The State Duma Committee on Culture decided that books are not responsible for their authors

Since the beginning of the year, the State Duma Committee on Culture has held a meeting for the second time. On January 24, committee members discussed adjusting cultural legislation and attempts to regulate the activities of film producers. On February 14, attention was again paid to the initiative of deputies from A Just Russia, who advocated “collective responsibility” for “subversive” activities for members of teams creating films.

Parliamentarian Olga Germanova said that she shares the concerns of the “Socialist Revolutionaries”

“This violates targeted responsibility,” Germanova formulated the committee’s objections, recalling that a much stricter law (in the media it is called the “Law on confiscation of property for fakes about the army”) was adopted on January 31 (and signed on February 14 by Vladimir Putin. – And .IN.).

Considering that the initiative of Sergei Mironov’s associates, hotly discussed in the press, received a negative conclusion from the government (the Ministry of Culture also points to a violation of the principle of personal responsibility for any actions), it is guaranteed to be rejected by parliament. And the director will not be responsible for the cameraman or make-up artist – with all due respect to the attention of Sergei Mikhailovich Mironov to cultural issues (we quote here the chairman of the committee, Elena Yampolskaya).

In general, the current committee meeting turned out to be by no means a routine work event. Thus, Yampolskaya touched upon the problem of the fate of publications of works written by foreign agents:

“A lot of requests come from library workers who don’t understand what to do with the books of foreign agents and people who have been prosecuted under serious charges or included in the list of terrorists, like Boris Akunin.

Elena Aleksandrovna emphasized that librarians are “gladly ready to get rid of” these books, “but so far they cannot do this legally.”

Parliamentarian Elena Drapeko confirmed that the State Duma is thinking about resolving the “main dilemma”, when there is no reason to include a book in the list of extremist materials, but the author has talked himself into an article or the corresponding status.

“Not all works of terrorists and enemies of the people are so harmful,” Drapeko is convinced, which is quite a bold statement for the current moment.

But what tools to use in order to, metaphorically speaking, separate the flies from the cutlets, so that Erast Fandorin is not responsible for Akunin* is not clear. Maybe something constructive will be heard at the meeting of the Public Council under the Culture Committee scheduled for February 29.

At the same time, MP and actor Dmitry Pevtsov accuses his film colleagues of “softly undermining” Russia:

“I deliberately go to the cinema and see what comes out there.” Although these films were launched (in production) two or three years ago, in addition to foreign agents, there are artists in quotation marks doing soft “undermining” through cinema.

Pevtsov believes that the author of the film “The Master and Margarita” “loves” (again in quotation marks) Soviet power even more than Bulgakov (the famous “Soviet anti-Soviet”), and “a huge number of “zhdunov” are secretly trying to destroy everything that is now is being built by our guys in the south of Russia (in the area of ​​the Northern Military District. – I.V.)”.

However, he does not explain how the classic’s criticism of the Stalinist USSR of the period before the Great Patriotic War affects the current situation.

Thank you that Pevtsov at least did not demand to ban “The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath!” because of Liya Akhedzhakova:

— Our artists, unlike other countries, do not receive money every time for showing or renting a film. Nothing “drips” to Leah Medzhidovna, let them show it.

But deputies are asked in all seriousness the question of what to do with Eldar Ryazanov’s masterpiece, whether to “correct” it. Thank God, Elena Yampolskaya calls for “doing nothing,” since Akhedzhakova has no status. “Who will give statuses to an old grandmother? We are not cannibals,” she says.

*Boris Akunin is included in the list of terrorists and extremists.