Journalist Alexander Prokhanov: biography, personal life, family. Why did the behind the scenes appoint Prokhanov as the main Russian nationalist and editor of a major newspaper And we are growing up again

Alexander Prokhanov is a well-known Russian writer and politician. Known as the chief editor of the newspaper "Tomorrow", in 1982 he was awarded the Lenin Komsomol Prize. Already in 2002, he received the National Bestseller Award for his novel Mr. Hexogen, which tells about a conspiracy by the secret services to change power in Russia.

Childhood and youth

Alexander Prokhanov was born in 1938. He was born in Tbilisi. His ancestors were Molokans. They were forced to move from the Saratov and Tambov provinces to the Transcaucasus. The grandfather of the hero of our article was a prominent Molokan theologian, the brother of Stepan Prokhanov, who founded the All-Russian Union of Evangelical Christians.

Alexander Prokhanov received his higher education in Moscow. In 1960 he graduated from the Aviation Institute, worked as an engineer at a research institute. He became interested in literature in the last year of high school, actively began to write poetry and prose.

Labor activity

At the same time, at first, Alexander Prokhanov did not think about professionally engaging in writing. Therefore, he worked as a forester in Karelia, as a guide in the Khibiny, participated in a geological party on the territory of Tuva. During these years of wandering throughout the Soviet Union, he became especially interested in Vladimir Nabokov and Andrei Platonov.

In 1968, he takes a job at the Literary Gazette, deciding to devote more time to his own writing opportunities. Mostly he is sent on foreign business trips. Alexander Prokhanov, whose photo is in this article, writes reports from Nicaragua, Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia. They began to talk about him after he was one of the first to describe the armed border conflict between Russia and China on Damansky Island in 1969.

Member of the Writers' Union

Very soon, the talent of the writer Alexander Prokhanov was officially recognized. In 1972 he was accepted into the Writers' Union of the USSR.

The heyday of his journalistic talent came in the time of perestroika. In 1986, he began to actively publish in the magazines "Our Contemporary" and "Young Guard", continuing his cooperation with the "Literaturnaya Gazeta". From 1989 to 1991, he headed the magazine "Soviet Literature" as the editor-in-chief. He was constantly a member of the editorial board of the Soviet Warrior magazine. At the same time, he never became a member of the Communist Party, which is surprising for a person who managed to build such a career in the Soviet Union.

He is one of the first to understand that society needs a new platform where thoughts and ideas can be expressed in a fundamentally new language, without fear of censorship and any restrictions. Therefore, at the very end of 1990, he created a newspaper called The Day. Automatically becomes the chief editor in it.

"Word to the People"

In the middle of the summer of 1991, it published the famous "anti-perestroika" appeal, known as "Word to the people." First of all, it was addressed to the army. In it, Soviet political scientists and cultural figures criticized the policies pursued by Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin. They called to stop the collapse of the USSR, to create an influential opposition movement. Now, many see the "Word to the People" as an ideological platform for the August coup, which took place exactly four weeks later.

The newspaper The Day was regarded as one of the most oppositional and radical publications in Russia in the early 1990s. It was published regularly until October 1993. After the shooting of the White House and the Yeltsin coup, the publication was banned. But it immediately began to be published under the name "Tomorrow", in this form it has been preserved to this day. Its editor-in-chief is still the writer Alexander Prokhanov.

Participation in the political life of the country

In the early 90s, Alexander Prokhanov, whose biography is given in this article, was directly involved in the political life of the country, not only through his newspaper. In 1991, in the presidential elections of the RSFSR, he was a confidant of General Albert Makashov. Makashov, who represented the CPSU in these elections, took fifth place, gaining less than 4% of the vote. During the August coup, Prokhanov took the side of the State Emergency Committee.

In September 1993, the hero of our article on the pages of his newspaper The Day called to speak out against the anti-constitutional actions of Boris Yeltsin, arguing that a coup d'état had actually taken place in the country. Makashov, who took part in armed clashes in Moscow, became an active participant in the October events.

After the ban on the newspaper by the Ministry of Justice, according to some reports, the editorial office was destroyed by OMON officers, the workers were beaten, and all archives and property were destroyed.

The newspaper Zavtra was founded by Alexander Prokhanov on November 5th. It still has a radical position, often the materials that are published in it are accused of being pro-fascist, imperial, anti-Semitic.

At the same time, Prokhanov remains true to himself, supporting Gennady Zyuganov in the 1996 presidential election. However, even those elections for the leader of the communists ended in defeat. As you know, he lost to Boris Yeltsin in the second round.

At the same time, now the hero of our article is a member of the Public Television Council, established in 2012.

Style Features

Many are familiar with Alexander Andreevich Prokhanov from books. His style is considered very colorful, original and individual. On the pages of the novels of the hero of our article, you can find a large number of metaphors, flowery epithets, interesting characters, a large number of various details.

In his artistic work and journalism one can often find sympathy for the Christian religion, primordially Russian traditions, while he regularly criticizes liberalism and capitalism. He has repeatedly stated that he still considers himself a Soviet person.

According to a number of critics, as a writer, Prokhanov is a postmodernist, and from an ideological point of view, an imperial author.

Early works

The first works of Prokhanov were published in the newspaper "Literary Russia", then published in the magazines "Family and School", "Krugozor", "Deer", "Rural Youth". From his early works, one can single out the story "The Wedding", which was published in 1967.

His first book was called "I'm going on my way", it was published in 1971 with a foreword by Yuri Trifonov. This is a collection of stories in which the author depicts a real Russian village with its patriarchal ethics, rituals and traditions, original landscapes and characters. Following this, in 1972, he wrote the essay "The Burning Color", where he talks about the problems faced by the Soviet village.

Of his stories published in the 70s, one should single out “Two”, “Tin Bird”, “Trans-Siberian Engineer”, “Milk 1220”, “Fiery Font”, “Red Juice in the Snow”. In 1974, his second collection, entitled "The Grass Turns Yellow," was published.

The following year, his first novel appears in print, which is called The Wandering Rose. It is written in a semi-essay style and is based on the author's impressions from business trips to the Far East, Siberia and Central Asia. In it, he addresses the topical problems of contemporary Soviet society. They also disturb Prokhanov in three subsequent novels: "The Place of Action", "The Time is Noon" and "The Eternal City".

Military-political novel

The style of the writer changed dramatically in the 80s. He begins to create in the genre of a military-political novel. The works are based on his business trips to different countries of the world.

During this period, his whole tetralogy “Burning Gardens” was published, which includes the novels “A Tree in the Center of Kabul”, “A Hunter in the Islands ...”, “Africanist”, “And Here Comes the Wind”.

He again turns to the Afghan theme in the 1986 novel Drawings of the Battalist. Its main character is the artist Veretenov, who, on the instructions of his editorial office, travels to Afghanistan to make a series of drawings of Soviet military personnel. At the same time, he also has a personal interest in seeing his son.

Soldiers returning from Afghanistan are described in Alexander Prokhanov's 1988 book Six Hundred Years After the Battle.

"Septateuch"

The series of novels "Septateuch" becomes popular. It is united by the main character, General Beloseltsev, who stands out for his unique experience of contemplation and vision.

This cycle includes "Dream of Kabul", "And Here Comes the Wind", "Hunter in the Islands", "Africanist", "The Last Soldier of the Empire", "Red-Brown", "Mr. Hexogen".

The last novel on this list has become especially popular. Prokhanov published it in 2002. The book describes the events of 1999 in Russia. In particular, a series of explosions in residential buildings, which led to numerous casualties, is presented as a conspiracy of power to transfer power from the incumbent president to his successor.

The conspirators, including representatives of the special services, use intrigues, murders and all kinds of provocations in Prokhanov's novel. The author himself noted that he initially perceived Putin as a follower of Yeltsin, but then revised his attitude towards him, saying that he stopped the collapse of Russia, removed the oligarchs from the leadership of the country.

In this novel, a favorite writer's technique is clearly traced, when real events coexist with absolutely fantastic things. For example, the oligarch, in whom Berezovsky is guessed, literally melts in the hospital under a dropper and disappears into thin air. The chosen one, in whom a hint of Putin is guessed, asks to fly the plane alone and also disappears, turning into a rainbow.

"Tread of the Russian Victory"

In 2012, Prokhanov released a new book called "The Walk of Russian Victory", in a very unusual genre for himself. It tells about the ideology of modern Russia, and its history is conditionally divided into four time periods. These are Kievo-Novgorod Rus, Muscovy, the Russian Empire of the Romanovs and the Stalinist Empire.

The entire book consists of four parts. The first contains the main theses on the idea of ​​the "Fifth Empire", it is called "Hymns of the Russian Victory". In the second part, attention is paid to industrial enterprises, primarily defense plants, its name is “March of Russian Victory”. The third part, "Psalms of the Russian Victory", tells about Russian parishes and monasteries, and the final "Codes of the Russian Victory" - about the Eurasian Union, which should serve as the forerunner of the "Fifth Empire".

Film and television

Several of Prokhanov's works were filmed or staged on the theater stage at once:

• In 1972, the film "Fatherland" was released according to his script.
• In 1983, Anatoly Granik filmed the melodrama "The Scene of Action" based on the novel of the same name by the hero of our article.
• In 1988, Alexei Saltykov's drama "Paid for Everything" was released, for which Prokhanov wrote the script.
• In 2012, a project was launched on the Russia-1 TV channel. Cycle documentaries"Soldier of the Empire" tells in detail about the personality of Alexander Prokhanov himself.
• "Passion for the State" is a 2018 documentary in which the author analyzes the latest corruption scandals, explosions in the St. Petersburg metro, the demonization of the country itself and its leaders in the West, and the liberal public.

Public life

Prokhanov often participates in all kinds of political talk shows, expresses his opinion about the events taking place in the country. He is a regular guest of Vladimir Solovyov in his talk show "To the Barrier" and the new project "Duel". It is one of the leading headings "Replica", which airs on the channel "Russia 24".

Alexander Prokhanov expressed his opinion about the pension reform. He noted that Putin's address to the nation was irreproachable, the president gave convincing arguments. Therefore, he himself supports this reform.

Writer's wife

We can say that the personal life of Alexander Prokhanov was successful. All his life he lived in marriage with Lyudmila Konstantinova, who after the wedding took his last name.

They had three children - a daughter and two sons. One of them, Andrei Fefelov, became a publicist. Now, together with his father, he works as an editor of the Den Internet channel. Vasily Prokhanov became a singer-songwriter and photographer.

In 2011, Lyudmila Prokhanova passed away.

It is known that in his spare time the hero of our article collects butterflies and draws.

Alexander Andreevich Prokhanov- a famous Soviet and Russian writer. Alexander Andreevich is a political and public figure. He is a member of the secretariat of the Writers' Union of Russia. Chief editor of the newspaper "Tomorrow". Winner of the Lenin Komsomol Prize (1982).

The early years and education of Alexander Prokhanov

As reported in the biography of Alexander Prokhanov on Wikipedia, his ancestors, the Molokans, left the Tambov region and the Saratov province for the Transcaucasus. his grandfather Alexander Stepanovich Prokhanov was a Molokan theologian and was a brother Ivan Stepanovich Prokhanov, - the founder and leader of the All-Russian Union of Evangelical Christians (1911-1931) and vice-president of the World Baptist Alliance (1911-1928). Uncle A.A. Prokhanov, a botanist, remained in the USSR after the emigration of I.S. Prokhanov, was repressed, but then released.

In 2013, giving an interview to Russky Vestnik, Alexander Andreevich Prokhanov spoke about his childhood:

“... born on February 26, 1938, three weeks later he returned to Moscow, where my parents lived. We went to give birth in Tiflis, because this is the ancestral city of my Molokan ancestors. There were Molokan settlements, and my grandmother decided that I needed to give birth in warmth, and not in fierce February Moscow. There I was born in a house that belonged to my great-grandfather Titus Alekseevich Fefelov, which he bought when he got rich on the Georgian Military Highway, where he was a coachman - he drove troikas, kept pits. There he literally descended from the mountains - from the Molokan villages, from Ivanovka - and sat on the irradiation. And then there were continuous Russian-Turkish wars, and all the time it was necessary to transport fodder, officers, all kinds of letters, deputations. Once he was carrying the Grand Duke and raced him so deftly, and so deftly amused him along the way - I don’t know with what: maybe he sang songs or told all sorts of stories - that when he caught up with his troika to Tiflis, the Grand Duke gave him a ring: an emerald surrounded by small diamonds. This ring is still in my family: it is my family heirloom.”

Alexander Prokhanov studied at Moscow school No. 204. And again, recalling his school years, Alexander Andreevich said:

- My school number 204 was located near the Minaevsky market and the Miussky cemetery. It was built on the site of a huge cemetery at the monastery, which was called "Joy of All Who Sorrow", or the Sorrowful Monastery. When we planted trees, dug holes in our territory, we suddenly fell into crypts, into graves, and skeletons looked at us from these graves: some with golden crowns, there were bureaucratic buttons with eagles and sometimes even orders. And once, in my opinion, in the seventh grade, while building a football field and digging holes for the goal - for the posts, we found a skull and, having taken it out, we naturally decided to play football with it. And we drove this skull with screams and aahs, and then it disappeared somewhere. It seems that they again dug into the hole where they drove this bar.

Many years later, when I got carried away Nikolai Fedorov and began to look for the location of his grave on the cemetery plan, it seemed to me that it practically coincided with the location of the pit from which we pulled out the skull. And, probably, it was not so, probably, it was a different skull, or maybe the same one. And, perhaps, as a seventh grader, I played football with the skull of our mystic Nikolai Fedorov, whose teaching I took very sharply and still consider myself his student. All this Russian cosmism in its development for me is associated with Fedorov - with his idea of ​​resurrection from the dead, with Fedorov's doctrine of cemeteries. And thus, in a peculiar way, I perceived the doctrine of cemeteries. Thus, I probably "tried to resurrect" Fedorov. And he excused me, because I devoted the rest of the time under this moon to the idea of ​​overcoming death - resurrection, whether it be countries, eras, eras, people dear to my heart, neighbors, objects, books and texts.

After school, Alexander Prokhanov entered the Moscow Aviation Institute, graduating in 1960. But after working for two years as an engineer, Alexander felt that this occupation was not for him.

For two years - from 1962 to 1964 - Alexander Andreevich was a forester in Karelia, led excursions to the Khibiny and participated in excavations in Tuva. It was then that he became acquainted with creativity. Vladimir Nabokov and Andrey Platonov.

According to Prokhanov, "humanitarian energies roamed" in him. Having dramatically changed his life, Alexander Andreevich believes that it was a “radical” act: “In my life, such an act was repeated, maybe only one more time - during the period of perestroika, when I chose such a radical total opposition Gorbachev and broke all previous relationships. Twice I broke my life in this way.

Career of Alexander Prokhanov in journalism

Returning to civilization, Alexander Andreevich Prokhanov, as he said, felt like a half-dissident. He attended esoteric circles, which were actually in total confrontation with reality, with the state system.

Alexander Prokhanov began to publish in 1962, stories and essays were published in Literary Russia, Krugozor, Smena, Family and School, Rural Youth.

Since 1968, Prokhanov began working in the Literaturnaya Rossiya newspaper on a full-time basis, and almost immediately the young journalist was sent to Damansky Island. The biography of Alexander Prokhanov says that he was the first in 1969 to describe in a reportage the events on Damansky during the Soviet-Chinese border conflict.

Alexander Andreevich Prokhanov recalled how shocked he was by such sudden changes in his life: “... Damansky battle made me rethink everything: history, my role. Then for the first time I felt the greatness and tragedy of the state. Then they talked about a possible big war between the Soviet Union and China. And I built myself into this iron stream of state ideology. Then for many years he rushed around factories, construction sites, mines from the North Pole to the South, then he saddled the Soviet nuclear triad: boat trips to the Antarctic, flights over the Pole, loitering with mobile missile systems, the Semipalatinsk explosion. Then - multiple trips to Afghanistan. Hot spots, almost all the wars that the Red Empire waged before it fell, these were my wars. All continents: Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Kampuchea, Nicaragua, Afghanistan. Then these wars somehow quite logically spilled over into wars on the territory of my country. And also almost everything: Karabakh, Transnistria, Abkhazia. All these countless dramas, these two revolutions: one revolution of 1991, or counter-revolution, and the uprising of 1993, two Chechen wars - and this is how I came to these days - I don’t know when they will end. I live such a crazy life."

In 1972, Alexander Andreevich Prokhanov was admitted to the Writers' Union of the USSR. In 1985, Prokhanov became the secretary of the Union of Writers of the RSFSR.

Since 1986, Alexander Andreevich has been actively published in the magazines Molodaya Gvardia, Our Contemporary, as well as in Literaturnaya Gazeta. From 1989 to 1991, Prokhanov worked as the editor-in-chief of the Soviet Literature magazine. He was a member of the editorial board of the magazine "Soviet Warrior". He was not a member of the CPSU.

In 1990-1993, Alexander Andreevich Prokhanov was the editor-in-chief of his own newspaper, The Day.

The arrival of Alexander Prokhanov in politics

When in 1986 Alexander Prokhanov saw that his state was personified by Gorbachev, he broke with him radically and became a political figure, publishing a sharp anti-perestroika article "The Tragedy of Centralism." Around Alexander Prokhanov, as he said, "whirlwinds swirled - both hostile and friendly, and this made me a different person."

In 1990 Alexander Prokhanov signed "Letter 74"*.

In December 1990, Alexander Andreyevich Prokhanov created the newspaper The Day and became its editor-in-chief. On July 15, 1991, the newspaper published an "anti-perestroika" appeal, "Word to the People." The Den newspaper was one of the most radical opposition publications in Russia in the early 1990s, but was banned by the Ministry of Justice after the October 1993 events. In The Day newspaper, anti-constitutional actions of the president Yeltsin called a coup d'état

In 1991, during the presidential elections in the RSFSR, Alexander Prokhanov was a confidant of the candidate General Alberta Makashova. During the August coup, Alexander Andreevich was on the side of the State Emergency Committee.

In the 1996 presidential election, Alexander Andreevich Prokhanov supported the candidate from the Communist Party Gennady Zyuganov.

In July 2012 Vladimir Putin issued a decree in which he approved the members of the Public Television Council. Prokhanov was included in its composition.

Alexander Andreevich Prokhanov is the chairman and one of the founders of the Izborsk Club, a community of experts studying Russia's domestic and foreign policy. Alexander Prokhanov is a member of the Public Council under the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, and is also the Deputy Chairman of this Council.

Alexander Andreevich became a co-founder of the International Literary and Media Prize named after Olesya Buzina.

Alexander Prokhanov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, the Order of Friendship of Peoples, the Badge of Honor, and the badge "For Service in the Caucasus".

Books by Alexander Prokhanov

In 1971, Alexander Andreevich Prokhanov published the first book, "I'm on my way" about the Russian village. Prokhanov dedicated the book The Burning Color (1972) to her problems.

In the early 1970s, Prokhanov published a number of stories: "Tin Bird", "Red Juice in the Snow", "Two", "Stan 1220", "Trans-Siberian Engineer" (all - 1974), "Fire Font" (1975). In 1974, the second collection of novels and short stories by Alexander Prokhanov, The Grass Turns Yellow, was published.

In 1975, the first novel of the writer Prokhanov, The Wandering Rose, was published, dedicated to his impressions of traveling around Far East and Siberia. Then Alexander Prokhanov's books were published: "The time is noon" (1977), "The scene" (1979) and "The Eternal City" (1981).

Based on the novel of the same name by Alexander Prokhanov, in 1983 director Anatoly Granik shot a two-part feature film-melodrama "The Scene of Action", staged at the Lenfilm studio.

In the early 1980s, Alexander Andreevich Prokhanov turned to the genre of a military-political novel, wrote novels: “A tree in the center of Kabul” (1982), “A hunter in the islands ...” (1983), “Africanist” (1984), “And now the wind comes" (1984). Also in the 80s, Prokhanov's stories were published: "Admiral" (1983), "Light Blue" (1986), "The Sign of the Virgin" (1990) and others.

The theme of Afghanistan is reflected in the novels Battle Paintings (1986) and Six Hundred Years After the Battle (1988).

Among the notable stories and short stories of the Soviet period, Alexander Prokhanov distinguishes the following works: "Polina" (1976), "Invisible Wheat", "By the Moonbeam", "Snow and Coal" (all - 1977), "Gray Soldier" (1985) , "The Gunsmith" (1986), "Caravan", "Darling", "Muslim Wedding", "Kondagar Outpost" (all - 1989), etc. For the story "Muslim Wedding" Prokhanov received the Prize. A.P. Chekhov, says the biography of Alexander Andreevich on the RIA Novosti website.

After the collapse of the USSR, the novels "The Last Soldier of the Empire" (1993), "Red-Brown" (1999), "Chechen Blues" (1998), "Walking in the Night" (2001), "Mr. Hexogen" were published from the pen of Alexander Prokhanov (2001).

Published in 2002, Prokhanov's novel "Mr. Hexogen" became a sensation and was awarded the National Bestseller literary prize. The book, describing the explosions of houses in 1999, as a result of a conspiracy of power to transfer it from the decrepit Idol to the young Chosen One, caused, in particular, such reviews:

Through Prokhanov's Soviet-style and at the same time hallucinatory prose, the politically repressed, but lurking in language, architecture, music, imperial "Soviet" rages: Red Square, the body Lenin, Stalinist avenues and skyscrapers, songs Pakhmutova and the opportunity to catch butterflies on the banks of the Rio Coco. Prokhanov is the only repeater surviving in the empire, capable of textually conveying this power" ( Lev Danilkin).

“Prokhanov's landscape is not nostalgic (so-imperial), but futuristic. Those who believed that Prokhanov's ideal Arcadia was an endless gallery of icon oklads, captured kumach slogans and half-decayed price tags from a seedy general store, after reading "Mr. Hexogen" will be shocked by its most powerful technogenic pathos" ( Ivan Kulikov).

According to Zahara Prilepina, “Mr. Hexogen” in 2001 “hacked” the literary situation: “Back then, literature was at the mercy of the liberal public, which did not let “scoundrels” like me on the bookshelves. Thanks to Prokhanov, not only I got a ticket to literature, but also Mikhail Elizarov, Sergey Shargunov and other left-leaning writers.

"Mr. Hexogen" was the last book in the "Septateuch" series by Alexander Prokhanov. The protagonist of these books is General Beloseltsev, who has a unique experience of vision and contemplation.

The "Septateuch" includes Prokhanov's novels: "The Dream of Kabul", "And Here Comes the Wind", "Hunter in the Islands", "Africanist", "The Last Soldier of the Empire", "Red-Brown" and "Mr. Hexogen".

In 2011, Alexander Prokhanov's books "Putin, in whom we believed" and "Russian" were published. In 2012, the writer published The Walk of Russian Victory, which indicated the emergence of a new genre in Prokhanov's creative biography.

In 2014, the author wrote the novel "Crimea". The hero of the book by Alexander Prokhanov is identified with the new life of the peninsula, which began near the Crimea after joining Russia. In 2016, the book "Novorossia, washed with blood" was published. The novel has become a kind of chronicle of recent events in the country. In February 2018, Ukraine published a list of books prohibited from being imported from Russia. Prokhanov's novel "Novorossia, washed with blood" got into it.

In 2017, Prokhanov's new books "Russian Stone" and "Kill a Hummingbird" were published.

According to the scripts and works of Prokhanov, films were made: “Everything is paid for” (1988), “Shuravi” (1988), “Gorge of Spirits” (1991), “Caravan hunters” (2010), “Murder of cities” (2016).

Alexander Andreevich Prokhanov is the winner of many literary awards: the Bunin Prize (2009), the All-Russian Literary Prize named after N.S. Leskova"The Enchanted Wanderer" (2011), "White Cranes of Russia" awards with the wording "For Contribution to Russian World Literature" (2013) and others.

The style of the writer Prokhanov is called original, colorful, emphatically individual. Prokhanov's language, as many critics believe, is replete with vivid metaphors, original, flowery epithets, the characters are written out convexly, clearly, with an abundance of details, the description itself has a pronounced emotional and even passionate coloring, the author's attitude to this or that character is clearly traced.

According to the writer Yuri Polyakov, Prokhanov is perceived only as the editor-in-chief of the Zavtra newspaper, but Alexander Prokhanov is a postmodernist in aesthetics, and an imperial writer in direction, in ideology, and this is a rather rare combination.

Views and quotes of Alexander Prokhanov

“I have experienced horror twice in my life. The first time in 1991, when my country perished, I experienced horror, not fear, but horror. Well, in general, we experience fear ... Here you go, slippery, don’t fall ... But such a mystical, pitch-black, universal horror, when everything screamed in me and my eyes fell out of their sockets, this was in 1991. Nightmare. And the second time, of course, in 1993, when everything died, and it seemed to me that not people in black uniforms and masks were chasing me, but demons, ”said Alexander Prokhanov in an interview with Sergei Shargunov in Free Press.

“I imagine myself as a huge rat the size of an elephant. I have such a long slippery scaly tail, and such a pink snout that sniffs everything, and such a white gray mustache, and such a very sharp prickly mouth with incisors. And this rat gnaws through all the firmament. She gnaws everything, gnaws and grinds a move somewhere. If I were a butterfly, I wouldn't fly anywhere, you know? I would sit on a flower, and, waiting for winter, fell asleep. I am a rat that nothing takes. There is, they say, the mole of history - is there such an expression? Here I am the rat of history, I gnaw it every time.

"... I would never give him (Lenin), I would leave him in the depths of Russian civilization, because Lenin initiated the Red Age - the century that shook this tired, decrepit world."

“Stalin is the great Russian monarch. Having won a mystical victory, he also became the anointed one.

About the events in Ukraine, Alexander Prokhanov said that the whole Ukrainian reality - financial, political - is a growing chaos: “We see the fall of Ukraine. Someone can rejoice, someone can rejoice, but an observer who knows the fall of kingdoms sees that the Ukrainian kingdom is falling before it has had time to form as a state. It flies into the abyss."

In November 2014, the court ordered Izvestiya to refute Alexander Prokhanov's article "Singers and scoundrels" dated August 17. The article contained information that Andrei Makarevich gave a concert in Ukraine in front of Ukrainian servicemen, “who immediately after the concert went to the positions and from heavy howitzers they hollowed out houses, schools and hospitals in Donetsk, tearing Donetsk girls apart.”

About the Soviet period: “... This is my life, this is the life of my mother, dying, she said that it was a great era, the meaning of the Soviet period was to win - not a military and geopolitical victory. This is, in essence, like the Second Coming of Christ, because if there had not been this victory, the world would have developed in completely different, terrible fascist ways, and victory straightened this earth's axis, and 30 million Russians who died in the war are Christ's sacrifice . I believe that the meaning of the Soviet period is victory.”

About perestroika: “Perestroika” means “the gates of hell have been opened.”

On the future of Russia: “The Russian Miracle is an active powerful factor in Russian history, each time snatching Russia out of a hopeless abyss. And I am still on earth with the confidence that the “Russian miracle” will once again come true and the coming Russia will be wonderful.”

Prokhanov is very worried about the events taking place in the world, noting the growth of Russophobia.

“Most recently, Montenegrins said that they adore Russia, and that if you climb to the top of the mountains in Montenegro, you can see the Kremlin from there,” Russian News Service quotes Alexander Prokhanov. — Montenegrins adored Russia even more than the Belgrade Serbs. And what happened in this short time? How they plowed the minds of Montenegrins, how the presence of American emissaries, the American government, American culture, American dominance there, how they distorted the consciousness of this wonderful people. That's the bitterness."

Personal life and hobbies of Alexander Prokhanov

Alexander Prokhanov was widowed in 2011. With his wife Lyudmila Konstantinovna, he lived a happy life. Has two sons and a daughter. One of the sons of Alexander Prokhanov is a publicist Andrey Fefelov, the other is a photographer and singer-songwriter Vasily Prokhanov.

“Once I said to my son Vasya:“ I feel guilty before you, I did very little with you. And what’s more, I remember very little from your childhood, because I was hanging out somewhere all the time, was busy with my affairs, novels, and you somehow passed, as if in a fog, in front of me. I didn't take care of you. Forgive me for this." And he said to me: “Father, do not blame yourself, because you were very busy with us. We looked at you, we saw you. We saw your attitude to your mother, we saw your attitude to work, to friends, to creativity. You influenced us very much, "" Alexander Prokhanov recalled in an interview with "SP".

Alexander Andreevich Prokhanov is fond of collecting butterflies. Draws in the style of primitivism.

* « Letterseventy four”- a common alternative name for two documents: “Letters from Russian writers to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, delegates of the XXVIII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union”, signed by 74 writers, as well as its finalized version after the election of the President of the USSR M. S. Gorbachev - “Letters writers, workers of culture and science of Russia to the President of the USSR, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR, the delegates of the XXVIII Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Andrey Fefelov

What is the “Russian world” in your understanding? How far geographically does it extend and what worldview concepts does it cover?

The Russian world is the whole universe, because the Russian people have cosmic thinking, and Russia has no spatial, spiritual, or temporal limits. That is why one can only believe in it, and it is completely pointless to measure it in kilometers or kilograms. Russia is the territory of a miracle. The rays from this miracle penetrate walls, clouds, and zones of eternal emptiness, scatter across all the nooks and crannies of the universe.

Of course, the concept of the Russian world is associated with a complex, deep and mysterious phenomenon of the Russian language, inside which, like in a cradle, there are meanings, images and symbols of universal consciousness.

For me, the Russian world is a springboard for the implementation of the plan for the global transformation. This is a platform for the embodiment of the idea of ​​the immortality of mankind. Ideas encrypted in Russian culture, and not only.

But not only modern Russia represents the Russian world. The seeds of Russianness, the Russian ecumene are scattered all over the planet, all over the universe. In particular, the Old Believers living in Latin America for hundreds of years can be called part of the Russian world. Some kind of lunar rover, stuck many years ago on the moon, can also be attributed to the Russian world. This is also part of the Russian world. These are the touches left by Russian civilization, Russian culture, Russian technology, engineering, Russian thought.

The distant ancestors of your family were Molokans. Another relative, Ivan Stepanovich Prokhanov (1869-1935), was a well-known composer and preacher in the Evangelical Baptist Church. Moreover, his spiritual songs gained fame even among the Old Believers. Your father, A. A. Prokhanov, identifies himself with Orthodoxy. What can you say about the spiritual path of your family? Can it somehow be compared with the historical path of our country?

Some of my ancestors came from Russian sectarianism. Both the Prokhanovs, and the Fefelovs, and the Mazayevs were once peasants and belonged to the Molokan milieu. Their descendants, having become merchants, gave their children education, sent their children to study in Europe.

My great-grandfather Alexander Stepanovich Prokhanov became a doctor of medicine in imperial Russia and received personal nobility for his scientific merits. Such people no longer expressed themselves in the format of the folk Molokan faith. This is how variations of Russian Baptism appeared, the sect of "Evangelical Christians", which was founded by the brother of my great-grandfather you mentioned.

However, the era soon changed, and spiritual issues faded into the background. For example, my grandmother, who came from a religious Molokan family, considered herself an atheist all her life, and only a year before her death, at the request of her son, her grandchildren and daughter-in-law, she received Holy Baptism at the age of 96. When she was accepted as a pioneer, Leon Trotsky spoke at a solemn rally.

Thus, my father received a non-religious upbringing, but again the 70s came, when interest in religion grew among the intelligentsia. It was then that my parents were baptized. Thus, questions of faith, church, eschatology accompanied me from early childhood.

Probably, his friend Lev Lebedev, who later became an archpriest, a well-known church historian and theologian, influenced the choice of his father. In addition, Father Leo was also a monarchist, he walked around Andropov's Moscow in a bowler hat and with a long umbrella like a cane. His belt buckle was also old-fashioned, with the imperial double-headed eagle shimmering on it.

And the works of A. A. Prokhanov and the apocalyptic theme in them also originate in this period?

Eschatology is an integral part of the Orthodox worldview. However, in my father's texts, this theme flares up as a metaphor for the catastrophic nature of modern civilization. As a journalist, he took part in several wars, later earning the title of battle writer. With his own eyes he saw the ruined reactor at Chernobyl. I watched the collapse of the Soviet society, its slipping into the nightmarish 90s. Isn't this a parable about the end times? Burning horizons, in a dream and in reality - that's what suggests the imminent Apocalypse.

So, the tradition of milk culture has left you?

The tradition is gone, but the connections exist. Once, a whole delegation of Molokans came to the newspaper Zavtra. Such solid neat bearded people with calm faces. It turns out that Yuri Luzhkov at that time for some reason oppressed the Molokan community, deprived it of a prayer house. And then, knowing about our origin, they came to us for information support. We did not refuse them and even sheltered them for a while. Several Sundays in a row, meetings of Molokans were held in the editorial office of Zavtra and psalms composed by my great-grandfathers were sung.

Now many patriots talk about the greatness of pre-revolutionary Russia. At the same time, we must remember that the Romanov dynasty took tragic steps towards the division of the Russian people. In the 17th century, under Alexei Mikhailovich, a church schism took place, when the Russians were divided into Old Believers and New Believers. At the beginning of the 18th century, under Peter I, a cultural split into top elite with balls and assemblies, on the one hand, and a stinking peasant, on the other, and already under the subsequent Romanovs, the ruling class of Russia became French-German-speaking, living abroad, and in many ways comprador. What do you think of these divisions and could they have been avoided?

The Romanovs left a huge mark on Russian history. And the Western vector in their activities can be seen very clearly from the first years of the dynasty. However, I consider it a harmful and stupid thing to give biting unambiguous assessments of this or that figure or an entire era. Let's say Alexander II, an extremely dubious figure. He was fond of spiritualism, carried out a peasant reform with colossal violations and a bias in favor of the nobility, opened the way to Russia for foreign capital, and gave away Alaska to the United States almost for nothing. However, the era of Alexander II is the time of the dawn of Russian literature: Turgenev, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky ...

The triumphs of the “white general” Skobelev are also the period of the reign of Alexander II. You can, of course, shout: "Ah, the Romanov family, ruined Russia ...". And you can look at the history of the country more broadly and more carefully. In society, as always, complex and very contradictory processes were going on, and the sovereigns from the Romanovs were also involved in these processes. It should be remembered that in Russia, after the overthrow of the dynasty, another period began, no less difficult, no less tragic and contradictory. And before the Romanovs there were Rurikovichs. And they may also have questions. Meanwhile, the Rurikovichs laid the foundation of the Russian empire.

It is interesting that the Romanov family - this cohort of sovereigns and empresses - stands between two pillars of Russian history: Ivan IV Rurikovich and Joseph Stalin. At the same time, we know that many terrible labels have been hung on both Stalin and Ivan the Terrible. They are sadists, and bloodsuckers, and madmen. Moreover, these labels were invented not only by biased historians. Painters, writers and cinematographers also tried their best here. At least take Pavel Lungin's vile film " Tsar". Only dirt and hoax! It is sad that the guru of modern patriotic youth Ivan Okhlobystin participated in the filming of this muck. In my opinion, he should apologize to the people for this role of the royal jester. To apologize for participating in a case that discredits the first Russian tsar, the entire Russian history and the very idea of ​​the Russian state.

The figure of Peter the Great stands apart. He is a great destroyer and a great builder at the same time. In some ways it is similar to Patriarch Nikon and Lenin. Pushkin loved and felt Peter very much. He saw in him something that no historian, no sociologist understood.

But still, without destroying Russian customs, without tearing off a beard, was it possible to build ships?

This is a debatable question, depending on which ships. After all, the Pomors also had their own ships - boats. But it was a merchant and fishing fleet. But to build caravels, you need a European outfit.

But this Westernizing period, apparently, was necessary. This is part of our growing up as a people. We have already begun to return to Russian origins, to ancient culture, to forms that sprout from our very nature, from language and faith.

One must understand that the whole history of Russia is sacred, therefore one must treat it as some kind of sacred gift from above and not sprinkle dust on it. Even the demons of Russian history, such as, say, Leon Trotsky, must be carefully examined and read in a single grandiose, sacred context. It would seem that he is the enemy of the entire Russian people! But, nevertheless, it is "our" enemy, "our" unique demon. And no other story has produced such a figure. By the way, speaking objectively, Trotsky is known as the creator of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, which became the striking force of gathering the territories of the Russian Empire, which collapsed in February 1917.

In modern Ukraine it is customary to talk about crimes Soviet power, bring down monuments to Lenin and call for a ban on the Communist Party. Maidan demands to disavow and condemn the crimes of the totalitarian regime. Why, then, do they not demand to disavow such “crimes of the totalitarian regime” as the establishment of historically unjustified administrative borders of the Ukrainian SSR during the time of Lenin-Khrushchev?

Those people who bring down monuments to Lenin in Ukraine have no logic. Their logic is that Lenin is a Russian man, a “Moskal”, who, with his Bolshevik regulations, came to Ukraine, this supposedly flourishing, mighty, majestic, “independent power”. He enslaved her, and then planted a Bolshevik totalitarian regime in her, perpetrated a famine, and so on. They really do not want to talk and even remember that the current territory of Ukraine is the territory of the Ukrainian SSR, created, composed of several provinces of the Russian Empire, precisely by the Bolsheviks ...

The history that is taught to Ukrainian children is built more abruptly than Tolkien's books. This is not history, but pure fiction, built on the ideology of "Bandera". In addition to ultra-Ukrainian nationalism, it is based on the demonization of Bolshevism, the association of Bolshevism with the “Muscovy” they invented, and “Muscovy” with “Asianism” ... Destroying ties with Russia, they allegedly make a European choice and move somewhere to Europe, away from Stalin, Lenin and Putin. In fact, they are turning their country into Somalia, with all the ensuing consequences.

Ukromants show an obstinate desire to own foreign lands, to impose their language of a small people on all the other numerous peoples living in this country. The last Maidan gave rise to an expansionist wave among the youth, and even with all the hatred for Lenin, no one is going to give up the “Leninist territorial heritage” there. But at the same time, the ruling elites of Ukraine have no understanding of what a true empire is.

It is always a kind of compromise between peoples, an agreement based on supervalues. If an empire is built on the idea of ​​total domination of one nation, then this empire is doomed. So the German Reichs collapsed one by one, because they did not give the opportunity to bloom to all peoples, to all flowers in the inflorescence. This imperial tolerance, unfortunately, has not been observed throughout the history of the “independence” of Ukraine.

The policy of Ukrainization of the non-Ukrainian population is clearly manifested in everything last years. This policy can be defined as ethnocide. Genocide is a direct physical destruction, and here the recoding of consciousness, assimilation, resettlement and, of course, the expulsion of peoples are used. Now, if some kind of integral Ukrainian ideology appeared, which would take into account all factors, was supranational, then it would be possible to say that Ukraine has taken place as a state.

But, unfortunately, the current Ukrainianism is small-town Westernism plus redneck, with elements of Nazism. The Galician group can really influence the situation in Kyiv, it is really a passionately active layer. In fact, one of the artificial ethnic myths has been created about the cultural and linguistic advantage of the Zapadensky, Galician sub-ethnos, which would not have had much significance in the development of the peoples living in Ukraine if it were not for the political fate of Ukraine.

Why are there no rallies against the war in Ukraine?

Because Ukraine is now terribly heated. The media is setting people up so that everyone wants blood. The townsfolk have become hostages of their own media, textbooks, and years of anti-Russian propaganda. People were very, very warmed up. Maidan, which erupted like an abscess in February, is a bastard. A premature birth of the new government took place. The government is weak and afraid of the crowd. As for the peace marches in Russia, they are being conducted by the liberal intelligentsia, who for some reason have also shut up and no longer hold “Peace Marches”. Liberals are now in favor of an active continuation of hostilities, for bombing, for conducting the so-called "anti-terrorist operation."

They are engaged - it is clearly visible. As soon as America began its brutal operations in full measure, human rights activists fell silent. As soon as Bashar al-Assad began to carry out some kind of hostilities, they began to shout, yell, stamp their feet, sprinkle ashes on their heads, tear their shirts and tear curtains with their teeth. It has always been and will always be so, because this group is not self-sufficient and independent. The command center of the army of human rights defenders is located in the United States. Human rights organizations work only for the United States and in the interests of the United States.

Now there is such a thing as "Orthodox Stalinism." Is it possible to combine these words together and does this concept make sense?

Yes, it has the most serious meaning, because Stalin expressed the Russian idea at the turn of the epoch, at a terrible rift in time. And part of the Russian idea is Orthodoxy. Building a just society based on Christian morality is what Stalin did. He also built a superpowerful state that would hold the world order. Stalinist Russia stood in the way of Leviathan, world usurious capitalism, from the depths of which the Antichrist will appear. The Stalinist USSR is the so-called katechon - holding ... a stone on the path of world evil. Therefore, Orthodox Stalinism is not only possible, but also organic. This trend can be considered a mystical projection of the entire Russian history of the twentieth century.

The site "a" opens a series of conversations with public and political figures of modern Russia. In the center of our conversation are the problems of strengthening Russian civilization, returning to spiritual roots and traditions, topical issues modern life our society, as well as, of course, reflections on the lessons of our country's history. We will also try to find out what prominent politicians and public figures of Russia know about the Old Believers, about the Russian church tradition. Of course, first of all, we are interested in representatives of the patriotic wing Russian elite. People for whom the concept of "Russian civilization" is not an empty phrase. Today we are talking with the editor-in-chief of the Den TV channel, the deputy editor of the Zavtra newspaper Andrey Fefelov.

What is the “Russian world” in your understanding? How far geographically does it extend and what worldview concepts does it cover?

The Russian world is the whole universe, because the Russian people have cosmic thinking, and Russia has no spatial, spiritual, or temporal limits. That is why one can only believe in it, and it is completely pointless to measure it in kilometers or kilograms. Russia is the territory of a miracle. The rays from this miracle penetrate walls, clouds, and zones of eternal emptiness, scatter across all the nooks and crannies of the universe.

Of course, the concept of the Russian world is associated with a complex, deep and mysterious phenomenon of the Russian language, inside which, like in a cradle, there are meanings, images and symbols of universal consciousness.

For me, the Russian world is a springboard for the implementation of the plan for the global transformation. This is a platform for the embodiment of the idea of ​​the immortality of mankind. Ideas encrypted in Russian culture, and not only.

But not only modern Russia is the Russian world. The seeds of Russianness, the Russian ecumene are scattered all over the planet, all over the universe. In particular, the Old Believers living in Latin America for hundreds of years can be called part of the Russian world. Some kind of lunar rover, stuck many years ago on the moon, can also be attributed to the Russian world. This is also part of the Russian world. These are the touches left by Russian civilization, Russian culture, Russian technology, engineering, Russian thought.

The distant ancestors of your family were Molokans. Another relative, Ivan Stepanovich Prokhanov (1869-1935), was a well-known composer and preacher in the Evangelical Baptist Church. Moreover, his spiritual songs gained fame even among the Old Believers. Your father, A. A. Prokhanov, identifies himself with Orthodoxy. What can you say about the spiritual path of your family? Can it somehow be compared with the historical path of our country?

Some of my ancestors came from Russian sectarianism. Both the Prokhanovs, and the Fefelovs, and the Mazayevs were once peasants and belonged to the Molokan milieu. Their descendants, having become merchants, gave their children education, sent their children to study in Europe.

My great-grandfather Alexander Stepanovich Prokhanov became a doctor of medicine in imperial Russia and received personal nobility for his scientific merits. Such people no longer expressed themselves in the format of the folk Molokan faith. This is how variations of Russian Baptism appeared, the sect of "Evangelical Christians", which was founded by the brother of my great-grandfather you mentioned.

However, the era soon changed, and spiritual issues faded into the background. For example, my grandmother, who came from a religious Molokan family, considered herself an atheist all her life, and only a year before her death, at the request of her son, her grandchildren and daughter-in-law, she received Holy Baptism at the age of 96. When she was accepted as a pioneer, Leon Trotsky spoke at a solemn rally.

Thus, my father received a non-religious upbringing, but again the 70s came, when interest in religion grew among the intelligentsia. It was then that my parents were baptized. Thus, questions of faith, church, eschatology accompanied me from early childhood.

Probably, his friend Lev Lebedev, who later became an archpriest, a well-known church historian and theologian, influenced the choice of his father. In addition, Father Leo was also a monarchist, he walked around Andropov's Moscow in a bowler hat and with a long umbrella like a cane. His belt buckle was also old-fashioned, with the imperial double-headed eagle shimmering on it.

And the works of A. A. Prokhanov and the apocalyptic theme in them also originate in this period?

Eschatology is an integral part of the Orthodox worldview. However, in my father's texts, this theme flares up as a metaphor for the catastrophic nature of modern civilization. As a journalist, he took part in several wars, later earning the title of battle writer. With his own eyes he saw the ruined reactor at Chernobyl. I watched the collapse of the Soviet society, its slipping into the nightmarish 90s. Isn't this a parable about the end times? Burning horizons, in a dream and in reality - that's what suggests the imminent Apocalypse.

So, the tradition of milk culture has left you?

The tradition is gone, but the connections exist. Once, a whole delegation of Molokans came to the newspaper Zavtra. Such solid neat bearded people with calm faces. It turns out that Yuri Luzhkov at that time for some reason oppressed the Molokan community, deprived it of a prayer house. And then, knowing about our origin, they came to us for information support. We did not refuse them and even sheltered them for a while. Several Sundays in a row, meetings of Molokans were held in the editorial office of Zavtra and psalms composed by my great-grandfathers were sung.

Now many patriots talk about the greatness of pre-revolutionary Russia. At the same time, we must remember that the Romanov dynasty took tragic steps towards the division of the Russian people. In the 17th century, under Alexei Mikhailovich, a church schism took place, when the Russians were divided into Old Believers and New Believers. At the beginning of the 18th century, under Peter I, there was a cultural split into the upper elite with balls and assemblies, on the one hand, and a stinking peasant, on the other, and already under the subsequent Romanovs, the ruling class of Russia became Franco-German-speaking, living abroad, and in many ways comprador. What do you think of these divisions and could they have been avoided?

The Romanovs left a huge mark on Russian history. And the Western vector in their activities can be seen very clearly from the first years of the dynasty. However, I consider it a harmful and stupid thing to give biting unambiguous assessments of this or that figure or an entire era. Let's say Alexander II, an extremely dubious figure. He was fond of spiritualism, carried out a peasant reform with colossal violations and a bias in favor of the nobility, opened the way to Russia for foreign capital, and gave away Alaska to the United States almost for nothing. However, the era of Alexander II is the time of the dawn of Russian literature: Turgenev, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky ...

The triumphs of the “white general” Skobelev are also the period of the reign of Alexander II. You can, of course, shout: "Ah, the Romanov family, ruined Russia ...". And you can look at the history of the country more broadly and more carefully. In society, as always, complex and very contradictory processes were going on, and the sovereigns from the Romanovs were also involved in these processes. It should be remembered that in Russia, after the overthrow of the dynasty, another period began, no less difficult, no less tragic and contradictory. And before the Romanovs there were Rurikovichs. And they may also have questions. Meanwhile, the Rurikovichs laid the foundation of the Russian empire.

It is interesting that the Romanov family - this cohort of sovereigns and empresses - stands between two pillars of Russian history: Ivan IV Rurikovich and Joseph Stalin. At the same time, we know that many terrible labels have been hung on both Stalin and Ivan the Terrible. They are sadists, and bloodsuckers, and madmen. Moreover, these labels were invented not only by biased historians. Painters, writers and cinematographers also tried their best here. At least take Pavel Lungin's vile film " Tsar". Only dirt and hoax! It is sad that the guru of modern patriotic youth Ivan Okhlobystin participated in the filming of this muck. In my opinion, he should apologize to the people for this role of the royal jester. To apologize for participating in a case that discredits the first Russian tsar, the entire Russian history and the very idea of ​​the Russian state.

The figure of Peter the Great stands apart. He is a great destroyer and a great builder at the same time. In some ways it is similar to Patriarch Nikon and Lenin. Pushkin loved and felt Peter very much. He saw in him something that no historian, no sociologist understood.

But still, without destroying Russian customs, without tearing off a beard, was it possible to build ships?

This is a debatable question, depending on which ships. After all, the Pomors also had their own ships - boats. But it was a merchant and fishing fleet. But to build caravels, you need a European outfit.

But this Westernizing period, apparently, was necessary. This is part of our growing up as a people. We have already begun to return to Russian origins, to ancient culture, to forms that sprout from our very nature, from language and faith.

One must understand that the whole history of Russia is sacred, therefore one must treat it as some kind of sacred gift from above and not sprinkle dust on it. Even the demons of Russian history, such as, say, Leon Trotsky, must be carefully examined and read in a single grandiose, sacred context. It would seem that he is the enemy of the entire Russian people! But, nevertheless, it is "our" enemy, "our" unique demon. And no other story has produced such a figure. By the way, speaking objectively, Trotsky is known as the creator of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, which became the striking force of gathering the territories of the Russian Empire, which collapsed in February 1917.

In modern Ukraine, it is customary to talk about the crimes of the Soviet government, bring down monuments to Lenin and call for a ban on the Communist Party. Maidan demands to disavow and condemn the crimes of the totalitarian regime. Why, then, do they not demand to disavow such “crimes of the totalitarian regime” as the establishment of historically unjustified administrative borders of the Ukrainian SSR during the time of Lenin-Khrushchev?

Those people who bring down monuments to Lenin in Ukraine have no logic. Their logic is that Lenin is a Russian man, a “Moskal”, who, with his Bolshevik regulations, came to Ukraine, this supposedly flourishing, mighty, majestic, “independent power”. He enslaved her, and then planted a Bolshevik totalitarian regime in her, perpetrated a famine, and so on. They really do not want to talk and even remember that the current territory of Ukraine is the territory of the Ukrainian SSR, created, composed of several provinces of the Russian Empire, precisely by the Bolsheviks ...

The history that is taught to Ukrainian children is built more abruptly than Tolkien's books. This is not history, but pure fiction, built on the ideology of "Bandera". In addition to ultra-Ukrainian nationalism, it is based on the demonization of Bolshevism, the association of Bolshevism with the “Muscovy” they invented, and “Muscovy” with “Asianism” ... Destroying ties with Russia, they allegedly make a European choice and move somewhere to Europe, away from Stalin, Lenin and Putin. In fact, they are turning their country into Somalia, with all the ensuing consequences.

Ukromants show an obstinate desire to own foreign lands, to impose their language of a small people on all the other numerous peoples living in this country. The last Maidan gave rise to an expansionist wave among the youth, and even with all the hatred for Lenin, no one is going to give up the “Leninist territorial heritage” there. But at the same time, the ruling elites of Ukraine have no understanding of what a true empire is.

It is always a kind of compromise between peoples, an agreement based on supervalues. If an empire is built on the idea of ​​total domination of one nation, then this empire is doomed. So the German Reichs collapsed one by one, because they did not give the opportunity to bloom to all peoples, to all flowers in the inflorescence. This imperial tolerance, unfortunately, has not been observed throughout the history of the “independence” of Ukraine.

The policy of Ukrainization of the non-Ukrainian population has been clearly manifested in recent years. This policy can be defined as ethnocide. Genocide is a direct physical destruction, and here the recoding of consciousness, assimilation, resettlement and, of course, the expulsion of peoples are used. Now, if some kind of integral Ukrainian ideology appeared, which would take into account all factors, was supranational, then it would be possible to say that Ukraine has taken place as a state.

But, unfortunately, the current Ukrainianism is small-town Westernism plus redneck, with elements of Nazism. The Galician group can really influence the situation in Kyiv, it is really a passionately active layer. In fact, one of the artificial ethnic myths has been created about the cultural and linguistic advantage of the Zapadensky, Galician sub-ethnos, which would not have had much significance in the development of the peoples living in Ukraine if it were not for the political fate of Ukraine.

Why are there no rallies against the war in Ukraine?

Because Ukraine is now terribly heated. The media is setting people up so that everyone wants blood. The townsfolk have become hostages of their own media, textbooks, and years of anti-Russian propaganda. People were very, very warmed up. Maidan, which erupted like an abscess in February, is a bastard. A premature birth of the new government took place. The government is weak and afraid of the crowd. As for the peace marches in Russia, they are being conducted by the liberal intelligentsia, who for some reason have also shut up and no longer hold “Peace Marches”. Liberals are now in favor of an active continuation of hostilities, for bombing, for conducting the so-called "anti-terrorist operation."

They are engaged - it is clearly visible. As soon as America began its brutal operations in full measure, human rights activists fell silent. As soon as Bashar al-Assad began to carry out some kind of hostilities, they began to shout, yell, stamp their feet, sprinkle ashes on their heads, tear their shirts and tear curtains with their teeth. It has always been and will always be so, because this group is not self-sufficient and independent. The command center of the army of human rights defenders is located in the United States. Human rights organizations work only for the United States and in the interests of the United States.

Now there is such a thing as "Orthodox Stalinism." Is it possible to combine these words together and does this concept make sense?

Yes, it has the most serious meaning, because Stalin expressed the Russian idea at the turn of the epoch, at a terrible rift in time. And part of the Russian idea is Orthodoxy. Building a just society based on Christian morality is what Stalin did. He also built a superpowerful state that would hold the world order. Stalinist Russia stood in the way of Leviathan, world usurious capitalism, from the depths of which the Antichrist will appear. The Stalinist USSR is the so-called katechon - holding ... a stone on the path of world evil. Therefore, Orthodox Stalinism is not only possible, but also organic. This trend can be considered a mystical projection of the entire Russian history of the twentieth century.

Question: You have recently arrived from the Donbass, what is the most vivid impression of the trip left?

Andrey Fefelov: When we arrived in Novorossiya, this new union state was just announced before our very eyes. On this day and at this hour, the format of a new country, Novorossiya, was born, and everyone was very inspired by this. Although, it is completely incomprehensible why, because no one even says what Novorossiya is, no one knows what will be under this sign, but for some reason everyone imagines some kind of utopian picture. The theme of Novorossiya has not yet been formulated, not yet declared, but it already represents a kind of space for myth, and each one fills this space with its own content.

The Communists believe that this will be a promised country of general equality, people of the Orthodox worldview say that it will be a country of Orthodox orders, where there will be no place for debauchery, abortion and mass media culture, people who dream of scientific and technological progress say that Novorossiya will be a great testing ground for honing new amazing technologies. This is how this myth is formed from fragments of our consciousness, the most beautiful, best aspirations. So, Novorossiya is a dream space.

Question: What is happening on the city streets? Do children play in the streets or do they all hide in their homes?

Andrey Fefelov: Now this is not a total war - this is not Stalingrad. And in Damascus, during the crisis, they drank coffee in the city center, and there were battles in the neighboring quarter - and this is normal, it happens. So the center of Donetsk, if you do not go beyond a certain zone, looks like an ordinary southern city, and ordinary life goes on there. Another thing is that there are days and hours when everything changes. We saw how punitive detachments began to enter Donetsk, which was surrounded on all sides. They began to move to railway stations and other parts of the city, fighting began to arise, sniper fire began, and the city was instantly deserted. I remember an ominous sunset over Donetsk, a yellow and thickening city, as if internal energy is leaving from there, it becomes dead - windows close, entrances close, transport stops running, and you understand that city battles will begin now.

As for the administration building, it is indeed lined with bags and coils of barbed wire, but these are mainly revolutionary decorations. I do not think that in real combat conditions these bags will allow you to protect administrative buildings. However, the symbolism of resistance, flags, roadblocks - this is also very important, they have, if not military, but some kind of political, symbolic meaning.

Question: What is the distance between the militias and the Ukrainian military? As far as we know, conscripts are the same Donbass people.

Andrey Fefelov: There is a difference between the Ukrainian army and the terrorist units that are introduced into the territory of Donbass by the "Right Sector" and the National Guard. The militias say that the Ukrainian army is our children, conscripts, and when the barracks are captured, these conscripts are not taken prisoner, they are not enlisted in the defense forces, but they are put on a train and sent home. I don’t know what happens to them next, but I suspect that they will be mobilized again and thrown back into the Donbass.

On the other hand, we see the massacre of the wounded in the hospital in Krasny Liman. This degree of hatred and mutual claims is growing. Unfortunately this is logic. civil war. No matter what events take place, no matter what Putin concludes agreements, no matter who Patriarch Kirill congratulates, the situation will continue - too much strength is contained in it, blood and tears are shed.

Question: And how are the fronts distributed? Are there many more territories captured by the junta?

Andrey Fefelov: There is now no such thing as fronts. The entire Donbass is under attack. There is a patchwork there - here are units of the "Right Sector", there are some parts of the Ukrainian army, it is not known whose order is being carried out, planes fly here. And as soon as the militia encroaches on certain structures - the financial system, the border, the transport system, the communication line, the junta immediately takes very violent steps to block these efforts. And everything is still ahead of us, because there are still a couple of days before the inauguration, and fantastic things can happen during this time, since the new president made a statement that the inauguration will take place in Donetsk. This statement is amazing! He put his chocolate reputation on the line - if he fails to do this, then who is he? And if he does it through bombardments, victims and destruction, including the civilian population, then what will he, the head of a tribe of savages, celebrate his inauguration on the bloody streets among skulls, among stakes in order to establish himself as the president of a new united Ukraine? What are they thinking about in Kyiv?

Question: The day before, representatives of the DPR came to visit the State Duma, where they announced the need to switch the economy of the republic to the Russian ruble ...

Andrey Fefelov: The demarche in the State Duma is connected with the recognition of these republics by Russia, and so far, in my opinion, this recognition is impossible. However, in the DPR, I think, a separate financial system will be created, as it was once created in Transnistria. The example of Transnistria is not inspiring for the inhabitants of Donbass, it is an example of people who are in a kind of blockade, but Donbass will have Russia. Roughly speaking, Transnistria will turn out of Donbass, but with much better starting conditions.

Question: How do you assess the fact that Putin has not yet recognized the DPR?

Andrey Fefelov: It is very difficult for me to talk about Putin's strategy, because it includes other factors that I may not be aware of. For example, he will soon have a meeting with representatives of the Western powers and, obviously, some kind of secret ultimatum will be presented to him. How will he react to this ultimatum, to these threats? This is his personal choice as a politician, and I think he will have enough experience and courage to make the right choice. It is philistine to argue that the president should do this or that, here it is a matter of his personal fate, because what he decides now in Ukraine concerns not only our entire society, but also his personal fate. However, I am sure that Russia will be more and more involved in this process.

Question: How do residents of Donbass react to the silence of official Moscow?

Andrey Fefelov: Of course, this creates a background of uncertainty, since there was a huge amount of hope that Russia, as in the case of Crimea, would take and take the territories for itself, take them for maintenance, ensure security, expel the Right Sector from there, create conditions for a normal life. But that didn't happen, so people are worried. However, the DNR and LNR authorities are hinting that Russian support will come, and this is part of the ideological background. However, if the independence of the republics is recognized, they will also have close interaction with Russia, and here it is also necessary to explain to people that "for now you will be in limbo, but this will not last forever. After all, Russia will recognize you, but for now you will use Russian passports to travel abroad, like most residents of Transnistria."

Question: As for the media, one can often hear that our television allegedly exaggerates when talking about what is happening in the Donbass.

Andrey Fefelov: Television is always a kind of magnifying glass, because it considers one local event, and all the world's attention is focused on it. And I was always amazed that some local event on the next street may not even be heard, but the whole world can discuss it. This is fine. However, I can say that the general tone of the Russian channels corresponds to the ideas of the population, this is not in dissonance with the ideas of the people. There, Ukrainian channels also work for days, but the local population, of course, has a completely different attitude towards them.

Question: From here it seems to us that everyone in Donetsk has given up work and joined the militia. Is it so?

Andrey Fefelov: Donetsk is a millionth city, and about 4 thousand people went to the militia. Of course, if all the men went to fight, then they would take Kyiv and Ivano-Frankivsk. But this does not happen, because there are ordinary people, people of a different type, there is no involvement at the level of the future "if we do not come today, tomorrow they will kill us." People are not yet fully aware of what is happening. The time of total war, as in the days of Hitler, has not yet come, thank God. Yes, and we must understand that during the Great Patriotic War not everyone went to the partisans.