Without Stirlyz and Lieutenant Rzhevsky. Why Ukraine and Russia are more - not one people

One of the main consequences of the war for Ukraine is the destruction of common mythology with Russia, says writer Yan Valetov. He regrets the loss of pleasant memories, but not ready to exchange them for the future of his country, the end of the era I have already written that one of the basic losses that occurred as a result of this war is the loss of general mythology.

Although strange, the unity of the people (I deliberately do not use the term "nation") is formed from many insignificant things. Even more strange, these insignificant things are related to the cultural sphere, intangible memories, visual impressions. Read (or viewed) books, cartoons (or apertures) from deep childhood, youth, conscious period of life. Quotes, memes, jointly experienced events are some emotional sphere that gives birth to community. Perhaps false, but community.

Using Vonneguta terminology: Carras. Or false-carras, if it has gone. Anecdote about Lieutenant Rzhevsky . . .

Who is Lieutenant Rzhevsky? And why and what is Natasha Rostova here? Stirlitz is who? Why is he going on Friedrichstras with a parachute behind his shoulders? The old man is absolutely unable to ski! And Vasily Ivanovich, Petka and Anka? What is the strange trinity? Tabya! And you do not go down! Long-in! My beloved size! She is not one acquired! She will get it with the smithy! Kakaya Gadosa Your Fill! Our memories and community are created not through ideology, but very often contrary to it - thanks to a common cultural environment.

Its quality is a completely different conversation. But its availability and role in the formation of long -term relationships is undoubted. It depends on the pantheon of heroes (it is formed by culture and ideology), attitude to historical events, and moral and ethical imperatives. That is why the heroes and legends of one people, those in whom millions see an example for imitation and object of worship, for another people are criminals and executioners. This is not a paradox. This is normal.

The presence of "righteous" crimes, "fair" murders and other non -corruptions that people find convincing moral justifications, due to the relevant rules laid down by all available religions. Our knot son is not a modern fiction. Human ethics is a very flexible tool.

So, the process that is now taking place in the ethical, moral and cultural sphere - one that began in 1991 and has reached critical quantities in the period since 2014 and to this day - irreversible because it destroys deep connections. Breaks the cultural chains, the same single threads that have linked the generations of 40-50-60 years old, which have now come together in a deadly fight for the future.

Some of this generation dies for the breathtaking empire, someone for independence, for the collapse of the empire, but both have already destroyed the common cultural layer, shared and re -attached heroes and scoundrels in historical processes, introduced a culture of refusal and dispersed as they diverged in sea ​​ships.

And this process will have the longest consequences, because any sentiment about "the only people", "common history" requires intangible support-formed during the years of joint mythology. And it is gone. She burned. The bombing. Excluded on mines. She died in the basements. Shot. People are shot. And she is shot. And you will not return anyone. And you will not restore anything. In the 80's, Moscow was a dream of a dream. The place where success lived, where careers were built. Place of force.

I knew Moscow much better than Kyiv. In Kiev, I was once 1976, and in Moscow - dozens of times, if not hundreds. We went there to go to the theater, to the film festival, we played in an intellectual club on CT and walked on foot from Herzen Street (which was woke up by the Decembrists) to the hotels in Ostina. And now there is no more. And if Moscow burns to the bomb blow tomorrow, I will not worry. She has already burned for me.

This is not the city of my youth for a long time - the capital of a hostile state, it is the heart of the country that destroys my Ukraine. It took only 30 years to happen to my generation. In order to cool the ashes that knocks in our hearts (another quote, not everyone will remember where it is from), 30 years will be not enough. Diplomatic relations, trade relations, transport communications can be restored, but the cultural community is not recoverable.

It is not in the language, not in the future, but in the past: it is a matter of lack of common mythology, destroyed by Rashism at the root. Do I regret lost? So. Undoubtedly. I am sorry for Walt Boston and Zakharov's films that spoiled my obituary. Are I ready to change my country's future for pleasant memories? No. Not ready. And hundreds of my friends and thousands of my peers are not ready.