This episode of the documentary project Deadline captures an informal argument between Alexei and Ksenia Sobchak at the height of the 2012 protest movement in Russia. Over lunch, they discuss a controversial article by Zakhar Prilepin. Alexei bluntly calls Stalin an executioner of the Russian people, debunks imperial myths, and defends active, engaged Russians against the label of an “amorphous intelligentsia,” while Sobchak tries to corner him with uncomfortable questions.
Text version
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You promised to tell me what you think about
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Prilepin's article. No, I want
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to hear your opinion. As your
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voter. Prilepin is a wonderful writer, he wrote
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What do you think of his article about
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Stalin?
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It's an interesting article, very provocative.
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The point of that article was to
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provoke a major public discussion in
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society. I've told you many times already
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already.
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So you think he doesn't actually believe
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what he wrote in his article?
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Prilepin is an imperialist by nature, so
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he likes talking about things like
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this—about how we've
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built a ton of iron armored trains,
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which will now head off in all directions,
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and we'll conquer Europe. But underneath all that
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there is nothing but mythology. And I
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think Prilepin wrote an article about
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mythology, about Stalin as some kind of
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myth. None of that really
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existed. Stalin, like Hitler, was one of the greatest
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executioners of the Russian people.
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And do you think that Russia's liberal
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intelligentsia
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stuff themselves with steaks while discussing Stalin
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read that as, in parentheses, "Jews." Do you think
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these people are really passive, latent?
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Leave me alone with your provocative questions.
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Leave me alone, I'm never going on
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your show.
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And I won't take part in your coordination council
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either. You know, let's
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just say that too—he'll never go either.
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You ordered me a steak.
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Can you just answer a simple question?
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Did you order meat for me?
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Which one? Repeat it again. Formulate it.
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Do you think that the liberal
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intelligentsia in Russia is an
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amorphous,
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uh, impotent part of society that
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can do nothing but get outraged and criticize
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the authorities, but is not prepared to do anything real
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to bring about change?
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I can't say anything on that subject,
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because I don't understand who
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the liberal intelligentsia is. Who is
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the liberal intelligentsia? I know many
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wonderful people,
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who are, well, more likely to be labeled
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the liberal intelligentsia. They are
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normal, active, wonderful people.
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But we're talking about this in the context of Prilepin's article
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here.
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Prilepin's goal was, as I already said,
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to provoke a discussion in society. He
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did provoke one, and even now the echoes
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of that discussion are somehow still
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Remember, Mitya Alshansky wrote
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a similar article a few years ago.
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Exactly the same story.
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Exactly the same story.
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Anyway
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You didn't answer my question
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Listen, let's just not film us while
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we're eating, I think that's improper.
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All right, sure, all right, let's
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wrap it up then.
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Why don't you want to tell me about
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the liberal intelligentsia, Navalny?