Blood on the asphalt: one word from a boy scared officials of two countries

The popular series irritated functionaries in both Kyiv and Moscow

The series “The Boy’s Word” was banned in Ukraine. Because it's Russian propaganda. Propaganda of what? In our country, too, voices are heard from high stands — ban! And the series went to the people, “came in,” as they say, to our people, who sense “propaganda” in their gut. A strange situation, but the secret is simple.

Still from the film

With Ukraine, everything is clear — in the series, of course, Kazan is shown, but, by and large, it is almost any city of the dying Soviet Union. Ukrainians watch and recognize themselves. One childhood, one country, one people. There is only one destiny. And all this drummed-in nonsense about the “Europeans” of Ukraine, who are not at all like the Moscow orcs, disappears somewhere. Of course, this is dangerous for Kyiv, of course, this is Moscow’s “soft power.”

But here everything is more complicated. But not too much either. Why is it so popular? Because the most, excuse the bureaucracy, economically active part of the population, already with posts, positions and shoulder straps, are precisely those same boys and chushpans. And here there is such nostalgia — I had such a cap, and I have such a coat, and again the gray night, and remember on the Arbat… And so on.

But this is not the main thing. What are the main characters doing? Externally — survival. But in fact, deep down, it’s a search for support. Gorbachev with his Perestroika began to destroy something important, something real that the Soviet people had — an internal sense of justice. People saw and felt how party and Komsomol bosses, uttering the right slogans, began to grab, grab, and devour the country. Pavka Korchagin is for you fools, but for the smart ones — a barrel of jam and a box of cookies.

The generation that yesterday, with shining eyes, shouted “Always ready!”, suddenly found itself with nothing. It was not ready for the betrayal of ideals. And then they offer — the boy’s word. For which to answer with blood on the asphalt. One for all and all for one. It couldn't help but attract me. But it also turned out to be a trap and a lie. The search for justice has taken a completely ugly form.

A few days ago, 22-year-old Ilya “Bledny” Krasnoperov, commander of an assault squad, died near Artemovsk. Member of the National Bolshevik Party banned in Russia, Limonovite. There are a lot of them there, Limonovites. Their homeland prohibits them, but they are ready to die for it and do die. Because they are real. Where are the authorized “Ours”?

I know from my own experience that Moscow teachers themselves, not under pressure, collect things for wounded soldiers and transfer them to hospitals. Not the richest people. But I have never seen a truck in the hospital courtyard with the logo of some bank, whose management has already lost its tongue to talk about how it is for Mother Russia. But I see Forbes lists with data on how much richer our oligarchs became during the war year.

Here is the whole secret of the popularity of the series — after all, we are again undergoing restructuring of the country. The movie shows the search for justice and now for it, for justice — the boy’s word, the main request. Of course, some officials are scared. Of course, out of old habit, I want to ban, cross out, not see. But there will be no justice — here it’s not far from blood on the asphalt. There was an experience — both the one in the movies and completely fresh.