#18 - RW 3-4-05 - RW Home
Moscow Times
March 2, 2005
New TV Channel Inspires Chagrin, Not Pride
By Irina Petrovskaya

Zvezda, the new patriotic television channel that is quite literally continuing the best traditions of the Soviet Army, began broadcasting on Feb. 22, the eve of the national holiday honoring the defenders of the fatherland. Apparently, someone longed to report to the top brass, "Comrade Minister! Our mission is complete!"

Of course, the majority of other channels also offered viewers the typical display of passionate patriotism. Twice a year, on Victory Day and Defenders Day, television goes khaki and sings the praises of our brave soldiers. The television repertoire on patriotic holidays is now set in stone: war movies, concerts by pop stars who learn a couple civic-minded songs for the occasion, and popular performer Oleg Gazmanov singing the song "Officers" over and over as the audience rises ceremoniously.

In short, there was enough patriotism without Zvezda to satisfy even the most hardcore of Russian nationalists. This means the new channel could have postponed its launch and hit the airwaves later in all its patriotic glory. Yet Zvezda preferred to follow Napoleon's principle of attacking first and then watching what unfolds. It attacked, but viewers were the ones that had to watch. And at the moment, Zvezda is a pitiful sight to see.

Let's take, for instance, the calling card of any television channel, its logo. Even the portion of the television audience longing for a return to eternal values has gotten used to a certain level of computer graphics wizardry. In this context, the patriots' minimalist logo leaves one flabbergasted. The little red star looks like one of the channel's directors sketched it hastily on a napkin.

Then, of course, there's the actual programming. It consists almost exclusively of old films shown one after the other. It's impossible to tell if you've missed the beginning, as the channel does not print its schedule in the papers. It also doesn't bother with the titles other channels provide to remind viewers what they are watching. In the breaks between films, I happened upon a couple of patriotically themed shows, but it was impossible to figure out who made them and in what bygone era.

Perhaps these are just start-up glitches that will disappear when the test run comes to an end. But what next? Judging by the numerous interviews Zvezda's organizers have given, we will be taught to love Mother Russia. When an interviewer tries to get them to explain exactly how they plan to do this and who will pay for it, they get all mixed up. They can't recall if Zvezda is a military patriotic or a state patriotic channel. They can't tell if they will get their money from the Defense Ministry and a few private sponsors recruited with the help of the government, or if they will operate like any other commercial channel.

Two things do not change in all this talk, the bombastic patriotic rhetoric and the open disdain for all other television channels. It seems they are flooding the nation with gloom and doom laced with porn and waging a guerrilla war against Mother Russia. But the people want to take pride in their country and their army.

Naturally, we would all like to feel national pride. This is precisely why I sat down on Feb. 23 to watch Alexei Pobortsev's film "But Then Again, We Build Missiles" on NTV. As the film began, I thought the film was ideal stuff for Zvezda. This is just what we need! We are still ahead of the rest of the planet when it comes to missiles. We developed a variety of intercontinental ballistic missile that no other state can boast of. Though I'm a bit behind the times and can't seem to understand why missiles should continue to be more important than the majority of other goods and services necessary for human existence, I still felt considerable pride. That was, until Alexei Pobortsev noted that there is no money to build and test these missiles and that 2005 might be the last year in the history of the Russian missile industry. The factories that produce missile parts will have to convert to food production, scrape by somehow, or simply close down.

How is a viewer supposed to take pride in that? We have already managed to invent the best missile in the world and all we have to do is build it, but we don't have the money. Is it patriotic of NTV to focus viewers' attention on problems affecting the military and the defense industry? Or would it be better to ignore them?

In another example from last week's patriot fest, Kultura broadcast a documentary by director Algis Arlauskas, "A Letter to Mother," which tells the story of Open Russia Booker Prize-winning author Ruben David Gonzales Gallego. In the mid-1960s, a baby boy suffering from paralysis was born to a Spanish mother and a Venezuelan father, both of whom were studying in the Soviet Union. Later, it became clear that the child was injured due to a crude medical error. But the young mother, daughter of an eminent Spanish communist, instead claimed that the child had died. She went home, and the poor little boy was shipped from one Soviet orphanage to another. He managed to survive this hell and grew up to write a book that won him the prestigious literary prize. The book is terrifying and painful to read -- but it was written by a person who for years considered the country where he was born his homeland and did everything in his power to love cold-hearted Mother Russia.

In the film, Gonzales Gallego is looking for his mother with help from his friends and other good-hearted people. He searches for her in Paris and Madrid, but then finally finds her in Prague. As a result, he leaves Russia for Europe. Another short film related to the author shows him moving through the streets in a high-tech wheelchair. No one makes fun of him or bats an eye. Yet in Russia, where he lived for so long and suffered so much, he was practically helpless and constantly humiliated. Much like many other poor and handicapped people here.

I began to wonder what Zvezda would do if it got its hands on this documentary, which was shot with incredible tact and without any saccharin pathos. Would the channel show it? "A Letter to Mother" is filled with the life-affirming energy and goodwill of the many people (unfortunately, predominantly in the West) who helped the young man.

The film, alas, does not inspire an irrational love for Russia. It only inspires sorrow and confusion: How come those folks over there in the soulless and declining West -- as Russia's patriots tend to see it -- treat people like human beings, while here in spiritual and glorious Russia, we crush anyone showing the vaguest signs of weakness?

As one writer put it, "Rulers should not accuse people of lacking patriotism; they should do everything they can to inspire it." Our rulers are tugging at people's heartstrings and setting up special patriotic channels. This is apparently all they can do to inspire us.

Irina Petrovskaya writes a media column for Izvestia, where this essay first appeared.