We read everything. When did you want to learn to read yourself? Stories by Mikhail Zoshchenko
- Andrei Alekseevich, tell us which book from your childhood do you remember the most?
The first book that made the strongest impression on me was the Nanai folk tale“Cuckoo Mom” - because all fairy tales, as we know, end well, but this one ended badly, well, just disgusting. The plot in it was as follows: the mother fell ill and asked her children to bring her food, but they only said “no time” and ran away somewhere. Gradually, the mother began to grow feathers, turned into a cuckoo and flew away. Since then, this bird does not start nests and throws its eggs into other people's nests. Not a fairy tale, but a nightmare! Everything that we read was quite bright and kind, and then ... I sobbed out loud. But he still asked his mother to re-read it.
And there was another one, amazingly drawn, called "Fairy tale films." There were wonderful illustrations taken from cartoons. Moreover, everyone is different: on one page - a fairy tale about the Spanish Inquisition, turn it over, and there - "Niels' Journey with Wild Geese."
That is why she made a magical impression on me. I could look at this book indefinitely - the illustrations drove me into a frenzy.
-Still, what was more interesting for you - looking at a book or reading it?
Neither one nor the other. Most of all I loved to listen. Firstly, because there were not so many illustrations in the books of that time. And my parents weren't bookworms either. My first books were multi-text and few pictures. And I loved being read to. To be honest, I have a feeling that we all love to have people read to us. Even when my children became adults, reading aloud to me and to them was a great pleasure. To read for oneself means to work. A rare person loves this "perversion".
And also - and this is the second - reading aloud reminds me of my grandfather. He returned from the camps very ill and spent a lot of time in an armchair. I was the first grandson, and my grandfather bought children's books whenever he could. I remember his chair and his pipe and the way he started to read aloud. I was then only two years old, and I, of course, cannot say exactly what kind of books they were. I remember how he read them: he muttered something, muttered and then fell asleep, because he was already old. And I still carried him a book, almost demanding: “Grandfather, read!” Since then, apparently, I have retained this feeling of a book, as people of the older generation have a habit of constantly listening to the radio.
It happened quite early. I can’t name specific figures, but I clearly remember some moments from my childhood. When I was little, my mother calmly left me near the doctor's office or at a party if she needed to go away for a long time on business. Without interfering with anyone, I read for 3-4 hours without a break. At the age of six, I read an unadapted Robinson Crusoe in two days. Everyone was surprised - it's a hefty book. But I couldn't get rid of her!
- Wow choice! And how were your preferences distributed further - at preschool age?
I loved fairy tales and still love them. Tastes don't change. Of course, all Soviet schoolchildren loved the books of A.M. Volkov, because there is nothing like our literature in the field fairy tale did not create (and I do not know if it will ever create). All this "Volkovo Pentateuch" was read more than once. Moreover, I took these books every time I signed up for the library: I stood in line for a week, received them, re-read them twice or thrice and gave them away. At that time, it was simply impossible to buy these fairy tales.
- And Daniel Defoe remained for you a lonely herald of adventure literature?
Of course not. Traveling into the unknown has always been very important to me. I really liked Mine Reed, Fenimore Cooper, Jules Verne. In general, all the boys should have loved these books. In the third grade, I enthusiastically read The Two Captains and was under the impression of this book for a very long time. Recently, by the way, I re-read this novel. It is well written and very accurately places moral accents.
- Have you read the old version?
No, unfortunately I didn't find that book. It was unusual, two-column. I dug it up in the library of the rest home and didn't look away from it for three days. And for breakfast, and for lunch, and for dinner, I went with this book.
- The modern version of the book was probably better in terms of printing?
I am not trying to compare the books of my childhood with modern editions. Childhood impressions are so strong that now we cannot evaluate the quality of those "Two Captains" objectively. As well as the drawings of Leonid Vladimirsky, with which Volkov's books entered our lives. Maybe the old version of the book was poorly published, but what you love cannot be appreciated. It's not possible, and it's not necessary.
Have you ever found beautiful reprints of your favorite books?
Now this is not uncommon. If I see a colorful, well-made and tasteful book, the beauty of which I could not feel as a child, I rejoice like a child. I still like to look at books, but only for children. In adults, what to watch? There are fewer pictures, and a piece of paper is worse.
- So, you can still be fascinated by a picture in a book?
You know, in my time there were not so many well-designed books. We read what was on the shelves, and there was a lot of nonsense piled up there. It was impossible to imagine such a variety of authors that are available to the modern reader in those years. And we finished reading children's literature already in adulthood: I first read Eduard Uspensky at the age of 25-26, Daniil Kharms - a little earlier. That is why children's literature is still a discovery for me.
The interview was conducted by Yulia Shevelkina.
Photo by Tamara Kornilyeva
For the young greens, who believe that "copiers" have always existed, I want to explain that the work of samizdat presented to your attention was made by me somewhere around 1983. The phrase "multiplication technique" at that time could only be associated with a multiplication table and, accordingly, a calculator, which I got only in 1981. 
The compositions of the Strugatskys were then cult among the students. And the texts were not available. V Soviet time the science fiction brothers were not spoiled by the attention of publishers. And what was nevertheless published (mainly on the pages of magazines) was immediately subjected to repeated replication by all possible means at that time. The most common of these methods was retyping on a typewriter. But I also met texts rewritten by hand !!! You won’t force me to rewrite for any price (my notes always came out scanty - I don’t like to write), and I didn’t have access to a typewriter. But I had a camera, an enlarger and a passionate desire to have my own copies of the Strugatskys. There were several "Homemade" ones - "It's hard to be a god", "Beetle in an anthill" ... Well, and, of course, "Roadside Picnic". And there was only "Snail ..."
To make a book, several reels of film, contrasting photographic paper, a desire to stay up all night "for the sake of such a canoe" and, most importantly, to get the original source for that night were needed. 
The printed and glossed pages were "packed" in the same "samizdat" binding. The process, too, I will tell you, is very time-consuming and scrupulous. And I was also very proud of the neat inscription on the title - especially for this case, I managed to get hold of scarce decals from my brother architect.
The only pity is that the photographic emulsion, dried up over the years, began to turn the volume into a scroll ...
We have not read Schiller and Goethe,
We have known these fools for a long time.
One, two honor them,
So, infection, you laugh,
You don't understand anything in spirit.
Cut the professors, they are bastards
They teach us all the sciences,
About protons, electrons
And about other neutrons,
My head hurts from this boredom.
From the family we will make a cutlet,
For foppish morality, for this one.
Two blondes in the hands
Three brunettes at the feet
Four on the side, so yours are gone.
"Mein Kampf" Fuhrer - in! what a book!
It's all about how to cut and hit, brother.
We read this book
And they shook themselves on the mustache,
But let's not cut and crush. We Schiller and Goethe didn't read
We have long known these fools.
One, two you read them,
So, infection, laugh,
You don't understand anything in the spirit.
Cut professors, they mean
They give us all the sciences
About protons, electrons
And about other neutrons,
The head hurts from this boredom.
From the family we make a cutlet
For morality dude, for this.
Two blondes in hand
Three brunettes at her feet
Four on the side, here "s your no.
" Mein Kampf " Furher-in! what a book!
There's all about how to cut and beat, brother.
We read this book
And on his mustache wound,
But let's not cut and crush.
It happens that the school completely discourages the desire to read. Books that could nicely fit into the memory, for some reason, flow into the pipe of secondary education. In adulthood, dozens of books that we were forced to read at school are read in a completely different way. Might be worth reading them.
"Vanity Fair". William Thackeray
© focusfeatures.comAn unbearable boring text for a schoolboy turns into a stylistically lively novel about female cunning, if you read it in adulthood. It turns out that the text is filled with jokes and sarcastic comments by the narrator. What we read "Vanity Fair" at school is not clear.
You can buy the book here: ozon.ru
"Crime and Punishment". Fedor Dostoevsky
© bbc.co.uk We remember very well that Raskolnikov took and killed the old woman, having previously tormented himself with a moral choice. In general, this is all that was required of us school program. If you read the book in adulthood, you can learn something new about Raskolnikov. Dostoevsky "created" him as a kind and deeply reflective person. And the thing is just that he, being decent by nature, went to the murder.
You can buy the book here: eksmo.ru
"War and Peace". Lev Tolstoy
© bbc.co.uk The teachers believed that during the summer we read "War and Peace" - in one gulp, with a French-Russian dictionary in one hand and 4 volumes in the other. Oh well. The minimum is an abbreviated version, and the maximum is skipping battle scenes and French paragraphs. The schoolchildren were not interested in either the love or the military line. But now you can take a vacation and read all the volumes from cover to cover. You will be surprised, but the plot is dynamic, the characters are bright, and the reading is captivating. Okay, the French "inserts" are still a little annoying.
You can buy the book here: ozon.ru
Short stories, novellas and novels by Ray Bradbury
© michaelwhelan.com Short and long futuristic stories, the novella "Dandelion Wine" and the novel "The Martian Chronicles" are just a storehouse for a restless mind. It seems that only Bradbury could describe non-existent worlds so naturally and warmly. We didn't understand this at school.
You can buy the book here: eksmo.ru
"Eugene Onegin". Alexander Pushkin
© imdb.com Pushkin wrote not for children, but for adults. Here is the drama “Eugene Onegin”, for example, schoolchildren absolutely don’t care - who loved whom there, who pursued what goals, in which direction did the emotional pendulum swing? We were simply forced to mindlessly learn the characters' letters to each other. In fact, there is still a lot of controversy around this work. For example, how old was Tatiana really? Didn't it happen that Tatyana, who had matured, pushed her husband to a duel with Onegin?
You can buy the book here: eksmo.ru
"Dead Souls". Nikolay Gogol
© cinema.mosfilm.ru Schoolchildren are not interested in either Korobochka, or Plyushkin, or other characters. dead souls". Although they are worthy to re-read the book in adulthood. Firstly, your acquaintances, and sometimes some mental disorders, are easily recognized in the characters. Secondly, Gogol was a master of subtle irony, which for some reason was not taught to us at school.
You can buy the book here: ozon.ru
Stories by Mikhail Zoshchenko
© cinema.mosfilm.ru Stunning feuilletons from Zoshchenko hellishly torment schoolchildren with indistinct characters and storylines. Only after a while does Zoshchenko become understandable and loved. The famous "Aristocrat", for example, is read quickly, easily, it can be re-read in moments of sadness. Main character tells us a story about how he took a lady to the theater and treated him to cakes, and then he became sharply disappointed in mannered young ladies.
You can buy the book here: eksmo.ru
"War of the Worlds". H. G. Wells
© dreamworks.com fantasy novel Wells about the invasion of an alien civilization seemed far-fetched and boring. The salt of the novel is in the very fact that monsters attacked the Earth. It is now, thanks to films and hundreds of books on the subject, that we can guess how events will develop. Of course, humanity will not surrender, it will call for help with all the power of weapons and will fight to the death. The novel was written in 1897, and for that time it was a sensation.
You can buy the book here: ozon.ru
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Interview with radio "Radonezh"
A. Artamonov. Dear Brothers and Sisters! I welcome Kiev publicist Dmitry Skvortsov to the Radonezh radio studio.
What, however, is now the difficulty with precise definitions. Here, you, Dmitry, prefer that I present you not as a Ukrainian, but as a Kiev journalist. No less semantic and linguistic difficulties arise with the correct use of phrases: how is it now correct to say “in Ukraine” or “in Ukraine”?
D. Skvortsov. In Ukraine, of course! According to the laws of the Russian language.
AA. Exactly! The great N.V. also said so. Gogol! In any case, we now have a very serious broadcast - it concerns the circumstances of your detention on January 30, at the Kiev airport after the Christmas readings held in Moscow. The books “Sacred Meanings of Little Russia” by Kirill Frolov and the Second Volume of the History of the Great Patriotic War in the EU and CIS countries, compiled by experts Russian Institute Strategic Studies under the auspices of the expert of this Institute, Tatyana Semyonovna Guzenkova. And now it turned out that you decided to smuggle them to Ukraine!
DS. That is what I was initially charged with - violation of customs control. An attempt to smuggle such publications - as they defined - "bearing signs of publications inciting ethnic hatred, fascism, etc. etc."
AA. But your books were not on the list of books prohibited from being imported into the customs territory of the country! I have read most of the sources and media available in European languages. I have never seen a shadow of such a list anywhere - especially with your books in it!
DS. In fact, such a list exists. It's time to get used to Ukraine - to what we once read in Orwell's books. All this is already being successfully implemented. This list already includes several dozen publications. True, I must confess that there are no books by Adolf Aloizovich Hitler there. But there are such authors as academician S.Glazyev, V.Katasonov, a member of the Advisory Board at the EBRD, a UN adviser…
AA. The logic is amazing! I think it makes sense to get acquainted with the points of view of 2 people who wanted to speak on the issue of your detention.
The first of our experts is T.S. Guzenkova, RISS employee and compiler of one of those books that were found with you:
Tamara Guzenkova: Since February, that is, since D. Skvortsov was detained at the customs, we have been closely following this completely absurd, unnatural situation for a modern legal and democratic state. A citizen of Ukraine, who was at an official event in Moscow, at the Christmas Orthodox Readings, is detained at customs; moreover, they search his personal belongings! He is detained with two books presented to him by his Moscow colleagues... And we are not even talking about journalism, but about scientific monographs. The book prepared by RISS is a collective monograph by the staff of our Institute. The book is devoted to the Second World War in the historical policy of the CIS and EU countries.
According to the photocopy of the detention protocol handed over to us, this monograph allegedly threatens the territorial integrity and constitutional order of Ukraine. But this has nothing to do with the text of the monograph itself! Our scientific book is based on the analysis of a huge number of sources and literature. It is connected in essence with an expert study of the problematics. To work with this topic, we involved both specialists in the Second World War and specialists in country studies. That is, anyone who wrote on politics in the Second World War of a particular country is, among other things, an expert on that country. Therefore, the assessments were balanced, objective, evidence-based. Just in the first place, when working on this book, we sought to provide an evidence base.
I think any book, no matter what it is, is probably not worth a human life and a human career. In this sense, we are closely following his fate D. Skvortsov and hope that D. Skvortsov will not suffer as a citizen of Ukraine and as a person who has a civil and political position. We wish him health and victory in this ridiculous and absurd situation.
DS. I note that this is the second volume of this kind of research under the auspices of the RISS. Scientists, sociologists, teachers, historians, political scientists from almost all European countries took part in the work.
The fact is that the customs officer just opened this book on the page of the afterword written by Tamara Semyonovna. There, Guzenkova wrote that in Ukraine there is now a revival of Nazism in the most acute forms. This phrase was enough for the book to be confiscated and classified under the article ... "incitement of Nazism."
AA. It looks like the latest trend in Ukraine is the vogue for harassing journalists.
By the way, we have an eyewitness to your detention. This is V.S. Anisimov, our frequent and welcome guest on the air of Radonezh. Let me remind you that he is the head of the press service of the Primate of the UOC-MP His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry:
V.S. Anisimov. The detention of the journalist D. Skvortsov is, of course, arbitrariness and a violation of the rights of journalists and freedom of speech. Because the literature that he brought to Ukraine does not appear in any prohibited lists that we are compiling today. As far as I know, the government itself does not know what to do now. The court did not take place, because the customs sent these books for examination. Until the examination passes, that is, until they find people who will read and give their opinion ... I even heard such a joke that now our prohibition system has taken over the distribution of this literature! Imagine, some will read it, then the family will read it, then someone else will have to read it, and so on. Otherwise, the journalist himself would take a look and put it on the shelf.
It seems that we are returning to the times of totalitarianism, when people are detained at the airport. And they are delayed upon arrival! This is generally absurd. Usually a person is checked to see if he is carrying anything bad when he gets on the plane. Why detain and search already at the exit?
By the way, there was a curious incident during the arrest. A team of Dynamo Kiev veterans flew with us. The team included great football players - Mikhailichenko and others. Tried to check their bags too! But they were so furious at these customs officers that they even ran away to a safe distance. The customs officers tried to tell them: “We, you know, now have Europe!” And the players made square eyes: “Are you going to tell us what Europe is?!!”.
I think that this process will be long. Until they find experts to read, but here, I think, experts, except for SMS, do not read anything! For the time being, these experts will give their opinion... In any case, a certain educational moment will also be reached. Let them read and tell others what kind of books we are now forbidden to bring to Ukraine!
And Dmitry, of course, must hold on! Because this is normal journalistic work. That is, if everyone likes a journalist, then, apparently, he is not a journalist at all! And if he is persecuted for a book, for the truth, for a word, it means that he really is a worthy person!
DS. I want to express my deep gratitude to Vasily Semenovich. We flew with him on the same flight. He also participated in the Christmas Readings. Your editor-in-chief, Yevgeny Konstantinovich Nikiforov, was also there. For 4 hours, while I was kept in a special room, the head of the press service of the UOC-MP did not leave the airport building, thus showing that he would not allow arbitrariness.
My lawyer Yury Skalitsky will not allow arbitrariness either. This is a very experienced human rights activist, he knows perfectly well how to build a defense even in terms of what these gentlemen ordered. "Expertise" must prove that the publications confiscated from me pose a threat to the Law on Public Morality. There are people who say that not a single decent jurist will undertake such an examination, which is deliberately stupid. No one wants to put themselves in such a position and does not want to remain a precedent for centuries. But Skalitsky suspects that somewhere in Ivano-Frankivsk there will be someone who will put the law below their national feelings, as they understand them. But even in this case, Yuri is ready to defend me.
AA. For my part, I also noted the speech of Jan Taksyur and other of your friends and human rights activists who gathered under the courthouse on the day appointed for the start of the show trial. The general tone of those who spoke in your defense reminded me of the era of the trials of Brodsky and Galich. It turns out that Ukraine with its head held high is running back into the past. One gets the feeling that it is not by chance that you were charged with such an accusation.
DS. It is difficult for me to say that I was detained "on a tip." But on the other hand, I must say that I have flown a lot up to now, but only after the victory of the Euromaidan they began to carefully check me and bring me to customs control points.
AA. Here, in addition to past times, I also have some other analogy. In France, in a particularly rude and cynical manner, a French human rights activist, former head of the French Foreign Legion, Chairman of the Association of French Airborne Forces Veterans, General of the Army K. Pikmal, was detained. A 75-year-old man was roughly thrown to the ground and stepped on his neck with a boot. After leaving the bullpen, he repented of his participation in a protest against migrants in the city of Calais and admitted his mistakes. Of course, it is easy for me, sitting in Moscow, to carry on a conversation with you in the style of small talk, but still, as a colleague to a colleague: have you received any threats?
AA. And what about the Ukrainian people? Is he silent, as the great classic wrote? Do people come to you expressing their sympathy? Do they approach you on the street?
DS. you know people for the most part is not silent. The people rejoice that such “quilted jackets” like me are being crushed, that they have finally become a “European state”! Over the 25 years that have passed since the collapse of the Union, Ukrainian funds mass media and the education system has already grown two generations of this kind. There was also a reformatting of a good half of those who believed in past ideals. The rest are courageous people. There are many. I feel their support - and through social networks, and then, when some people come up on the street, they just shake hands silently, and that's it! There are enough of these people. The further east from the source of the current Ukrainian ideology, Galicia, the more.
AA. At the beginning of our broadcast, we have already touched on the topic of New Russia. Tell me, Dmitry, how do Ukrainians feel about the DPR and LPR? Do many of you think that "Muscovites have opened the territory"?
DS. It all starts with the fact that, they say, Muscovites generally stole our name - Russia! For some reason, "it was done" by Peter the Great. Apparently, these people are counting down from the day of the official announcement. Russian Empire. “Peter the First de stole our original name - Rus or Ros!” When you ask these people why they do not want to return to this ancient name and call themselves Russians, a stupor sets in. They sometimes say to me: "If you like Russia so much, why don't you leave for Moscow?" I answer: “I also live in the mother of Russian cities - not Ukrainian ones - Kiev!” And then the interlocutors wedge again ...
AA. I made inquiries in the Polish edition of the former Voice of Russia. It turned out that the word "moskal" was coined by the Polish gentry. But after all, the same Polish gentry came up with the word “bydlo” to refer to the peasants of Galicia. Well, let's call our Galician ideologists this wonderful epithet, since they call Russians "Muscovites".
DS. The gentry called cattle not only their Galician subjects, but also all the indigenous people living from Poland to Kiev.
AA. Dmitry, you are an eyewitness to the events. And since this is so, I would like to ask you two more questions. Firstly, do you think that we are moving at a fast pace towards the bonfire of books and torchlight processions? What, by the way, is not an idea for Yatsenyuk to illuminate the streets of Ukrainian cities in an era of energy shortage?
DS. Why are we only “moving” towards the torchlight processions?! These processions have been observed for a long time! Moreover, they quietly took place under Yanukovych! Moreover, in the immediate vicinity of the SBU building, torchlight processions were held! With all Nazi slogans! This is not new for us!
AA. I cannot but ask you a question about Odessa. Odessa itself is a very cosmopolitan city - not Russian, not Ukrainian! But still there is no person in Greater Russia who would be indifferent to Odessa! We are all in love with French Boulevard, and Odessa chestnuts, and everything that makes up the indescribable color and charm of this port city. And in the center of the southern cultural capital of Greater Russia, more than 40 people were burned alive!!! Have the inhabitants of Odessa become adherents of the new government?
DS. History since French general Pikmal shows that people who come out with liberal slogans, who build the country on a seemingly liberal basis, are the most totalitarian part of the ideological spectrum of mankind! Of course, Odessa is a multicultural city, and multinationality and contacts, as we know from Lev Gumilyov's theory of ethnogenesis (and, in general, life shows this), give rise to a lot of liberals.
And as we have already seen over the past decades, liberals are the most militant Russophobes: whether in France, in Ukraine, or in Russian Federation. And along with the fact that, nevertheless, the majority of Odessa residents empathize with people who have lost loved ones in the House of Trade Unions, pray for the souls of these dead and consider them heroes, nevertheless, there is a very large layer of the liberal element in Odessa. He, this element, applauds Saakashvili and others like him. But there, in Odessa, they have their own problems inside. Recently, supporters of Saakashvili and his subordinates went to a rally dedicated to something so "sacred" for those who have now come to power, and they were unexpectedly beaten for the fact that ... they speak Russian! (Laughter) They don't know Ukrainian! So there is hope that the local liberals are slowly seeing the light. The deputy was there. Saakashvili Sasha Bortnik... So he felt Russophobia in full measure. And even wrote about it on Facebook. It seems that it became quite uncomfortable to live there for Masha Gaidar. So let them taste their fiend to the fullest!
AA. Not so long ago, historically, we, then still on the territory of the united and indivisible USSR, read to young people the following, as it turned out, visionary lines of the Strugatsky brothers: “Are these people or not people? What is human about them? Some are slaughtered right on the streets, others sit at home and meekly wait for their turn. And everyone thinks: anyone, but not me. The cold-blooded brutality of those who cut, and the cold-blooded obedience of those who are cut. Cold-bloodedness, that's the worst thing. Ten people stand, frozen in horror, and dutifully wait, and one approaches, chooses a victim and cuts it in cold blood. The souls of these people are full of impurities, and every hour of submissive waiting pollutes them more and more. Now scoundrels, scammers, murderers are invisibly born in these hidden houses, thousands of people, stricken with fear for life, will mercilessly teach fear to their children and the children of their children.
Yatseniuks and poroshenki will pass, but the worst thing is that those slops with which the souls of Ukrainians were defiled by nonhumans will remain oh so long. And the Ukrainians will have to - oh, they will have to! - drop by drop to squeeze out the same cattle from oneself, bearing repentance for one's silence, when others were burned and slaughtered in the squares. God bless you!
