Presidential elections are just around the corner, which are usually followed by government reshuffles. And if we talk about the cultural sphere, then not everything is so simple. There are persistent rumors that the current Minister of Culture will leave his post and a new person will be appointed in his place. The choice may fall on several representatives of the bureaucracy, and Elena Yampolskaya has recently been named as one of the possible figures. I decided to figure out what kind of person could lead national culture in the near future.

Biographical information about Elena Aleksandrovna Yampolskaya available on the Internet allows us to find out that she was born in Moscow in 1971, and graduated from the theater studies department of GITIS in 1993. At various times she worked in the theater department of the newspaper “Soviet Culture”, and was the head of the culture department in the publications “Russian Courier”, “” and.

In 2011, Yampolskaya headed the Kultura newspaper, whose editor-in-chief remains to this day, and on February 6, 2016 she was elected to the governing body - the Supreme Council. In the summer of 2016, she joined the election headquarters of United Russia, where she was responsible for culture, and, having become a deputy, took the position of deputy chairman of the committee on nationalities. She is also a member of the presidium of the Russian Presidential Council for Culture and Art; Secretary of the Union of Cinematographers of Russia; is a member of the Public Council at.

God and Stalin

Yampolskaya claims that she is an Orthodox Christian, while in 2007 the journalist expressed the opinion that “Two forces can hold Russia over the abyss. The first is called God. The second is Stalin". According to her, the criticism comes from enemies of the faith. For example, presenting Patriarch Kirill with the comic award “Silver Galosh” - “for the immaculate disappearance of a watch” is not much different from infanticide. “The insult of the patriarch and the murder of a five-year-old boy in the Vladimir region are events from the same chain. The mental ill health of the nation is largely the result of cynicism, lack of faith, and infantile ridicule of the media. When not only is nothing sacred, but even the simplest sense of self-preservation is absent. Corrupting people has become a nice pastime.”, - declared from the pages of the publication the editor-in-chief of the newspaper, existing under the self-proclaimed guise of “The Spiritual Space of Russian Eurasia” - just a year after her appointment.

<...>Elena Yampolskaya, editor-in-chief of the newspaper Kultura, has a high chance of getting a place on the United Russia list for the Chelyabinsk region: she is also participating in the primaries. In her post, Yampolskaya persistently defends spiritual bonds, scolds opposition cultural figures, and in 2014 she initiated a scandal at the Moscow International Book Festival, when two performances were excluded from the program for promoting homosexuality and obscenities. Yampolskaya’s ambitions to make the Kultura newspaper a “legislator of public mores” brought political success: at the last congress of United Russia she joined the party’s general council. Elena Yampolskaya refused to talk to Novaya, advising her to use “poems” by Dmitry Bykov instead of her comment.<...>

<...>Today I just wrote another “Letter of Chain” for Novaya Gazeta. I hope that they won’t publish it today, because it turned out to be very harsh. I always, you know, write first, then regret it. The fact that in a deteriorating country everything is degrading and everything goes along the same vector leads us to the idea that after Medinsky, Elena Yampolskaya should be appointed Minister of Culture - she is trying very hard. She has already turned the newspaper of the same name into a symbol of counterculture, anticulture, and now she will do the same thing - this is my value judgment, Elena, value judgment - to do, as I believe, with the Ministry of Culture.<...>

They say: shoot Medinsky. He will soon be replaced, he finds himself at the center of a dispute - is he responsible for the deputy? Who should be staggering - not the crown, right? There hasn’t been any ballast for a long time, but at least someone needs to be removed! Culture is it.

I must be the only one from the entire writing community who will say: don’t touch Medinsky! He wrote his works himself, easily looking for reasons: they say, you yourself are a rogue country! I just believe that no one else would have written this. He didn’t curry favor with his enemies in defense of Mother Rus' (although, naturally, he borrowed: postmodernist, don’t suck!). Even if he was a bogeyman for historians that they were sarcastic among themselves, he was still not Starikov (amen, scatter, holy, holy, holy!).

Even if he fired Mironenko, the opinion of the saints is strange: they say, the honor of the Ministry of Culture has been damaged. Where to drop it? And that's what I'm talking about. Over there in St. Petersburg, Reznik’s gang, loving culture, our mother, shouts with the courage of a mountain rider: Remove Medinsky! Let Reznik himself insist for a long time to draw a line under him; but did he suit the rest? But it became possible - and aha! I don’t take part in this persecution, I don’t interfere with my kick: he is the first Russian People’s Commissar to write after Lunacharsky, and he’s a better writer than one who puffs out the stupid anger of a pig; Medinsky is not yet such a mouse as those behind him. After all, there is no light, no reflection. Even the Internet gives in: well, it doesn’t exist - but who will? There is no alternative either. Nevzorov suggested Valuev: yes, he is handsome and muscular, I would give my life for a kiss from him, if I were a homosexual, but, seeing this gloomy tower that will not let anyone down, I feel that he will make another contrast with culture. Oh, if Medinsky falls down and, so to speak, breaks the thread - there is a candidate, there is a beauty - to enter the burning hut! What will revive the flat plain under the crust of March ice? I shout: Yampolskaya, Yampolskaya! Give Yampolskaya here! I vote for Yampolskaya. I want her to be a minister. I'm afraid I won't get that kind of pleasure with others. She is for the Motherland, for the gentleman with the mustachioed regal face - and at least we will have some fun before our well-deserved end.

I want Yampolskaya, Yampolskaya! Not for the first time, I have appreciated in her that samurai, Japanese ability to burn out at the root everything that she touches, without a shadow of thought or shame (there is another beauty - yes, Skoybeda, but she has no place!). Her pressure has now intensified, and the pathos has not cooled either: it was not for nothing that she carried out the crime on Vasilievsky with Pyotr Tolstoy. Now we have an Izhitsa, a fork, a choice, north-south... She will cover everything that moves, and sit on top, and the skiff, and so that they don’t hang you right away - pray, sons of bitches! I will be expelled from the profession, and Makarevich from the country. The culture will become webbed. You give Elena, because with her everything will probably end faster. (Although, perhaps, not faster. I have been living in the world for a long time in my usual climate: here you can rot for decades, and still not rot.)

You give Yampolskaya in advance, you dictate her in everything! With this, perhaps, we will save the publication of the same name from turning into a brown mass. One locality cannot lead the culture itself and the similarly named leaf! And gradually everything will settle down and return to normal: the newspaper, I think, will be washed off, and culture... somehow. I feel in my gut and in my skin a kind of joyful peace: a minister, even such a one, cannot control culture. No need to hit the table with your hands, swallow pills, drink Borzhom... I want Yampolskaya, Yampolskaya! There's only one ending, so at least we'll have a laugh. This is how the world will end upside down - my stomach hurts in advance!

It’s just a pity that Trump won’t be elected. Otherwise it would be a complete monolith.

[Dmitry Bykov:]
— I have the Kultura newspaper in my pocket. Now we will do PR for the newspaper “Culture”. Here, the editor-in-chief of this newspaper - how can the person who gave this name not burn with shame... Here, Elena Yampolskaya writes - amazingly, absolutely:

““Downtroddenness”, “submissiveness” - stop repeating these slander about Russians in general and women in particular. Russia is like the golden-maned mare from “The Little Humpbacked Horse”: “If you knew how to sit still, then you can control me.” But first we kick, kick, bite. This is the tradition. Challenge any so-called “strong” woman to be frank, and she will admit that the main drama of her life is the inability to find a man stronger than herself to bridle and bruise. Or (much less often): that the main happiness of her life is in finding a strong man who is not ashamed to obey.<...>By the way, the desire to love the one who leads your country is an absolutely healthy phenomenon.<...>So, alas, disappointments are inevitable in the fate of women. But if the hero...

[Olga Zhuravleva:]
- Oh please!

[Dmitry Bykov:]
—Attention!—

...but if the hero, heeling and hesitating, alternately chirping first on his right and then on his left leg, nevertheless secured himself on the pedestal, this is a great happiness for a woman. And for the country too.”

I don’t know what she calls a pedestal, and what’s up, who is “chickening” with her?

Dmitry Bykov in the “Minority Report” program on June 19, 2013

<...>And today Zvyagintsev has defenders as unreasoning as Elena, forgive me, Lord, Yampolskaya<...>

<...>Why would we persist, in kind? Just now the council under the Chief of Culture himself met at the helm - and they also branded the liberals. I don’t know why he collected them - and why disturb the ashes in general - but we were talking about liberals again. Culture, they say, is all in their hands. Which one, where? Forgive this insolence - where are the liberals in music and cinema? “It needs to be made national” - do so, but it’s not given to you! I don’t know how to do carpentry, let’s say—I can even make a stool out of my hands—but I don’t exclaim with a bitter feeling that the carpenters stole their hammers! The cultural elite, the generals, Yampolskaya and other Polyakov - what have the liberals stolen from you, what hammers do you lack? What kind of boss, owner and stingy person, what kind of stern idiot doesn’t let you into Russian culture, doesn’t allow you to make it national? What benefits do you have in the collapse that has happened, what feeding trough is not close to you? What, they didn’t give Mikhalkov any money? Yampolskaya was not accepted into the Investigative Committee? Actually, I won’t argue foolishly: I graduated from school, after college - and I can imagine the culture that you will build here. Yes, you have already tried to do this - so that everything becomes silent and black... You will start with a total ban, but then, but then what?!<...>

Elena Yampolskaya

Deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the seventh convocation

Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Culture

Member of the Presidium of the Council for Culture under the President of the Russian Federation, the Patriarchal Council for Culture, and the Society of Russian Literature.

Laureate of the Pushkin Gold Medal, the Vasily Shukshin Memorial Medal, the Chaika and Iskra awards.

Author of several books. In March 2016, the author’s collection of journalism by E. Yampolskaya “On Culture and More” was published.

Chief Editor

Alexey Zverev

Born in 1975 in Moscow. In 1995-2001 worked as a correspondent for the politics department of the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, then as a columnist for the RBC news agency, editor-in-chief of the Moscow Trades magazine, and editor-in-chief of the Nedelya newspaper. Podmoskovye", chief editor of the publishing house "Provintsiya", chief editor of the supplement to the newspaper "Trud" - "Russian Agrarian Newspaper", chief editor of the newspaper for shareholders of VTB Bank "Control stake" and editor-in-chief of the publishing house "Panorama".

In the newspaper "Culture" since July 2014. Journalist by training.

Head of the “Literature and Art” department

Ksenia Pozdnyakova

Graduated from the Gorky Literary Institute, Faculty of Literary Translation under the direction of A. M. Revich. She was engaged in translations from French and German. She worked as an editor at the newspaper Gazeta and Izvestia. She completed an internship in France, at the College of Literary Translators in Arles. In the newspaper "Culture" since 2012.

Executive Secretary

Alexander Kurganov

In 1987 he graduated from the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov. He worked for the industry newspaper “Water Transport” and went from a correspondent in the economics department to an editor in the river fleet department. In January 1991 he became executive secretary. Since 1992 - in the newspaper "Federation", since 1993 - in the newspaper "Morning of Russia".
He came to Kultura in January 1996 as first deputy. answer section. Since 2002 - executive secretary. Awarded the medal “In honor of the 850th anniversary of Moscow.” Hobbies: history, chess, bicycle.

Editor of the column "Observer"

Platon Besedin

Born in 1985 in Sevastopol. Writer and publicist.
Education - higher technical and psychological. Author of four books of prose and two books of journalism. As a columnist, he collaborated with many publications (Izvestia, Moskovsky Komsomolets, etc.).

Founder: joint-stock company "Editorial office of the newspaper "Culture"

Certificate of registration of the mass media: PI No. FS77-41708 dated 08/18/2010

Subscription indexes: for the population - 50126; for enterprises - 32576; the annual index for all subscribers is 19869.

The State Duma Committee on Culture can be headed by Elena Yampolskaya. Her candidacy is now being considered. The editor-in-chief of “Culture” used to write columns about sex, advocated the development of domestic cinema and stood up for the Russian Orthodox Church. “360” tells what Yampolskaya is known for and how cultural figures speak about her.

Photo source: RIA Novosti

Yampolskaya's career

Elena Yampolskaya was born in Moscow in 1971. Graduated from the Faculty of Theater Studies at GITIS. During her studies, she worked in the theater department of the newspaper “Soviet Culture”, then in “Izvestia”, “Russian Courier”, “Novye Izvestia” and the monthly “Teatral”.

In December 2011, Yampolskaya headed the Kultura newspaper, whose editor-in-chief remains to this day. On February 6, 2016, she joined the leadership headquarters of United Russia, after which she became a State Duma deputy from this party. In parliament, Yampolskaya was deputy chairman of the Committee on Nationalities Affairs. She is also a member of the presidium of the Presidential Council for Culture and Art, as well as the Public Council under the Ministry of Defense and is the secretary of the Union of Cinematographers of Russia.

Now the deputy can head the State Duma Committee on Culture instead of Stanislav Govorukhin, who died on June 14 after a serious and long illness.

New head of the committee?

Deputy Chairman of the Duma Committee on Culture Alexander Sholokhov told 360 that Yampolskaya’s candidacy is only being discussed. In his opinion, this is a person of broad erudition who will cope with the tasks, since he has held leadership positions in the cultural sphere for a long time.

“I really hope that after the appointment we will have even more mutual understanding in all branches of government and the tasks facing the cultural sphere. First of all, this is the development, on behalf of the president, of a new law on culture and in other areas of legislative activity,” Sholokhov said.

Before the presidential elections and the expected change of government after them, there were rumors in the press about the possible appointment of Yampolskaya to the post of head of the Ministry of Culture. Then the writer and publicist Dmitry Bykov dedicated a poem to her, which included the lines: “I feel in my gut and skin some kind of joyful peace: a minister, even such a one, cannot control culture. No need to hit the table with your hands, swallow pills, drink Borzhom... I want Yampolskaya, Yampolskaya! There’s only one end, so at least we’ll have a laugh.”

Now, in an interview with 360, he said that he warmly welcomes her nomination for a new position. According to Bykov, culture should be “stylistically holistic” and show the trends of the era, so Yampolskaya’s nomination is very clear. But changes in the cultural sphere, according to him, are not related to appointments.

“Culture develops according to its own internal laws, there is self-movement in it. You can appoint anyone, it will be a reason for TV commentary, not for changes in culture. The poet is the son of harmony and least of all thinks about who heads the culture committee in the State Duma. He thinks: “The birds are singing!” The moon is shining!’, and this leads him to artistic conclusions,” Bykov said.

The artistic director of the Moscow Gogol Drama Theater Sergei Yashin was critical of Yampolskaya’s possible appointment. In a conversation with 360, he explained that he has known the deputy and her views for a long time. “It’s unlikely that anything will change in the cultural sphere itself. But she is a person completely alien to the culture. It does not reconcile views on culture, but vice versa. I even sued her and won the case. True, this was about 15 years ago, because of her boorish article about one of my performances,” Yashin said.

"Hymn to a True Bitch"

At the height of the popularity of the Sex and the City series, Yampolskaya wrote a newspaper column about relationships between men and women. In 2004, the notes were compiled into the book “Hymn to a Real Bitch, or I’m Alone at Home.”

Later, Yampolskaya published books dedicated to theater and actors: “12 stories about love and theater”, “Elena Mayorova and her demons”, “In search of Oleg Tabakov”. But it is the book about sex that has been the main target of attacks from critics for 14 years. At the same time, the author herself does not regret the publication.

“In general, you shouldn’t regret any stages in your own life, in my opinion. This is how personality develops. Perhaps sterile citizens who have never taken “a step to the right - a step to the left” exist, but I personally have not met such people. And even if I did, I would be wary. As a rule, this is a sign of well-disguised natural careerists. I never belonged to this category,” the deputy asserted.

Support for Mikhalkov

Photo source: RIA Novosti

In 2006, as deputy editor-in-chief of Izvestia, Yampolskaya supported Nikita Mikhalkov and gave his films positive reviews. And the transition to Kultura came at a time when the newspaper was not published due to lack of funding. There were rumors that Mikhalkov bought the shares of the publication through affiliates. Yampolskaya denied these rumors.

“I really appreciate Nikita Sergeevich’s work, deeply respect him as a person and consider him one of the smartest people in our country. He doesn’t have any shares or positions, but I will listen with gratitude to all the advice he wants to give me, although I may not accept everything,” the parliamentarian said.

About patriotism and censorship

Yampolskaya wrote a lot about patriotism. She believes that his upbringing should start from childhood and be comprehensive: from cartoons and songs to films, tourist routes and even fitness centers with national training programs. She emphasized that patriotic education should not be limited to military-patriotic education.

“Before you teach a boy to shoot, you need to teach him to love. All that and all those whom boys are supposed to love. Parents and teachers (at least some). Grandmother and little sister. Football teammates and a girl from a parallel class. Nature and animals - almost in the first place,” she explained.

According to Yampolskaya, “real censorship” is a dialogue at the planning stage, and not a ban a few days or hours before the X-day. Swinging an ax, cutting off both the bad and the good, is the worst option, capable of causing a wave of indignation among Russians, she argued.

Do not ban foreign films, but make domestic films in such volumes and of such quality that the priority of foreign films is naturally supplanted. Don’t deprive young people of fast food, but offer your own affordable restaurant chains

Elena Yampolskaya.

Nevertheless, the deputy believes that Russians, in theory, welcome censorship. “We have a very interesting paradox: when people are asked theoretically whether censorship is necessary, the majority answers: “Yes, it is necessary, for how long.” But as soon as the idea arises of actually banning a specific work of art, as was the case with Matilda, people rise to their defense. We don’t want anything to be banned, and that’s right,” said Yampolskaya.

A lot has been written about Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov’s) book “Unholy Saints” recently. Of course: for the first time, a book about the monastery and modern ascetics, the author of which is a clergyman of the Russian Orthodox Church, found itself in the center of reader interest and became an absolute bestseller...

The reader, as a rule, never pays attention to the page with the imprint of the book, but I do not skip it due to professional interest. Editor - Elena Yampolskaya... First thought: “The same one?” Practicing journalists extremely rarely become book editors, and Yampolskaya is, without exaggeration, a well-known journalist, the author of several books herself (for a conversation with her “If it doesn’t hurt, you’re not a professional”, see No. 14 (30) of our magazine). Currently, Elena Aleksandrovna is the editor-in-chief of the Kultura newspaper, the first issue of which was published at the end of January 2012. She herself believes that the changes in her life are connected precisely with working on the book. We talk about the peculiarities of working on “Unholy Saints”, about the internal experience that is associated with it, and about the newspaper “Culture” - a new publication aimed at a modern person who is in search of...

— How did it happen that you, a journalist, at that time deputy editor-in-chief of Izvestia, became the editor of Father Tikhon’s book? Back then, it probably didn’t have a name yet?

— Yes, it got its name when it was almost ready. We thought for a very long time, there were many options: I wanted to get away from pathos so as not to scare off readers. The book is very lively, but it could have been given a title that would have narrowed the audience to advanced consumers of church literature. The invention of the name ultimately belongs to Father Tikhon himself. We all thought together, but he came up with it himself.

And it all turned out like this. Father Tikhon and I have known each other for a long time, we have been on quite long trips together several times, I wrote in Izvestia about his film “The Byzantine Lesson.” And then one day I came to him, probably to confess - for what other reason could I have ended up in the Sretensky Monastery? After confession, he asked me: “Do you, Lena, know any good literary editor? And then I’m going to publish a book. I have a huge number of disparate chapters and materials, I need to assemble a single whole from this, and it is necessary for someone to look at everything with an editorial eye.” I answered: “I know, Father Tikhon, a good editor - he is sitting in front of you.” I have never worked in publishing houses, but I can recommend myself among newspaper editors without false modesty. For some reason, it seemed to me that Father Tikhon asked this question for a reason, but precisely in order to hear: yes, I am ready to do this. At the same time, my work at Izvestia was so intense that if it had not been Father Tikhon’s book, but some other “leftist” work, I would never have taken it on. In general, there was something above all this, I realized this later.

From the very first chapter it became clear that the book was unusually fascinating. I didn’t rewrite anything globally: editing consisted of working on individual “burrs.” Father Tikhon, firstly, has a lively style, a wonderful sense of humor, and very good dialogues. And secondly, of course, you can feel the screenwriting education: he perfectly builds the picture - you see visibly what the author is talking about.

Since the book is very interesting (someone told me: “This is the Conan Doyle of the Church!”), and it was difficult to tear myself away from it even in the first printout, I had to re-read the text many times. This is the case when you, carried away by the plot and in a hurry to find out what will happen next, stop monitoring the correct construction of the phrase. I had to go back all the time. And in the end, it so happened that I not only read this book three times, I literally read every word in it three times, and each time it became a new work for the soul. A job that, perhaps, was not even assigned by Father Tikhon.

Few things in my life have changed me as much as this book. Moreover, I do not attribute this solely to the influence of the author, whom I have great respect and great sympathy for. There was something above us. This book was given to him for some reason, and it was given to me - and not by Father Tikhon, but by Someone who is higher. If we talk about what made the greatest impression on me, this is the chapter about schema-abbot Melchizedek, who died and then rose again. I don't know if it's worth retelling. But it’s probably worth it, not everyone has read the book...

This is a story about a monk of the Pskov-Pechersk monastery (before he was tonsured into the schema, his name was Hegumen Mikhail), who was a skilled carpenter, made a huge number of cabinets, stools, frames for icons... And then one day, fulfilling some regular order, he fell dead in workshop. The brethren had already begun to mourn him, but Father John (Krestyankin) came, looked, and said: “No, he will still live!” And so, when this same abbot Mikhail woke up, he asked the abbot to come to him and began to beg to be tonsured into the great schema.

Father Tikhon talks about how, while still a very young novice, he risked turning to the schema-monk with the question: what happened to him then, what did he see when he was there from where they do not return? That's what he heard.

... Hegumen Mikhail walks along a green field, comes to some kind of cliff, looks down, sees a ditch filled with water, mud - there are fragments of some chairs, cabinets, broken legs, doors, and something else lying there. He looks there in amazement and sees that all these are things he made for the monastery. With horror, he recognizes his work and suddenly feels someone's presence behind him. He turns around and sees the Mother of God, who looks at him with pity and sorrow and sadly says: “You are a monk, we were waiting for prayers from you, but you only brought this”...

I can’t tell you how shocked this thing was to me. We are not monks, but each of us has our own obedience in the world. I considered my obedience to be this endless editing of texts, preparation of strips, release, and so on, and so on. This was the first time I looked at my work from the outside and realized that although what is expected of me is probably not only prayers, but this is what will then wallow in the mud, by and large. This routine, daily work of mine will then lie lying around with its legs torn off and its doors broken off. She lives for one day. Reflecting the news picture of the day leads no one to anything, because it does not create any new meanings. I sit all the time and clean out some dirty texts, because journalists generally write very poorly now, and I sit and clean, clean, clean... And I thought: “My God, is this really how my life will go?!”

This is the greatest experience I learned from Father Tikhon’s book. And I hope that now in the newspaper “Culture”, although it is still necessary to clean up the texts, it seems to me that my life has begun to line up in some other way.

— Did you manage to visit the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, to which most of the book is dedicated?

— I visited Pechory for the first time only after I read the book. I really wanted to go there: in recent years I have been extremely worried about Father John (Krestyankin). This is a special person for me. Unfortunately, I didn’t find him alive. But I love reading his letters. In the car, I’ll put on a CD with his sermons and listen. He somehow lives next to me. And, having edited Father Tikhon’s book, I decided: “That’s it, I’m going to Pechory.” Unfortunately, this trip was mostly a disappointment. Maybe, and even for sure, I myself am to blame for this - I was not truly ready... But a miracle happened there, and I met Father John - completely real, absolutely alive.

This is the story. I came as a journalist, planning to do a report for Izvestia, where I worked at the time. I was assigned to a very important monk who is in charge of press relations. The monk, as far as I understand, does not like people in general, and especially journalists. Apparently, this is why they gave him such obedience, so that journalists would not return to the monastery. He greeted me extremely coldly, even arrogantly, showed me what he could, answered questions: “I’m incompetent here,” “I won’t talk about this,” “The governor cannot meet with you,” “These are matters of our internal regulations.” " - and so on. He doesn’t look me in the eyes, he’s always somewhere to the side... In general, it’s terrible. We went briefly to Father John’s cell, but communication with this man, who for some reason immediately showed such intense hostility towards me, everything was poisoned. I was shackled, I couldn’t really perceive or feel anything. They came in and left.

In the evening I returned to my hotel room. I sat down in a shabby chair, sadness in my soul, and I thought: “The whole horror is that I will no longer be able to read Father John’s books the way I read them now, with the same glee. Because now, as soon as I open Krestyankin, I will immediately remember this unkind monk - and that’s all...” I understand that this is selfishness, that the monk is not obliged to love me, but I am a living, normal person, a woman, much younger than him, and it is unpleasant for me when they demonstrate such obvious rejection... And just as I was immersed in such thoughts, my mobile phone rings: “ Elena, this is Father Filaret, cell attendant of Father John. They say you were looking for me today? Apparently, his father Tikhon from Moscow found it, realizing that all my ends were cut off there and I was almost in despair. It was already about nine o'clock in the evening. Father Filaret says: “Don’t you want to return to the monastery right now?” Of course, I immediately ran back. The sun was setting, the domes were going out, it was September. We went to Father John's cell, sat on the famous green sofa and sat there for two and a half hours. How good it was! Father Filaret is a miracle. He did what he always does for everyone, what they say Father John did: he sprinkled me with holy water, poured the rest into my bosom (at the same time he took care to call a taxi so that I wouldn’t catch a cold on a cold night in a wet sweater), fed me chocolate, so much told everything about Father John. We prayed. I held the priest’s epitrachelion in my hands, stained with wax, unusually warm, alive - here it is just lying on the pillow and breathing... It’s amazingly perfect.

I was so shocked by the materiality of this miracle! As soon as I sat down and thought that I couldn’t read Father John’s books with a light heart, that this residue was disgusting, some unpleasant doubts about the monastery, I would now project them onto him too... And Father John at that very second simply took me by the scruff of the neck and said: “Come on, come back. Now let's start all over again." It was absolute happiness and absolute reality.

After that, I spent another day there, and nothing could penetrate me - neither sideways glances, nor cold treatment. I felt sorry for this monk. He talked with such arrogance about how in the monastery you have to suppress your own pride that you wanted to punch him on the nose. In addition, I realized that I myself had arrived there in a not entirely prepared state. God bless him, it doesn't matter. I came to the caves, put my hand on Father John’s coffin, said “thank you” to him, asked him for something and came out into the light of God absolutely happy. If I ever return to Pechory, then, I think, only to Father John. But my trip there, of course, was completely connected with Father Tikhon’s book; I really wanted to see with my own eyes everything that was described there.

— If you remember the book, Tikhon’s father was initially sent to the cowshed. Maybe this is some kind of experience that is given...

- ...to such ambitious people. And Father Tikhon, I think, is by nature an ambitious person. This is good quality in my opinion. It is this that does not allow you to do your job poorly in any area. Then other things, more serious and spiritual, take the place of ambition. But initially, I think it’s very good when ambition is inherent in a person by nature.

— You were the first reader of many of the stories included in the book. Was the author interested in your opinion?

- Certainly. The author constantly asked whether it was interesting or not, especially since he knows me quite well. I cannot call Father Tikhon my confessor, it is said loudly, but still I confessed to him more than once and received communion at the Sretensky Monastery. Despite Father Tikhon’s busy schedule, he never refused such requests and, in addition to confession, always found time to talk. Moreover, it is very reasonable, practical and even pragmatic, that is, the way one should talk to an ordinary secular person, to a woman. I never spoke from the height of my spiritual experience.

I think that it was initially important for him that the book reach a wide range of readers, not only strictly church people, so that it would slightly turn the consciousness of an ordinary person - and he tested this effect on me, of course. Very correct, professional approach.

In our newspaper “Culture” there is a permanent page dedicated to religion, it is called “Symbol of Faith”. All traditional confessions are represented there, but Orthodoxy prevails, this is understandable and natural, from all points of view. And so, the Orthodox journalists whom I involve in working on this page sometimes begin to bang their heads against the wall after my comments and shout: “No, Orthodoxy and the newspaper are incompatible! We can’t do that.” I say: “Are Orthodoxy and a fascinating book compatible? Take “Unholy Saints” - this is how it should be written. Learn."

— For the last twenty years in our country it was believed that the topic of culture was not in demand, that publications entirely devoted to it were unprofitable. The cultural institutions themselves, especially in the provinces, were forced to survive, even to some extent abandoning themselves, their task of bringing truly culture to the masses, and not consumer goods... Is this period over? What can be considered its result? How much have we lost during this time?

— “We”—as a country? I believe that during this time we have lost almost everything, and gained only one thing - the return of religion to our natural, everyday life. But this only acquisition of the post-Soviet period is so expensive that it gives us hope: we will still get out of the swamp. In principle, the Soviet Union would have survived if not for state atheism, I am absolutely sure of this.

Look - Cuba is still holding on because there has never been militant atheism there. There are many Catholic churches there, there is even an Orthodox Church. By the way, I flew with Patriarch Kirill, then still a metropolitan, to the opening of this temple. And nothing - the country is a socialist one. And you don’t need to tell me about how bad, hungry and scary it is there. There are cheerful, healthy people who dance, sing, kiss on the ocean embankment in the evenings, are not afraid to let their children go outside, and tenderly, although probably not very wisely, love their charismatic Fidel. Yes, they have a specific life, but to say that it is worse than that of their fellow tribesmen who fled to Miami on air mattresses?.. It so happened that almost simultaneously, with a difference of a month, I visited both Cuba and Miami. And when I saw the Cuban colonies there... Cubans are generally prone to being overweight and at American fast food they quickly turn into some kind of shapeless bags. They go shopping, listlessly sorting through jeans - they have nothing else. America doesn't need them. In my opinion, life in Cuba is much better, because it is inspired, first of all, by love for the homeland. It is very important.

I think that our people now have a need not for culture as such, but for acquiring meaning. In recent years, any thinking Russian person has really been deprived of them. The cultural product is diverse and intrusive, but basically it does not offer these meanings and does not ask any serious questions. There is such a fear that “oh, if we start loading now, they will switch the button or won’t buy a ticket, word of mouth will spread that it’s too difficult, too gloomy”...

I don't think this is true. We have normal, thinking, intelligent people. There are still a lot of them in the country, fifty percent to be exact. They simply don't know where to go to ask a question and work with someone to find the answer. They just crave at least some intellectual, not in the sense of high-brow, but serious conversation...

- ...about some important things.

- Yes. It is quite natural that one must look for meaning primarily in the sphere of faith and culture. Moreover, a culture that is still connected with faith, originated from it, was born, and, in general, true culture never breaks this umbilical cord. This niche interests me.

We need people who are trying to formulate for themselves why they live. In modern Russia it is very difficult to understand this. If you are a deeply religious, truly church-going person, it’s probably easier for you. But if you are an ordinary representative of Russian society and you have an actively working brain in your head, and a heart full of doubts in your chest, then it is very difficult for you to understand why you exist at any given moment. Unless, of course, you think that you just live to feed your family. But feeding a family is a strange purpose of human existence. Not too tall to say the least. It is very strange when it is put at the forefront. To live solely for this, in my opinion, is humiliating for a spiritual being.

— In talking about a person’s religious life, “Culture” is still just looking for its tone, or do you want to achieve something specific?

— For now, I urge my Orthodox journalists who deal with this topic “not to scare people.” Because I remember what I was like, say, ten or even five years ago. In general, I believe that in life you need to believe in two things: in the Lord God and in a person’s ability to change for the better. I know from myself that a person is capable of very strong evolution. That’s why I can’t stand talking about the so-called “candlesticks”: they say, the boss came to the temple with a “flashing light”, stands with a candle, does not understand anything... No one knows what is going on in this person’s soul, and no one has the right to call him names "candlestick". I don’t believe that you can defend your service and at the same time think all the time: what kind of kickback will they give you tomorrow and did you forget the bribe in the left pocket of your sheepskin coat. I am sure that worship “breaks through” anyone, and even a completely unchurched person leaves church a little changed.

Since our newspaper is called “Culture,” we try to present the topic of religion through cultural events. This is all the more important because once in Russia these spheres were inseparable. All of Pushkin is permeated with biblical motifs, Gogol, Dostoevsky, even Chekhov... Christianity was a natural fabric that was preserved in absolutely everything - in music, painting, literature. And I think that it is very important for us to take all this out of our chests and remind: guys, once upon a time it wasn’t like this - not “society is separate, but the Church is separate” or “we are Orthodox, and you are everyone else,” - but there was a life imbued with faith.

Again, we are asking for interviews and comments not only from priests or those people who are famous for their piety. If a person thinks about what he lives for, he has every right to appear on our “Symbol of Faith” page.

— The concepts of culture and art have also always been inextricably linked. Contemporary art, in your opinion, how does it see the pain points of modern man?

— The whole question is what you mean by the term “contemporary art.” Contemporary is what is produced now, at a given moment in time, or what is commonly called contemporary art. What mainly refer to various manifestations of “art” - installations, a naked artist on all fours...

- That is today's art, which is still art.

— There are no general trends, unfortunately, because neither Russian society nor Russian art have ever been so atomized. Contemporary artists are completely different people, and although they create at the same time in the same country, they exist in parallel realities and often do not intersect with each other, which means they do not resonate and do not create common meanings.

But I think that for those who follow the path of searching for meaning, everything will be quite stable. Maybe they will not immediately collect such a box office as some “Yolki-2” or “Rzhevsky against Napoleon”, but I hope nothing threatens their existence in this country. I don’t believe that people whose souls want something more will die out here. She often doesn’t even understand what she wants, but her desires are not limited to the material world. It is typical of a Russian person to want more. And not at all in the sense as it was broadcast on Prokhorov’s election posters.

We, the Kultura newspaper, want to occupy this niche. Judging by the fact that there is demand for us, the circulation is growing, the number of subscribers is increasing, apparently people have noticed - the newspaper they have been waiting for has appeared. And I hope that “Culture” is already beginning to create new meanings: the person who picks up our newspaper, it changes at least a little bit, it turns his consciousness a little. And this is the most valuable quality in anything: a film, a play, a book. By the way, this certainly applies to Father Tikhon’s book. A newspaper is not a book, but to disparage it, in my opinion, is wrong. The newspaper is the word, and the word is everything. No matter what they say about its devaluation recently. Pipes. The word remains of great value if it is real. You just have to look for it. This is what we are trying to do.