mailradek on Wed, 13 Oct 1999 19:28:04 +0200 (CEST) |
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<nettime> mailradek no. 22 (on Pelevin and young professionals) |
"mailradek" project is a non-regular posting of subjective commentaries on political themes. <mailradek> texts have no copyright and can be reprinted, translated, distributed without a special authors' permission. All previous issues (in English and Russian) can be found at the new <mailradek> site WWW.MAILRADEK.REMA.RU. There are also many info about the latest events in radical culture and the regularly changing large texts on actual themes. Everybody who doesn't receive it can send a "subscribe english mailradek" or "subscribe russian mailradek" (a more often and full version) e-mail to kireev@glasnet.ru to be included into the mailing list. Address: Russia 117333 Moscow, Vavilova 48-237, tel.: (095) 137 71 31, e-mail: kireev@glasnet.ru. text no. 83 18.09.1999 I finally lost my virginity by agreeing to read "Generation P" by Victor Pelevin ("Chapaev and the Void"-the-superhit still stays unknown for me). I can only envy the author who is able to publish a book in a month or two after its completion. "Generation P" seems to have been written this spring. In the nearest years it will be forgotten, but now it's attracting real interest, as if it's specially written for the forthcoming autumn with its pre-elections campaign and TV rush. I have a particular interest in it because i had acquainted with the prototypes of the book's characters this spring. Kiriyenko's election campaign is carried by the Effective Politics Fund under the chairmanship of an ex-dissident Gleb Pavlovsky. He seems to be the prototype of Leonid Azadovsky. In 1996 EPF carried Eltsin's election campaign and its tactical innovations are worth an attention. One of Ziuganov's press conferences was ruined by the Fund who had beforehand spread a gossip ("canard", "hoax") about the alliance of CPRF and Zhirinovsky, and the next time they presented a tiny regional communist group denouncing Ziuganov, and announced it as a great split in his party. Charming young men and pretty girls stroll about the white offices of EPF. Max Meyer, Director of the Fund, used to be an anarchist and lived in a French squat. They treat "young radicals" very friendly, thinking that those belonging to the radical politics can be their future potential personnel: "There's a revolution in Gleb Olegovich's office every day", Meyer says. Their own attitude to politics is characterized by their demonstrative cynical behaviour: money, "game" and success. Pavlovsky himself is too shy to speak of money and thus he flings with seeming indifference: the only pleasure for him now is finding solutions for hopeless situations. By the way, another book recently published - "Mass media of the second republic" by Ivan Zasursky - promises exceptionally high profits for this business in the nearest political future. Victor Pelevin tries to express that cynical attitude, but he somehow does that in that familiar style of good old-fashioned Soviet prose: "For all the times he remembered that old rusty bus skeleton, half-buried into the ground at the edge of a Moscow suburban forest:". The history of post-soviet environment is expressed, like the whole local "postmodernist discourse", as the last and final point of history. For the people of that circle the following point of view is quite suitable: today they are the masters of life, and they can see no possible forthcoming changes that may threaten their existence. In fact, the "game" in which the young yuppies believe, only exists as long as they believe in it; they create it as well as it have created them; since they have personal interests about its existence, they invest their interest, their money and their life to make it go on. By interpreting the world of dirty politics as the world of the "game" they adjust themselves according to its imaginary rules. The world is about to change pretty soon, and they will have to speak another language (which they will undoubtedly learn pretty quick). None of them needs any explanations about the fact that dirty politics is bad, that they're the ones who rob and steal from people, and they're the very ones to be shot by their beloved Che Guevara. They all know it and they admit it, and it's just the reason why the critical consciousness cannot affect them in any way. The new century, which they will only enter in the form of a dying anachronism, will not be the century of the critical consciousness, it will be the century of instantaneous action and the new, non-critical but anarchical methodology of decision-making. Translation: Alexey Kovalev éîæï: A closed court seating on the RVS (Revolutionary-military council) case took place at October, 7 (tsar Nicolas II monument's explosion in Taininsky village, Peter the Great monument's at Moscow and the gas station in Lubertsy's mining). We'll tell later how it finished but we can already presuppose it wasn't the last one. The case is already almost 2,5 years in the run and consists of 60 volumes. A trial on Avdei Ter-Oganyan's case had to take place at October, 6, but didn't. Everybody knows, a hero is abroad, in Prague. By the way, the attentive camrades saw the Holy Virgin matreshkas sold nearby Red Square. There's an evident idea to proceed an Avdei's deal and to crash them publicly: if the public opinion became so enraged because of the cheap paper icon copies' desecration, what will it say about the tourist souvenirs' desecration? By the way, the same comrades asked the sellers if there's Christ inside matreshka, an answer was: buy and see. Each matreshka costs about hundred bucks. Yakob Kochkarev is in Lefortovo prison. He's accused of keeping and transporting a vast drugs' lot which is indeed false (see mailradek no.. 38, info). His presence in Lefortovo proves, he's simultaneously accused or suspected in the frames of the multiple new criminal cases against anarchists provoked after the Krasnodar case. His girlfriend Anya Gavrilova and an eco-activist Vladimir Slivyak took part in a human-rights-defending briefing in <2000 internet-press-center> (Guelman Gallery) at October, 7. By the way, the Moscow <Jerry Rubin club> was also unofficially warned by the intelligent services in connection with the criminal cases. Another press-conference of Vladimir Slivyak and human rights activists must take place at the National Press Institute at October, 18, 14.00. The speakers will tell about the recent anti-ecologist repressions and emphasize the FSB's way of investigating the explosions by accusing all the influensive radical political initiatives (ecologists, anarchists). By the way, there're almost only anti-nuke activists who are getting arrested or warned last time, maybe, there's some Minatom's (Ministery for Atomic Energy) interest here? A new book of a living anarcho-literature classic from Smolensk Vladimir Markov came out of print. We're waiting for a personal Markov's site appearance, in a neighbourhood with mailradek site - at Vadim Gushin's <Rema> server (www.rema.ru) and also at www.screen.ru/Slepye/Markov. A presentation of new <Radek> issue took place at October, 4 which is dedicated to trash-culture. Presentation has happened at the biggest in Europe dump nearby Kollontaevo village. The 12th Anarchist Movements' Association (ADA) congress took place in Saint-Petersbourgh in the end of August. It traditionally carried some resolutions, like: <On the war>, <On the elections>, <On the state policy of taxation> etc. In reality, none of the anarchist movement veterans' decisions has any real force and is able to react on the present situation. For example, any of ADA participants who voted and <participated in the state's manipulations> this way is counted for an automatically excluded from it, in agreement with the decisions which were assumed lonf before the <Against all parties> programm has appeared. An anarchist leaflet was widely distributed in Saint-Petersbourgh in the beginning of October, which says, the famous explosions couldn't be made without FSB help. The leaflet calls for a scepticism towards the official anti-southerners propaganda and explains that the explosions are needed by the power for its dirty preelectoral games. It's strange that the Saint-Petersbourgh activists were more operative than in Moscow where the propaganda is much stronger and the militia is <enforced>. # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net