Last week we posted a quick blurb about an interview in the German press with Russian satirist Viktor Shenderovich. Below is the complete translation of the article; the original can be read here.
“A Stage Production from the Stalin Era”
Since Putin has governed Russia, Russian politics has been as lively as a morgue. Now Putin wants to become premier. And to this end, he has had his party celebrate him as a healer. A conversation with the satirist Viktor Shenderovich.
taz: Mr. Shenderovich, President Putin is taking part in the Duma election and does not exclude becoming prime minister. Is a Putin dynasty following the Romanov dynasty?
Viktor Shenderovich: We now know with 100-percent certainty that Putin is staying on. The details concerning the technicalities of ruling have probably not been completely resolved.
This stage production has entertainment value. But are Russian citizens not angry that they are so obviously being led around by the nose?
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.
Is that typically Russian?
No. Tolstoy and Tschaikovsky are typically Russian. Politicians who seek to remain in power their entire life exist elsewhere as well: in North Korea and Belarus, in Cuba and Zimbabwe. There is nothing peerless nor special about Vladimir Putin. He is a banal authoritarian politician who would prefer not to step down.
For eight years, Vladimir Putin has worked for stability. That was his key word, the central justification for his policies. For that reason as well, he cannot step down, for he has to see to stability. What does this stability mean?
There are various forms of stability. A tree is stable: It lives; parts of it die; others grow back. This is stability through change. By contrast, our stability is that of a morgue in which the dead always lie in the same place with yellow tags on their toes. Nothing happens; everything is lifeless. For all that, however, everybody knows where to find these tags and where the corpses belong. Stability in Russian means that there are no politics, and that the atmosphere of a freezer reigns.
The new state party United Russia presents itself in the style of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Compared to this Kremlin party was the CPSU of the Gorbachev era not almost transparent and pluralistic?
Well, let’s not exaggerate. The CPSU had different phases, but there was never any talk of pluralism there. Nonetheless, the current system resembles the former one. Also, there were no alternative sources of information earlier. The vertical orientation of power and the aggressive submission of subordinates have not changed either. An essential difference, however, is that it was clear to homo sovieticus in the waning days of the Soviet era how idiotic and stupid the system was. He had deciphered everything. This still lies before us. We are just at the start.
At least the Kremlin stage production has a certain entertainment value...
Yes, and the people take pleasure in it. That belongs to our tradition and corresponds to the Russian idea of politics. Here democratic rules are treated with contempt. That’s the way it was, and that’s the way it is.
The elite is falling back on Communist stage production of rule. Perhaps a longing for lost youth lies behind this?
No, I don’t believe that. They just can’t do it differently.
A re-organisation of government has taken place. Ministers are leaving; others are coming. Does that mean anything?
No, absolutely nothing. The cabinet is re-organised elsewhere when policy is supposed to change, but not here. It is a purely technocratic procedure that serves the preservation of power.
In December, Russia is electing a new Duma. After the president has led the Kremlin party, will this election become a plebiscite for Putin...
From the start, free elections were not planned. Now, everything is being reduced to a procedure that is to legitimise the power structure legally.
Since Putin has been in power, you have disappeared from television. How do you stand this?
As a satirist and commentator, I have allowed myself a lot of insolence – admittedly. If the state is so intrusive, this simply happens. When Putin surfaced, it was immediately clear that he and I, that we both did not fit in this kind of television. Now I am writing again. That’s not bad either.
INTERVIEW: KLAUS-HELGE DONATH
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