"When they came for the Communists, I was silent - I was not a Communist. When they came for the Social Democrats, I was silent - I was not a Social Democrat. When they came for union activists, I was silent - I was not a member of the trade union. When they came for me - there was no one to stand up for me ".

This universal formula for non-resistance to evil belongs to the German pastor Martin Nimeller. I once again remembered her when I learned about the arrest of the famous Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov. I will not blame Serebrennikov for not opposing the occupation of the Crimea by Russian troops and their collaborators. And I will not reproach him that he was indifferent to the fate of Oleg Sentsov - a colleague who was in Putin's dungeons before him. I will not be just because I'm sure: Russian cultural figures had to oppose the authoritarian Russian authorities not for the sake of robbed and raped Ukraine. And not for Sentsov's sake. And for yourself and your children, Vitaly Portnikov writes for "Crimea. Realities ".

How can you blame the suicide bombers? How can one reproach stupid, limited people who do not understand that by supporting an aggressive neo-fascist regime or even by silence they sign a verdict to themselves and their creativity? Such people can only sympathize - how do you sympathize with the passengers of a huge ship that is drowning before your eyes. Among those who have only a few minutes left are heroes and righteous people, honest people and scoundrels, brave and indifferent. But we are witnessing the tragedy of a general death, when it comes to Russia.

I saw the comments of Russian cultural figures about the arrest of Serebrennikov. These are different estimates. There are those who support Putin in this abomination. And there are those who condemn the authorities. But among this second category - and those who supported Putin's aggressive policy towards Ukraine. That's the director Mark Zakharov - the one that took the film "Kill the Dragon," and then supported the annexation of the Crimea. Now he condemns the arrest of Serebrennikov.

But interestingly, he really did not understand that one is derived from the other? That neo-fascism begins with aggression against foreign lands, and ends up eating its own citizens: first - opponents, then - supporters? He did not watch his films? Never? And this question can be asked any conceited opportunist who wrote his own death. Have not you read anything? History of Russia was not taught? And the history of Germany? Ah, you have a theater. Ah, you have children! So those who were shot under Stalin, too, had both, and others. Theaters were shut down, the children were taken to the children's homes. Also I have a problem. The most zealous defenders compare Kirill Serebrennikov with Vsevolod Meyerhold, who was killed by Stalin. I would not draw parallels from the point of view of talent, but would spend from the point of view of fate. Forgive me, of course, but Meyerhold was an enthusiast. He served Bolshevism as a system of values ??- or denial of values. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he had a simple and clear choice: to stay in a still civilized world or return to Stalin's Russia. He chose the second. Did he understand that he was signing a verdict? Approximately at the level of Mark Zakharov.

And the publicist Mikhail Koltsov, who was exterminated by Stalin, who described the show trials, also clearly did not understand that he would become one of the victims of repression, as those who support the arrest of Serebrennikov do not understand that the regime will come after them. I, of course, will not argue that for everyone. Koltsov was shot, and his brother, the famous cartoonist Boris Efimov, noted his own century - and it turned out that he always despised the regime he served. I think that Koltsov also despised. And Meyerhold despised. And Serebrennikov despises. And if tomorrow Putin finds himself in custody at the dacha, it turns out that he was despised by ninety percent of those who now support. In Russia it's so accepted. It's just that all these cultural figures need Putin to be arrested by some security chief, whom they will applaud and who will usually ask for money - to their theaters and to their children.

I repeat that I am writing this not to condemn all these people who have not caused me anything for a long time - along with their old and new films, plays and songs. It is not they who amaze me, but those who, perhaps because of their monolingualism and formation in the civilizational space confined to cracks, continue to regard this as culture. No it's not culture. Culture of adaptability - yes. Culture "saw off" the money stolen by the authorities - yes. But not a culture of self-knowledge and analysis of one's own soul and life situation.

Tatyana Lioznova shot "Seventeen Moments of Spring" about the Soviet apparatus - but until the end of her life I did not understand this. Mark Zakharov took off "Kill the dragon", so that after years to be in the role of "respected citizen" from his own movie. Fyodor Bondarchuk removed the "Inhabited Island" in the Strugatsky story about television propaganda - to be among the creators of the towers from his own movie.

If these people really do not understand what they are doing, why do they need us? And why are they to themselves? Just as Putin imitates political activity, when his closest friends are stuffing their pockets with billions, these people imitate cultural activity. Someone is better, someone worse. But all this is no longer an art. Long time no art. A very long time ago ... 1919.

Exhausted and emaciated, Alexander Blok approaches the Zinaida Gippius in a Petersburg tram, a merciless criticism of his moral devastation, his cooperation with the Bolsheviks, his non-resistance to evil. Asks for a handshake.

"You say you're leaving?".

- Well. Here or die - or leave. If, of course, do not be in your position.

Gippius leaves the tram. She will die in Paris in September 1945. The bloc will not be three years after this meeting. Approximately then everything ended.