Ilya Stogov interview. Street Truth Singer

Pavel Smolyak
Olga Zakharova

Ilya Stogov, without any modesty, but, of course, without boasting, talks about the time when everyone was talking about him. Each magazine was crammed with his interviews, advice, reflections. Popular writer, witty journalist, presenter on television and radio. Years go by, and Stogov is still relevant. Ilya is happy to demonstrate the volumes lying in his bag. Four books at once, but I start with Kupchino.

Ilya, I learned that you left Kupchino and moved to the city center. The news struck me on the spot. I, I confess, do not really like this islet of Petersburg, but you somehow brightened up the area, it was less black and white. You say "Kupchino" and remember Stogov. What happened, why did you leave the "center of the universe"?

In some novel, the struggle of blacks for their rights was described. Negroes revolted in New York, they were shooting back there. And when the policeman came, he found that they were just white people who painted their faces with shoe polish. I am the same defender of Kupchino. Until I was thirty, I lived in the house that I have now moved to. I'm not a real merchant boy. I was born on the embankment of the Neva. The fact is that in 2004 I worked on Channel Five. Since there was a shortage of plots, and, by the way, I didn’t shoot them at all, I was the host, I said: “Let me take it off, you’re going to take a steam bath.” And he made a plot. Usually they shoot it for three days, and I did it in 40 minutes. We took a couple of shots of Kupchino and edited them with shots from Star Wars, like Kupchino is the area of ​​the future. Well, that's it, pipe. For the next five years, my phone did not stop talking at all, they believed that I was the chief specialist in Kupchino. Not that I don't like him, it's just a joke. She was funny a few years ago, but now it's not funny at all, so I moved.

I didn't know it was a joke. I took everything seriously.

I am not ready to be an adherent of what I am not all my life. Earlier it seemed to me that there was some kind of trend in this, and that is how a St. Petersburg gentleman should live: a green area, good ecology. Here's Kupchino for you. But one day I didn't have a book that I usually read on the road. I got into the minibus, began to look out the window, and the closer we got to Kupchino, the worse I got. We drove up, and there were some unpleasant ghouls naked to the waist in sweatpants, then some Uzbek women in hijabs, I had the feeling that I was sinking into hell. Worse and worse. I drove to the house and thought: "Mom dear, where do I live?"

You have continuous changes in your life. Both personal and professional. We left Kupchino and moved to a normal area. On Channel Five, you are broadcasting again. Shows on the radio, new books come out, old ones are reissued. You have suddenly become in demand.

There was a time when it was impossible to breathe from me at all. I came with my wife to a hypermarket, there was a healthy rack with magazines. I say: "Let's bet that I open any magazine, and it will have my photo." My wife took some left-wing magazine about car tuning, and there was my photo. It was a long time ago, now, on the contrary, the feeling of some kind of deja vu. I had a good TV program, now it's shit, not a broadcast. I'm not doing it. I always want to quit my job, but I have no money. I'm poor. I have to work for the money.

Why "shit" at once? Do you write your own questions or what? What freedom do you have on the air?

I'm not inviting people to the program. Some person comes, I would give him a punch in the face, and not ask questions. For example, someone says that humans descended from dolphins or that humans can live at minus sixty and walk naked. Not interested. I'm not interested in what temperature a person can walk naked at. This is not a topic for conversation, but I have to talk.

When you were invited to host the "Night" program, did you immediately agree? After all, before you the program was hosted by the writer Vyacheslav Kuritsyn. I will not say that I was delighted, but he conducted the program at the level. You knew that you would be constantly compared with him, going into the meaning a little, who is your guest there?

Kuritsyn at one time became a replacement for me ...

In the literature, which is not ashamed to be shown on TV, only you and Vyacheslav remained. Is that how it turns out?

I have such a friend, a fucking noble European aristocrat. He lived in St. Petersburg, and then disappeared. I ask him: "Mark where are you?" He says - in Moscow. And why? Answers that when he came here in the early nineties, Peter was a fucking city, he was on the level of London. Then he became not very fucking, but in comparison with Moscow, in general, provincial. We have catastrophically few people. Slava Kuritsyn may be responsible for all Petersburg literature, but then woe to literature.

By the way, you wrote about this in the book "2010 A.D.", if I'm not mistaken. The hero arrives in Petersburg after a long journey, sees that nothing has changed, it is getting worse and worse, and goes to the capital.

2010 is a bad book.

Yes, frank trash, to tell the truth, it is immediately obvious that they wrote for the money.

You know, I don’t work for money and I’m proud of it. This is not what I wanted to write. I don’t work for money, but I don’t work without money either. It's just that money is not the main motivation for me. The book is weak, but I think if it were Sadulayev's book, it would be Sadulayev's best book. It's just a bad book for me.

Don't you like German Sadulayev?

I treat him very well, but just every next book, it was better than the previous one, but not with this one. All the techniques have been used by me ten times in other books. These thoughts were expressed elsewhere.

The idea of ​​the book is, for example, clear to me. As I understand it, you wanted to show a certain projection of time, to write a chronicle of our reality. Major Evsyukov and so on.

No normal move was found. I want to write a book about what is good to do well. And doing bad is bad. Dear reader, do not do bad things, do good things. We need to find some kind of move, but it didn't work with this book. A lot of things didn't work out.

Well, how are you with the envy of your colleagues. All the same, your circulation has fallen. New books come out, but six to ten thousand copies. Too little for Stogov. Do you not share the opinion that who, for example, has a circulation of 50,000 is a bad author, an ordinary project? Here I have a thousand, but what a!

I have no envy. I am an underground writer, but among the underground I have a fairly large circulation. Among commercial literature I have a high social status, I am not Daria Dontsova. I can tell her: "Show me at least a line that would be written like mine, and then talk to me." I have no one to envy.

I wanted to know about the new books that are coming out ...

Limonov read the latter?

He writes almost nothing.

And what he writes is complete garbage. It's good, but there is a market representation. If you took up literature, you will write books until old age. If you have something to say, say no, keep quiet. Well, of course, from my childhood I was sure that I would become a writer. Then I published two books somewhere in the nineties. One detective was, the second book was called "Kamikaze". No one read them, no one paid attention. And then I worked at the Amphora publishing house. The writer Pavel Krusanov was there. I drunk with him as I never did with anyone in my life. We've met the two thousandth year, everyone says, let's remember the outgoing year, but I understand that I can't remember anything. There was no year. I remembered the mailbox that hung at the Amphora publishing house. Near the entrance to the store. Pasha has already bought a bottle, put it on the mailbox and is waiting for me. We spent a year and a half at this box. But on the other hand, I saw the whole world of Petersburg literature and was horrified because I had never seen big ueban in my life.

Now you are talking about the nineties in your life. You don’t think that the fashion for the nineties is returning now. They remember, they say how good it was there.

Do not know. The system has changed radically. It's like remembering yourself in the womb, we are too different. Leading a different life. I don't see the fashion yet.

I'm a religious guy, but not in the sense of an idiot - like a pop said, I'll break my forehead. But in the path of unlimited ego, there must be limits so that you can look at yourself in the mirror, like, man, you did wrong today. And there are many such people in my life.

You are a religious guy, but not an Orthodox guy. What is your attitude towards the Russian Orthodox Church.

I don't really believe in such generic names. For example, when we speak Russian, we say such a general name. Russians are one hundred and forty million people who do not know each other. The Orthodox Church is a million or fifty thousand of the same strangers among themselves. Among them there is a crazy woman from Penza who is ready to bury herself in the ground, there is a patriarch, the head of the bureaucratic structure, there are blue-eyed girls from Novgorod. Soon all the girls will be wearing Converse headscarves and sneakers.

Are your children believers?

We go to church. On Sunday. The youngest son is coming to the first communion, it is a big holiday in Catholic families.

Did you ever think that you need to protect children from religion? Let them grow up and choose their own religion. Maybe they don't want to be Catholic.

Of course, kids don't want a lot at all. They don't want to brush their teeth, they don't want to wipe their bottom when they go to the toilet. They don't want a lot of things. They are not yet people, they are semi-finished products of people. Everyone becomes human over the years. Children want to stick their fingers in the socket, walk on the fourteenth-floor balcony, there is only McDonald's. And we parents say: “It is in your interest to listen to me. Then you can, if you really want to, eat at McDonald's ", but now you have to understand that there is healthier food."

Unfortunately, I don't know what the right books are. I'm not saying that I am the most famous writer, but journalists regularly call me twice a day. And with this question: how to teach the younger generation to read ... "Glamorama" should be read to the younger generation? There is so much there. Or there is some other book about skinheads, I don’t remember the name, but the famous American, such a modern Orwell, about the victory of the national revolution in the world. The Jews took over the world, and only a small team of skinheads led the resistance and won. Africa was wiped off the face of the earth, and China was bombarded with nuclear bombs. Do you think all books should be read?

Once I was walking down the street in the city of Chernivtsi, I saw my grandmother selling books, I went up. Ukrainians, by the way, hardly read books, the publishing house is the most unprofitable business in Ukraine. I have not seen that even one person there read something. And now there is all kinds of computer literature on the grandmother's table and - bam! - Mein Kampf. I bought it for thirty hryvnia. He was sitting on a train in the beautiful city of Chernivtsi - and he was Jewish, he suffered greatly during the Second World War - and read Mein Kampf.

The book, by the way, was banned on the territory of Russia.

There is no need to prohibit anything. I always came across books on time. True, they sometimes led to such paradoxical results. At the age of 14 or 15, I found Nietzsche's book, a pre-revolutionary edition, with my dad. And he began to read. I don't remember what exactly I read, but I learned from the book that you don't have to be good. After that, I stopped doing well at school, within a week I lost my innocence. Not because the girl was caught, but because Nietzsche. Therefore, I understand what the power of the word means. The word can blow your brain so that everything around it splashes. Or it might not blow up. Eight or 20 years after Nietzsche, I read Chesterton and was baptized. I learned about Jesus not from the Gospel, but from Chesterton. All the books I've read have made me who I am. But I hardly advise anyone - read my friend "Mein Kampf". No. Each has its own path. Like many of my colleagues, I am the sum of the books I have read.

My traditional question: what awaits Russia?

There is no Russia, there are one hundred and forty million people who do not know each other. Someone at the moment understood the most important moments in life, someone fell and broke his face in blood. Most of them ate dumplings and went to bed. Russia is a generalization behind which there is nothing. Medvedev - who is this? I turn on the TV, they show the Russian businessman Abramovich, I find it funny, he has long been a British businessman, not Russian. The rich are getting richer, and their world is not divided into Russia, Germany, Japan. There is a world of the poor - it is international. I think many Petersburgers would find common themes with Ethiopians. They have similar problems. They live in a world of the poor. There is a world of the smart - you and I have something to talk about. Now, if a Brazilian and a Korean came here, they would gladly join in the discussion of the prose of the Chechen Sadulayev. There is a world of sports fans. Here I work for Radio Zenith, and this is some kind of looking glass. The answer to the question "Who are you?" does not imply nationality. Who are you? Russian. This is not an answer. Who are you? I am a businessman Abramovich. And I'm a Liverpool fan. It doesn't matter what nationality I am. Russia is probably waiting for something, but I do not live in Russia. But this does not mean that I do not like my country, the level of generalization does not interest me, like that.

Ilya Stogov is known as a man who rose from the St. Petersburg bottom, a writer who seeks to shock the public. But, having appeared in front of a conference room filled with people in one of the luxurious hotels in Tallinn, he seemed at first a little confused and began to flirt.

First of all, Stogov complained that they did not like him in St. Petersburg and did not invite him anywhere: "I am a lonely person, I sit at home and see no one." Currently, Ilya is unemployed, as he writes a column in "a free newspaper that is distributed in the metro and does not pay royalties." After that, the phrase “I have long resigned myself to the fact that my place is in the underground” sounded very natural: after all, the underground is the same basement, only a large one. And the underground is always associated with basements.

But the first impression was deceiving. Stogov did not flirt; in fact, oddly enough, for some reason he was worried. Sweat stains on his shirt betrayed his excitement.

About writers

A guest from the northern Russian capital told about his work, saying that he considers himself not a "cult", but a "youth" writer. Although he prefers to introduce himself as a journalist, because "ideally a journalist writes the truth" and "without journalism there is no field for discussion." And “a writer usually has no thoughts,” and yet “a person differs from an animal in that he can think”. Stogov is convinced that a good journalist will never become a "writer of writers".

Nevertheless, Ilya Stogov himself wanted to become a writer at the age of 20. He realized this dream at 27, when in nine days he wrote his first novel, which he could not attach to a publishing house for two years. Maybe because in Russia every three days there is a genius book novelty, and, according to Stogov, "all" fat "and" Dostoyevsky ". Ilya also “pushed” his now famous “Macho” for a long time through the publishing house, in which he “worked out” as a press secretary.

Probably, to complete the picture, Ilya Stogov added that "if you throw a grenade into the literary life of Russia, then this life will become better." By his own admission, he is "alone in this world" and cannot read "almost any of the monsters of modern literature." At the same time, Ilya considers himself a peace-loving person who does not want evil to anyone: “We must start perestroika from ourselves, then writers, officials and other unpleasant people, punished by the very fact of their squalor, will dissolve and turn into a haze.”

Why, then, did Stogov himself join a cohort of writers and journalists? Ilya answered in his usual style, honestly and innocently: “Because I don’t know how to do anything. It was my deliberate choice. " In general, all this is nonsense, he said, since soon there will come "a new 13th century, when only a narrow circle of people who need it by occupation will be able to read."

About pain points

Speaking about the pain points of our time, as well as about what worries his contemporaries most of all today, living both in Estonia and in Russia, Ilya Stogov said that a person should look for truth within himself, and not in the outer tinsel of our world. He reacted with demonstrative disgust to political questions, stressing that "it is not customary in St. Petersburg to be well versed in politics."

At the same time, Stogov expressed bewilderment about the brilliant political career of his fellow countryman Dmitry Medvedev: "It's not clear how he got out!" On the whole, Ilya approached this issue in a philosophical manner: “There should be one leader, because this is a very familiar model for Russia. And everything else follows from this. In Russia, everything exists in a single copy within a radius of two bus stops from the Kremlin. This system was not created by the communists, it has existed since the time of Ivan the Terrible. In modern Russia, I do not feel a totalitarian press. Freedom of speech does not shrink. I always wrote and said whatever I wanted. Freedom of speech stems from an inner sense of freedom. In Russia, one kind of unfreedom always replaces another kind of unfreedom. And this is impossible to change, but you can change yourself. "

Nonetheless, Stogov called Putin a fine fellow for having recently met with select Russian writers. Ilya himself was not invited there. Well, it is not necessary, because he "was already busy that day." Nevertheless, Ilya Stogov could not refrain from a caustic comment to his colleagues: “I personally know most of those writers that Putin had. Individually they are normal, but when they all come together, something strange happens to them. "

About the meaning of life

Apparently, Ilya Stogov began to change himself in a certain non-state university with a spiritual bias. Although his path to the church turned out to be a thorny one: “In my youth, priest’s inventions were not close to me. I did not succumb to clerical propaganda. But at the theological university, after graduating from the theological department, I realized what was what. Now I'm just a Christian guy, not a clergyman, going to church on Sundays. "

Answering the question about the meaning of life, Ilya Stogov honestly admitted that "he does not understand how this life works." And the meaning of life "is certainly not to turn into a pump for pumping money from one cash register to another." “The problem is not to make more money, but to spend less. I really appreciate the right to laziness, which is more important to me than freedom of speech, ”the writer added.

After that, Ilya Stogov suddenly started talking about love, which “everyone lacks”: “We are all people wounded in the soul who need love, because a person was created to be loved. I believe in such things. "

Throughout the meeting, Ilya Stogov now and then recalled his St. Petersburg patriotism: “St. Petersburg is a kind of hierarchy of values. Muscovites are susceptible to mimicry of opinions, but Petersburgers never. Petersburg is a contagious disease, people born there are especially twisted. In the end they all slide into the underground. "

In general, Ilya Stogov behaved rather modestly, saying that he had no special mission: “I just published a few books. And what I say is of interest to a small number of people. "

PRIVATE BUSSINESS

Writer and journalist Ilya Stogov, with the pseudonyms Ilya Stogoff, Viktor Banev, [email protected], Georgy Operskoy, was born on December 15, 1970 in Leningrad.

After graduation, he worked as a sports bike seller, street currency exchanger, school teacher, cinema janitor, editor-in-chief of an erotic magazine, translator, spokesperson for casinos and publishing houses, security guard, editor of a Catholic radio station, music columnist, bartender, TV presenter and publisher.

He graduated from one of the private religious educational institutions in St. Petersburg, where he received a theological education and a master's degree. Believer, Catholic. In 1995, he represented Russia at the V World Forum of Catholic Youth, held in the Philippine capital Manila. As part of this event, he received an audience with the then Pope John Paul II.

Stogov's first novels were published in 1997-1998. He is credited with inventing a literary genre called male prose. In 2001 he was awarded the title of Writer of the Year for his novel "Macho Don't Cry". The following books have also gained popularity with the reader. In addition to fiction, Ilya Stogov has published several documentary novels and essays. The total circulation of the writer's books, translated into fifteen European and Asian languages, is approaching one and a half million copies.

In 2004-2005, Ilya Stogov worked as the artistic director of the TV show "Week in the Big City" (TV channel Petersburg - Channel 5), which was recognized as the "Best entertainment project of the CIS" at the 2005 Eurasian Television Forum.

He is married and has two children.

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Ilya Stogoff: "I don't know how to do anything in life."

When, in the mid-90s, the St. Petersburg writer Ilya Stogov was just beginning his literary career, some in the Amphora publishing house doubted whether he would go, would they read him? Time has shown that Stogov did not just go, but went with a bang. To date, Ilya has published more than thirty books, the total circulation of which has long exceeded one million. However, Stogov does not actually have a lot of "literary" books. The most sensational of them, perhaps, is the novel "Macho Don't Cry", after which the name of Stogov sounded not only in St. Petersburg. Most of what Ilya wrote can be attributed to the journalistic genre - pocket guides to history, astronomy, religion, portraits of contemporary Russian rock musicians, essays on trips abroad, etc. This is despite the fact that Stogov has neither journalistic nor literary education. He is a Master of Theology. Believer of the Catholic Church.
Moreover, Ilya is a convinced Catholic: the "Catholic" view of Russian reality is undoubtedly felt in all of his works.
Before becoming a writer, Stogov changed a dozen professions, including a bicycle seller, a street currency exchanger, a security guard, a cinema cleaner, a school teacher.

At the beginning of our conversation, I asked Ilya if he had any desire to quit routine work at the keyboard for a while and remember his youth?
- And who told you, - the writer answers, - that my job is to sit at the keyboard? The profession of a writer is so good that it allows you to constantly change your role. The year before last I wrote about the latest wave of Russian rock and roll. And for this I got a job in one of the groups as a stage worker, traveled half the country with the guys. And in the past he wrote about archaeologists: he spent the whole summer on excavations. Over the past five years, in this way, I have changed from half a dozen professions: I traveled with the police to arrests, in India I helped cremate the dead, hosted a radio program, and what else I didn’t do.

- Ilya, you have published about thirty books. And yet you continue to do journalism. Why? In general, can a writer now survive without journalism?
- You see, I have never called myself a writer. Heir to the traditions of Dostoevsky and Chekhov. Non-fiction, I write documentaries not because of poverty, not because I want to earn money, but because this is the only thing that interests me. I actually think we are living in a wildly interesting era. And to miss at least something, not to fix it in time, means to impoverish the cultural piggy bank of the nation. I am interested in guest workers, and Moscow billionaires with their long-legged companions, and domestic hip-hop, and the life of Orthodox monasteries, and whether there will be a war with Georgia, and in general everything that happens every day. But to clothe all this in the form of a novel is not interesting to me at all.

These dishes should be served as they are: smelling like street truth. And not to cram into the dead antediluvian novel forms. Therefore, I personally cannot survive without journalism. And I'm not ashamed of it, but on the contrary, I pout with pride.

- Did you want to go to Moscow for a long journalistic ruble?
- I, you know, from St. Petersburg. I think my city is the only one in the country where moving to Moscow is viewed not as a stage of growth, but as a hopeless fall from sin. And if you really want long rubles, then you can write for rich Muscovites without leaving my own city.

- What is this story with the failed adaptation of your novel in the Kingdom of Bhutan?
- No no. It was not Bhutanese filmmakers who tried to film it, but ours, but in Bhutan. This, if you are not aware, is somewhere in East Asia. The company that bought the rights to the film cut off a large budget and, as I understand it, was planning to cut it well. In general, people come all the time with proposals for film adaptations. I do not refuse anyone, but it has never reached the finished picture. In my opinion, Russian cinema is such a self-sufficient world that does not need either the viewer or anyone else. They find money, live on it and talk about their success on TV. There is no longer any time to fool around with the filming of pictures.

- Which of your books do you consider the most successful?
- And I have no unloved: all are good. If we count by the number of copies sold, then two are approaching half a million: "Macho do not cry" and mASIAfucker. If, for some personal feeling, then the little book that passed almost unnoticed: "The Passion of Christ" is dear to me. It seems to me that there I was able to find such words that had not yet been spoken in Russian about the suffering of the Savior.

- Did the criticism appreciate it?
- And what have Russian critics ever appreciated at its true worth? Critics live in their own world, writers in their own, and readers live in a place where they have never heard of both named worlds. Have you personally seen at least one adequate review of at least one of the main modern books? Starting with "Chapaev and Void" and ending with Minaev's "Dukhless"? Who was able to conduct a coherent analysis of the novels written by me or Oksana Robski? Critics in the bastard get off Olympus and see what they actually read today. And if so, then why wonder that the weight of criticism today is not even zero, but some negative values.

- How do you feel about literary trash?
- What do you have in mind? Thank God, I don’t have to “mess around” (in the sense of writing across my own desires for the sake of money). I never wanted to earn much. On the contrary, I think that it is worth giving up on big earnings: it will help to preserve the human appearance. Several years ago, colleagues of businessman Oleg Tinkov wanted to give him a gift for his anniversary and tried to order me his biography. And so much money was offered that at that time I could buy an apartment. But why do I need another apartment? Clear-red I refused. As for the unauthorized use of my texts, I also do not mind. All my novels are posted on the Internet and distributed in the form of audiobooks. Again, neither do I receive money, nor do I want to receive it.

- Many people do not understand your passion for Catholicism. How did a person involved in the St. Petersburg underground suddenly come to the Catholic faith? Maybe someone from your family influenced?
- I would not call my relationship with the Catholic Church "hobby." For me, this is a deliberate and thoughtful step. I am absolutely Russian by nationality: my peasant grandparents bore names like Ivan or Evdokia and even knew how to write with difficulty. And, of course, at first I was going to be baptized in the Orthodox Church. I think if a guy like me could find at least some place there, at least some chance to catch on and hold on, then I would still become Orthodox. But without breaking myself, without ceasing to be myself, I did not manage to enter the bosom of the ROC. And “Catholic” it is translated as “universal”. In this church there was even a place for someone like me.

- How do your literary colleagues relate to your religion? Were there any misunderstandings or collisions on this basis?
- Who cares? And then St. Petersburg is a cosmopolitan city. In Moscow, the issue of religion can be discussed, but in our country it is not.

- Do you, as a Catholic, have any complaints about Russian literature?
- As a reader, I have complaints about modern Russian literature. Awards, thick magazines, critiques, a bunch of writers. And where are the real achievements? All these modern novels are of interest to a very narrow circle of connoisseurs. Like, say, Latin American dances. Well, yes: something seems to be happening. But, on the other hand, no one except the participants in the process is interested at all.

- Do you have a relationship with the older generation of Petersburg writers? Who would you like to highlight?
- You see, I grew up not on the novels of our "villagers", but on detectives Dashiel Hemmett and Raymond Chandler. Soviet writers have never been an authority for me. So I have no relationship with them. Of the professional writers, I only communicate with the so-called "Petersburg fundamentalists" (Krusanov, Nosov, Sekatsky). Earlier, when I was still drinking alcohol, it was nice to cut myself half to death with these guys, and then discuss how everything went. And so: the collapse of the USSR is a watershed. Those who remained on the other side will never move here to us. In general, I have nothing to talk with classics like Daniil Granin or Boris Strugatsky. Moreover, they most likely do not even suspect of my existence.

- And do you communicate with Vyacheslav Kuritsyn, who recently moved to St. Petersburg? Or are you out of your way with former apologists of postmodernism?
- Vyacheslav Kuritsyn has been drinking so hard lately that it's really hard to communicate with him. In general, there are no non-drinkers among writers. But not everyone can drink like Slava.

- Today, according to your personal feelings, literary life in the city - a boiling cauldron or a stagnant swamp?
- There is no single life. There are thousands of tiny little worlds: poets read poetry to each other, playwrights rush about directors with plays, essayists knock royalties out of magazines, novelists drink vodka and twist their mustache. If someone starts to tell you that little is happening in St. Petersburg, it means that he simply ended up in the wrong world.

- According to you, a person reads up to thirty years, and then only rereads. I wonder what you are re-reading today?
“I’m just continuing to read. I discover something new every week. And from what was read over the past year, such a writer was truly shocked by Korotkevich, who once wrote "The Wild Hunt of King Stakh". I read it over and was amazed: the real Belarusian Umberto Eco. And completely invaluable!

- Which of the Russian literary awards, in your opinion, is the most prestigious and not biased? In other words, what prize do you dream of becoming?
- You know, about a hundred years ago Kipling was going to be awarded some wildly honorable British order. And for this they even invited to an audience with the king. However, he refused and wrote on the invitation: “Your Majesty! Let me live and die simply by Kipling. " Modern literary prizes cause nothing but despondency for me. Neither the National Best, nor the Big Book, nor the more ridiculous Russian Booker. The jury of these awards missed everything that was interesting in recent years. The prize was not given to either Robski, or Alexei Ivanov, or Krusanov, or Danilkin. And if they gave Bykov and Prilepin, then for some completely absurd books. So, personally, I would like to live and die simply by Ilya Stogov.

- Judging by your statements, the main drawback of Russia is the lack of freedom in it. How do you manage to live in bondage for so many years? Uncover the secret.
“I don’t think I formulated it that way. Who silences the press today? Who is trampling my civil rights into the asphalt with forged boots? No one! Recently, for the sake of sports interest, I went to a political rally for the first time in my life. You are welcome! Gorlopayte as much as you like! It is another matter that three and a quarter of people took part in this rally. It's not about freedom, but about total indifference. The Russians have always, without a doubt, delegated their rights to the top: decide for yourself, I don't care. They will say to go to war - I will go and die. They will say to go to the rally - I will go there too. And if they say to disperse the same rally, I will disperse it. Indifference and humility, Asian contempt for life (both one's own and someone else's) - that is what seriously surprises me in my own country.

- By the way, you have visited about fifty countries. In which state, according to your observations, has the most freedom?
- I think more than fifty. Although I never counted. But measuring freedom by countries is, in my opinion, a dubious idea. Countries are not free - there are only individual people. It is believed, for example, that representatives of the Leningrad underground (all these Brodskys and Dovlatovs) lived in conditions of a tough communist press. However, these people were absolutely free. So free, as neither today's Russians nor today's Americans have dreamed of.

- You have written many books about Russian rock music. What bands will you listen to in twenty years from now?
- You know, when I was fifteen years old, I listened to those who were then in their early twenties, and they seemed to me creepy old people. And today I am almost forty and I myself seem to be an old man at rock and roll concerts. But at the same time, I prefer to listen to those who, again, are in their twenties. It is there that the heart of Russian poetry beats today: Feo from the Psyche group and Assai from the Krec group say such words about today's world that you will not find anywhere else. I hope that when I am sixty, I will still listen to the guys who will then be in their twenties.

- With what new book are you going to come out for the autumn Moscow book fair?
- What I never thought about was to time the release of any of my books to the fair. There is more to the Moscow one. Let my publisher think about advertising strategies and good sales. It will be enough for me to think about the book itself being good.

- In one of your recent appearances in the Metro-SPb newspaper, you once complained that (I quote literally) “the 2000s turned out to be a hangover. My entire century has flowed out. " What is the reason for such a pessimistic statement?
- I recently went to South America, and when I returned, it turned out that I had contracted some very unpleasant infection in the jungle. Everything seemed to be okay, the tests were good, but all last year I was constantly thinking about death. I'm about to forty. I didn't think I would live to this age. And if in childhood death seemed unimportant, insignificant, now I finally began to understand that we are talking about my own death. That other people will continue to live, and that my personal body will be buried in the ground. The mood from this is not very cheerful.

- And yet, despite the hangover present, what are your plans and hopes for the future?- I do not know. In the near future I will go to Transcaucasia, and from there, probably, to Denmark. By September I am thinking of launching another book series and maybe it will be possible to make a radio program. And then, really, I don't know. God will give the day, God will give food for thought.

The host Fedor Pogorelov and the writer Ilya Stogov discussed how girls with manicure make book ratings, why the history of literature does not exist and how much you can earn from translating your book.

The first appearance of the writer Stogov to the project [Fontanka.Offis]. It is customary for us to answer for such things - within the framework of the “Big interview”, where each question is the same and in its place.

In preparation for the interview, I opened the list of the most popular books in Russia for 2015. It is headed by Donna Tartt with the novel The Goldfinch. And I'm surprised and don't really understand how this is possible. Then there are Akunin “God and Rogue”, Prilepin “Abode”, Lukyanenko “Sixth Watch” and James “50 shades of gray” closes the top five. To what extent does this list reflect the state of mind in our beautiful society?

- What you are reading, I can imagine how it appeared. Such a girl is sitting. The manicure has already been completed. Then I looked into the online store, looked at what my friends were reading - that was the book hit parade. Most of the names that you mentioned do not say anything to every normal citizen in our country. Lukyanenko publishes an average of three novels a year in forty thousand copies. Prilepin's "Abode" cannot be ahead of Lukyanenko, because it was released in a circulation of 2 thousand copies three years ago. This is a biased hit parade. A normal person does not read modern prose. If it were an objective hit parade, then the first place would be the collection of Lermontov, Gogol ... And why? Because the school curriculum. These are the books that people buy. But these fashionable show-offs ... that Zakharka Prilepin gave out "Abode" and removed everyone - it's a little strange for me to listen.

PI unexpectedly discovered that the title of a series of articles initiated by our site "Other nineties" was borrowed by the publishing house "Amphora" for the title of a collection of interviews by a famous writer Ilya Stogov released earlier this year. It is noteworthy that this collection of interviews includes dialogues with famous figures of rock culture about their creative life in the 1990s. For many years, the constant Ilya Smirnov has been associated with rock journalism, due to which it cannot be ruled out that this is not a happy coincidence, but a direct borrowing. However, this is not so important, in contrast to which "nineties" seem to the author of the book in fact "different", or, as we preferred to say, "alternative".

Book review: Stogov I. Yu. Other nineties. SPb .: Amphora, 2016

« My brother Alexei has sunk to the last stage of degradation. Someone was constantly living in his room. As a rule, these were people who had just been released from prison. They were chatting all night, but the worst thing began when they were preparing food. They brought in some giblets and boiled them for hours until they were edible. There was nowhere to go from the stench.

He went through the trash heaps and sorted what he found. Something was probably sold - the rest was just dumped all over the apartment. Every day, bumping into some rubbish in the bathroom, I threw it into his room. I washed the bath every day, but still taking a shower was disgusting. Mother had no rest at all. In all the sleeping places in the brother's room, someone slept, and he was attached to his mother in the room on the floor, and sometimes even managed to climb behind her.

He developed erysipelas of the legs, which turned into non-healing ulcers. He was happy: now he could show his legs and beg. He was given a disability and some kind of pension, and besides, he poured coupons for food in the canteen in the social security department. As a result, he found drinking companions whom he fed in the dining room, and they poured him for it "(p. 89)

“Vlada went out onto the stairs, went down a couple of flights and found Kuzik. He lay dead with a knife hole in his chest ... I assumed that, most likely, Kuzik was confused with Vlad's previous boyfriend. He was in prison and owed everyone around a lot of money. The mixer said that in any case, of the four of us, Kuzik surpassed everyone. And Tima said: "Eh, where to get drugs ?!" - and did not even go to the cemetery.

By that time, Tim was a complete polydrug addict. He used everything at all: any pills, any injections, all drugs that he could reach. Adequate, he remained at most two minutes after he woke up. His musical career is long over. He was no longer interested in anything other than drugs. After some time, Tim's dad was killed, and relatives began to saw daddy's living space. Tim got a room in a communal apartment ... "(p. 36)

“My wife was engaged in prostitution at the Pribaltiyskaya Hotel. She came home at four o'clock in the morning and told me: today everything happened like this and like this ... I did him this and that ... But the money finally appeared in the family. My wife and I began to travel regularly to the sea. At that time, it was possible to live better on $ 100 in Crimea than today on $ 10,000 in Hawaii"(P. 31)

Such quotes can be given in pages in a row: the authors (they are also heroes) are different, someone from a learned family presented to grateful humanity by several biographical articles in an encyclopedia at once, someone from factory workers, but the story is the same as a carbon copy.

This is to the question of a "totalitarian" state, which erases diversity in society and prevents the disclosure of a unique personality.

Reprint "Amphora" Stogov's interviews with the heroes of the 90s arrived just in time. Of course, children should not be given this. But, on the other hand, the book can be extremely useful as a reader on contemporary history for students who, due to their age, have not found President B.N. Yeltsin. Precisely a reader: a collection of sources. The intervention of the author-compiler is minimal, and it is difficult to agree with many of his theoretical comments.

I will immediately define these positions. We have to intercede both for what is on the left and for what is on the right.

On the left we have revolution concept... Stogov interprets the 90s in this way (p. 209, 212), following his heroes, some of whom even seriously use the phrase “ psychedelic revolution”(P. 28) (that is, the radical transformation of social relations consists in the fact that a person lies under a fence in a pool of his own urine). Of course, revolutions often bring completely different fruits than the participants expected, the costs are more significant than the achievements, many will say that it is better to do without them altogether, and they will be right in their own way. However, all conscientious misconceptions about the meaning of what was happening ended with Perestroika.

The 90s are just a sewer pipe, into which millions of human lives, entire industries and regions were let down, and not for the sake of some bright goal (albeit a false one), but with everyday mechanical frankness. After all, we do not call an earthquake or a plague epidemic a revolution.

The second thing that raises objections is the assessment of the ROC. " This church is majestic and formidable. She is rebuilding her gilded temples, and no one speaks to people about the love of God. This means that people will continue to suffer, suffer, disfigure other people's lives, maim their own and die absurdly. Many people. But not Fedor Chistyakov"(P. 221).

« Uncle Fedor After prison, Chistyakov from the rock group ZERO was indeed helped by Jehovah's Witnesses. But such is his individual biography. And many others (including eminent representatives of the rock community) were saved by priests from “ gilded temples". As a result, there are many more people who made it out of the 90s alive through an Orthodox church (and they are presented in the book itself: see, for example, p. 146). This is not a question of confessional preferences, but of elementary justice.

But regardless of our disagreements with the namesake Ilya Stogov, the sources speak for themselves. Moreover, the most convincing are the confessions of those who still insist: they say, the time was " free" and " merry», « nothing more interesting in the world then existed"(P. 173) and even provides an ideological basis in the spirit of the notorious postmodernism:" there are many truths. You can choose the one that suits you personally"(P. 171).

The factual material immediately conflicts with the declaration: as we noted above, it is depressingly monotonous. And the promised counter with truths in the assortment - alas, is completely filled with chemical poison and alcohol " Piano". Another side effect of the book: the description of endless copulations, in which there is nothing human at all (even the most elementary ideas about hygiene, not to mention more sublime matters) suppresses sexual desire in this capacity rather well " Other nineties", Probably, can replace antipsychotics.

Of course, the book does not provide universal coverage of the era. Its plots are associated with a specific city on the Neva, with a generation that had the misfortune to enter life just then (Ilya Stogov: “ most of my peers are already dead today”(P. 215), with the circulation of such specific goods as drugs and alcohol surrogates, and to a very large extent with the environment, which we can conditionally correlate with Russian rock culture (I will clarify the meaning of the reservation a little later).

It would be possible to release similar collections “ memory of the 90s"By regions where" local armed conflicts”(Or did not happen: they died out there quietly, without shooting). By industry. By hospital departments. In the collection “ Educational reforms"Will appear, of course, not gopniks, for whom" poking with a knife is a common thing”, But respectable candidates and doctors of sciences, but I'm afraid that this will not affect the genre. These intelligent people destroyed education (not the worst in the world) with the same ferocity with which in the club " Tamtam"The dumbfounded audience smashed the toilet.

Before you children, hell. Literally from the book: " I would give anything to be small again. Because there was hell next"(P. 135).

As for Russian rock, the most famous of its representatives in the book, cellist of AQUARIUM Seva Gakkel, who fought for a place in the 90s as the organizer of the aforementioned club " Tamtam", Directly formulates on what principle he selected music for his new venture:

« The main criterion was simple: it shouldn't be like Russian rock. It is not necessary that I personally like it. It doesn't matter what language they sing in. If only there were no clever lyrics to a sluggish accompaniment, and if only there was no heavy metal with meaningless gaps ...

I developed a persistent allergy to everything that came to be called Russian rock."(P. 45 - 46).

Then he and his companions in " Tamtamu"Praise with different voices that" free" and " fun"Burst into life thanks to their efforts. They put one of their then pets (now deceased) next to Bashlachev. Fine. But where are the songs comparable to Bashlachev's? They simply do not exist. Something sang, but what is not important.

Instead, we are introduced to the features of the physique " a real star", The strangeness of his behavior, the state of his health (undermined, you know, by what) and with tattoos that adorned his back. Everything. The creative component in the interviews collected by Stogov tends to zero. Which is in stark contrast to the memoirs and samizdat rock of the previous decade, where there were also enough criminal tales and black humor, but the main thing for which people gathered together in the then clubs, like “ Rockwell Kenta».

Rock bands of the 90s appeal are either secondary (in relation to the very one from which they were repelled), or empty. " The country outside was having a hard time - and we didn't give a damn"(P. 54). They did not manage to artistically reflect the main signs of their own time, not to mention the realization of what happened then. This was done somewhat later for them by Igor Rasteryaev:

"Take such a road
The guys chose themselves
But still someone, by God,
He pushed them and set them up.

Whatever work or home,
What would be bubbles and glasses,
What would instead of Vasya and Roma
Only cornflowers and chamomile »

« I was absolutely happy ... All the windows were open, there was a wild roar, bottles were flying into the street ..."(P. 62)" These people brought with them some kind of new, very attractive life.”(P. 47) Such was the opinion of the management of the“ Tamtam ”club. And no one specifically refutes it. Visitors to the club simply specify what the new attraction was. " Substances, expanding consciousness, in "Tamtam" was in bulk. Moreover, they cost - a penny"(P. 54). " By the middle of the decade, the entire Tamtam party had gone headlong into drugs ... I have not a single warm memory of Tamtam's youth ..."(P. 68) Etc.

Publications about the war or about concentration camps also traumatize the psyche. The fundamental difference " Other nineties”- in the fact that people were lowered to a level below the animal, and then physically destroyed not by some external evil force, they themselves did it with each other, and all together - with their own country.

Generalizations like “ then everyone lived like that». « Have consumed everything», « any creative youth», « it was possible to arrest any one hundred people in the subway - and the result would be the same" etc. They are characteristic of those who themselves acted not as a passive, silly victim, but as an organizer. " new attraction”, Derived a certain benefit from it, and not only harm to health, and now he is interested in justifying himself in this way: they say, it’s not my fault, they themselves came (together with the whole country).

Formulations are substituted automatically through the subconscious. And if you include consciousness, then it is quite obvious that “ psychedelic revolution”Did not affect everyone, and in the metro a much larger number of people transported ordinary products from the wholesale market for their families for their families, and not poison, and real CREATIVE youth at that time studied Germanic philology, molecular biology or played in Sergei Zhenovach's performance after Dostoevsky. That is, normal life still continued.

It would have been different, the subway would have stopped and the light would have stopped burning. In general, neither the Emperor Nero, nor the Inquisition, nor the organs of the People's Commissar Yezhov are able to completely dehumanize the ward contingent. People continue to feed, heal, teach and learn. The problem of the 90s is that normal life in this era was transferred to a state of deaf and almost hopeless opposition, and not because of political disagreement with B.N. Yeltsin and the World Bank, but simply because of their normalcy.

« Yesterday you were nobody, but today you sit in the most expensive club in Eastern Europe and police officers make sure that no cattle bothers you to sniff cocaine"(P. 120)

In this context, the title on the cover looks strange, echoing the series of articles on the site “ Russian Idea». « Other nineties". Why " other"? The same, basic, official.

Their description is not of archival, but of purely practical interest: we must be soberly aware of where V.V. Putin, and relate your claims to the current order not with a speculative ideal, but with the realities of that " the funniest decade"(189), which ... is a thing of the past? No. Rather temporarily retreated. And in some industries it is very close. The same education is still ruled by the pets of the 90s, and the person who insists on studying the sciences, and not “ modules" and " competencies", Remains in the position of an oppositionist.

A completely wild situation with the theater, which in the most terrible years remained an oasis of the norm (professional and moral), and only then rapidly degraded to the level of that fair where the folklore Vanka the lackey showed, you know what.

Powerful forces outside and inside Russia are interested in returning us to the state recorded in Stogov's book, and will look for any reason for this, showing not only persistence, but also considerable ingenuity. Bad statistics on AIDS? Let's legalize drugs again under this pretext.

When speaking out against the abuses of the current bureaucracy, this factor must be kept in mind all the time and in no case should our struggle for the future be used for their own purposes by people who want to push the country into its recent past. Russia will not survive the second such "fun" in a row.

"Sometimes they come back." Moreover, they did not go far.