Senators were horrified by modern cinema with “zombies” about besieged Leningrad

English-language songs in restaurants should be replaced by Russian folk ones. Libraries must be provided with a federal set of patriotic books and popular science magazines. And film scripts need to be checked for adequacy even before the director shouts: “Motor, start!”. Such measures to counteract the quiet recruitment of Russians by the collective West were proposed by senators. The Federation Council Commission for the Protection of State Sovereignty and Prevention of Interference in Internal Affairs discussed on February 2 how to build a cultural identity in the country.

The Ministry of Culture believes that in order to achieve cultural sovereignty, it will be necessary to work hard with the regulatory framework: write some documents from scratch, edit some. But because of the unstable geopolitical situation, it is impossible to understand which laws to rewrite, Nadezhda Reverend, Deputy Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation, complained.

Vladimir Aristarkhov, director of the Likhachev Russian Research Institute of Cultural and Natural Heritage, tried to reassure the senators:

– It is necessary to make an inventory of the legislation on cultural policy. This work must be carried out gradually. The elephant must be eaten in parts.

Which parts of the “elephant” will have to be overcome in the horizon of the next year, the Ministry of Culture has already decided. According to the deputy head of the department, Nadezhda Reverend, the priority areas will be the preservation and strengthening of traditional spiritual and moral values, the identification of young talents and the development of volunteering, as well as work in the theater and cinema. Despite the sanctions, the years of Russian culture in other countries, national film festivals and Russian seasons have not gone anywhere. True, the geography has shifted from the EU towards Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

In any case, in terms of risks to cultural identity, the department is ready to respond promptly to public requests, the deputy minister assured.

The request of the public in the person of Senator Margarita Pavlova followed immediately:

– People write to me that on the day of the liberation of Leningrad from the blockade, the film “The Blockade Diary” was shown on the federal TV channel. There, Leningraders are shown not as heroes, but as some kind of zombies. 65 million rubles were allocated for this film. May I ask if we have any filters at all? Who reviews scripts?

Nadezhda Reverend redirected the senator’s indignation to the relevant department in the Ministry of Culture, which oversees film production. But schoolchildren, according to the deputy minister, will be protected from inadequate screenwriters. The department plans to combine the school curriculum not only with theatrical performances, but also with film screenings.

“They read War and Peace at school, they also need to be shown a worthy film,” the Reverend explained the future model of literature lessons for students.

Senator Yevgeny Savchenko dug even deeper: in his opinion, a real war has now unfolded in the world. But not for territories or resources, but for the consciousness of young people. And we are not yet winning this battle.

– To recruit an agent, you don’t even need him to know about it. We have millions of such recruits. These are people who have been brought up in an English-speaking environment for the last 20-30 years.

I deliberately drove along Tverskaya Street and looked at how many signboards there are in Latin. Not less than half. What about our songs? Go to any restaurant in Moscow or any other city. What’s the background music? There are no Russian songs, Russian folk songs. Everything is in English. And the background does affect our subconscious. I think it is not difficult for the Ministry of Culture to send any signals. There is no need for special laws to pass. Just give signals and correct the situation,” Savchenko said.

In addition, the senator proposed a book reform in the country. First, take the publishing business from the Ministry of Digital Development and transfer it to the control zone of the Ministry of Culture. Secondly, create a change approach to the contents of shelving in libraries:

– How to complete libraries – today it is the prerogative of local authorities. I believe that there should be some kind of federal set of publications and journals, which must be in every library.

I myself was brought up on thick magazines: on Our Contemporary and Novy Mir. I read “One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich” there. There were excellent magazines “Znamya”, “Youth”. They went out in millions of copies. This is a must have kit. Five to seven thick magazines, popular science publications and some books with a clear, understandable patriotic orientation should be purchased from the budget and distributed to all libraries as a federal set.

But all these measures will not work in full force, if you do not create a full-fledged ideology, – sounded within the walls of the Federation Council. But there is a problem here: the Constitution says that no ideology in Russia can be established as a state or obligatory one. Senator Savchenko hinted that such an approach is not quite relevant today:

– A great culture is born when there is a great idea. Culture, whether we like it or not, is secondary to worldview. Therefore, we need to acquire sovereignty in the field of worldview. We wrote in the Constitution that we do not have any ideology. But there must be an ideology.