All reading and writing Odessa got to her ears: the main analyst of our time, Vitaly Portnikov decided to turn his great gaze to our modest penates and at the same time prove that there is no Odessa with its history and culture, but there is a provincial Ukrainian town, whose inhabitants are megalomaniacs and While dare to argue that they are somewhere there are almost equal to the great and mighty degree of Kiev.
The process of dipping in the shit of the people of Odessa caused a contradictory reaction from the writing Odessa brotherhood. There were also those who saw in this, like Vasisualia Lokhankin, "the serene truth of life". It's strange that the question "Who are the judges? "Almost did not sound. Meanwhile, the militant insignificance that really captivated our city, in the capital city, feel no less, and even more freely, than in the Southern Palmyra. Kiev squalor is much more terrible than ours, since in Odessa they steal millions, and in Kiev - in billions. But God with him, with Kiev, try to understand how Odessa lives without the grandmother Vitaly Portnikov?.
What was the point of support for the arguments of Vitaly Portnikov? Of course, our "grandees" of "Odessa culture" played their role here. What is the sin to conceal: we have a whole "pleiad" of cultural figures who parasitize on the "Odessa myth". Moreover, many representatives of Odessa (and not only) businesses, guides and so on, actively use this myth. This "dead theater" according to Peter Brook, of course, obscured for many the real culture of Odessa. Frankly: those who create a "living theater" in Odessa, this myth is sickening.
But this is not the whole truth. Why did this "Odessa myth" originate, which more likely resembles the Aztec rituals of Death than the spirit of a free city? And for a single reason: it was a reaction to the persistent attempts of the Moscow cultural leaders to turn Odessa into a faceless provincial town. And now - what, the situation is different? No, the Kiev chiefs became the true heirs of the Moscow. The task is set very clearly: shove Odessa with a muzzle in the shit. Perhaps, even Furtsev hated our city less than today's Kiev celestials.
In no country in the world, not even in Russia, the capital's bosses do not spend so much energy to destroy provincial life, as in Ukraine. It is enough to look at the growth of the Kiev population over the years of independence. Neither in Poland, nor in Lithuania, nor, not even in Russia, is such a picture. Kiev absorbs all the juices from the country, it has now become a separate state within Ukraine. So why are you surprised at the militant vulgarity of our business? It's just a riot on your knees..
But this is only the first round of Vitaly Portnikov's journey to hell.
Vitaly Portnikov generously presented Odessa with Jewish culture and literature. From the whole Jewish heart. But not without reason they say: be afraid of Portnikov, the gifts of the bringer. For these gifts are poisoned. Like a beautiful apple from the fairy tale "About the Dead Princess ..." by Alexander Pushkin.
Undoubtedly, pre-revolutionary Odessa was the center of Jewish life, Jewish culture and Jewish literature. First of all, it was not caused by language, for there was Jewish literature in Yiddish, Hebrew, and Russian, but rather "Pale of Settlement" - the subject of this literature. But at the same time, we note that from the end of the 19th century Russian Jewish writers appeared. Although the question of religion was very difficult for them.
It is often said that Odessa was a melting pot of nations. This, of course, is true, but not all. The Russian culture of the Silver Age itself was a melting pot. Often, for example, commemorate the role of Maxim Gorky in the fate of Isaac Babel. And, indeed, there is a very strong connection between them, including literary. But is it possible to understand, for example, Sholom Aleichem without the influence of Anton Chekhov? With all the anti-Semitism of Anton Pavlovich. After all, the mystical realism of the "Enchanted Tailor" is surprisingly close, for example, to the symbolism of the stories "I Want to Sleep," "To the Village of Grandfather" and "Chestnut" by Anton Chekhov. Just as Jabotinsky was a Jewish politician and philosopher, but at the same time remained a Russian writer and journalist.
The Soviet period generally mixed everything and everyone: such a huge tragic-fruce Chinese draw. Well, to whom is Isaak Babel closer: to Slavin, Lavrenev, Olesha or Singer?.
You can, of course, look for Jewish motifs in "Old Man Hottabych" Lahin, from the early Yuri Herman or Vasily Grossman. But in fact - this is a typical Soviet literature.
Of course, critics from the circle of the magazine "Moscow" and the publishing house "Young Guard" loved to look for national roots among Soviet Jewish writers. But Bagritsky, Babel and Ilf themselves considered themselves "Soviet writers". They consistently and knowingly tried to abandon their entire Jewish life. They broke ties, refused relatives, they burned bridges. Between the greatest surviving creation of Isaac Babel "Froim Grach" on the one hand and the books of Sholom Aleichem and Singer on the other - lies the abyss. And she does not have a bottom.
But this is not all.
The attempt to build an enemy from Russian culture, an attempt to reduce the South Russian literary school to "Jewish literature", aims to close our eyes to the main fact of the cultural life of the USSR during the years of "stagnation": at that time a clear division of the culture of the peoples of the USSR into a semi-official and near-dissident. How can, for example, be attributed to one literature of early and late Tychin? It's the same as counting as one literature "Hot Snow" and "Battalions Ask for Fire" by Yuri Bondarev. Morality and world outlook of early and late Tychyna completely contradict each other. Just as the worldview and conflict "Battalions ask for fire" will simply be incomprehensible to the heroes of "Hot Snow".
The tragedy of Ukrainian culture and literature lies in the fact that this division into officialdom and dissidence, in Ukraine it was cut alive. Blood lies between them, the sea of ??blood. Ukrainian culture must pass through the most cruel purification. Squeeze out a slave is not by drop. Instead of fighting against Russian culture, Ukrainian culture should conduct an audit of its history. But are our home-grown nationalists ready for this? Not yet felt. But back to Vitaly Portnikov and his grandmother.
What happened to Vitaly Portnikov, a completely reasonable man, who suddenly began to resemble the Black-Hundred critics from the Moscow magazine who tried to find the Old Testament motives of Soviet Jewish-Jewish atheists?.
And all because Vitaly Portnikov says, in fact, not about his grandmother. Behind his graceful spitting against Odessa are the second, third, and even the ninth circle of Hell. The circle of traitors. And all this fuss, all this jazz of Vitaly Portnikov and his grandmother was written in the name of justifying violent Ukrainization. As Comrade Stalin said: whoever is not with us is against us! And Comrade Portnikov finishes: who does not know the Ukrainian language - the enemy!.
Curious in this regard, the philosophy of articles by Vitaly Portnikov. Every day, the circle of enemies against whom his articles are directed, is becoming wider and wider. The famed 30s of the USSR truly come to mind when Stalin puts forward the slogan that with the emergence of the USSR the sharpness of the class struggle will grow. This slogan served as an excuse for arrests, exile, and then executions. By the way, it appeared absolutely not by chance, and was caused not by the bestial essence of the dictator. It just turned out that the new government absolutely does not know how to run the country. Disasters, economic chaos, mismanagement, etc., other, other things had to be explained. And the best explanation: the enemies are getting stuck with our successes, and are trying to harm us more and more. We will replace class enemies, enemies of the Ukrainian language, and we will receive instead of Joseph Stalin - Vitaly Portnikov.
But why do we have to talk not just about Vitaly Portnikov's "misconceptions", but about the circles of Hell, on which he descends to the lake of Judah? But because in his article there is another subtext.
The ruling establishment of the party of power now deliberately placed a stake on the confrontation of Russian-speaking Ukrainian-speaking citizens of the country. This is not a delusion, not an accident, it is a conscious policy of balancing on the edge. And Vitaly Portnikov goes further. He tries to oppose Russian-speaking Jews against other Russian-speaking groups. In the multi-lingual Odessa, close your eyes to Yuri Olesha, the brothers Kataev, to declare, in fact, that the entire South Russian school of literature is Jewish, this means publicly slapping her non-Jewish part. What Vitaly Portnikov said does not say any work on the history of Jewish literature, not a single Jewish encyclopedia. This could be stated only by an ignorant person who knows the history of literature in Odessa by hearsay. And I do not consider Vitaly Portnikov an ignorant person. And do not tell me that this is done out of love for Jewish literature. Even a narrow-minded person will understand that in our conditions, such words sow hatred. The words of Vitaly Portnikov, it's like a kiss, like the kiss of Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane.