Examples in history are innumerable. But, as in the legend of the student wizard, call the demon is much easier than to get rid of. In order to end parliamentary decay and corruption of politicians, the oligarchy and corruption, to put things simple and understandable to everyone for the good order of the "nation", all neatly becomes a series expansion is canceled and corruption along with his sources - multiparty, parliamentary democracy and the damned. Everything becomes simple, clear and beautiful - one people, one party, one leader, in German - the Fuhrer. And if the peoples, languages, and leaders - more than one problem is easily solved. Cut off all unnecessary things and there are no problems. That's how Nazism is born - from the desire for simplicity and clarity to every order. Hitler promised the Germans order. And they voted for this new order - against torture and freedom of the burden of personal responsibility.
The second analogy. With nationalism, like any feeling, and even with any philosophy - as with alcohol. Drink thirty grams of cognac - cheer up. Fifty to one hundred and - to cheer. Two hundred - and someone on the rampage and pull scandal. A pint of brandy of the same - and many oprostyatsya to bestial condition. All the matter in a dose and sense of proportion. Or in the absence of this feeling.
Mr. Aigars Freimanis commented in an interview to our edition that Zhdanok MEP speaks so much about "European Russian," which became an elusive quantity to its voters, a kind of export product, which was Vaira Vike Freiberga. Russian living in Latvia, do not consider themselves as Europeans, according to Mr. Freimanis.
They believe and what not to believe Latvian Russian, this I know better than Mr. Freimanis. Well, not like Mr. Freimanis Tatiana Zhdanok, but these same Russian re-elected her for the second time in the European Parliament - with a gain votes in Riga on 40%. In accordance with the terms of Mr. Freimanis, enthusiastically exported Tatiana Zhdanok in Brussels and in European politics. This is an issue, including technology.
Those Russian living in Latvia are still not very European feel that is true. Those who felt the well, here we do not live - they live in Europe - mainly in England, Spain, Sweden, from May 1 - in Germany. Those who remained, of course, to understand - is not quite Europe, and Europeans to be difficult here.
At the party congress ZaPcHeL sounding phrases about the unity of the people of Latvia. Does this mean that the party will become a multinational and it will include Latvians, Poles, Ukrainians, that one party has become a reflection of the whole country?
Indeed, there can be no unity in the glaring difference in rights and opportunities - can not be elected to the unity of the outcasts. Only it was not a "peoples" of Latvia, but the "people" of Latvia, which includes potentially all Latvians, regardless of their native language and ethnic origin.
About multicultural party ZaPcHeL - more multinational us to be difficult. In the party are Latvians, Ukrainians, Poles, Jews and Armenians. Staff promotions at the protection of Russian schools under the banner "Russian schools - our Stalingrad" shouting "Russian do not surrender," hundreds of boys with Latvian surnames - from mixed families. They also felt themselves to be Russian. And rightly so. As students of the two Jewish schools in Riga, with Russian language of instruction - he gave them t-shirts, badges and banners with the motto.
However, any party represents only the interests of society - because it's called "batch" - "part" in Latin. We represent the specific interests of those who want to be Russian, wants to have the right to collective identity, and not just be "generally human." Those whose native language is important - specifically Russian. We're not going, we can not and will not be all at once, and anyone in particular - is a profile of the "Center of Concord." And we do not claim a political monopoly - only in the interests of competition in different directions may balance of power. But the balance of power and powerlessness is impossible.
Many believe that the only party ZaPcHeL bites association "Consent Center" instead of making common cause together. In addition, the party does not even attempt to unite all the small Russian parties. Does this mean that the Russian community is an internal split? Or is it explained by the fact that other parties are "Russian", and the party ZaPcHeL - pro-European contact and therefore can not be?
This is becoming amusing. What is the general case, we can do with a party that just showed his attitude to the Russian language and to Russian voters? At the vote in the Diet for increased penalties and stricter language rules and knowledge of Latvian in private business and in Russian schools?
That is, in fact, all of the obligations of the "Center of Concord" in relation to Russian voters as set forth in the program the CA, the third section:
"Adopt the agreement, which aims - inter-ethnic trust and the foundation of which - a convincing expression of respect for the interests, values and historical experiences of all ethnic groups."
Truly a remarkable statement of obligations of the Party to the voters - the promise of "a convincing expression of respect for" worthy of the pen by Ilf and Petrov. A direct analogy with an episode from the book of Francois Rabelais' Gargantua and Pantagruel "- to pay the ringing of coins for the opportunity to dine smell of soup. What was the subject of co-operation? In the "agreement on a convincing expression of respect"?
And what do we have all the other parties of Russian? Here is the CA made it clear to the mouth of the Nile Ushakov in the newspaper "Latvijas Aviso" a couple of years ago, with the callout in the title of the interview: "We - not the Russian party." Openly and honestly. Maybe the next generation of ingenuity Yuri Zhuravlev - was "Dzimtene," now that a social-democratic-vseobschechelovecheskoe? I can answer when I know what the Russian party.
Possibly occur. Actually, it was the aim of Russian foreign policy structures and Russian news channels operating in Latvia. Only Estonia is not, and there were no real Russian parties, especially - European Russian parties. There were small groups of colleagues, associates, companions for several common problems. And yet - all Russian political groups in Estonia, it's hard to call them parties, fully guided by opinion "from Russia." It can not be called "European Russian party." So still time - we in Latvia.
