Germany needs people in power with greater joy for life

However, our inability to start a new life does not in any way mean division, fractures in relation to Germany. We're also dealing with an indoor fracture. Germany is present in different forms, from the old German neighborhoods in Russian cities to the German princesses who were married to Russian Czars, from Bach to Hitler, from legendary German vehicles to children's games.

A Paracyphist country with scared faces

From this historic background Germany is presented today as a pacifist with a fearful face: save us, Lord, nothing bad happens! Careful not to be involved in any scandal or local war in any way, always with an ear to regular beatings of the soul and attentive to avoiding bad forces in the way.

Germany bears the seal of chronic tension. Germans seem to hide somewhere deep inside themselves a pain. And this ghost pain lives in the German spirit. It makes him injured and sometimes quite a coward.

I feel very attached to Germany. Many of my books have been published in German, not a few things that connect me to this country. So I see elections in Germany in fact with concern: where is this country going?

I wish in Germany to gain a smart democracy a democracy, which is able to defend itself, and remain here open to the world and to diverse cultures.

Now, when the world is sinking back into the atmosphere of the Cold War, I would like the Germans to stop suffering from the “child disease” anti-Americanism. In the Kremlin, of course, they rub their hands from the occasional displays of this disease.

Germany must become more relaxed

I would like to see people who enjoy life come to power in Germany. People who are not able to work and deal with difficulties but also to enjoy beyond limits as they do without limit. I know people like that in Germany but they have a distant report with the powerful.

Germany is a strong, modern country. I've met there with scientists and artists with the highest-level creative people who don't have to be afraid of comparison. Germany needs to appear more prominent: as a country of highly motivated students (I've taught at the Freie Universität Berlin and I know about it), fine journalists, professors, people engaged in society, all those who can discuss it and are able to protect their point of view.

Propagandistic View of a False Paradise

Unfortunately, Germany arrives only through Russian television on people who live somewhere in the small towns of the country's remote spaces and have never been there. And since the Crimea crisis, state television stations have been working with all powers to present all of Europe, including Germany, as a major distraction, as a false paradise. In Moscow and the provinces, you can even see labels attached to vehicles with banners like “Berlin Director! ” or “We can retrieve it! ” These unhappy people with their brains clouded by propaganda confuse yesterday with today.

You only have to hope that politicians who will form the German government after 24 September know and understand that Russia's basic values are protected by its best artists and intellectuals. And these are the value of Russian literature, not those forged by Kremlin propaganda. For this reason, wood is also exercised against Russian artists (see the current case of director Kiril Serebrnikov). But exactly culture offers Russia and Germany the opportunity to draw close to each other and understand each other. If not now, then at least in a distant future.

Victor Jerofeyev, who turned 70 on September 19th, is a Russian writer. In 1979 he was expelled from the League of Writers of the Soviet Union. The international name he won in 1990 with the novel “Bekitia Moskovite”, which was translated into 27 languages. He lives in Moscow and regularly expresses himself critical of Vladimir Putin's policy.