What the new Russian intellectuals (beetween them - the very talented postmodernists) - have done in the time after perestroika, after the end of censorship? When the freedom came? During the "late" perestroika period the TV program "Kinopravda" first made its appearance, showing Soviet films from the 1930s and 40s (e.g., A Great Citizen).

The films were supplied with the inevitable background remarks by a journalist whoexplained the ideological, propaganda tasks of the film. Then after the broadcast of the film followed a half-hour disscussion with historians, sociologits, philosophers and the viewers themselves - by telephone.
A response to the altered psychology of the television audience can be seen in the New Year program "Old Songs about the Main Thing," as produced by the new generation of aesthetes of telepostmodernism.

Longing for the motherland (the USSR) and longing for the past. . . paradoxically merged in the forfeited unity of the Soviet people. It is not accidental that emotional memory proved to be more powerful than rational arguments. And the competition for viewers in this instance required complete and unconditional capitulation on the part of the reformers.

Despite the declared ideological victory, and despite the newly found freedom and the total abolition of cencorship, including aesthetic censorship, post-Soviet culture continues to demonstrate a lingering dependence on the language and style, as well as the characters and performers of a bygone era. The "new" genre repertoure of post-Soviet TV is clearly dependent on the old Soviet one.

The state of affairs on television today can be likened to a reverse perspective: the objects in spase (here, in time) are not optically reduced, but instead are magnified in accordance with thei remoteness. The true proportions are violated, while the historical past loses its definition, becomes blurred, and is covered with an alluring veil, a delicate mist, all enveloped by an attractive scent.

After all these things the new, slightly improved in the imperial manner gymne was established.
Written by the same auther, very old one. First redaction of the gymn was produced in Stalinist era.
Instead of "Lenin" and "communist party" we have now "God" and "Great Russia".
And the intellectuals were so nervous! But this situation was prepared with our own help.

Natalia Ivanova is a literary critic, assistant director of the megazine "Znamja"