Brilliant engineering. Mikhail Kazinik knows what God gifts geniuses with

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Chapter 17
Five interlocutors

This is the last chapter of the first part of the book. It is, as it were, a generalization of what was written above. It is also a test for the reader.

Taking part in the dialogue

A. Blok and B. Pasternak are two outstanding Russian poets of the 20th century.

Their work is given a lot of attention in the book.

In the poetry of both, there is an incredibly deep connection between purely poetic categories of beauty and philosophical categories of existence. Both of them are a bridge between the traditions of Russian poetry of the 19th and 20th centuries. And at the same time - the absolute masters of poetry of the 20th century.

G. Hesse is a great writer of the same time,

lived and worked in Germany and Switzerland. He is the author of one of the greatest and most profound books of all time, The Glass Bead Game. I would like to recommend reading this book to everyone who is concerned about the fate of the future of humanity and human spiritual culture. By the way, ideological inspirer This book and its heroes, those who discovered the secrets of the “bead game”, are Nikolai Kuzansky and his philosophy. It was the combination of mathematics and music that became the basis for the only activity of the inhabitants of the fictional Hessian country of Castalia - the glass bead game. The goal of the Castalians, who fled from the “era of feuilleton” (as Hesse calls our current civilization), is to preserve highest values spiritual culture of humanity, playing with glass beads in the country they created. Each bead of the game is a mathematical formula or the theme of a Bach fugue, a chord from a Rachmaninov prelude or a line from a medieval treatise.

Suddenly, reading it will immediately “not work” for some people, and you will stop trusting me or yourself.

Or you may think that you are “hopeless” as a spiritual perceiver and thinker.

Indeed, this book is as deeply spiritual as it is especially difficult for those who do not have sufficient experience of immersion in the spiritual sphere of life. I can give such people advice: maybe you shouldn’t try to read “The Game” all at once, but try to read it little by little.

To begin with, there is an introduction to it entitled “The Experience of a Public Introduction to the Glass Bead Game.”

If you feel that you are captivated, read on; if not, re-read “The Experience” several more times. It is very important to read the poems from this book. They are called "Poems of a Schoolboy and a Student."

With breaks, with a return to what you read. And I am convinced of one thing to the depths of my soul: the one who manages to go through all the difficulties of the first communication with this, perhaps the deepest, treasury of thought of the last centuries, will take this book as a companion forever.

When you return to it after a couple of years, you will be surprised at how naturally you will perceive this book, which you thought was so recently super-complicated.

Thomas Mann - German writer XX century,

author of the book “Doctor Faustus”, equal in size to The Glass Bead Game. To this book, which, like Hesse’s book, is the culmination of the thinking of the intellectual elite of the 20th century, I want to dedicate separate chapter in the second book.

The result belongs to the medieval Japanese - one of the geniuses of haiku poetry.

Read more haiku poetry. Get to know the greatest poet haiku Matsuo Basho . To be able to express the deepest thoughts in just three lines is a special skill of Japanese poetry.

Here I will allow myself to quote haiku that I wrote at the time when I intensively practiced writing them. Moreover, in the most unfree years of complete regulation of life.

A piece of paper in prison.
So, I’m not a prisoner at all -
I will write poems about the Universe.

If you read deeply and several times in a row the thoughts of these five interlocutors, you will feel the timelessness and boundlessness, the unity and depth of the mental creative process on our planet.

This is the world that, according to Nikolai Kuzansky, is the corridor between our world and the world of the “Absolute Maximum”.

The mind has the ability to connect all ideas without any contradiction between them.

D. Hume. Treatise on human nature

Continents burn in boundless spaces,
Stokers do not sleep in basements and boiler rooms.

B. Pasternak. Night

...if we allow for a minute,
What abysses yawn behind the surface,
Is it possible to trust comfort,
And will shelters be useful to us?

G. Hesse

...I'll take you with me
And I'll take you there
Where the earth seems like a star,
The star looks like Earth.
And, speechless with surprise,
You will see new worlds -
Incredible visions
Creation of my game...

A. Blok

Reason, your clever game -
A stream of immaterial light,
The lightest elves dance - and to this
We exchanged the heaviness of life.

G. Hesse

When a line is dictated by a feeling,
It sends a slave onto the stage.
And this is where the art ends
And the soil and fate breathe.

B. Pasternak

It seems to me that naivety, unconsciousness, and self-evidence are integral features of the phenomenon that we call culture.

T. Mann

Seen everything in the world
My eyes are back
To you, white chrysanthemums.

I am incredibly tempted to speculate on the topic of this dialogue.

But, firstly, I’m afraid to spoil his incredible poetry with prose, and secondly, the miracle of this dialogue I set up is that poets across centuries and countries communicate with each other as if they were sitting next to each other.

I'm afraid of becoming the sixth wheel.

Therefore, I invite the reader to stay alone with them and not only understand their train of thought, but also deeply feel this atmosphere:

THE ATMOSPHERE OF THE Feast OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT.

Part 2. Paths

And the stupid mob interpreted:
“Why does he sing so loudly?
In vain hitting the ear,
To what goal is he leading us?..”
…
Be silent, senseless people,
Day laborer, slave of need, of worries!
I can't stand your impudent murmur,
You are a worm of the earth, not a son of heaven;
You would benefit from everything - worth it's weight
Idol you value Belvedere.
You don’t see any benefit in it,
But this marble is God!.. so what?
The stove pot is more valuable to you:
You cook your food in it.

A. S. Pushkin. Poet and crowd

And I will be glorious as long as I am in the sublunary world
At least one piit will be alive.

A. S. Pushkin

“I erected a monument to myself, not made by hands...”

WHO IS HE, MAN, “NATURE’S FACTORY PRODUCT” OR A UNIVERSAL GENIUS?

Chapter 1
Beer Gulag

For many years I traveled around our country, feverishly trying to meet as many people as possible.

Because the idea of ​​a chance (remember Chicken Ryaba?) haunted me.

Realizing that we live in a country that has experienced the most terrible thing in the history of mankind - an attack on the gene pool, imagining all the consequences of this attack, I tried to structure my speeches in such a way as to awaken in people faith in the power of the beautiful, in their own creative possibilities. There was nothing to even think about television.

Therefore, I had to work only with my physical body.

On the one hand, even now, many years later, deep down I understand that this smacks of utopia.

In 1991, on the last day of his stay at native land, wrote a poem called “Moscow Old Women”.

Old Moscow apartments...
There are old women in them, like negatives:
They believe stubbornly in the Spirit and Bach.
Lace, like holes, in their shirts.
Great-grandchildren – bit-non-party members:
They confuse icons and paintings.
The rest say (oh, time!)

About salaries, pensions and bonuses.
And when the family returns from the dacha -
They don’t play Schubert, they don’t cry...
But the old women have little time left to live...
(The Arbat cellars echo them.)

14 years have passed... Neither those old women nor those basements are there...

But what in return?

When I walk along the streets of St. Petersburg, among many changes (positive and negative), I observe one that is most tragic for me. There are a huge number of girls 13–14 years old and older who walk the streets, sit on benches in parks and courtyards and drink beer. And not just beer, but the kind that in Sweden, for example, can only be bought in special stores! These stores are open five days a week (from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.).

But only those who have reached twenty years old can buy strong beer in Sweden. If the seller has doubts about the age of the buyer, then a document certifying the age is required. All stores that sell alcohol even have this message:

“If you are over 20 years old but look younger, don’t forget to bring your ID.”

In this way, the country is trying to protect its citizens from alcoholism, or at least from addiction to alcohol from childhood. In addition, strong beer is so expensive (as, in fact, all alcohol in Sweden) that there are always plenty of alternatives to spend money. Let's say, half a liter of strong beer costs the same as a trip on a super-comfortable ship from Stockholm to Helsinki (and back) with the opportunity to spend 18 hours on the ship (discos, concerts, sauna).

Then - a day in the capital of Finland and another 18 hours ago. Choose!

A glass of strong beer or a boat trip. Choose!

Two glasses of strong beer or a trip for two in a double cabin. In Sweden, no one will prohibit a boy and a girl from traveling in a double cabin. Choose!

Two glasses of beer or a player. Choose!

Ten glasses of beer or a flight to Paris and back (!!!). If every day for 10 months, without drinking a glass of beer, you save the cost of it, then with this money you can go on a two-week trip to some island in the Mediterranean Sea. You can take your boyfriend or girlfriend with you.

The money saved on beer is enough for two plane tickets (to Crete and back), a hotel (a room for two with all amenities), excellent food, and travel throughout the island.

Yes, I forgot to say that the hotel definitely has a swimming pool for those who like illuminated fresh water, free sun loungers and a nearby bar with soft drinks and ice cream.

Choose!!!

A glass of strong beer every day or a trip to the cradle of European civilization!

Minoan culture, ancient Knossos - the labyrinth of the Minotaur. Icarus took off from here.

The island of Crete is perhaps one of the most beautiful places on our planet.

And all this - instead of one glass of strong beer a day.

Who do you have to be to doubt your choice even for one second? Only by a person with severe alcoholic heredity.

In Russia, strong beer costs less than juice, it can be bought at any time of the day or night, there are countless quantities retail outlets, selling alcohol 24 hours a day.

A thirteen-year-old girl drinking strong beer is the latest to fall on the gene pool of the Russian people.

The people who survived the hundred-year Gulag, having lost their best representatives over the course of four generations, entered the third millennium with fortified beer on their banner.

And this is in the name of a group of people who receive billions in profits. The remnants of the people who survived the genocide of the communists, the genocide of the fascists, will die to please the beer mafia.

I remember at the end of the 70s the party and government decided to increase the price of alcohol. Prices for cognac and high-quality wines have risen sharply.

But the prices for low-grade, slowly killing fruit and berry wines, which the Soviet people actually drank, remained virtually unchanged. People affectionately called these terrible wines “ink.” I must say that “ink” was perhaps a great addition to the Gulag system.

For the communist idea could only exist under conditions of total fear or total consumption of alcohol. (Better - both together.)

I then wrote a poem that could be highly appreciated by the communists (15–20 years of camps). I remember I even managed to read it twice from the stage.

Even today I am surprised that everything worked out. Although, it seems to me, the poem was permeated with such pain for the country that even the KGB officers could not but agree with it.

I would never have thought that it could still be relevant 25 years later.

In order to ensure that today’s youth do not have any dark spots when reading my poem, I will remind you of one terrible event of the 70s. The world was then horrified by what was happening in a country called Cambodia (Kampuchea).

The local communists, having read Lenin’s works, decided to follow the main idea of ​​the leader of the world proletariat, which is that in the name of the sacred goal - building communism - any sacrifice can and should be made.

So the Cambodian communists (Khmer Rouge) decided not to bother with the destruction own people for decades, like Lenin and Stalin, and to do this in record short time. In this record time, they managed to destroy almost a third of their own population (two million people).

And since the economies of communist countries nowhere and never cope with the responsibility of “providing for the ever-growing needs” (quote from the CPSU program) of their people, the poor Cambodian communists did not have enough patrons.

But, as one of the leaders of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, L. I. Brezhnev, said, “the Soviet people know that where the party is, there is trouble.”

The Cambodian party also found a winning solution. People began to be buried alive in the ground.

And now - a poem called "Genocide".

These wines have no other names -
Any kind is genocide. And only him.
The tragedy of Cambodia will sink into oblivion -
A million people were killed with a hoe.

Another million were buried alive.
And the third... However, stop shedding tears,
I'll play Bach on the piano better
So that, believing in Harmony, forget
Cambodia is like a dream... It really happened, right?
But look around... Oh, my nerves are on fire!
And justice has been found for Russia,
What is affectionately called “ink”.

Forgotten Omar Khayyam - unaffordable
Bouquets are thin, intoxicating, like poetry,
And the prices for “ink” are without deception -
Oh, seventy rubles!.. Another million died down...

Rulers! Atheists!!
After all, the chairs
and warm blankets by the radiators are waiting for you.
Brains, hearts and... loins have been empty for a long time -
For you to conceive is a huge job!

But what’s wrong with me - such topics
For the first time it was put on paper.
Long ago the drawings turned into diagrams,
And Pushkino is not Tsarskoe Selo.

...Tired, behind, lost in thought - not the time -
It's no longer time late, everything stuck together.
There will be no spark - the flint is lost.
At conception it will carry poison
A million beautiful bodies...
The soul is castrati,
But not castrati in body...
God! Where are you?
The country needs poets
not soldiers!!!
...But there is no one to help such a misfortune...

Today’s version of the poem about “beer” girls would probably sound even more terrible.

But the main thing I want to say is what’s ahead.

The speech of the numerous now “beer” (or in former times simply) girls has changed dramatically during the years of my absence.

These thin, romantically aged girls, walking down the street, speak in the same language that in my time was used by construction workers who had an iron beam fall on their leg.

But even the builders of my time, as soon as the pain passed and the stress subsided, used less obscene words per unit time than these “airy” girls.

Every time I hear them speak, I peer into the faces of the speakers, trying to see traces of vice. And every time I feel shocked.

For in many faces I see features that are so familiar to me from the paintings of Russian portrait artists of the 18th–19th centuries. The features are refined, often with clear signs of nobility. Outwardly, these are still Natasha Rostov, Turgenev heroines, Tatyana Larina.

Those that inspired Russian poets and artists.

Often I see faces whose beauty and light reminded me of the faces of the daughters of the last Russian emperor.

This is an incredible, mystical, ridiculous, surreal discrepancy between the sophisticated appearance of these girls and the beer bottles in their hands. They drank from the necks of these bottles, moving towards their goals unknown to me.

Between the architecture of the part of the city through which they moved and the level of their speech, the speech of the heroes of the suburban fetid slums late XVIII century, where the children of beggars, prostitutes, and alcoholics lived.

Only in those days would a local police officer have stopped the girls and either expelled the mob who were behaving in an unworthy manner in the noble district of the city, or taken the violators to the police station. But no one except me turned around at these girls or looked in surprise.

Pathology has become the norm.

But it was precisely in this terrible, absurd, screaming discrepancy that I saw the full depth of the tragedy of Russia in the 20th century.

My fantasy took me to the last quarter of the 19th century, to the time of the great-great-great-grandmother of one of the “beer” girls.

The great-great-great-grandmother spoke several languages, read Byron's poetry and Moliere's plays in the original languages, played the piano, wrote poetry, and kept a diary to which she confided the most intimate and innocent secrets of her life.

She married a talented, promising young man.

This young man truly became an outstanding scientist. So outstanding that (already middle-aged) he was included in Lenin’s list of two hundred scientists who were to be immediately expelled from the country.

His middle-aged wife with two adult sons, the wife of his eldest son and two grandchildren were compacted, leaving one small room in their own twelve-room apartment.

Her sons fell into the thresher of the first Bolshevik years. When one of the drunken sailors who came to their room on one of the terrible post-October nights began to tear out sheets from the ancient family album to take his silver case with him, the son tried to talk to this man (?).

And he was shot point-blank in their own room in front of his old mother, wife and sons.

His wife soon died of nervous exhaustion. Then my grandmother died.

His two children, left orphans, became homeless, but, despite the vicissitudes of time, they managed to rise up, survive and take their rightful place in society (alas, in an unworthy society!). One of them was repressed in 1937, the other in 1939 (without the right to correspondence).

The son of this other child ended up in a camp for family members of enemies of the clan (ChSIR - a member of the family of a traitor to the Motherland).

He left the camp in 1956 and soon married a simple and very kind woman. They had two children.

But my father died quite soon - the 17 years spent in the camp took their toll. To survive, his wife and two children returned to their native village. You managed to live, but her eldest son ended up in the company of village alcoholics.

In 1976 he went to the city to earn money. He walked recklessly, did odd jobs. In 1990, his partner had a daughter.

The lover soon abandoned them (or maybe died or went to prison). So the lonely woman lived alone with her daughter. Then she got together with another man and gave birth to two more children. Her eldest daughter in 2004 – 14 years.

She walks with a group of teenagers along the streets of St. Petersburg, drinking beer. Half of her speech consists of the names of male and female genital organs.

She is the great-great-great-granddaughter of our lover of reading Byron in the original.

She unknowingly returned to the city where her roots are. But the city is already without Byron, without schoolgirls who keep diaries and attend the opera.

This is the city where, as in the entire mournful country, the most incredible experiment in the history of mankind was carried out.

Our “beer” foul-mouthed woman is one of the millions of “beer” foul-mouthed women who have become innocent victims of an insane communist experiment with its terrible selection.

But, looking into her eyes, I recognized her... great-great-great-grandmother. They are so similar!

Kirkorov will not remind her of anything, Tatu will not enrich her in any way. Television programs will only confirm the correctness of the type of beer she has chosen and the nature of her ideas about the values ​​of the “post-Gulag” world.

Her friends and girlfriends know for sure: in this world the main thing is money.

Because what more money, the more beer you can buy. A heavy drunken state releases that feeling that poets once called “excitement in the blood” and transforms it into the need to “fuck” the most persistent boys. This is all the more natural since great amount her friends – “beer” girls – have been doing this for a long time, and some of them have made it an article.

And some even managed to find gentlemen who have so much money that they can spend half a year’s salary on their girl in one evening in a restaurant school teacher on literature. But still…

There is a chance to save this girl!

She had nothing left of her great-great-great-grandmother's city. And it was not time that took all this away, but the Gulag, which lasted almost a hundred years. The Gulag erased the historical memory from our girl.

There is a chance to save this girl!

Fortunately, there is the science of GENETICS.

The Gulag leaders tried to deal with her too.

For no other science, except perhaps cybernetics, is capable of completely destroying the entire communist ideology.

But, as stated in the message of the poet Alexei Konstantinovich Tolstoy to the head of Russian censorship, Count M. N. Longinov,

Science with Lomonosov,
Having laid the germ within us,
Comes to us without knocking
Past all your slingshots 2
This refers to censorship slingshots. – Note. auto

Sheds streams of light on the world
And, watching how in the azure darkness
God's planets move
Without censor instructions...

(original spelling - M.K.)

They can’t save our “beer” girls former employees The Gulag, now confidently leading the country along the path of “triumphant” democracy, cannot, and they have stolen everything that remains in the country after replacing the communists with post-communists, party animals.

“Beer” girls can be saved by what I not at all scientifically call SIDE GENETIC MEMORY.

I am simply convinced that deep inside, at the subconscious level, there lives in these girls a memory of something else.

And if we could REMIND them of this incredibly distant, genuine thing, open up another world, give them a chance, then a great people can still be saved.

Here is the time to explain my position regarding the example I proposed.

This example with the girl is extremely dramatic.

But it is not at all necessary that the ancestors were nobles, scientists or intellectuals.

I simply described an extreme situation when for a hundred years nothing remained of the origin and memory of our ancestors.

As an example, he showed the incredible genealogical path from the great scientist and his educated wife to the “beer” great-great-great-granddaughter. To restore justice, I will show several more options for ruined genealogies.

Great-great-great-grandfather is a wealthy peasant.

He was dispossessed, exiled to Siberia, depriving his great-great-great-granddaughter of the richest farm, which would have been inherited by her, having been given beer in return.

Great-great-great-grandfather is a village priest. He was shot because he protested when a decree was issued: to blow up the temple where he served.

A generation of priests has been interrupted.

His great-great-great-granddaughter loves mixing beer with vodka.

There is a chance to save this girl!

The great-great-great-grandfather of one of the “beer” girls owned apartment building In Petersburg.

His great-great-great-granddaughter passes by this huge house every day, sucking strong beer from the bottle, and, naturally, has no idea that she, living with her father, mother, two sisters and brother in a room measuring 20 square meters on the distant outskirts, should have become the mistress of this house.

She spends most of her time outside also because she really doesn’t want to return to a hateful room where she can’t always breathe.

There is a chance to save this girl!

After all, in fact, many of the “beer” girls are uncomfortable, because they have a “longing for blood, for fate,” as Hermann Hesse wrote in his novel “The Glass Bead Game.”

They girls don't remember anything. But their genes"remember" and apartment buildings, and opera performances, and prayers in a quiet church.

But the reader may have a question: why do I talk about girls all the time?

After all, there are also “beer” boys, and the problems of the post-Gulag post-communist society concern them to the same extent? Yes and no.

Yes, for the boys still have the same ocean of round-the-clock beer at their disposal.

Yes, for they are victims of the same terrible communist selection.

Yes, because even boys have no alternative programs on television.

Yes, for even boys have a mutated speech that has nothing in common with the foundations of the great Russian language.

And yet, in a disaster situation, it is necessary to deal with girls first. And that's why.

A woman bears great responsibility for whose lineage she will continue. A man (I now mean a casual sexual-beer meeting) essentially doesn’t care whether conception has taken place. He may never know about it.

A woman absorbs a living seed, and this act is a sacred act of procreation. A woman will give birth to this particular child, who will inherit thousands of previous generations.

A man participating in the act of conception may be indifferent to the consequences, because tomorrow he can produce another (or even more than one!) conception. With another woman (or women).

But both the first and second women will conceive and give birth to a specific child from a specific man.

They, women, have to live with this child, raise him, breastfeed him, and witness his development.

For a man, sexual intercourse can be only nature of pleasure. For a woman, it can be fateful.

Therefore, I will talk about another feature that totalitarian systems carry within them.

Not much is written or talked about, but this problem is very significant. I I call her the problem of non-partnership.

Eremeeva Elena

Violinist, poet, writer, teacher, television and radio presenter, director... This unusual person has so many talents intertwined that today it is difficult to say what dominates in him. The restlessness of his creative nature does not allow him to stand still. Mikhail Semenovich Kazinik constantly travels, almost every day, discovering new corners of the world, new people, new facets of art and new forms of communication. Therefore, it is not surprising that it was he who became the main inspirer and creator of the International creative school, the first lessons of which were held in Crimea in the middle of this summer. The forum brought together and introduced more than 50 people who came to the Black Sea coast from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. Interesting concerts and master classes did not leave any of the participants indifferent. But the most important thing is that after such communication people began to perceive differently not only the world, but also poetry, music, painting.

- Mikhail Semenovich, tell us how your creative lessons went on the Black Sea coast?
- The boarding house where the first creative gathering took place is located far from tourist trails and all kinds of sellers and buyers. We found ourselves in the steppe, and nearby was the purest sea, like thousands of years ago, the smell of steppe herbs and complete shutdown from any information from the outside. We have divorced ourselves from politics, from big and small catastrophes, from black PR, from unbearably stupid shows and soap operas, from Trojan programs and viruses that the media abundantly supplies our brains with today.
There were televisions in the boarding house, but the forum participants simply forgot about them. After all, music, poetry, philosophy were with us. And also a piano, a record player, a screen. And communication. About 20 hours a day. Live music and communication began at breakfast and ended at dawn. And a miracle happened. The moment of truth has come: eye to eye, purity, “the starry sky above us - moral law within us" (Kant). We realized WHO we are on this Planet.
The separation was difficult. The only consolation is that the separation will be short-lived, and we will continue contacts through all possible means. I am glad that the strength with which my “schoolchildren” perceived music was unprecedented. But the main thing is that every sound went deep into the heart. And one more joy. Everyone who came to the school turned out to be accomplished individuals, regardless of age and profession. Even the children whom their parents took with them became excellent listeners.

Vitebsk - a city of childhood, a fairy tale city

Mikhail Semenovich, tell me, who and what helps you in life, what helped in the formation of your personality? What is the role of parents in your development?
- My childhood was spent in Vitebsk - the city of the Russian intelligentsia. When the capital’s intelligentsia poured into Vitebsk out of a desire to change the situation and climate, a whole galaxy of people appeared in the city outstanding people- Ivan Sollertinsky, Kazimir Malevich, Victor Lagin. And, of course, Marc Chagall lived here... And this is just the top layer. In addition to wonderful people, the city had churches, cathedrals, synagogues, where choirs and organs constantly sounded. It was a real fairy tale city! As a child, I met many people of the old intelligentsia there, and getting to know them is certainly one of the important components of my personality.
And my parents simply accomplished a feat. After all, their lives fell during the war, then difficult post-war years, but they tried to give me a comprehensive education, raising me in the spirit of creativity, from the very early childhood They took us to concerts, art exhibitions, and read classics. I still remember well the Dome Cathedral in Riga, and symphony concerts in Vitebsk and Dzintari, and my enthusiastic childhood impressions of meeting the masterpieces of the Hermitage and the Russian Museum. But, perhaps, the most important factor for the formation of my personality was the heated discussions of concerts and this truly amazing atmosphere of communication. Then my parents sent me to study music. I remember how, amid post-war poverty, the spirituality of Poles, Russians, Belarusians, Jews, Lithuanians, and Latvians manifested itself. In this diversity and intersection of cultures, a single and rich culture was formed that one can be proud of.
- Were your parents musicians?
My mother is a lawyer, and my father developed instruments for military aircraft. My father had a responsible job, I remember the tension and atmosphere of stress in which he always lived. But dad played the violin and mandolin since childhood, this helped him to distract him for a while and relieve stress after difficult work. By the way, my maternal grandfather also played the violin. Therefore, my first acquaintance with music began literally from the cradle.

“A person must learn to feel...”

Mikhail Kazinik is a permanent presenter on radio “Silver Rain” and “Orpheus”. His broadcasts are a constant success. The secret is simple: such programs are close to the chivalrous spirit of the last of the Mohicans, telling about eternal values. Mikhail Kazinik reminds us of spiritual truths that have been lost in the bustle of the modern unstable world.

Mikhail Semenovich, tell me, are you interested in living and discovering new things? Today, a large number of people die of boredom and degenerate. How to teach them to live differently, to awaken an interest in beauty?
- This is a big and difficult question. I am a happy man. I am convinced that the discovery of something new is the only thing that stimulates life, otherwise a person dies spiritually. I grew up among the Russian intelligentsia, absorbing not only their speech, but also their spirit, their principles of communication. Perhaps this is why I am very sensitive to the sharp contrast between life in my youth and today. Unfortunately, people from my childhood began to pass away in the 60s and 70s. Along with them, that unique structure of speech, thinking, and the law of morality went away. People who are now 30-40 years old will not understand my sadness. They don't even know what exactly they have lost. What many today perceive as depth, for me, alas, is often a flat level or a simplified version of thinking in comparison with the past.
And yet, the worst thing today is that most people die not from old age and disease, but from the realization that they don’t have this new thing ahead of them. have an amazing day. All of today's wild pop life has nothing in common with that real life, which, in my opinion, a person should have. Remember Pushkin - a person must carry within himself “ magic crystal", learn to feel, discover art.
- Since 1991 you have lived permanently in Stockholm. Why did you decide to leave Russia?
- And I never left. It’s just that on August 19, 1991, when the putsch occurred in Russia, I was in Sweden. I admit that the events that took place in Russia at that time made me very angry, and it was then that I signed a contract that I did not sign for three whole years. I didn’t sign because I was waiting for changes in the country and even sent a naive letter to Mikhail Gorbachev, asking: “Why are you doing everything halfway? After all, you can’t jump over an abyss in two leaps. Half measures are terrible." Naturally, I never received any response to my letter.
But in general, discussions about place of residence are all Soviet prejudices: Turgenev and Gogol almost never lived in Russia, but in fact they never left it. As for Sweden, I would compare it to a beautiful and very cozy sea shell in which I can hide whenever I want.

“Russian people know how to love...”

The great composers of bygone eras were not considered such by their contemporaries. Which of the current composers do you consider to be great?
- I must admit that since ancient times it was not only composers who were scolded. Think about it: the name of the majority artistic styles- curses. Baroque in Russian softly translates as “bizarre, strange.” But this is soft. And the equivalent of this word in Russian is much ruder - “foolish”. Impressionist - “impressionist”, Gothic - “barbarism”, even the word “romantic” meant a fruitless dreamer who had passed away from life. You will ask why? Yes, because art actually lives outside of time. It is cosmic, it has direct contact with God, and people live in a specific time and given space. As for the “golden” list of composers, I can say for sure: in the 20th century Russia added, first of all, two names to the list of great composers. These are Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich. Perhaps also Gia Kancheli. I'm sure some of Alfred Schnittke's music can play a significant role. In any case, his First Concerto Grosso will definitely be included in the golden fund of world music. Let's hope that humanity will grow to one more phenomenon in musical world- Alemdar Karamanov. I made a two-part film about the fate of this amazing man. The painting was recently shown at one of the television channels Russia, but late at night.
- Your concerts take place in different cities of Russia and abroad. Tell me, is there a difference in the public’s perception of your performances abroad and in Russia?
- There is a difference and it is huge. The fact is that Russian people know how to love. As for the Western viewer, he, of course, can be polite, friendly and even grateful, but at the same time he does not know how to love at all. And Russians, if they, of course, felt you, believed you, love you with all their souls and give you their energy of love.
- You have to travel a lot. You probably communicate with your compatriots. Tell me, are they the same as people living in Russia or others?
- Unfortunately, they are different. And, what is saddest, many of them are already losing some of the wonderful qualities inherent specifically in Russian people. After all, to be Russian means to be a highly spiritual person. And this means not just being interested in culture, but also living in it.
Today we can distinguish two types of our compatriots abroad. The first is people who understand that they can and should be proud of Russian culture. But there is another type - people who are embarrassed to be Russian. There is absolutely no interest in discussing anything with them, or concluding agreements, or communicating.

Russia is my country

Why do you always return to Russia? What does it give you in creativity and life? What does Russia mean to you in general?
- People like me are a little strange. They are not like everyone else. Apparently this is why my relationship with Russia is not easy. It would seem how much humiliation and dirt, how much pain and suffering the country in which I was born and raised caused me. But I love her. Russia is my country. True, this does not mean at all that my love is blind. There is a sense of pain in it, but I am trying to do everything I can to pull people out of the deep abyss into which they have been pushed for many decades.
- What do you dream about and what kind of Russia do you want to see?
- Historical experience has shown that we are not particularly talented in producing computers and cars, or in achieving at least a Midwestern standard of living. What is simple for many countries creates problems for us. But this is not an indicator of our insolvency. We became famous for the fact that throughout the 19th century we gave the world the greatest in spirit music, literature, philosophy, and thinking. And even in the 20th century, despite unprecedented upheavals, Russia gave the world the greatest composers whom I have already named, poets - Akhmatova, Tsvetaeva, Pasternak, writers - Bulgakov, Platonov, Zoshchenko, and a great many brilliant performing musicians and the most talented actors. And further. We gave the world a special ease of communication and the ability to make friendship, which I conventionally call the “Russian coupe”. This is when four people who meet by chance on a train within 24 hours become SO close to each other that they are ready to cry when they part. The Western world does not know anything like this: they are different and even if they try to imitate us, nothing will come of it. Communication is our feature, it is a feature of our mentality. Sometimes it seems to me that, alas, I may not see the Russia I dream about, because it is now on the path of moving away from its former spirituality.
- Have you received a musical education?
- Yes, I have a musical education. But I am absolutely convinced that the main education was received not in academies or schools, but from the people whom I was lucky enough to meet - this is the circle of A. Akhmatova, I. Brodsky, V. Krivulin. Now such people no longer exist.
- Your son Boris is a violinist. You have two grandchildren. Do you want them to become musicians?
- Boris good musician, he is quite a rich person. I toured a lot, and my wife, Tatyana, was involved in its formation and education. She did everything to make Boris professional musician. But dreaming about my grandchildren becoming musicians? It's not obligatory. Now there are so many diverse activities in the world, you can find yourself in any creativity. But I want them to become musically educated people. After all, music is created for man, music develops man.

“I dreamed of becoming... a kerosene man”

You have chosen a profession that is not taught in any university in the world. Who did you dream of becoming as a child, and what helped you find the path you are now following in life?
- As a child, I dreamed of becoming... a kerosene man. Dad took me on a sled to the square located near the bazaar, where we stood in line for an hour or even two to see the kerosene man, who poured kerosene into a can for everyone. How I envied him then! I also wanted to measure kerosene in the same liter thing as his, and fill the cans with liquid that would give people warmth, light and food.
Then I dreamed of becoming a driver. But everything changed in kindergarten, where musical director there was Maria Borisovna Savitskaya (by the way, the grandmother of Alexander Rybak). She and I loved each other very much. It was she who told my parents that I needed to be taught music.
Her parents listened to her. It turns out that Maria Borisovna played an important role in my becoming a musician. But I soon realized that I couldn’t play for a few hundred or thousands of selected people, but I had to, I simply had to, make the music accessible to more people. As soon as I realized this, and I was 15 years old at the time, I gave my first lecture to music school students about Bach and Einstein. Then - about Tchaikovsky and Pushkin.
So I became a violinist performer and lecturer at the same time. It turns out that it was not I who chose the profession, but it chose me. I have always dreamed that a person would deeply feel the music he listens to. Even now I try to do everything to make people understand: music is the most important part of the world, of civilization. And great music is cosmic vibrations transmitted to us through geniuses - those whose spiritual fontanel is not overgrown, through earthly vibrations accessible to us. Unfortunately, there are few people in Russia today who understand this kind of music. But the worst thing is that today's pop music kills adults, teenagers, and children.

"Art is my life"

- What do you see as the meaning of life?
- To protect as many people as possible from the most terrible invasion - assembly line culture, pop thinking, slave mentality. Unfortunately, in today's world there are many people who suffer from the emptiness of this meager world. And this is at the very time when the great immortal cosmic games, the boundlessness of the music of Bach and Mozart, the works of Goethe and Dante are nearby. And also cosmic fugues and grandiose thoughts encrypted in words.
And this whole fairy-tale world is full of life, divine humor, spiritual movement. This world is endless, like the universe, swift, like moving galaxies. But, unfortunately, most people will live their lives without these fireworks. So, I see my main task as reaching as many people as possible, opening their eyes to the wonderful world of art.
- Tell me, what does music give you personally?
- Music gives faith in immortality. No religion provides this to such an extent.
- You have students. Who are they?
- All my violin students in Sweden achieved good results. Today they play in leading bands and on leading stages. I have 100% success here. But it took me eight years to prepare one such group. I don’t want to spend another eight years on the next group, but I dream of “creating” students in more in a broad sense.
- Do you mean followers? So maybe it makes sense to open a School capable of training educators?
- Such a School is simply necessary. We need a new type of school, a school of the future. It should be taught by people for whom the Renaissance is not just a concept. But the school of clip thinking should go into oblivion... like a piece of the country’s geography, divorced from its history, literature, music, painting, philosophy... Geography is a place, history is time, and art and thought are content. It is precisely such a School, a School where all humanitarian subjects will be connected by a single chain, that I want to create.
But to implement this project, I need people who are ready to accept it. I understand that with my departure these ideas will be forgotten for a long time. That is why today I am ready to create such a School and train teachers of a different type. Such teachers do not necessarily have current pedagogical education, since it can play a conservative role. But at the same time, these teachers must have a certain depth. In a word, these must be people of a different way of thinking.
I understand that it will not be easy to implement such a project in Russia today, since it is necessary to fight incredible conservatism. But I believe in talented people and sponsors who will respond. In addition, I sincerely believe in a generation that will want to live in a creatively vibrant, educated country.
- What, in your opinion, is the state of education in Russia and music education in particular? What reforms does it require?
- It is necessary to reconsider the entire system of school education, including music education. After all, the current liberal arts school is in a state of complete bankruptcy. Today's school, which forms clip consciousness, is no longer possible, because it lacks the main thing - an integrated approach. There is no understanding in it that reading the history of England separately from Shakespeare and Milton, or Norway separately from Ibsen and Grieg, is pointless. For true story England - Shakespeare, and Italy - the Renaissance. Currently, I have developed a fundamentally different type of lesson, but for this it is necessary to urgently begin the formation of teachers.
- What are your hobbies besides music?
- People often ask me how I manage to do everything: write poetry and books, give concerts and give lectures at universities, play the violin and piano, conduct radio broadcasts and make films about art. How can I answer this? I constantly work in one field - the field of art. None of my activities goes beyond its scope. Art is my life. That's why I don't even have a hobby.
- Tell us about your immediate plans?
- In the spring, three evenings with my participation in Fountain House in St. Petersburg, so in the fall I plan to organize similar meetings in the city on the Neva. In November 2010, with one of the best pianists of our days, Alexei Botvinov, I will hold four historical concerts in Moscow. For the audience, it will be an encounter with three centuries of music presented over four evenings. In addition, my master classes will be held in Moscow. And there are still Chelyabinsk, Yekaterinburg and other Russian cities ahead. In a word, there are so many plans that I will ask heaven to extend my life for at least another 30 years. But my main plan- invite a whole generation of Russians to new school.
- Thank you for the interview. Good luck to you and fulfilling your plans.

P.S. The fourth edition of Mikhail Kazinik’s book “Secrets of Geniuses” was published in Moscow, where he reveals to the reader the codes for the perception of the spiritual, creative, artistic world, and the author’s energy, transmitted through the lines, becomes the energy that energizes the soul. The purpose of the book is to draw attention to culture and art as the fundamental goal and meaning of Being. The book is written in a very interesting way. It was not difficult for the author to introduce his readers, guess their reaction and determine the topic of a possible discussion. Many people, and, most importantly, teenagers, after reading “Secrets of Geniuses,” were drawn to the music of Bach, paintings by Rembrandt, “Little Tragedies” by Pushkin, poetry by Pasternak, and books on philosophy. And some, having finished reading the book, immediately begin to reread it again, discovering new secrets for themselves magical world art.

Photo gallery

Visible images of sound

If you look “behind the notes” and look “simply” at the life of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann or Chopin, then the interest naturally arises: “Why did the Lord prepare for each of them such difficult tests?. Mikhail Kazinik found the answer to this question long ago in his own theory of “Kisses-Blows”:

Healing musical moment

Concerts by Mikhail Kazinik are not a lecture with musical illustrations, but a real acting performance of the imagination.

Instructing Mozart, the Almighty seemed to whisper to him: “You will go into the world and write the most wonderful melodies. You will not be a composer, but a symbol of absolute genius, a saving effect,” the educator fantasizes. - But I will not only kiss you, but also hit you - you will be very sick and could die at any second. You will beg me for every new day of life, as if saying: “Lord, don’t take it away, I love life very much, look what I wrote! But I can write even better, even more beautiful.” And Mozart’s whole life is a light with occasional “birds of death”.

- And Schubert is the first romantic and experiment of God,” Mikhail Kazinik continues to fantasize. - The Creator told him: “No one will listen to your music except a narrow circle of friends, and you will die in poverty.” But thanks to the fact that Schubert did not think about the box office and royalties, he wrote divine music. God kissed Chopin as few others have been kissed: “You will be a genius of the piano, you will be a symbol of pianism and you will create great melodies. But at the same time it will be difficult for you to breathe.” Chopin suffered from inoperable polyps, breathed through his mouth, and at the age of 19 he had his first attack of tuberculosis. George Sand revealed Chopin's secret: “When Frederic played, he did not cough.”

Following the quote from the composer’s beloved, Kazinik immediately goes to the lines from Pasternak “Again, Chopin is not looking for benefits”: “Give birth to sobs, but do not cry, Do not die, do not die...”.

How music fights for the right to breathe! - Kazinik exclaims. - When Chopin played, he breathed deeply, and this can only be explained from the point of view higher powers. But this once again proves the unprecedented possibilities of human genius and his creativity. And this is the healing moment of great music.

In the opinion of Mikhail Kazinik, in piano music the most difficult composer to perform is not Franz Liszt, but Robert Schumann.

He wanted to be the greatest pianist“, came up with a special device for the ligaments, but tore them,” the musician playing the violin and piano intrigues, and the impressionable ladies in the audience gasp. - After 22 years, he did not play the piano and wrote incredibly complex music, which was played by his wife Clara Josephine Wieck, a great pianist. However, Schumann did not even know that he was writing music that was almost impossible to play...

Moreover, the story about Schumann’s wife gives Kazinik a signal to “switch” to Brahms.

As a young man, Brahms met Schumann and Clara. Brahms fell in love platonically, but when Schumann died and Clara became free, Brahms retreated back like a cancer - he does not condemn, but simply states the musicologist, citing the words “two sides”. - “Johannes, I can’t wait to see you again!” “Clara, we must be reasonable,” Brahms answered her. It's one thing to love a woman romantically, but another to marry a widow with six children.

No, I’d rather not talk about Brahms! - Mikhail Semyonovich snaps, not from the stage, but in an interview. - If I get excited, I’ll remember a bunch of misfortunes that befell this composer, who lived his whole life with a sense of guilt, and Brahms developed this complex because of his love for Clara: “How could he become the husband of Schumann’s widow and take upon himself the upbringing of her children? Let it not be Brahms, but someone else, crazy.” And where has the love gone...

Special “gifts” and the end of happiness

In Russian music of the XIX centuries, the plots in the lives of composers were no different from their famous European colleagues.

It’s just terrible what kind of trials were sent down to them,” our guest laments. - Mussorgsky had a serious physiological problem, which at that time could not be treated. Here you go, a “gift” from God. Or Tchaikovsky's peculiarity. A unique, subtle person with a “gift” that was not welcomed in Russia and which he himself did not welcome: “What should I do to be normal?” This “gift” made him a neurasthenic, but take away this feature, and then the “nature” of Tchaikovsky’s music will remain unclear. And how is it possible that, without having written a single romance based on Pushkin’s love lyrics, he immediately wrote “Eugene Onegin” and “ Queen of Spades"?! Many people before Tchaikovsky took them on, but no one succeeded. Therefore, the entire history of art is the history of the kiss-blow.

By the way, Kazinik confirms this in the lives of successful artists.

Secret signs of culture

We brought all these episodes from the lives of artists deliberately. Paradoxically, most people’s interest in art is born through “serial soap”.

The reason that prevents one from coming to real art is that many people perceive all cultural phenomena at the first level: who got married, who got divorced, who was born to whom, etc., says Mikhail Kazinik. - The transition to the second level of perception is the highest happiness. The third level is absolutely grandiose. A person needs to understand that every sound of the music of Bach, Mozart, Tchaikovsky or Shostakovich contains secret signs of culture. And those who recognize them discover true peace and an understanding of what a blessing it is to live on Earth in this world.

I think that a person who knows how to perceive great art listens great music, looks at the great canvases, plays a little musical instruments, sings, paints pictures, and is a real lucky one. Not a genius, just wonderful person, who takes from art its depths and can recognize its secrets. He understands Beethoven, enjoys Mozart, falls in love with Bach, reads Moliere’s Tartuffe, revealing for himself this book of life, just like “ Divine Comedy» Dante. He often rereads Goethe’s Faust and laughs in surprise every time he looks around: “Lord, what idiots they are all! Everything is said about them here!” And then the person suddenly feels easy, beautiful and good. Then the details of the biographies are unimportant: who got married, who got divorced, and who has what kind of real estate.

The pace and intensity of Mikhail Kazinik’s life is aptly characterized musical term"Quickly, with fire."

Geniuses spat out their souls in blood, sacrificed everything and became victims themselves. As Einstein said: “God is subtle, but not malicious.” This is a brilliant phrase, equal in grandeur to Einstein’s famous formula E=mc2. And I consider it the highest justice to reveal these geniuses to people and remind them of them. Remember, as in Maeterlinck’s “The Blue Bird”: when the departed are remembered, they come to life. “This has been stuck in my head very clearly since early childhood,” admits Mikhail Semyonovich and says keywords. - Therefore, I urge my listeners: “Say again - Ludwig van Beethoven” or “My beloved Frederic Chopin!”, or “My Robert Schumann, thank you for listening to your music today and enjoying it.” This is probably my main dream, for people to sometimes remember great artists. That's why I drive all over the world...

– The most important thing is not about what, but how? I really wanted to infect listeners with a love of music. To do this you need to be passionate, emotional, and be able to control your voice. It is impossible to give a lecture about art. Art is not an object. Only creative non-standard approach may interest the audience. I realized this while still in school.

– After graduating from the Belarusian State Conservatory, your career seems to have developed successfully. What prompted you to emigrate?

- I'm not an emigrant. I have two citizenships: Belarusian and Swedish. I arrive in Minsk, go into my apartment, where some of my books remain, and meet with friends. I spend a lot of time in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the Baltic states. There are no boundaries for me. Swedish citizenship gives me the opportunity to freely perform in America, Canada, England and other countries without being subject to humiliating visa procedures.

– I won’t list all your professions, but explain what such an unusual position as an expert at the Nobel Concert means?

– For Nobel laureates who arrive in Stockholm, an evening concert is held the day before the award ceremony. I was invited as a presenter, I’m talking about the music that will be played now. The Royal Orchestra, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and other performers are playing. Nobel laureates talk about how classical music has influenced their lives. It turned out that even in childhood, almost all of them listened to great music, which contained the harmony of the world and the secrets of the universe. All the formulas of scientific knowledge are hidden in music, all secret codes discoveries of the future. The concert is shown on television, and the credits read “Music expert Mikhail Kazinik.”

– You don’t share the opinion that classical music is elitist, boring and incomprehensible?

- Of course no!

- But then why doesn’t it become property? large quantity listeners?

– I’ll answer briefly. Everything genuine, unfortunately, is not the property of the majority. Many are content with fakes. I have spoken and written on this topic many times. The rating of any Russian television program is directly proportional to the amount of stupidity in this program.

– I’m generally afraid to ask you about pop music; I know your negative attitude towards it. But how did it happen that your student Salem Al Fakir gave up violin and became a popular Swedish singer?

– He was a talented violinist, and I even prepared him for the Tchaikovsky competition. One day he came to me and asked: “Mikhail, admit it honestly, is it true that even a good violinist will not earn a lot of money?” I honestly admitted that it really wouldn’t work. Salem said that he had a good voice, and his friends promised to promote him and make him a popular singer. That's where we parted. And after a couple of years he really became famous singer, approximately the same as Kirkorov for Russia. The King of Soul. But some time passed, and his popularity began to decline. This happens to many pop stars, especially in Sweden. In my opinion, he is doing well, but he no longer has the same admiration and crowds of mad fans. In an interview with a Swedish newspaper, I said: “I’m sorry that Sweden gained another pop singer, but lost an outstanding violinist who could make it famous.” They took offense at me, but this is true.

– How do you feel about modern adaptations of classical music? Are you impressed by the playing of famous violinist Vanessa Mae?

- I have a bad attitude. I believe that classical music exists in those acoustic moments, glows, deep states and ideas in which it was written by geniuses. I have nothing against the person who listens to Vivaldi in the original and then Vanessa Mae's performance. But if his acquaintance with music begins with Vanessa May, then he will not be able to perceive Vivaldi performed by an orchestra or some outstanding violinist. I want a person, as Bulgakov said in “The Master and Margarita,” to have sturgeon of the first freshness. After all, freshness is only the first, and it is also the last. The second one does not happen. So is Vanessa Mae, Vivaldi in her performance is “sturgeon of the second freshness.” Vivaldi, that brilliant Venetian, felt in his music the air, the glow of the sun, but not the microphone voice of the violin.

– Please tell us about the project to create 56 films dedicated to the world musical culture. Were they shown on Russian television?

– In the first 12 episodes, which, by the way, were also purchased by Swedish television, I talked about the effect of Bach, Mozart, Schubert and other composers. The films were shown in the evening, and many spectators could watch them. In Russia, films were shown at one in the morning, and when people began to complain, they moved them to three in the morning. But many managed to record them, and they are now available on the Internet. The famous Russian documentary filmmaker Igor Shadkhan worked on the project together with his wife, director Natalya Kugashova. Filming took place in Sweden, at my dacha in the mountains, on a lake, in a church with an organ, in other very beautiful places. First they filmed 12 episodes, then they ordered us more, and we filmed 56 episodes. But eight of them remained uninstalled because there was not enough money. The films are very popular. They are shown in schools, universities, in different cities, wherever they understand the importance of aesthetic education.

– Your books “Secrets of Geniuses” and “Secrets of Geniuses-2” were a huge success. Did you manage to unravel the secrets of great people, or at least get closer to solving them?

– Some of the mysteries have been solved, some have not yet been solved, and some will never be revealed. But my book also talks about how to become a brilliant listener, reader, and viewer. If there is genius creativity, then there must be genius perception. Otherwise, the genius, the creator, will remain on a desert island. My task is to create such a perception. How can a person who is far from music feel the greatness of Bach or Beethoven? How to teach people to admire great works of art? In the book “Gimlet in the Land of Light” I tried to find a way to the hearts of children. Tell about amazing world culture, about the secrets of great books, music, painting.

– Your performances with virtuoso violinist Andrei Chistyakov are very popular. How did you meet, and are you planning to tour together in Germany?

– First you need to get an invitation from the tour organizers, and then start planning something (smiles). And we met Andrey in Nice. I was at his concert, he played gypsy music. His skill amazed me. We talked all night. It turned out that Andrei graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, postgraduate school, studied with the wonderful teacher Eduard Grach, the last of the Mohicans who did not leave and remained in Russia. I call Andrey Chistyakov a polystylist. He can perform classical and jazz, gypsy and klezmer music. Any style, any era is subject to him. Andrey can even play Japanese music, and at this moment it seems that he looks like a Japanese man. His performances resemble a show, and his improvisation and virtuoso violin skills captivate listeners. I really love performing with him.

– In Chelyabinsk you created a new type of school “Seven Keys”. What is its difference from traditional Russian school?

– A regular school creates a clip consciousness. It lacks the main thing – an integrated approach. The geography teacher talks about Portugal, the next history lesson is dedicated to french revolution. What is the connection between them? As a result, the student forgets both Portugal and the French Revolution. At my school, everything is interconnected, and lessons are built on associative thinking. Let's take a lesson called "Apple". All teachers participate in it, children easily remember all required material and learn to think broadly. Students develop curiosity, talents and abilities emerge, and they explore the world with joy.

– Is it necessary to teach children music, because only a few of them will become musicians?

– If parents don’t love their children, then you need to do everything not to teach them music (smiles sadly). But if they want a child to become, for example, a mathematician, then they need to start with music. Sit down next to your child in the evening, hug him, light some candles and listen to Mozart's music together for five minutes. Then gradually increase the time. And let the music of Schumann, Chopin, Brahms and other composers sound in your home. The child will receive an extraordinary energy boost and will remember these evenings forever. Everything should happen naturally, and then the question of how to get a child to study music will not arise. Remember that music also heals. You don’t need to take analgin right away, listen to the music of romantic composers - and the pain will go away.

– If we compare Soviet and Russian music education with Western ones, which one do you prefer?

– In Soviet music education there was a lot of positive things, but they were based on coercion. The training program was drawn up in advance, and strictly defined pieces of music were played during the exams. At Western school more freedom, if a student wants to play Yesterday, then the teacher cannot force him to play something else. In any case, the child must fall in love with the teacher, otherwise it is difficult to achieve the desired result both in the West and in Russia.

– You speak very warmly about the city of your childhood, Vitebsk. Do you like modern Vitebsk?

– Restored in Vitebsk Old city, the church, many churches, to some extent managed to return its original appearance. The look that Chagall and Repin loved so much. Vitebsk is the city of Malevich and Dobuzhinsky, Pan and Falk, Lazhechnikov, Sollertinsky, Lagin and many others outstanding personalities. The history of Vitebsk is unique, and it is a pity that it only hosts the Slavic Bazaar, but does not host classical music festivals.

– A documentary film “Kazinik, God and the Devil” was shot in Sweden. Is it possible to be God and the devil in one person?

- It's not about the face. Swedish has much less punctuation marks than Russian. And if it is written Kazinik, comma, God and the devil, then it is clear to any Swede that it is not Kazinik who is God and the devil, but that it is the divine and the devil in music. The full title of the film is “Kazinik, God and the Devil, or the Fiery Soul in Sweden.” The Swedes have this concept of “fiery soul,” and a person who has it can do more than all governments combined. The film, directed by Swedish director P. Meyer, was awarded second prize at the Stockholm international festival documentary films. The film shows how I, having traveled all over Sweden, try to reach the hearts of children and old people, workers and farmers, setting people up to perceive classical music. Unfortunately, P. Mayer died, and all rights remained with his widow. It was not possible to reach an agreement with her about showing the film.

– What is your greatest strength and weakness?

– The main drawback is excessive categoricalness in judgment, obsession. Or maybe she is my greatest asset (laughs)?

– Do you consider yourself a happy person?

- Yes. I managed to realize my dreams. When I speak on stage, people smile, cry, and rejoice. Love comes from them. I receive a lot of letters with words of gratitude. I'm lucky with my family. My wife is great at music. My son is a violinist, he performs with me. The grandson is an artist, plays the clarinet and piano. The granddaughter plays the flute and piano. We don't have the problem of fathers and children, probably because our whole life is imbued with music. And we are on the same level, on the line of eternity.

The genre in which violinist and art critic Mikhail Semenovich Kazinik performs is difficult to define: part concert, part lecture, part performance. Maybe that’s why those who attended Kazinik’s concerts talk about their uniqueness.

The key to these performances, one of which took place on February 21 in Tallinn, at the Estonia Theater, is the personality of Mikhail Kazinik himself, an encyclopedist who inherits the people of the Renaissance (as far as this is possible in our era). Kazinik admires not only the diversity of world culture, but also its stunning integrity, and tries to teach this view to other people.

Hence the constant transitions, jumps from topic to topic, from Bach to Einstein, from Mozart to Pushkin, because in reality everything is close, all the titans of culture are connected with each other by myriads of invisible threads, and you can feel these threads, get used to them, become part of timeless matrix – is very important, especially, as Kazinik himself puts it, in our “post-Gulag” environment. Stalin destroyed a significant part of the cultural layer of the Soviet people: we are talking not only about those killed, but also about those who were not born, which is why for residents of the former republics of the USSR it is especially important to delve into the sources of pure culture.

If Bach is a master...

First of all, this is classical music, which Kazinik contrasts with “conveyor pop”. Is there some kind of musical snobbery here? It's no secret that at one time almost everything that we consider classical music, was considered pop compared to the creations of recognized classics of other eras.

“So that you understand me correctly, I will ask you a counter-question: is morphine good or bad?” – asks Mikhail Semenovich. It depends on why and in what doses to use... “Oh! Here is the answer to your question. There is no such thing as bad, vile, absolutely stupid music! There is only our measure of consumption. Morphine is a medicine for long-term persistent pain, and thank you for the existence of morphine, otherwise many people would suffer terribly... At the core of a person there should be harmony, classical thinking. If there is harmony - listen to what you want, have fun, have fun, laugh - nothing is scary for you! The trouble is that we cannot break away from the classics. Others can, but we can’t. From an early age, a Swedish child goes to church with his mom and dad, and there is Mr. Bach and his chorales, and this is the norm for Swedes. I remember in some Swedish gymnasium I talked about how Bach is Einstein three hundred years before Einstein, I began to play Bach’s music, and suddenly the whole audience began to sing. And I thought: Lord, what a fool I am, for them this is “a birch tree stood in the field,” folk music! After all, Bach arranged folk melodies, because Martin Luther’s idea was to bring the church closer to people...”

Swedes at a certain age come to concert hall, Kazinik continues, they build their houses according to the laws of beauty and do not swear; they are essentially Protestants and live by the commandment “work and you will be rewarded.” They are Masters. In Sweden there is no concept of “conductor” - there is a “train master”, and the cleaner there is a “cleaning master”. “And let us remember the Nuremberg Mastersingers, the masters of singing! This is a different mentality! With this mentality, Bach is a master, the fifth evangelist, he cannot be laughed at, he cannot be humiliated. And then the Beatles are also masters. And, damn it, Kirkorov is also a master of his craft... When you have the core, you have everything, you understand?”

“Body culture” – in the cheetah

Mikhail Kazinik himself has lived in Sweden since 1991. At the height of the August putsch, he decided to sign a contract for several years and back for permanent place did not return to residence.

“This doesn’t mean that I emigrated,” explains the violinist. – I often visit Russia, give concerts, host programs on radio and television, my books are published in Russian... In Sweden they have a different attitude towards such things. My uncle, who lives in Malmö, goes to Vienna to listen to opera and to Copenhagen to have lunch with friends, and that's normal. True, now I don’t know how to take my grandchildren to Russia or Belarus. My grandchildren don’t know swear words, and if they ask what people are talking about on the street, what will I tell them? But I still have an apartment in Minsk and Belarusian citizenship. The passport says that I must replace it in 2051. Otherwise Lukashenko will punish me..."

But Sweden, according to Kazinik, is not free from “the force that does everything to prevent modern people from adjusting to eternal rhythms,” and the name of this force is sellers: “Marx was right in many ways: for a thousand percent of profit, the capitalist will kill himself loved one. Another thing is that Sweden still has traditions of equality. I once met with a trade union leader, and so: he lives in a section in a row house, his neighbors are workers and cleaners, and he is proud that he and his wife built a sauna with their own hands, worked all summer... He is like that he’s a man like everyone else, he didn’t steal anything. In Russia everything is different. My friend and I figured that if we took all of Abramovich’s money, we’d get a 28-meter tower of hundred-dollar bills. For such people, a million dollars is an abstraction. I always say: rich people, if you still have at least a drop of intelligence left, if this country is dear to you as a memory, as the homeland of your ancestors, allocate money for culture! After all, culture is the only thing that unites people. And we are not talking about “body culture” - the cheetah’s body culture; In the original meaning of the word, culture is the education of the soul!”

Kiss and blow

Mikhail Kazinik carried out one of his most famous projects in Småland, a province in southern Sweden. Over the course of three years, he gave more than a thousand concerts for schoolchildren, and the results were phenomenal, including a significant reduction in crime in the region. “In three years, every schoolchild in Småland saw me six times,” says Kazinik. “At first I played miniatures for them on the violin, then symphoniettas, and so on. Imagine that after this, in the pop school itself, the students organized a Bach circle, and the main pop musician there headed this circle. Children gathered in church, played the organ, read reports about Bach... I was invited to continue, but I realized that my country needed it.”

On Russian radio, Kazinik tries to smooth out interethnic conflicts through culture: “As soon as complications with Georgia begin, I broadcast ancient Georgian chants. As soon as the anti-Islamic wave begins, I talk about beautiful Sufi poetry... I don’t understand people who are immersed in politics. Why do you need Putin if you don't listen to Mozart? Of course, we need to fight for rights, but we need to understand with whom and for what, and the overwhelming majority of people do not know how to think critically. Meanwhile, this is exactly what it teaches us World culture. People are zombied, and my task is to try to unzombify them, revive culture, restore world harmony!”

For this purpose, Kazinik chooses music: “Because these are direct vibrations, and the classics are earthly converters of brilliant vibrational energy, and if a person is open, music will change him for the better. I have a “kiss and hit” theory: when a genius is born, he is kissed, and then he needs to be hit so that he has something to overcome. We get the energy to overcome from a genius, you know? We don’t need to get sick anymore, the genius got sick for us.”