- Official Post
Vorweg eines: DDT gehören zu meinen Helden. Schon lange, bevor ich für mich die Ukraine entdeckte, hörte ich Lieder wie z.B. dieses hier:
Die Band ist immer noch aktiv, sie haben gerade eine Tour durch die Ukraine hinter sich, und der Sänger, Юрий Шевчук, gab der Тижден ein Interview. Hier der Anfang:
U.W.: When we listen to your songs, particularly new ones, we are struck by the pain for Russia that pulsates in every line.
Yes, it hurts. It hurts badly. I am a patriot of my country. Incidentally, [Vladimir] Putin is, too, but we have two different types of patriotism. Putin and his colleagues are jingoists and embrace the patriotism of marches and posters showing a very nice person who is absolutely empty inside. There is nothing there except words. My patriotism is this pain. I have a personal need to feel in my heart the entire guilt that my country may have. This is the way it should be – apply your heart to all the failures and problems and not only to the good things, which we also have. This is true patriotism, in my opinion. It is the patriotism of an artist, citizen and simply a human being. You have to be a real person who sees a real world.
I recently attended the burial of film director Sergey Govorukhin who had just turned 50. His heart failed – he took everything that was going on in the country too close to his heart. I have lost many other friends like that in the past while. I even have this line: “With salvos of thousands of shrill-gorged heart attacks our fathers met the new day.” There is a loud cry of such heart attacks across entire Russia, because conscientious, honest people are going under.
U.W.: What will Russia face after Putin’s victory?
The brightest of futures, but we will all be blinded by its light. In general, please don't doom our country like this, leaving it no options. You shouldn't say anything like this, because words are material. For example, he [Putin] will not overcome me. And even being president, he will not be able to overcome several million wonderful Russian citizens. And this is already a lot.
U.W.: Social thought in Russia harbours two myths: Western-type liberal democracy and a paternalist society ruled by a tsar. Do you see a third option?
There is a line in one of my songs exactly about this: “We very much want to believe in something else, but how can we drink from this bottomless cup?” I am saddened by Russians’ perpetual faith in a good tsar. I'm irritated when our Kremlin leadership, in its words, busies itself with saving Russia and, to make matters worse, forces people to believe it. There is too much mythology in everything. Perhaps this is how my compatriots escape from reality. Every person, to say nothing about bloggers, mythologises himself. The current situation in Russia is itself a great myth.
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Als ich das las, ging mir wirklich das Herz auf. Er spricht mir absolut aus der Seele, und es tut einfach gut zu hören, dass es intelligente Menschen gibt, für die nicht jeder, der gegen Putin ist, automatisch gegen Russland ist.