This unique excerpt from the documentary project The Term, from September 2012, takes us back to the height of the white-ribbon protest movement. In an informal setting, Alexei discusses with writers Zakhar Prilepin and Sergei Shargunov the creation of a new media outlet that could unite the opposition’s fragmented wings—from the left to the nationalists. The conversation vividly illustrates how, even then, Alexei was trying to build a broad coalition for a common struggle against the regime, and the extraordinary diplomatic effort that required in practice.
Text version
0:04
How wonderful! How wonderful! I am
0:06
terribly grateful to you, Mikhail, truly
0:08
for your call. It warms my heart. Yes,
0:19
and hers too. Yes, yes.
0:24
Hey, bro. Hi. Hi. You
0:26
picked a place that's a bit too glamorous
0:28
for left-wing writers. Hugging you.
0:31
Well, we'll hang out separately later,
0:32
sure.
0:32
Uh-huh.
0:33
Mikhail called, called and said that I,
0:36
as a representative of the liberal
0:37
intelligentsia of this very people,
0:39
support every word in your letter.
0:41
This is off the record, if you would. All right.
0:42
About Stalin, you mean?
0:43
Whose response did you like more,
0:44
Bykov or Alshansky?
0:48
Well, Bykov, of course. What about Alshansky?
0:49
Alshansky. I could write plenty of lists like that myself.
0:52
Well, he did it with a certain... style.
0:54
Well yes, yes. Let's eat.
0:56
I'm driving. I'd really like to, but I'm driving.
0:58
What kind of car do you have? I came in my wife's car.
1:01
I don't have a car at all. I
1:03
sent my wife on vacation. They didn't let me
1:05
go with her, so I'm using
1:07
her car.
1:09
So you don't have your own car. You don't
1:10
need one. I, for one, have two cars and
1:12
a driver.
1:13
Do you have a bodyguard? I just saw one with
1:14
them. You have a bodyguard, and I don't.
1:17
Shagunov is your protection.
1:18
Yes, that's right. I've got a revolver there under the blanket,
1:21
a revolver. Yes. Yes. He's sitting there loaded with weapons
1:23
it'll all come out there. But the point of the site, I
1:27
Seryoga may disagree on the details,
1:30
but the basic idea is this, actually:
1:31
we want to create, well, a platform
1:34
opposite to Echo of Moscow. Not
1:36
opposite in the strictest sense,
1:38
but rather another center of gravity, yes.
1:41
By Echo of Moscow, do you mean the Echo of Moscow website?
1:42
Well, the website, the radio station, all of it. It's just that
1:44
Echo of Moscow could bring people together,
1:47
lead them from Revolution Square
1:49
to Bolotnaya Square. It can organize
1:50
the space, it can gather people,
1:52
it can bring like-minded people together. It's
1:54
a resource that genuinely influences
1:56
the situation.
1:56
Well, roughly speaking, there's the official media,
1:58
that rotten Kremlin kind, where
2:01
everything is filtered. And there are well-known
2:05
There are, there are well-known liberal outlets,
2:07
nice, good ones, but with a certain
2:09
set of emphases. In this case
2:11
we want to do something broader and bring
2:13
everyone else into it, while at the same time not falling behind in
2:15
speed. And here
2:17
and place the emphasis differently. The emphasis
2:18
has to be different. That's very important.
2:20
Well, tell me what kind—I don't understand, what
2:21
different emphasis. Lyosha, the task, as I see it,
2:23
is simple. The task is that at the next
2:26
rally, there on the proverbial
2:27
Bolotnaya, the right-wing column shouldn't drift off
2:31
into isolation, and the left-wing column shouldn't
2:33
be wondering whether to go or not, but rather that they
2:34
gather in another place and that there be
2:36
more of them.
2:36
Okay,
2:37
you see? There. Well
2:38
yes, I can only welcome that, since I'm
2:39
interested in any columns, in any
2:41
numbers, as long as they march
2:43
the question is, where will you go? Yes,
2:44
I'll go wherever, I don't know, the ashes
2:47
of the class that will be knocking, wherever it
2:49
leads me, that's where I'll go.
2:51
There are just a hell of a lot of ярких
2:53
people who, unfortunately, don't
2:55
break through this double barrier.
2:57
It's obvious. On the one hand, the Kremlin doesn't let
2:59
them through; on the other hand, unfortunately, the liberals
3:00
don't exactly feel warmly toward them
3:01
either.
3:02
Even with speaking slots at Bolotnaya, there were problems for
3:04
Krylov. For anyone, really.
3:08
In the interval between December 10 and December 24,
3:10
I was just telling the guys recently, I
3:13
don't know, half my nerve cells
3:14
burned out making sure Krylov got
3:16
the floor, the right to speak on the twenty-
3:18
fourth. Things were like that. I
3:21
was performing some kind of mega-art of
3:22
diplomacy; I mean, I don't know, some
3:24
Talleyrand would be nervously smoking on the sidelines compared
3:27
to me.
3:28
Our conversation has brought us to something
3:30
I wanted to propose to you. I'd even
3:31
say not I, but the interests of the revolution demand
3:33
it of you. Have you heard anything about our
3:35
elections, these primaries and so
3:36
on?
3:38
Yes, I know.