The situation with the “Kirill Serebrennikov Theater” continues to unfold slowly, I watch. Somehow straight from the fable "And Vaska listens, but eats." While the theatrical and creative community in general is shouting, screaming and calling curses on the heads of Putin's satraps - Serebrennikov is under house arrest, his employees are under prison arrest, the press is constantly “leaking” about who else is under suspicion. One of these days, another surname appeared - Apfelbaum Sophia, head of RAMT and in the past head of the department of financial support for theatrical art of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation (the position is so sweet!)

The details about Apfelbaum are convincing: in 2011, the Ministry of Culture, through Apfelbaum, is organizing a kind of "tender" (we have Europe, damn it, through tenders!), For the organization of a "large-scale theater project of contemporary art" for 214 million rubles (7 million dollars for that money), and among the conditions of the competition, according to information from the UK, there was a spicy point that the winner should have had copyright or a license for the Platform project. Since only its author, Kirill Serebrennikov, possessed the copyright for the Platform project, it was Serebrennikov's Seventh Studio that won the tender. The scheme is as old as the world, and is applied, of course, wherever there is government procurement for a specific contractor, and not only in the Ministry of Culture.

Now Apfelbaum is exactly what they "sew", apparently. And the stranglehold on the neck of Serebrennikov and his associates is thus tightening more and more firmly.

But why did you suddenly become attached to them? And a much more piquant question - why did the Ministry of Culture pay off such a sum, God forgive me, to Platform? After all, federal money was specially sculpted with a fake tender ... Why all of a sudden such troubles?

I heard the answer on the radio. According to BiznesFM (naturally, with a bunch of reservations, constantly inserting the word “theoretically”) they gave a very simple version. It turns out that it all started with the fact that the cunning Serebrennikov staged the play "Near Colonel" at the Moscow Art Theater - based on a play allegedly written by a certain Natan Dubovitsky, but in fact - by Vladislav Surkov. And - hit the bull's-eye. After all, who was then, at the very beginning of the "tenths", Surkov? He was a “gray eminence”, a powerful man, to whom the entire “ideology” of the country was subject, including, of course (first of all) the Ministry of Culture.

So, according to the radio version, "theoretically" after the performance, Serebrennikov approached the satisfied author (who joined the host - why, "my plays are staged at the Moscow Art Theater", I'm Chekhov, ... mother !!), and the author, like, asked , "What you need for happiness." Everything, like, will be.

That is how the Platform project was born.

That is, Apfelbaum here (which is now beating herself in the chest, repents and, as they write, “admitted that she was negligent in fulfilling her duties to check applicants”) has nothing to do with it, in fact. She was given the go-ahead from the very top (from the AP from Surkov - above only from Putin himself) - a good young man, a director, will come, they say, and you have to give him whatever he asks for. The man came, and she slept. And what could she have - not to give? And the money is small - some 7 million greens. In 2011 - tears!

And now she is threatened with arrest. And it is very likely that they are actually digging under Surkov. Another "battle of the towers". Surkov wants to return to "big politics" as a puppeteer, but he is not allowed to do so. Through the "big theater business". Apparently, they want to get testimony against him from Apfelbaum. It is possible that the unexpected troubles of Medinsky with his dissertation are also connected with the same "battle of the towers."

So that's it. But it seemed that it was such a good idea - to stage "Nearby"! Without a fight - and into kings at once.

But hey ... But if you hadn't put it, the century would not have made it to big money and performances.

"The situation with" Kirill Serebrennikov's theater "continues to unwind slowly, I watch. Somehow straight from the fable" And Vaska listens, but eats. "While the theatrical and generally creative community is wailing, screaming and calling curses on the heads of Putin's satraps - Serebrennikov under the home arrest, his employees are under prison arrest, the press is constantly "leaking" about who else was under suspicion. Recently, another name appeared - Apfelbaum Sophia , the head of RAMT and in the past the head of the department of financial support for theatrical art of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation ", - writes in "Live Journal" social psychologist Alexey Roshchin.

The details about Apfelbaum are convincing: in 2011, the Ministry of Culture, through Apfelbaum, is organizing a kind of "tender" (we have Europe, damn it, through tenders!), For the organization of a "large-scale theater project of contemporary art" for 214 million rubles (7 million dollars for those money), and among the conditions of the competition, according to information from the UK, there was a spicy point that the winner should have had copyright or a license for the Platform project. Since the copyright for the Platform project was owned only by its author - Kirill Serebrennikov - it was Serebrennikov's Seventh Studio that won the tender. The scheme is as old as the world, and is applied, of course, wherever there is government procurement for a specific contractor, and not only in the Ministry of Culture.

Now Apfelbaum is exactly what they "sew", apparently. And the stranglehold on the neck of Serebrennikov and his associates is thus tightening more and more firmly.

But why did you suddenly become attached to them? And a much more piquant question - why did the Ministry of Culture pay off such a sum, God forgive me, to Platform? Federal money, after all, specially a fake tender was sculpted ... Why all of a sudden such trouble?

I heard the answer on the radio. According to "BiznesFM" (naturally, with a bunch of reservations, constantly inserting the word "theoretically") they gave a very simple version.

It turns out that it all started with the fact that the cunning Serebrennikov staged the play "Near Colonel" at the Moscow Art Theater - based on a play that was allegedly written by a certain Natan Dubovitsky, and in fact - Vladislav Surkov ... And - hit the bull's-eye. After all, who was then, at the very beginning of the "tenths", Surkov? He was a "gray cardinal", a powerful man, to whom the entire "ideology" of the country was subordinated, including, of course (first of all) the Ministry of Culture.

So, according to the radio version, "theoretically" after the performance, Serebrennikov approached the satisfied author (who joined the host - why, "my plays are staged at the Moscow Art Theater", I'm Chekhov, ... mother !!), and the author, like, asked, "what do you need for happiness." Everything, like, will be.

This is how the Platform project was born.

That is, Apfelbaum here (which is now beating herself in the chest, repents and already, as they write, "admitted that she was negligent in her duties to check applicants") has nothing to do with it, in fact. She was given the go-ahead from the very top (from the AP from Surkov - above only from Putin himself) - a good young man, a director, will come, they say, and you have to give him whatever he asks for. The man came, and she slept. And what could she have - not to give? And the money is small - some 7 million greens. In 2011 - tears!

And now she is threatened with arrest. And it is very likely that they are actually digging under Surkov. Another "battle of the towers". Surkov wants to return to "big politics" as a puppeteer, but he is not allowed to do so. Through the "great theatrical business".

Apparently, they want to get testimony against him from Apfelbaum. It is possible that the unexpected troubles between Medinsky and his dissertation are also connected with the same "battle of the towers".

So that's it. But it seemed that it was such a good idea - to stage "Okolonol"! Without a fight - and into kings at once.

But hey ... But if he hadn't, he wouldn't have made it to big money and performances.

https: //www.site/2017-05-24/oleg_kashin_o_nepriyatnostyah_kirilla_serebrennikova

If you look at power for a long time

Oleg Kashin about Kirill Serebrennikov's troubles

Maxim Blinov / RIA Novosti

We met seven years ago and immediately quarreled; last spring, in a common company, we ended up at the same table and tried not to notice each other, it was unpleasant.

Why did they quarrel: seven years ago I interviewed him, and he wanted to tell me about some difficult and interesting production for May 9, and I was interested in this production only from the point of view that the state needs patriotism and “thanks grandfather for victory ", and he provides this" thank you "for the appropriate money, but in general I was much more interested in the staging of" Okolonol "- it was already known who is considered the author of this story, Serebrennikov volunteered to stage it, and I was pleased to ask him about it , to seek answers in the spirit that it does not matter who the author is, it is just a very deep and accurate story, better than others, reflecting the spirit of the times, and the very name of "Okolonol" - how many-sided and talented it is, because in the word " near-zero "one can hear both" near-life "and" near-death ", and even (for some reason)" near-lobes "- so he told me something like that. And it looked, adjusted for the understandable difference between eras, as if Yuri Solomin was giving an interview about how pleasant he was to play Brezhnev in the play "Small Land" at the Maly Theater - everything is more than obvious, but you have to play the fool, and for a few minutes shame, apparently, offset by all the other bonuses associated with this production. About Serebrennikov, I knew that he was friends with Vladislav Surkov and that this friendship had materialized by that time in the expensive Perm festival "Territory", for which a mysterious foundation, headed by Surkov's classmate, or a childhood friend, who, as I was told , in fact, there is that mysterious author of a fashionable story about which everyone thought that Surkov wrote it and therefore praised it.

The interview was filmed, and Serebrennikov came to my office for this filming. The camera turned off, we got up, I went to see him off to the door, we said goodbye, it seemed to me, quite warmly, shook hands, but as soon as the door closed behind him, I received a huge (and it struck me - when did you manage to write?) SMS , in which it was written that in vain I hope to make a career of offending people, nothing good will come of me in life, and he wants me to burn in hell. I understood what he was offended, but it did not upset me at all - well, in fact, man, if you chose the role of a court punk, be prepared for the fact that they will ask you about it, and no one promised that it would be easy. Of course, I titled the interview with the most obvious "Near the Kremlin", and Kirill Serebrennikov occupied in my memory the shelf on which people who have been offended by me sit deservedly (of course, there are also undeservedly, but this is not the case). I, of course, followed his further fate, and nothing in it seemed to me a reason to think of him somehow differently: yes, Surkov left, but Kapkov came, and the roles remained the same, but to say something about them beyond what has already been said - what for?

And now, when the security forces and FSB operatives were in charge of the Gogol Center all day, they took Serebrennikov away for interrogation, and there are already two detainees in this case, and there was a concerned audience and actors in front of the theater, and Chulpan Khamatova, reading the corresponding speech, I must gloat over all logic now, because yes, if you play games with the authorities for many years, then sooner or later the authorities will change the rules, and the charming author of "Okolonol" will suddenly turn into a ruthless investigator who will put a blank-hearted form in front of you. confession and asks: "Well, have you thought of it?"

Vyacheslav Prokofiev / Kommersant

This gloating - yes, it seems natural, but it also has its own drama. Rejoicing in the troubles of someone who is unpleasant to you, you somehow by yourself inevitably take the side of this investigator, those operas who put the director in their car and took them away for interrogation, those Rosguards (were they the Rosguards?) Who, having locked the troupe in theater hall, unwillingly, played a disgusting scene from the fall of 2002 - people in camouflage always have much more in common with each other than they themselves think about it. And I have just as much in common with Serebrennikov; of course, in any case he is dearer, closer and more understandable to me than those men and women in uniform who came to the theater this Tuesday, and if some rational, political or personal considerations push me to rejoice in Serebrennikov's troubles - After all, they push me first of all into the arms of that opera, who kicks down the office door and then says that he went down in the history of the theater. And I don’t want to be embraced by him, so let’s leave gloat to those nice people who, for some reason, consider themselves to be carriers of absolute moral righteousness - we have a lot of such people, they always appear on such occasions, and, in an amicable way, from they would have made excellent security officers if the place of the security officers had not been taken by those guys who escorted Serebrennikov.

Serebrennikov is a form of life that may not like, may outrage, may repulse. And the Rosguards, Chekists, investigators are something else, not a form of life, but part of a completely inhuman machine, all the destructive and poisonous properties of which are well-known and disgusting. Anyone hit by this machine deserves unconditional sympathy, even if he himself had all the risks in mind when he began to interact with it. And if you didn't think about the risks, then even more so.

For many years, Kirill Serebrennikov looked at the authorities and their people, and at some point, as it should be, the authorities began to look at him. It’s not good to say that, but I hope that the humiliation and fear he experienced on that day will be stronger than all possible excuses in the spirit that power is not homogeneous, and that besides these operas, there are also nice intelligent people with whom you can deal with from them support and help. I hope that the result of this unpleasant day for him will be such an unconditional and weighty "Damn you," which he will harbor within himself and sooner or later will bring down on the head of this state, no longer looking at or understanding who is good in this vertical. and who is bad. And if some next theater-goer is found in power, who will show him the manuscript of the next "Near-Colonel", Serebrennikov will quietly but firmly tell him: "You go to ***". And ideally, such a model of behavior will become a standard for the entire Russian creative intelligentsia - it is never too late to understand that this state simply does not deserve another conversation.

Most likely, the threads lead to the "Seventh Studio"

What is happening now in the "Gogol Center" and with its leader Kirill Serebrennikov can be called in two words: darkness and fog. None of the responsible persons in whose subordination the theater is, can give any intelligible comment. Not because they do not want to, but because for them the searches of the director Serebrennikov's are a bolt from the blue.

Even before yesterday in the life of a fashion director, everything was cloudless. According to our information, he returned from Berlin on Sunday, and already on Monday he was at the Helikon-Opera, where he rehearsed the first act of the new opera production of Chaadsky - the premiere is scheduled for June 1. Before that, he made films, it seems, in Rwanda. And it is as if the train, speeding at high speed, was suddenly stopped. All the first half of the day in the apartment on Prechistenka, in the "Gogol-center", at the "Winzavod", the former director of the department of state support for the arts of the Ministry of Culture, and now the director of the RAMT Sophia Apfelbaum was searched. We studied the contents of computers, flash drives, business documents, accounting. At three o'clock in the afternoon, Serebrennikov was taken to the Investigative Committee. He looked dejected, admitted that he did not understand what was happening.

Journalists build versions: what could have happened, where the wind is blowing from. At the Gogol Center, everyone was asked to turn off their mobile phones - so no one gets in touch. Social media is even more confusing.

The threads lead to the "Seventh Studio", which has been led by Kirill Serebrennikov since 2012. And then the question is already to the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation - it was this department (at that time it was headed by Alexander Avdeev) for three years in a row allocated quite serious sums for this studio, which personified contemporary art. The Seventh Studio actually rented the so-called White Workshop at Winzavod for the Platform project, experimented there with different types of contemporary art, produced productions - both successful and not so successful. True, a new theatrical organization was registered for some reason at the address of Kirill Serebrennikov on Prechistenka, and now it becomes clear why the search was carried out there.

After the "Studio" stopped working due to lack of government funding, rumors periodically began to surface that the theater organization was being checked by financial authorities. As if there were suspicions of cashing out state money allocated to the Studio. And it seems that this was the main reason for the sudden searches of the director Serebrennikov.

Already now, on social networks, Kirill Serebrennikov is called a victim of the regime, that the case was falsified as if because of his political position, which he has publicly expressed more than once. In fact, nothing radical - quite familiar liberal rhetoric about the ruling regime. But with him, by the way, Serebrennikov had his own relationship. Everyone knows that with the approval of Vyacheslav Surkov, who worked in the Presidential Administration, the director received support for his projects and, thanks to him, became the head of the Gogol Center.

Department claims

Exactly two years ago, in April 2015, the Gogol Center was already in the center of a financial scandal, to the point that the head of the Moscow Department of Culture, Alexander Kibovsky, officially announced the theater's debt to various organizations, no less than 80 million rubles. And this despite the fact that the "Gogol Center" was generously funded by the authorities (starting with Kapkov), since a relatively new (instead of the Gogol Theater) cultural institution was given a complete carte blanche and allocated a considerable subsidy. Which, however, caused bewilderment among some theater directors, hinting that it would be better "in the morning - masterpieces, in the evening - money", and not so that first money, and a lot of money, and then ... bankruptcy. There was even a question about closing the Gogol Center, but in 2015 Kirill Serebrennikov paid off his debts in full from his own funds, as well as from the money collected by his colleagues. And at the moment, the Department of Culture does not seem to have any questions about the Gogol Center.

In private conversations, the directors spoke with a shudder about the director's place for execution in the Gogol Center, to which they would never agree of their own free will: only in 2015, Alexei Malobrodsky (the main reporting person) “left” the theater, leaves after four months and the next director - Anastasia Golub, who soberly assessed the size of the disaster ... After that Kirill Serebrennikov was appointed acting director director.

Even then, it was obvious that the administration in the theater was clearly not up to par, and it was necessary to try very hard to - with all the credibility of the authorities - bring the matter to a debt hole. It is a pity that the flaws in financial activities continue to follow Serebrennikov like a train, which, of course, does not benefit him.

Ministry claims

So, to date, there is little intelligible in the noise about Kirill Serebrennikov, but every now and then different amounts emerge: from 200 million rubles to 1 million 286 thousand rubles. In particular, the last figure denotes money allocated for costumes for experimental performances. Is it a lot or a little? For practitioners, this is not a question at all. They answer it with several answers at once: 1 million 286 thousand are released for one costume or is it necessary to “dress” the whole performance? After all, for example, the dress of the Queen of England in one performance costs 1.5 million! What fabrics? Do I need to "age" them, texture?

We contacted the famous theater artist Victoria Sevryukova. To the question "is it a lot or a little" he answers: "It is nothing."

Each performance needs to be viewed differently. For example, just a T-shirt - one price, and processed, "thoughtful" - another. If someone has suspicions, then you need to sit down and draw up an alternative estimate, calculate everything. That is, it is only necessary to talk with an estimate in hand.

Recall that "The Seventh Studio" was founded by Kirill Serebrennikov on the basis of his course at the Moscow Art Theater School. During the life of Konstantin Sergeevich Stanislavsky, the founder of the Moscow Art Theater, six studios were already working, which arose at different times. Therefore, it is quite natural that Serebrennikov aptly named his seventh.

For several years, Studio and its Platform project have worked in different directions: theatrical, visual and contemporary music - each had its own curators. The most notable among the performances are considered "Thugs" (2011) based on the novel "Sankya" by Zakhar Prilepin; “Metamorphoses” (2012) based on the myths of Ovid (directors David Bobe, Kirill Serebrennikov), since 2013 the play has been included in the repertoire of the “Gogol Center”; A Midsummer Night's Dream (2012) based on Shakespeare (directed by Kirill Serebrennikov), since 2013 - in the repertoire of the Gogol Center.

Since the site was considered experimental, there was no reason to count on the commercial success of the productions, and no one was going to. There were successful productions, there were passages, but an experiment is an experiment to be engaged in a search. The only question is the price ... the question. Many theaters and studios then had reason to be angry that the financial investment in the new project was unreasonably high. However, from such a "piece" of the state pyrog, if he got it himself, hardly anyone would refuse.

I don't know about a special relationship, but I know that at one time Kirill led a round table within the framework of one of the projects initiated by the authorities. Whether this is the result of some special collaboration, I don't know. But on the whole, it is similar to the story with Ilya Ponomarev, when at the beginning the authorities support some idea, including financially, and then they begin to persecute the person, using state money as a hook.

There is also such a coincidence: recently there was a pro-government, Promedin "Russian Art Union", it just a few days ago, quite loudly declared itself. There, among the organizers, there is a theater producer who does not have a theater now. If you read their manifesto, it is clear that they plan to fight the likes of Kirill Serebrennikov. We already assume that the authorities are fighting not with the help of competition, but with the help of riot police, tax inspection or prosecutor's office. The authorities want state institutions to be headed by ideological allies, not independent professionals.

Perhaps Serebrennikov fell victim to his previous ties with Vladislav Surkov at the time he worked in the Presidential Administration. I do not know in what relationship they were, but it is known that Serebrennikov was the director of the play "Near-Column" based on the novel by Surkov. I also know that Surkov had such a strategy - to invite people from the arts to the Kremlin who do not agree with the state's course. I heard about this from Nikolai Fomenko. Surkov allegedly said: "Yes, you do not agree, but we ourselves do not like how it all works, let's think about how to do it better."

There is a connection, but it looks different. This is, apparently, about the period when the Kremlin was still relatively open to the country's cultural elites, and did not, so to speak, kindle wars of one section of cultural figures against another section, of imaginary liberals against imaginary patriots. Then in the Kremlin there were different people, and there was no border between, say, Bondarchuk, Mikhalkov, Serebrennikov. That is, there was not this current, which seems to us eternal, but in fact the recent post-Crimean line, the firing line that the Kremlin built, starting a war against its own cultural establishment. Of course, Serebrennikov also visited there, well, as usual, I have never met Serebrennikov in the Kremlin. But as far as I know, Surkov was well acquainted with him, as well as with many others, it is difficult for me to measure the distance, who was closer to him. Say, Fedor Bondarchuk, Chulpan Khamatova or Serebrennikov, I cannot say. But Surkov constantly communicated with them, and this was part of his, I would even say, the duties of the person responsible for internal policy. This was considered completely normal. Naturally, even then the capabilities of Nikita Mikhalkov were a thousand times greater than those of everyone else, but this is in no way connected with Surkov, but with, so to speak, a tender affection between Mikhalkov and Putin. I think that everyone is there, so I very often saw Oleg Tabakov in these circles, and all these people came with some kind of problems. Usually, this is premises and funding, what other problems can theaters have with the state?

I am categorically against this interpretation. If you look at the date of the opening of the Gogol Center and compare it with the time of Surkov as deputy head of the presidential administration, you will see that Volodin replaced Surkov before Serebrennikov opened the Gogol Center. So this is speculation, it is definitely not true. I don't know anything about their relationship. I heard that the novel Near Zero, which Serebrennikov staged, was written by Surkov, and this is just a hypothesis.

I am 90% sure, based on my ideas about the theatrical process, that this is a denunciation. This is a private initiative of people, as a rule, less successful directors who, instead of staging performances, write denunciations. There are many people who do this for a long time and quite skillfully. There is even an assumption who it could be, but I will not say this, because so far this is only an assumption. So it is unlikely that this is an initiative of any authorities, most likely, it is just a well-written denunciation. Unlike the story with Teatrom.doc, which clearly did not please someone from above, this story is purely about envy and jealousy of someone else's success. Moreover, this denunciation was written a very long time ago, apparently, because these projects have not existed for a long time. I think it was lying for a long time, and then for some reason they gave the go-ahead to develop this story.

I also heard about the "Russian Art Union", it seems that is how it is called. He appeared a few days ago. I very much doubt that this is not a coincidence, since it all happens at the same time.