Where the table was food – Picture of the day – Kommersant

Last year, I refused to write a summary column about social life, citing the fact that there were no shocking changes in this type of activity. In fact, Moscow and St. Petersburg were walking around as if they were trying to catch up on everything lost during the year of covid, and I simply didn’t have the strength left for another text. Moreover, I combined my work at Kommersant with the position of secular editor of the Russian Tatler. A year later, Tatler is closed, its main pool of advertisers has ceased operations in Russia, and its last editor-in-chief, Arian Romanovsky, is in Butyrka on charges of extorting Sergei Chemezov. Here I would finish the final secular column, because it’s much clearer.

It seems quite obvious that a year ago there was the last tango in the pre-holiday city, from which it is only four hours to Paris by direct flight. But now I have a lot of strength to try to sum up secular metamorphoses.

The year started off at a brisk pace. Usually, the schedule around the holidays that promise an extra day off is cleared so that everyone has time to Dubai and back. However, this time, even on February 23, there was where to pass the evening. And on February 24, they had to break between the presentation of the collection of exceptional Louis Vuitton jewelry in Tsaritsyno (satiation in locations led to such a distance), a dinner at the Courvoisier cognac house with a performance staged by Maxim Didenko, and the opening of the Eufloria floral art gallery. Ironically, in the middle of everything, Eufloria still opened (and did not close!). Otherwise, there were rolling blackouts of everything that fed the secular power system. There was a silence that lasted for about a month.

State theaters and private galleries were the first to timidly make their way towards the light (left practically without a chronicle). Nobody asked the theaters, and the galleries had no confidence in the correctness of the actions, but it was impossible to stop completely after so many years. Then you could watch the competition in delicacy: here they stopped serving alcohol, but they spoke about the cultural significance of what was happening, and there, on the contrary, they poured it silently. Friendship won: the Antiglyanets Telegram channel (the largest of the secular channels) gave evenings before – for the admins of other channels. However, after blocking Instagram (owned by Meta – recognized as an extremist organization and banned in Russia), everyone became Telegram admins.

The party at the Na Vina bar in mid-May was the first to gather an almost Tatler attendance: beautiful rich women and graceful men.

In the course of this and the events that followed it, it became clear that social life meant more to those who remained in Russia than it seemed in times of peace. Now this is no longer an annoying carnival routine, but an opportunity to answer the question “How are you?” in more or less detail and even sincerely. It turned out that the evening in the circle of acquaintances is easier. Having made this discovery, Muscovites, as happens to them, overdid it a little: the verandas of restaurants were crowded all summer, and even in clubs and karaoke closed from the eyes of strangers, they drank and sang and completely broke and (like) for the last time. The admissibility of such collective actions raised big questions among those who left and outsiders.

Meanwhile, vacationers accustomed to traveling in the comfort of private jets have settled in Turkey. Those who considered even the most luxurious offers of local resorts too modest for themselves started building new villas on this coast to replace those arrested in the EU. Families whose European property was not arrested have experienced the horrors of transfers in Istanbul. Critical for the emergence of secular chronicles, the number of wealthy compatriots landed in Dubai. Following them, top employees of some closed Moscow boutiques went on long-term business trips to malls. The Dresden Ball, previously held in St. Petersburg, also moved there. However, the true heroes of the Moscow world do not like the fact that it is almost impossible to break into the circle of the indigenous elite, and for all other events there is a fixed price list. And they will be received there outside of any table of ranks, but only as affably as an expensive ticket, table or box was bought today.

In September, one could conclude that social life had recovered to its former extent, although in a somewhat different quality. The Moscow International Film Festival, not for the first time in its history, has become larger incline to films from friendly countries, and there were even fewer stars on his track.

Moscow restaurants, online platforms with their serial premieres, and Russian brands have become the main actors.

In the changed conditions, many young designers had to quickly grow from an Instagram account selling colorful dresses and knitted suits, about the cost of which they “answered in direct,” to their own boutique on Bronny or Stoleshnikov. But not everyone had such ambitions from the beginning.

A new pause occurred after the announcement of partial mobilization. Now it has been going on for a couple of weeks. And then something came up again. The secular events of the state persuasion sounded louder. Such as the Award in the field of creative industries and the educational award of the Knowledge Society. Both of these events were established a year ago, both were initiated by Sergei Kiriyenko, both did not go without the performance of the anthem, for each there was a team of creative directors open to cooperation.

By the end of the year, it became clear that, with all the visible activity, there was no stone left unturned from secular life, as it originated in the second half of the 90s and, developing, lasted until February 23, 2022.

Well, if you consider it not as a collection of events covered in blogs and some media, but as a complex machinery with clans, a system of offsets and offsets, ratings, the intricacies of seating at dinner and in the theater, in & out and even, what the hell is not joking, its own institute reputation.