Frontman Bulat Okudzhava in Soviet times scolded for pacifism. In particular, for the line "Ah, war, what did you do, mean?". Like, how is it that this is the epithet when everyone knows that the war was Great and Patriotic, that the heroic Soviet people, under the leadership of the Communist Party, defeated a fascist beast in it, that the feat is immortal, writes Ilya Milstein in the column for " Snob. en ".

Among other things, that is, stupid propaganda cliches and sophisticated searches for sedition, this was the problem of optics. As in most of our disputes, including the most implacable ones - in Soviet, pre-Soviet and post-Soviet times. Some saw in that war mostly patriotic heroism and triumph, especially those who did not fight. Others saw the slaughter. World carnage, a synonym for absolute evil, which caused absolute rejection. Therefore, in these discussions, which have come to the present day, there is no and there can be no reconciliation, and there is no end to it, nor will there be.

You can only note a curious paradox. Those who were thrown into the Khrushchev thaw in abstract humanism, the view of the war was not only hopelessly bitter, but also very concrete. "I remember Paul, Misha, Ilya, Boris, Nikolai". The "patriots" picture, as a rule, is blurred: grandfathers fought, and that's it, and yet - "we can repeat". Victory supplants grief, therefore, the price of Victory does not seem excessive, and calls for new achievements in this area, so characteristic of today's analysts, sound very bellicose.

And for Okudzhava, the war was a subject of personal hatred, and he addressed her as a living, cruel creature, with an angry reproach: what did you do?. She, a ruthless bastard, was to blame for everything. And there was nothing to say about valor, about exploits, about fame - against the backdrop of irretrievable losses. The feats were not questioned, but the price was exorbitant. The war, this universal disaster, crossed out all romance, and only the cannibals could dream of repeating.

All this was recalled in connection with fruitless debates about football, Putin, Sentsov, Russia, Ukraine, Spain and some other names and geographical names. And also by attempts to comprehend them and find a certain golden mean, cutting off extremes and reducing the conflict to experiences purely aesthetic. In fact, "lovers of football are sick, art lovers go to plays, exhibitions and concerts - and this is still the majority," which, by the way, is the most perfect truth.

One can not but agree with Andrei Pertsev, who says that at all times "living life" was opposed to hatred and fanaticism, and no political disagreements divided people in those rooms where genuine masters of their work were pronounced ardent monologues, inspired violins and demonstrated miracles of dribbling.

So the World Cup in Russia, held in Russia, is primarily a sport with all its undoubted beauties. Next, this is a match for one's own and others', and if they wrest their victory in one of the strongest teams in the world in the hardest fight, then what's wrong with being happy for Dzyuba, who scored an excellent goal from the penalty spot, and for Akinfeev, who brilliantly reflected the 11-meter.

Why not rejoice at the Russian team, which before our eyes has done something unthinkable, knocking out of the Mundialya Spaniards. Who forbids us to be happy and where is so much anger in the comments, where the most quick-tempered of the opponents of patriotic Russians are verbally fluttering not only Putin, but the Russian team, and all those who are for her.

Nobody can prohibit, but the trouble is that the World Cup is held during the war. The war is strange, ridiculous, impossible, but quite real, on which almost every day is killed, which has already claimed more than 10 thousand lives. Not to mention the refugees, counted in the millions. The wars of Russia with Ukraine - with a fraternal people for the Russians, and this is not at all a propaganda loophole, but the historical truth. That is more vile than this war and the tragedies that accompany it, including the hunger strike of Oleg Sentsov. She did all this, mean, and the one who unleashed her, provoking the long-standing clarification of relations in families, among former friends, and also wild disassembly in social networks.

This is again the problem of optics, and not always it is a question of hypocrisy of patriots - rather about voluntary blindness. Kind compatriots sometimes do not really understand that Mundial in Russia, this remarkable sport holiday in itself is an insult to millions of Ukrainians, and not only for them.

And our victories and jubilant crowds in the center of Moscow, and drunken girls with foreigners, about whom we are so excitedly arguing both secular citizens and church people, are all perceived by ex-brothers as a total betrayal. From the side of the state that attacked them. From the fans. Yes, and the whole world, enthusiastically playing football.

This, firstly, an endless humiliation for them, because the Crimea is selected and the Donbas taken away, and nothing can be done about it yet. This is, secondly, unbearable pain, since the war, the more lost, is synonymous with absolute evil, causing absolute rejection. And if individual feelings are experienced by individual Russian citizens, then one should not write them down in Russophobes. Absolute evil, when you are involved in it because of birth, plunges a person in desperation no less than those who watch his country die, losing their lands and people in a clash with the invaders. What there is football.

And if the slaughterhouse does not end in the foreseeable future, then we will be doomed to watch these dead-end disputes for a long time and participate in them. Disputes of merry winners with desperate defeated ones. And within Russia - the disputes of the overwhelming and essentially indifferent majority with the opponents of war - a handful of pacifists, rogue, enemies, the fifth column.

These endless disputes will prevent the winners from enjoying their victories in full, and in general, if we believe in historical experience, all this will end for them, that is, for all of us, badly. But today they hardly know about this, and in the brutal disassembly of football fans and defeated haters of our country, they win, as it were, our obvious superiority. The war wins.

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