On April 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived at the Manege for the exhibition “Zhirinovsky. Continuation. LDPR” and, although he didn’t say anything, he meant it, a Kommersant special correspondent believes Andrey Kolesnikov, much.
Exhibition “Zhirinovsky. Continuation. LDPR” in Manege amazes, as they say, the imagination, already amazed by various events. That is, for example, Gennady Andreevich Zyuganov, God grant him health, could be envious. They, equal figures, competed in politics for so many years, at all elections and in the pauses between them, at meetings with the president, when he met with the leaders of factions in the State Duma, at meetings of the State Council, where both necessarily spoke out on a wide range of issues, that Gennady Zyuganov, orphaned in a sense, is now a witness to how Vladimir Zhirinovsky suddenly bypassed his colleague on a sharp turn between life and death… After all, an exhibition in the Manege is an exhibition in the Manege… You should never relax…
I carefully examined the exhibition. It was made by capable people. The idea is this: the Zhirinovsky propaganda train, nine stations… “Childhood”, “Great Expectations”, “Creation of the Party”, “Political Struggle”, “My Predictions Came True”, “Personality”, “International”, “People’s”, “Great Russia” (and this is already with Vladimir Putin, there are no illusions here) …
A separate chapter is about how the hero was born. “In the first post-war spring, transport worked poorly, and the ambulance was late. The birth was attended by a neighbor, Ivan Fedorovich Bogomazov, the husband of his mother’s sister…” That is, to whom we owe first of all.
The stand narrates: “Later, Vladimir Volfovich ironized: “The ambulance was late, but I didn’t want to wait and I myself broke into this world in defiance of fate and all the rules.”
“On the same day, just a few days after the birth of his son, his father Wolf Isaakovich Eidelstein (the same one, apparently, a lawyer.— A.K.) left for his historical homeland, Warsaw. One of the relatives ran to the station and managed to tell him: “You have a son!” The father heard, but still left. He no longer had a Soviet passport. They will never meet again…
And it was April 25, 1946. And he was his mother’s sixth child. And the five others were from a different father, but so what? “Shortly after Vladimir’s birth, they sent him to a 24-hour nursery, where he stayed six days a week along with 20 other children (who, however, did not become what he became.— A.K.), then he was assigned to a regular kindergarten, where he stayed until he was six years old…”
So, perhaps, he grew up an orphan. This is what the truthful exhibition is about. And all this is written in black and white on black and white and color screens. And a video where Vladimir Zhirinovsky talks and cries:
– Mom… Everyone hated her, everyone… She was beautiful. They told her husband: “Take these relatives away…” Everyone came to this apartment… He was dying in that room. Tuberculosis… He stood guard in Leningrad and froze: thin boots… He died for two years… Five children… She cooks for him, but he tries and doesn’t want to eat. But you can’t give it to children: the food is already contagious, it’s tuberculosis…”
Have you seen Zhirinovsky sobbing? And you won’t see it: on April 23, the eve of his birthday, the exhibition closed.
And here is the basket of strawberries that his grandmother advised him to give to the admissions committee when he came from Almaty to enter the Institute of Asian and African Studies… And here is his shabby suitcase… Or maybe not his…
Here is the first room in the dorm, a kitchen stove and a ZIL refrigerator, not random, but historical sweatpants are drying, a T-shirt and a “LDPR” T-shirt from the future…
I opened the refrigerator, but what’s wrong?.. There’s a saucepan and a can of milk for researchers like me…
And here it is, the canonical story about how Volodya burned his neighbor Gena Avdeev’s sweatpants, one for two, over that stove… And how then, almost to death, he gave Gena, a member of the LDPR, pants, sheepskin coats and suits…
But Volodya Zhirinovsky in 1967 writes a letter to Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev about what is wrong and how to do everything better… And then they come to him to clarify the details…
And how he was an “ordinary legal consultant”… And how he missed his mother… And how he apologized – and there’s another stand about this: “Give your parents what they ask for! They won’t have this again. They sent me sneakers, and my mother and my son had the same size. Mom asks me: “Give it to me, they are so comfortable, beautiful…” But I told her: “Why do you need it? I have a son, I’ll give it to him.” This is what I regret now, this is what I am ashamed of. My son had many more different sneakers, but his mother never had time… Two years later she died… That’s what I’m ashamed of…”
Yes, this was not the same Zhirinovsky who so selflessly shouted from the podium and simply shouted at everyone who tried to move… Not the same one. And there are already doubts whether he was…
And I remembered my Zhirinovsky – the one who came to the “Pioneer Readings” of the magazine “Russian Pioneer” (where I work as editor-in-chief) when they were in the State Duma, and read his early poems, published at the dawn in the magazine “Youth”, and read for a long time, and surprised everyone without exception, and admitted later that he did not expect from himself…
No, I also remember another Zhirinovsky, who, after the announcement of one of the messages to the Federal Assembly, shouted to me when he did not like the question that the Kremlin pool was fattening and that “get out of here, get out!”
But all this, thank God, was not included in the exhibition (but the poems could have been included)…
But there was a typewriter on which the first protocol of the LDPSS (Liberal Democratic Party of the Soviet Union) was printed.— “Kommersant”), and a crimson jacket (and nothing else is needed, it seems, for the completeness and exhaustion of that picture of the world, which now seems otherworldly), but also his oak table from the State Duma, and a throne donated by Muammar Gaddafi, upholstered in leopard skin with a tail hanging down to the floor, in fact, a leopard, and a painting with white swans “from the official delegation of the DPRK…
We entered the exhibition, flowing like a labyrinth through the Manege, and some fundamental points:
“Our party came out in support of the State Emergency Committee program. We did not support any actions that were even slightly beyond the law or even arouse negative emotions. But in this case it was not a coup from the legal side.” That’s what Zhirinovsky said. Evasive, right? Well, I didn’t guess August 19, 1991, and how. And what predictions he made!..
And now “joint work for the benefit of the country begins,” that is, a joint photo with Vladimir Putin, who is “building a new architecture for government, initiating the strengthening of the vertical of power, carrying out work to restore the economy”… And here I guessed right.
“Basically everything I have is a gift,” Vladimir Zhirinovsky tells people. “People love me, respect me for my directness, for my frankness, and sometimes, once a year, someone will give me a shirt, someone a tie…”
I see: Vladimir Zhirinovsky canonizes himself. As usual, he will do the best job at this exhibition.
And the following stands directly say: remember, Vladimir the Big Heart is with you. Singer. Philanthropist. Humorist. Zhirinovsky. To be continued.
There is also a store with T-shirts with the slogan “Safonov, pay!” I’m telling you: the exhibition was carried out by capable people.
And here is the immediate continuation, that is, Leonid Slutsky (leader of the LDPR faction in the State Duma), who continues to tell the beautiful truth about Vladimir Zhirinovsky, which he cannot hide:
— It’s not for nothing that the words he once said at the end of Posner’s interview are carved on the base of his tombstone at Novodevichy Cemetery! To his traditional question: “What will you say when you stand before God?” Zhirinovsky’s answer was: “Send me back, I don’t want to lie here in the Garden of Eden, I’d rather be sick, half-starved, I’ll wade through the taiga, but help people!..” I think the results of the first elections to the State Duma without him will be worthy…
How can anything happen without him, I think, to be honest.
But the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov comes in and, seeing State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin, greets him: “Welcome to us in the LDPR!” But because once, while still working in Turkey, he joined the party, and never left. It also seems like he pays his dues.
“You know,” Vyacheslav Volodin tells me, “the LDPR has done a great job, such an exhibition!” And of course, Vladimir Volfovich still helps his party…
“How so?..” I ask again.
– Not without it, yes. Although, alas, he is no longer with us. And many, by the way, think that he is still alive…
Because that’s the kind of person he is, I understand. Was, is and will be. Already more alive than almost everyone else alive. But still not all. After all, Vladimir Putin finally appears.
He slowly walks through the entire exhibition, and various people tell him about Vladimir Zhirinovsky (the longest-serving member of the LDPR is Andrei Lugovoi), although Vladimir Putin himself could tell about Vladimir Zhirinovsky and maybe he will.
And on this day he will walk through the entire exhibition without uttering a word.
Not that he was that empathetic.
But he was not a stranger either.
