Ivan Sukhov on why to go to VDNKh this winter

In November 2023, the exhibition-forum “Russia” opened at VDNKh. In less than two months of operation, more than 3 million people visited it. The exhibition was supposed to become and became a platform for various important public events – since November, VDNKh, located on the capital’s periphery, suddenly entered the short list of the main locations of the center, and the navigator periodically paints the streets adjacent to it a menacing crimson color. If you haven’t been, go – there’s something to see there; and in general the exhibition is more important than it might seem.

It was all over for the New Year, but December turned out to be frosty. You stand at minus twelve degrees at the arch of the main entrance of VDNKh, through which the wind is energetically sweeping prickly snow, and you think: who came up with the idea of ​​organizing a huge event in a gigantic space like Siberia from November to April, that is, so much so that it does the start fall during the darkest and coldest months? And while you’re thinking, you notice that around you there’s a Brownian movement of people going to and from the exhibition, going out to meet friends, asking each other: “How do you like the tiger at the stand of the Khabarovsk Territory?” – “Cool, have you found the House of Russian Cuisine?” Visitors come in a dense stream, they are not bothered by the cold at all, and at night the snow hanging in the air looks even better under the laser illumination.

A futuristic 166-meter tunnel begins from the main entrance, which from the inside is a continuous screen with a giant presentation of Russia in numbers; and at the exit from it is a huge luminous heart.

It hits right to the point, it’s the heart, because the country, described by numbers and diagrams of fashion presentations, is sorely lacking in love.

It is clear that this is a technically executed message, as happens in the ending of a good movie, precisely calculated to draw an uninvited tear. At first, you even forget that the heart is also covered by the monument to Lenin – which in general cannot but confuse, because the space of VDNKh filled with Stalin’s Empire style and the sound range in the speakers constantly emphasize the proud continuity of modern Russia, including in relation to the Soviet Union. There are also questions about the text in the speakers – the speaker, in particular, calls on you to dream together with Russia and dare like your ancestors, that is, without experiencing any embarrassment or infringement. At this moment, feeling on your back the rocket illuminated by the tricolor at the Cosmos pavilion, for some reason you remember the teeth of the future general designer and twice Hero of Socialist Labor Sergei Pavlovich Korolev, knocked out in prison. But this is all somehow later, but here, from the heart, many run back to go through the tunnel again, and maybe even again. Along the tunnel, two rows on each side, are New Year trees, one for each region. Children of primary school age read the names: “St. Petersburg – well, I know it was… Primorsky Territory – at school they said… the Republic of Crimea! And Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – where is it?” They approach the Christmas trees individually and in groups – for photos: that means it’s from there. There is no time for Christmas trees to be bored.

The exhibition “Russia” is open. That is, not in the sense that it is open every day until April 12th. And in the way it was apparently intended – and maybe even in a broader way.

The year 2022 was an emotional shock for many people in Russia. At first it’s simple for everyone without exception. Then also for those who were in partial mobilization. People stopped making plans. Instead of tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, the end of the world suddenly appeared in front of them, not illusory – although this may be a generational feeling, characteristic mainly of those who remember the mood of the times of the failure of détente. Since the burden of constant understanding of the every-second probability of a planetary catastrophe was lifted from our shoulders by new Soviet-American steps towards each other, life in general has been much more pleasant. And now all this is with us again – here, willy-nilly, you will fall into depression. Without a future it turned out to be like without air. “Give me the future!” – all sociological surveys shouted all year. Probably, those who read the survey results were also sorely lacking in the future.

By the end of 2023, optimism increased. The dangers and threats and risks have not disappeared. Some we got used to, some we added. But in general, it turned out that, in addition to reasons to blame itself for everything, Russia also has reasons to be proud of itself. That’s what the exhibition is about. About a country that is probably wrong in many ways and certainly imperfect in many ways. But who, even in this airless, hopeless time, found the strength to stand and look around – and found herself still full of opportunities and wealth, of which the main thing is these inflexible people, capable of, among other things, walking against the wind across the icy expanses of VDNKh in search of very Rare now, one might say, scarce, not only in Russia, but also in the world, the feeling of “we”.

It seems that this is precisely the feeling that the organizers were feeling and trying to formulate – the successes are still conditional, but this may just be for the better.

It seems that many have longed for him for a long time – sometimes without even realizing it.

One person may be scared, but we – we really can move mountains if we get excited: our entire history eloquently testifies to this, to any degree of purification from falsifications.

The Russia exhibition, of course, does not answer what the future will be like. It only shows what it can be, and each visitor probably imagines it differently than the one who is nearby – even if this pair is, for example, father and son. And it provides an opportunity for the feeling of “we” without imposing it, because, after all, it is made in the form and on the site of an amusement park, in which everyone chooses their own rides, and can even pass by.

Among the exhibition’s attractions there is one of those that children, and sometimes even parents, cannot unstick for a long time. In one of the pavilions, on a comfortable table, you can take a stencil with an image of an airplane and use felt-tip pens to color its fuselage and tail. Then the stencil is placed under a simple scanner, and the program builds a 3D model of the aircraft in the “shirt” you invented, which immediately runs along the runway on the big screen and takes off over the Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky airport, over the mountains, taiga and clouds. There is no excitement at the table, although there are many children and their planes take off one after another. The good-natured volunteers of the pavilion add new markers approximately every quarter of an hour – so that there is enough for everyone and all the colors.

This is not the most important pavilion, it is not technically difficult, and of course, this is not the main thing worth going to VDNKh for. But to some extent, this is also about Russia and about all of us. We’re at a point where we can re-design the country—and maybe the world. But a country is not like an airplane; it cannot simply be repainted. Everything plays a role in a country’s design. A country, as sociologist and religious scholar Ernest Renan, who lived in the now unfriendly France in the very difficult 19th century for it, said, is a daily plebiscite in which every citizen constantly answers the question of what unites him with people like himself (for purists: Renan said “nation”, but meant a country rather than an ethnic group).

If you choose the right design, fill your imaginary tanks with the feeling of “we” and the Russian ability to start up in a good way, and then don’t make any mistakes while taxiing, then you can finally really take off.

As is customary in Russia, it is the envy of everyone and in spite of everything, which is not the place to list here. But you can be wrong about everything or even about one, but important thing. And then the big feeling of “we” from melancholy and fear will fall apart into many separate ones, the plane will roll out of the runway into the snow – it’s good if it doesn’t burn out.

The stakes are high, but people are also gambling. The “Russia” exhibition can become a beginning that will later be something to be proud of. Or a sad memory of another year in 1913, when all the cards were in hand, but they played unsuccessfully. Or just a dozen lines in a routine report on expenses for public events.

But one exhibition is definitely not enough to take off. We need big, smart and general work, in which we need to invite everyone who is ready to do it. There is no shortage of people willing – the main thing is not to scare them away.

This is probably what we will ask from Santa Claus.