Behind the scenes of Russian television

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

"Dear idiots! Please turn on your radios. Take a chair and sit on top of it. This program is for you." These words began the famous physics and technology miniature of the future journalist Alexander Kondratyev (1984). The miniature itself was just funny, absurd, but this "For you, idiots" then literally hung in the air. We laughed at the insincere and stupid Soviet TV propaganda, at the obsessive "agenda" (all these incessant "Kuban draftsmen painted another hundred million tons of rice", the endless program "Time") - and at the hateful Soviet pop music.

For you idiots

I remembered the old, dead times of Soviet television propaganda the other day, when on the first and second (sorry, "Russia 1") channels of state television showed the programs "Exclusive! Philip Kirkorov: birthday at home" ("Russia", "Andrey Malakhov. Live ", April 30, 18:30 - 20:00); "Philip Kirkorov - the last concert at the Olympic" (Channel One, May 1, 21:20 - 23:30).

And also:

"Test through tears. All paternity applicants have learned the results of DNA tests." "Shut up, you freak! - relatives of Lydia Fedoseeva-Shukshina accuse each other of self-interest." "No food or water. Mother locked up her young son and daughter." "I think Lena is a fool. Diana Shurygina made a scandal in the studio." "A pregnant woman killed a baby. Whose voice-over?" "Pregnant at 15: Why does a schoolgirl's mother hide her child's father?"

You say - so what? Well, this is for the rating, for entertainment …

This is the daily (Monday to Thursday) prime time on the First Russian TV channel. On the second ("Russia 1") there is the same show by Andrey Malakhov, but so far they have built up at the expense of the coronavirus ("Is the coronavirus a black mark of aliens?") And temporarily, partially moved away from mirroring the madness of Channel One in its entirety …

What's more in traditional prime time? Program "Actually", Channel One.

"Right in the studio. A man finds out about his wife's betrayal." "A relative of the seer on the end of the pandemic." "The most beautiful socialite is beaten by a company of women."

And the popular NTV program, from Monday to Thursday at 17:00, need not even be illustrated with headlines. It's just called "DNA" - and there everyone "live" will find out who flew from whom and who cheated on whom.

Yes, but ours - Soviet times - claims to the "stage" that was disgusted back in the 80s … Well, let's just remember Great Saturday, April 18th. And the program guide of the First Channel. I'll remind you of it now.

13:00 - 14:00. Descent of the Holy Fire. Live broadcast.

14:00 - 15:00. Alla Pugacheva. "And it's all about her …" Favorites.

15:00 - 15:15. News with subtitles.

15:15 - 16:10. Alla Pugacheva. "And it's all about her …" Favorites.

16:10 - 17:45. Who wants to be a millionaire with Dmitry Dibrov.

17:45 - 18:50. Maksim Galkin. "My wife is Alla Pugacheva".

18:50 - 21:00. "Gift for Alla". Big festive concert.

21:00 - 21:30. "Time".

21:30 - 23:30. Tonight. Alla Pugacheva's birthday.

23:30 - 02:15. Easter of Christ. Live broadcast from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.

… Then, in the 80s, an anti-Soviet joke was popular that the TSB of the XXI century would write about Leonid Brezhnev as follows: a petty intriguer of the era of Alla Pugacheva. Since then, 40 years have passed, and now about five leaders of the country (well, or about four, if it's scary) you can joke with the same words.

Moreover, our propaganda - like pro-Russian - is quite conducive to this.

Suddenly I looked here on May 3, "Vesti Nedeli" with Dmitry Kiselyov (I confess, I haven't watched it before). Maybe I don't understand something. But it seems to me (no, it does not seem) that it is possible to "praise" the first person in this way only for mockery purposes. And even in provocative, subversive. Even with "personally dear comrade Leonid Ilyich" they did not allow themselves such vulgarity. But with atheistic propaganda - everything is as if not even under Brezhnev, but under Khrushchev: here is a quote supposedly from Lomonosov (as he calls "priests" executioners for incorrect baptism of children), but the plot is about "enemies of quarantine" - the bulk, Yavlinsky, Albats and Churches. True, the cleric, whose profoundly inadequate words are quoted, is already banned from serving, but this is no reason not to announce the program with his portrait against the background of the church with a cross in his hand and the inscription "Pseudo-Defenders" …

However, there will be someone to tell about the anti-Christian order. And I mean something else.

Dmitry Kiselev, Andrey Malakhov, and Dmitry Borisov fall into this other. And of course, this incredible creative team of immortals from the "Twilight" series is all this heterogeneous Pugacheva-Kirkorov-Galkin-Baskov family and others, and others …

That is, about our television as such. Today, practically everything that comes off the assembly line of this degeneration factory is turning into cynical mockery of people.

From propaganda to media democracy

No, I don’t want to say anything good about Soviet television, especially to those who remember it well (and do not feed on sweet fairy tales of Sovietists).

True, when Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, in his unique manner, on a piece of paper and under the laughter of ideologically immature (almost all) viewers, uttered something like "the Soviet people, comrades, are the most reading people in the world," it was, oddly enough, true.

Because it was considered: elementary literacy, good (well, according to generally accepted standards) taste, the ability to read words and understand them - all this does not contradict the goals of building communism (more precisely, preserving party power).

Therefore, good Soviet films were shown on Soviet television. Therefore, the "combined concerts" for the Soviet holidays consisted of different genres - symphonic music, opera, ballet, pop song, pop humoresque … Therefore, popular science programs - all kinds of "Film Travel Clubs", "In the animal world" and "Obvious - incredible" - were (in absolute numbers) more popular than the most dumb talk shows of today.

And then the party propaganda collapsed under the weight of its own bronzed appearance. And it turned out that this educated majority of the people is capable of acting on its own. It turned out that these people - in the unfree Soviet times - learned to think freely, organize themselves, and discern propaganda lies. That they can neither be intimidated nor fooled. And the system seemingly fell apart.

But to replace the partocrats and censorship, the Komsomol-blacksmiths, grabbers and the mafia rushed to shove their elbows with their elbows. All this post-Soviet nomenklatura quickly learned from the mistakes of its predecessors and realized that "the most read" is the main threat to the emerging criminal-corruption system of the post-Soviet regime, therefore it is necessary to break it down, destroy it as soon as possible and never allow it to be reborn again.

First he was molested. After the chaos and market, or rather bazaar, anarchy of the early 1990s, 1996 came, followed by what was called "mediacracy." The so-called "seven-bankers", they are also "oligarchs", they are also "media magnates" - Berezovsky, Gusinsky, etc. - created their own media holdings, gathered under their control newspapers of different levels (the so-called "high-quality", for the business and political elite, as well as for an interested party, including for the journalists themselves; the so-called "mass", up to the "yellow press" - for a wide audience) and the most massive media - television and (then) radio. And most importantly, they took control of the media status - those who make the media, those who earn quite a lot of money at the expense of media moguls. And then everything is simple: "high-quality media", similar to Telegram today, discuss current events and throw in stable assessments and vivid characteristics ("how to correctly assess what is happening"). Mass newspapers and TV do the same journalists who read "quality" - as a result, assessments and characteristics turn into obsessive cliches and stereotypes. Who rule the masses (in the elections) and, most importantly, if necessary, put pressure on the first person (then Yeltsin). All this for the sole purpose of securing their (media tycoons) privileged proximity to power and access to exported raw materials and budgetary financial flows. Take control (buy) the "political class" and through it - the state.

As for the "most reading", and especially those who make newspapers and TV, they were treated differently. Who was broken and plunged into poverty. Whom they bought. Who was beckoned. And most importantly, under the guise of taking away the right to distinguish between good and evil. Believe in ideals and be ashamed of self-interest and cynicism. True, it has not yet been forbidden to think, create - and sometimes even something good.

Degeneration legalization

… In the early 2000s, the mediacracy in its former form was done away with - Putin did not need an oligarchic freeman at all. Television was allowed to remain a business: you agree with us on the agenda of information and political broadcasting, we do not meddle in your money. And for some time something like a "water truce" came.

The “middle class”, who imagined itself as the new ruling class, went up the hill, and all the flowers began to bloom on TV. A lot of new and non-trivial reality shows (all sorts of "The Last Heroes"), good swirling song contests (like "Star Factory"). Suddenly, it was not serials that rained down on the screen (and received excellent ratings), but full-fledged serial feature films: "The Idiot" (2002) and "The Master and Margarita" (2005) by Vladimir Bortko, "In the First Circle" (2006) by Gleb Panfilova, genius " Liquidation "(2007) Sergei Ursulyak and many others.

Against this background, all sorts of low-grade pop TV projects remained almost unnoticed, which stood out against the background of the rest of the rampant "freedom of expression" as tabloid leaflets about aliens and sexual perversion against the background of the respectable "Moskovsky Komsomolets" … On May 20, 2002, the STS channel launched the Okna project (which later moved to TNT), invented and launched by the future former State Duma deputy and prominent United Russia member Valery Komissarov. The project was honestly announced as "trash and frenzy", the participants exposed each other, yelled at each other, fought in the studio, once they even stuffed the face of the show host Dmitry Nagiyev - and he allegedly aired the next program from a hospital bed. And even if it hadn't turned out later that it was a pseudo-show (all the participants were professional actors), the audience would not have changed their attitude towards the product: it's cool to look at the idiots and be glad that we are not like them.

And already on May 11, 2004 on the TNT channel the reality show "Dom-2" was published - a continuation of the Komissarov project "Dom". But if "Dom" was a typical reality show (plot, season, competitions, prizes, the main prize at the end of the season is a house), then "Dom-2", which is still being released now, has become a completely new type of project, unique, the longest. as they say in the history of this kind of programs.

This project, inextricably linked with the name and face of Ksenia Sobchak, changed the "sold product" - as the Field of Miracles program had done before. Leonid Yakubovich told how he proposed a new concept to Listyev - to attract the viewer's attention not by the competition itself, but by the personalities of the participants, their funny statements, greetings to relatives, gifts to the presenter, etc. just like them, pleasant ordinary people.

Dom-2 did almost the same thing. The audience began to sell a "way of life", a lifestyle, simple, supposedly immediately emerging "relationships" (in my opinion, it was then that this miserable euphemism became widespread, which can be called without any discrimination anything - from platonic innocent courtship to sinful sin). As an outstanding cultural scientist, editor-in-chief of the Cinema Art magazine Daniil Dondurei told me back in those years, "Dom-2 should not be underestimated - it is a terrible machine that formats the mass consciousness of Russian citizens."

And it really was. At first, of course, it was not about all citizens, but about a separate part of them - people of different ages, mostly young. Among them there was a part of the "Windows" spectators who were "fun to spy on the idiots". But mostly they were ordinary people, however, not burdened with a good upbringing, culture and developed intellect. Not the worst people, many of them - with prospects to grow wiser and grow up. But Dom-2 gave them a unique opportunity. Previously, stupid conversations on the benches at the entrance, "hookups" in garages, gossip and squabbles, changes of "partners" and poor "relationships" - all this was socially discouraged. That is, very many lived like this, but they did not parade it. And suddenly they were shown themselves in the TNT mirror: look! You are not alone! It is not just possible to live like this - this is the norm of life! And the program "Dom-2" became a point of growth of legal degeneration and laid the foundation for social approval of moronicity.

Roughly the same "masters of discourse" - intelligent, sophisticated, highly cultured general directors of TV channels - made their choice. As expected, it was most clearly formulated by the most highly cultured and most sophisticated Konstantin Ernst, the permanent leader of Channel One.

If you forcibly show the software product that you like or you think that it is right to show it to millions of TV viewers, - he said in an interview with Ekho Moskvy on January 1, 2006, - then the person who makes such a decision is a rather strange person, he apparently decided that he could graze the peoples. Due to the fact that I do not consider myself to be this type of people, we carefully monitor the preferences of the audience. And if, alas, to my great regret, the audience is immensely happy with a rather primitive humor, well, perhaps the audience needs this type of television broadcast in order to relax.

TV as compulsory AIDS

Over the past 15 years, approximately, the principled decision made by Ernst & Co. has been fully implemented.

"Dom-2" continues to appear on the TNT channel, steadily gathering its audience - both older first fans and new ones, including old children. But it was replaced by completely different brain formatting machines, which we mentioned above. Broadcast in prime time on all three mass TV channels, all these "Let them talk", "Let them yell", "Let them burst" and - yes! - "Dok Tok" with the symbolic Ksenia Sobchak every day presents us as socially approved behavior no longer debility, underdevelopment, lack of culture and vulgarity. And meanness, pathology, crime.

I happened (ten years ago, the reason was purely political technology) once in my life to take part in "Let them talk" with Malakhov. I will say one thing: no vodka would have helped from such a hangover nausea. The most important thing that I understood then: here they do not just show a scandal, abomination and baseness, here they make the "crowd" behave like that, motivate the participants and, if necessary, buy "stars". Everyone.

Someone likes Alibasov and his "Nana" (not me). Someone grew up watching Dzhigarkhanyan's films. Someone watched not only "White Sun", but also performances of the Theater of Satire, and retains a tender love for Spartak Mishulin. Someone remembers "Kalina Krasnaya" and the great Vasily Shukshin, who saw something in his wife Lidia Fedoseeva. So, they are the same as Diana Shurygina! They are the same as Vetchislav Zapaldonov, a 60-year-old one-legged bisexual who demands alimony from 14-year-old Fatima Kirdykabzatseva, who gave birth to his seven-year-old son. They are the same as dozens of disgusting scum smeared on lie detectors and DNA laboratories from Moscow to the very Ukraine.

And you, you, we - all be the same! You simply have no other choice. The doors are welded. No "reading majority" will be allowed anymore.

No more knowledge. No spiritual growth. No discrimination between good and evil. All are infected with spiritual AIDS - a deficiency of immunity, and in the same way in which they are mainly infected. Only through the brains.

Yes, it's pure (dirty) devilishness. But - as always with devilry - there are many cynical and supposedly rational explanations. For example, this: people with forcibly turned off their brains and conscience are ideal material for manipulation. While they will look into the black (and dirty) holes offered by the TV, you can do whatever you want with them - rob, cheat, build, instill any nonsense.

But, as you know, the devil is a liar and the father of lies. And with his servants, and especially with the devotees and talented, he is infinitely cruel. Because people forcibly turned into zombies are no longer controllable and manipulated. It is impossible to cope with them neither during crises, nor during a pandemic, nor during food riots - all communication channels are blocked! Except for one thing - aggression, psychosis, rage and revenge.

You can do a lot with dumb, illiterate, scared and broken people. Nothing can be done with the devil grown in their souls and set free. And nobody.