I still remember the smell of my grandfather’s overcoat

Boris Galkin is considered one of the most respected artists of our time. When the USSR collapsed, and real cinema gave way to “darkness”, he managed not to stoop to filming in low-grade films. For the past thirty years, the presence of his name in the credits has been a sign of the culture and quality of the entire project. Director, screenwriter, producer, he is also a teacher.

— Boris Sergeevich, I always remember one episode. You made a documentary film “There is no death”, where there are shots: a girl performs in Hebrew, and then in Russian “A little blue modest handkerchief”. Three thousand veterans from different countries, crying, stand up and sing this song with her. Looking at these real people, you understand how much our common stumbling history is united by a front-line song. But then on television, some indifferent thirty-year-old official, shrugging his shoulders, said that this particular episode looked fake …

– Yes, he said with a squeamish expression on his sleek face: “Well, this is sentimental …” Meanwhile, this documentary episode was filmed in Israel on the eve of the celebration of Victory Day.

– Do you think that the new young generation has gone even further from your perception of the events of the Great Patriotic War than the generation of this official?

— To a greater extent, yes. Not all, of course, thank God. But, as they say, the farther into the forest, the thicker the partisans. This is the big problem of our time. There is a certain clouding in the brains, dislike for history in young people is visibly present. And no one today even takes care of a small circle of their relatives and friends, explaining to children who fought in their family, where, under what conditions. And what qualities these people, their ancestors possessed. And it would be necessary to explain that in your family they went to the front, and perhaps they laid down their heads, uncle, grandfather, great-grandfather, and so on.

The saddest thing is that this memory has not been initiated in our country in any way for the last thirty years – neither at school, nor at parent meetings, nor in any public business around institutions.

Before, when the generation of Soviet children was growing up, it was different. Even if there was some ideological pressure in this work, even if there was some kind of obligation. But the older generations did not lose touch with the past, and they cherished the memory of the Great Patriotic War and their ancestors sacredly.

Here I am – a man of the post-war generation. Believe it or not, I still remember the smell of my grandfather’s overcoat. And this is for the rest of your life. We have to work very hard with our guys, every day. Very serious work.

Is that why you agreed to teach at the institute? There, I heard you made a revolution?

– I was invited to teach at the University of Culture at the Faculty of radio and television announcers. It is clear that speech and word are the main ones for students. They began to demand some results from me, explaining that children should learn by heart, they should recite. But I said, “Wait with the recitation. They can’t put two words together.” I was faced with the fact that the guys did not understand at all what was good and what was bad. For two years, I simply set them up to realize what they actually live for, what they need to be radio and television announcers for.

And all this had to be sewn in some way literally to their consciousness, their heart, their nature of feelings. A very difficult job. There was no school behind them, no parents to the extent that it was necessary. My students had no interest in impressions – what book they read, what person they met, what movie they saw. I asked, but they could not tell about their impressions, and if someone could, it was very clumsy.

But without this component there can be no creative person. Because a creative person is, first of all, the impressions that fill his heart, which fill his life with meaning. Fill with what he saw, appreciated.

Our differences with the leadership of the university at some point reached a dead end, we stopped understanding each other. I was constantly called to methods. And when I plunged into them, I suddenly read the name of the faculty where I teach – “Technology of speech communications.” I then, I remember, almost fell off my chair! And he asked why they distort the Russian language, and who came up with such a name? Can I talk to the author who gave birth to this title?

With such an attitude towards the Russian language, we all fall into a kind of “communication technology”, instead of live communication.

Yes, it certainly was a conflict situation. I said that “no, now I’m definitely not going anywhere,” because I put down roots in my guys. Two years have passed, and everything fell into place, there was a close contact with the students. We did not show anything for two years, but in the third and fourth years there was a breakthrough, we became the best in the institute. True, several people left the course, because someone was not ready to study, but came to get a crust. Some simply aspired to idle talk: they say, I will go on the screen and there I will broadcast something, getting my share of empty popularity. Such was their superficial interest. And those people left.

By the way, this was an indicator of the inhuman, irresponsible background in which the current young generation lives and exists. I felt that in today’s society every generation is for itself.

– Well, what, from your point of view, can really unite us today?

– Awareness of exactly what we can be united in, what we can be useful and necessary to each other. People of different generations are united by creativity. Including common creative projects. “Let us love one another to the point of unanimity.” And we can be like-minded. Collaborative creativity is the only platform where creative power, faith and creative audacity can sprout. And such a platform arises on the material of Russian classics, music, and painting. Everything that our culture is rich in.

– Meanwhile, in the world they are trying to cross out Russian culture from the lists of the living …

– It won’t work. When we are bombarded with information that Chekhov, Pushkin, Dostoevsky are being crossed out somewhere in the world, I understand that they are wasting their time. You will never be able to erase this. Because this ship is not sinking. Russian culture is for life. You must believe in this with all the strength of your inner creative energy. And one’s own history, as the history of Russian culture, must be defended.

Well, here, for example, the show “Country of Talents” was recently broadcast on NTV. I experienced a real delight. Eighty numbers – both individual performers and ensembles! I caught myself that I would go with pleasure to all these performers. They sing, dance, play superbly – a real art! The phenomenon of Russian culture – for the rest of your life, for centuries.

You see, in a person, the desire for creation, creativity always wins. And it is through this that the contact with each other arises.

And through faith? In one of your speeches, you sang an Orthodox prayer in front of the Muslims, they fell silent, silently listening to you with respect. Can faith unite people of different religions?

– Faith – first of all, everything else – then. Faith and love are two sides of the same coin.

Elena Bulova.

Photo from pages Boris Galkin on VK

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