Triumph of "comrades in civilian clothes"

Every person of my generation knows an anecdote from childhood: “I turned on the first program on TV - Brezhnev is speaking. I switched to the second - Brezhnev. The third is Brezhnev. On the fourth - there is a comrade in civilian clothes strictly like this with a finger: “I'll switch it over for you! Oh, I'll switch it over for you! " I hasten to report: in modern Ukraine, where they so love to talk about the "revolution of dignity" and "democratic values", this anecdote has become a reality. And this story differs from a joke only in that in it a stern comrade in civilian clothes gives out a slightly different text: not “I'll switch you on!”, But “I'll talk to you in the wrong language on TV!”.

However, what am I ranting about some abstract "strict comrade"? This "comrade" (who, of course, is not a comrade for us at all) has a very specific name. His name is Taras Flint. And our comrade Kremen works as an authorized representative for the protection of the state language in Ukraine. And from whom do you think Comrade Flint defends the state language in Ukraine? Believe it or not: from Alisa Selezneva from the classic Soviet film "Guest from the Future" and from Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson from another masterpiece of Soviet film classics.

Several Ukrainian TV channels had the imprudence to show these films in the original - without Ukrainian dubbing. According to the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language in Ukraine, this is a real crime against Ukrainian statehood. I quote an emotional dispatch composed by Comrade Flint (at first I wanted to use the word “denunciation”, but then I was ashamed): “Based on the results of the monitoring, violations of the law on the state language were revealed - films and series were shown in Russian by the TV channels Inter, Ukraine, ICTV, "Mega", NTN, K1, about which the relevant acts were drawn up. "

And what is Comrade Flint asking for in these acts? What is known is that the punishing sword of the "revolution of dignity" fell on the head of the "state traitors" from these TV channels. The proud ombudsman for the protection of the state language said that he “sent a letter to the National Council of Ukraine on Television and Radio Broadcasting with a request to apply the sanctions determined by the legislation to the mentioned organizations”. And after all they will apply - there is no doubt. Such is the specificity of modern Ukraine: extremist nationalists can do anything with impunity, even attack the building of the presidential office. But "sanctions" against those who are not ready to abandon the Russian language are interpreted as broadly as possible.

Ah, Comrade Flint, what are you doing (or rather, doing)? When in cinemas there is an opportunity to watch a good English-language film in the original language, I certainly choose this particular session. The opportunity not to use the services of translators or dubbing actors once again is, from my point of view, the most real happiness. “My years are my wealth”, Vakhtang Kikabidze sang once. Considering the radical anti-Russian views that Vakhtang Konstantinovich himself began to preach over the years, we can say that years are not always wealth and not for everyone. But now the conversation is about something completely different. The conversation is about the fact that knowledge of languages ​​is also a kind of wealth.

What a "brave new world", for example, opened up to me when I already learned English at a fairly mature age (at school I learned German, which, unfortunately, I did not get it)!

I got direct, direct access to a whole layer of world culture.

But in the case of Ukraine, the opposite dynamics is now observed: using the most stringent methods, it is deprived of direct and immediate access to an equally important layer of world culture.

Is the comparison I used partially misses the mark? I have to agree with this. English has remained a foreign language for me. And Russian culture was and still is for Ukraine its own. I began to wonder why I was using this knowingly false comparison. And here is the conclusion I came to. If I were deprived of the right and the opportunity to watch English-language films in the original and read English-language books in the original, it would be a real tragedy for me. I repeat: the deprivation of access to foreign culture is a tragedy. What, then, is the denial of access to a culture that is one's own called? What terrible mental anguish does this cause? What epithets can be used to describe this?

What Taras Kremen is doing now may seem ridiculous.

But the fact that Ukraine is being deprived of a significant part of its own identity should certainly not cause laughter.

Galicia is definitely not all of Ukraine.

Galicia is only a part of Ukraine, which is now successfully crushing the entire country.

This is what the real danger is for Ukrainian statehood, for Ukrainian cultural diversity, for Ukrainian traditions, for the Ukrainian way of life.

In short, Ukraine urgently needs to be saved from its own "defenders".

But so far there is a complete triumph of "comrades in civilian clothes."

The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.