VZCZCXRO4819
PP RUEHDBU
DE RUEHMO #5365/01 3171444
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 131444Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY MOSCOW
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5194
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHXD/MOSCOW POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 MOSCOW 005365 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/13/2017 
TAGS: PGOV KCUL KDEM SOCI RS
SUBJECT: RUSSIA'S LATEST CULTURE WAR 
 
REF: MOSCOW 3971 
 
Classified By: Ambassador William J. Burns. Reason:  1.4 (d). 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1. (C) A paean to President Putin on his 55th birthday by one 
of culture's grand old men, film director and actor Nikita 
Mikhalkov, has revealed fault lines in the cultural community 
similar to those that are all too apparent among the 
country's political classes.  Mikhalkov's film hagiography of 
the President, shown on Putin's October 7 birthday, and a 
subsequent complimentary letter written by Mikhalkov, 
purportedly on behalf of the country's cultural figures, 
triggered an angry response from those who said Mikhalkov did 
not speak for them.  On November 11, Mikhalkov struck back 
with an emotional television interview on Russian government 
television. The exchanges have captured the pride that some 
cultural figures feel in Russia's recent ascent, and the 
discomfort that others in that community experience when 
cultural values are too closely linked to a national ideology 
that they see as increasingly undemocratic.  Underlying the 
exchanges are the standard collection of unsettled scores, 
opportunism, and memories, still fresh for some, of times 
when the government and artists close to it used their power 
to squash those they disagreed with.  End summary. 
 
Happy Birthday, Mr. President 
----------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) The current controversy began on October 7, Putin's 
55 birthday, when well-known film director and actor Nikita 
Mikhalkov offered a film paean to the President.  In the 
film,"55," Mikhalkov's velvety voice extols Putin for the 
stability and hope he has brought to Russia.  Putin is shown 
in a fighter jet and as a confident leader on the 
international stage. Also on display is his deft touch with 
the common folk as Mikhalkov intones "a great many people in 
our country entrusted their lives to him, and he has repaid 
that trust."  Later, Mikhalkov summarizes:  "We live at a 
time when Russia is on the mend. Recent positive changes are 
the result of the work of our President."  In what has become 
a staple of virtually every such effort to glorify the 
present, the stability of the Putin years is contrasted with 
the chaos of "perestroika," the wild '90s, the first Chechen 
war, and random terrorist attacks.  The catalytic moment, for 
Mikhalkov, was Putin's Munich speech, when the President 
"declared our national interests and pointed out what 
prevents us from realizing them." 
 
¶3. (SBU) Mikhalkov followed "55" with an open letter to the 
President, published on October 16 in the government national 
daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta.  The letter was signed by 
Mikhalkov, Academy of Arts President and sculptor Zurab 
Tsereteli, Academy Vice President Teymur Salakhov, and St. 
 
SIPDIS 
Petersburg Arts University Rector Albert Charkin "on behalf 
of 65 thousand cultural workers."  The four tell Putin that 
they have been besieged with requests from all parts of 
Russia that he "continue your important work as President," 
and "persist in your carefully thought out plan, that will 
guarantee stability, the flourishing of Russian national 
culture, and the continuation of the best traditions of 
Russian art." 
 
Cultural Empire Strikes Back 
---------------------------- 
 
¶4. (SBU) Shortly after the publication of the letter, 
Mikhalkov appeared on a popular evening political debate 
program "To the Barrier," where he argued that the film was a 
private matter and that he had every right to express his 
opinions.  Mikhalkov's opponent, writer Viktor Yerofeev 
described "55" as mortar for the shrine being built to Putin, 
and an unwise gesture by such a well-known cultural figure. 
"If it were a private matter," Yerofeev continued, "you 
should have made a cassette, put it in an envelope, and sent 
it to Putin."  Pressed by Yerofeev, Mikhalkov downplayed the 
letter, saying that it had been written three months earlier 
and that, while he had supported the idea, he had not read 
the text carefully. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Further reaction to Mikhalkov's film and letter was 
not long in coming. Author Irina Petrovskaya in the national 
daily Izvestiya compared "55" to "Tale of a Communist," a 
1976 kitsch tribute to CPSU General Secretary Brezhnev on his 
70 birthday. Petrovskaya examined the texts of both films and 
found uncanny similarities in the language and in the 
delivery of narrator Mikhailkov and "Tale of a Communist" 
narrator, actor Innokentiy Smoktunovskiy. (In an interesting 
sidebar to the article, Izvestiya Editor-in-Chief Vladimir 
Mamontov, according to Petrovskaya, delayed publication of 
 
MOSCOW 00005365  002 OF 003 
 
 
the article for several days in order not to spoil Putin's 
fifty-fifth.) In a subsequent article, Izvestiya Cultural 
Division Editor Yelena Yampolskaya defended Mikhalkov, who 
had "known (Putin) for eight years," and described the tone 
as "appropriate for a birthday greeting to a head of state." 
 
¶6. (SBU) Other cultural figures were quick to join battle. 
Actors Oleg Basilashvili, Sergey Yurskiy, artist Yuriy 
Avvakumov, scholar and SPS federal troika member Marietta 
Chudakova, and playwright Aleksandr Gelman wrote an 
"anti-letter" to Putin accusing Mikhalkov and company of 
servility and hypocrisy.  They appealed to Putin to leave 
when his second term ends, and to refuse the temptation to 
resort to "tricks" in order to remain in power. Essayist and 
PEN Club member Lev Rubinshteyn for his part asked 
Rossiisskaya Gazeta Editor Vladislav Fokin to publish his 
letter disassociating him from Mikhalkov and company. 
 
Mikhalkov Objects 
----------------- 
 
¶7. (SBU) On November 11, a seemingly unfazed Mikhalkov 
appeared at the end of the Russian government television 
program "News of the Week." He expressed astonishment that 
"democrats" would attempt to prevent him from congratulating 
the President on his birthday, and offered a spirited 
advertisement for Putin, who had "raised his voice against 
this international chaos to defend Russia's interests." 
Mikhalkov asserted that there would be no order in Russia 
without a "vertical of power," and argued for a continuation 
of the course charted by Putin. 
 
Culture and State 
----------------- 
 
¶8. (C) In addition to the sheer chutzpah of speaking for 65 
thousand cultural workers without first asking their opinion, 
the swift and vocal reaction of some to Mikhalkov's letter 
may have been triggered by the biography and personality of 
its author.  Mikhalkov comes from a family whose members have 
been loyal, and loyally rewarded, servants of the Russian - 
Soviet - Russian state.  (His father authored the Soviet and 
Russian national anthems.) Mikhalkov is a member of the 
Ministry of Defense's Public Chamber and he recently received 
much media attention when he set sail on a promotional cruise 
with the Russian navy. 
 
¶9. (C) Although Mikhalkov insisted in his November 11 
interview that his films have never been designed to curry 
favor with the regime du jour, he has always chosen his 
subjects carefully. His most recent effort, "12," tells the 
story of a Russian special forces soldier who adopts a 
Chechen orphan whose parents have been murdered by Chechen 
bandits.  The soldier is in turn murdered and the Chechen boy 
tried as the perpetrator.  The film makes a powerful 
statement on the virtues of a jury trial, accompanied by a 
message for support for Putin's Russia.  Director Mikhalkov 
chose actor Mikhalkov to play the role of jury foreman who, 
at the critical moment in the jury's deliberations, offers 
his word "as an artist" to cast his vote with the others. 
When the rest of the jury find that insufficient, Mikhalkov 
offers his word as "an (FSB or military) officer" and all 
immediately sign on. In the epilogue, officer Mikhalkov is 
shown taking the boy under his wing, and preparing to 
dispatch justice to those who killed the boy's adoptive 
father. The jury member who initially voiced doubts about the 
boy's guilt is shown in the epilogue to be devoutly Russian 
Orthodox; allowing the film to make the point that Orthodoxy 
and the State are the twin pillars of justice, while officer 
Mikhalkov's protection of the Chechen boy re-states the 
traditional colonial relationship between Russia and its 
little brothers on the southern flank.  Mikhalkov during the 
week of November 5 staged a much-publicized private screening 
of "12" for Putin and Chechnya President Ramzan Kadyrov. 
Putin publicly praised the film. 
 
¶10. (C) For others, a too cozy relationship between culture 
and the state is a source of anxiety. They point to Minister 
of Culture Sokolov's October 8 decision to prevent 17 works 
of art from traveling to Paris for the "Sots-art" 
retrospective. In comments that reminded many of Khrushchev 
at the famous bulldozer exhibition, Sokolov in stopping their 
shipment said: "This art disgraces Russia." The October 8 ban 
was preceded by a decision to block the travel of nine works 
intended for the "Learning from Moscow" exhibition at the 
Dresden State Gallery.  The Sakharov Center's provocative 
exhibitions have brought it legal and financial trouble, some 
of it instigated by a Russian Orthodox Church unhappy with 
the Center's "blasphemy." Director Yuriy Samodurov describes 
the Center as on the verge of bankruptcy, although it is not 
clear how much of its current problems are a by-product of 
his reportedly inept management. Other figures who have 
 
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tangled with the Russian state include writer Vladimir 
Sorokin, whose novel "Blue Lard," triggered an obscenity 
trial that dogged him for more than one year. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶11. (C) The public argument over culture and the state 
reprises in a different vein a late-summer argument about 
religion and the state (reftel).  In both cases, the 
participants attempted to unsystematically define through the 
media where the state ends and where culture or religion 
should rightfully begin. The most recent argument has been 
muddied by the ongoing election campaign and by the 
personalities of some of its participants.  Mikhalkov is a 
sincere advocate of a great Russian state, but his decision 
to link his aspirations for Russia to the personality of 
President Putin in the middle of an unsettling succession 
process has made a calm conversation at this time impossible. 
BURNS