I cannot speak for the majority of citizens. Among those around me, people are shocked. They are downright ashamed that the Kremlin party congress was such a retro-event. The dramatization was not content with falling back on the symbolic forms of the Brezhnev era. It went right back to Stalin: standing ovations lasting for minutes; a weaver as representative of workers who asks the Kremlin boss to remain in office; a delegate from the provinces who suggests to the president that he do the people a favour and become minister president. This script hails from the Stalin era. It was never before so clear. One just has to be ashamed.
In this interview, unfortunately, Shenderovich is nowhere near as brilliant and funny as he normally is. Maybe something got lost in translation.
But it's not often that he's being interviewed in the West, so I thought I should post the link here.
Here's his Russian-language site.
I wish Ukraine had someone like Shenderovich, too.
Or - it would be nice to live in a separate country, with Shenderovich as its president.
I think Shenderovich's sarcasm and satire are not in that interview because he is talking about the staff that is too scary and he is just spilling it out to his interviewer.It would be a wrong tone otherwise. And he will never become a president, nor a politician (even though he ran to become one). He is too honest and too brilliant, he is a voice of conscience. He is a true journalist-he thinks about what is best for his country.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you: I feel sad that Ukraine does not have such exceptional journalists as Russia does.
By the way, I hope those who live in the States will agree with me that Dennis Miller is an American shenderovich :)
Neeka, it's an interesting mind excercise to find an analogy to Mr. Shenderovich in ua. For me, this might be Yuriy Makarov. Or, your neighbour, Olexander Podererevyanskyi..
ReplyDeleteYes, how could I forget???!!! Les' Poderevyanskyi!!! Absolutely!
ReplyDeleteThanks for reminding me!
:)))
P.S. Is he really my neighbor?
P.P.S. I'm afraid I've never heard of Yuriy Makarov. Who is he?
Indeed, Mr. Poderevyanskyi is living on Lyuterans'ka. Once, there was even certain interview with him featuring picturesque descriptions of Bessarabka backyards. (Recently I happen to walk there at least twice a week, but still not having seen anybody from a local establishment ;-)
ReplyDeleteAs to Mr. Y. Makarov -- he's a permanent resident at 1+1 and some literature venues.
Btw, one more person who's certainly here to excuse ukraine's very existance as a cultural country is Lina Kostenko.