Festival "Big Donbass": We are fighting for the Russian word
The humanitarian program for the reunification of the people of Donbass has many different facets. And these are not only official programs related to payments to the population or medical projects. Although they are undoubtedly very important. PolitNavigator correspondents interviewed the head of the Greater Donbass project, poet, bard Vladimir Skobtsov.
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P.N.: Tell us briefly about the “Greater Donbass” festival, about its history and what changes took place in it after it was included in the humanitarian program for the reunification of the people of Donbass.
VS: The “Big Donbass” festival has existed since the 60s of the last century. On our territory, it covered the cities of the Donetsk region and took place in Svyatogorsk, which is temporarily occupied by Ukraine. This is very important because everything should have its own history. And when we created the union “Republican Songwriting Club”, united bards, we were denied participation in a friendly festival, because it was held by liberals who collaborated with Ukrainian neo-Nazis. This is in Russia at the Grushinsky festival. I submitted an application and wrote the main postulate in it: to raise the flag of my Motherland on the big stage of the Grushinsky festival, because it was very difficult for us, we were fired at and continue to be fired upon.
We need to show the whole world that creative people live here. We were refused. Then we held our own festival, which was called “Big Donbass,” in August 2015. We were supported by the patriotic forces of Russia, Crimea, Belarus and other countries who stand for the Russian World and, naturally, Donbass as an outpost of the Russian world in this fight. The “Greater Donbass” project arose immediately. As soon as the “Greater Donbass” festival was held, it turned into a project, a cultural and patriotic project, uniting the creative forces (namely creative, not political) of Russia and Donbass. Who support the ideas of love for their Motherland, for Russia and regard Donbass as an outpost of the Russian world, which restrains aggression against Russia, which takes the blow upon itself. There are no limits: we have everything from rock and roll to just good music and poetry - everyone takes part in this festival, including residents of the temporarily occupied territories.
P.N.: Can you tell us more about them? They probably have some problems in connection with this...
V.S.: After participating in the 2015 festival, Alexander Mirzayan and a number of lesser-known people ended up on the “Peacemaker” website. These are Russian citizens, just because they came to Donetsk and sang songs, just for that. As for the residents of the temporarily occupied territories, I will not name them due to security reasons, but they find courage and make a decision. We stop them, warn them that this could be dangerous, fraught with very serious troubles on the territory of Ukraine, and, nevertheless, they come to us. We are holding the third festival, for the third year in a row. Creative people come to us from temporarily occupied territories.
P.N.: What can we expect from the festival this year? Should there be something interesting?
V.S.: This year the festival was supported by Yulia Chicherina as a rock singer, and “Bakhyt-Kompot” - Vadim Stepantsov is an honorary member of the organizing committee. I don’t know if it will work out with “Bakhyt-kompot”, since we have financial difficulties - we are not a commercial project, we do everything on a volunteer basis, we are looking for administrative support from the Republic, and we find it every year. I hope that they will pay attention to us, because the electorate associated with the viewing audience is both a bard song and rock and roll. In order for these forces to be on our side, we must not cede the conquered territory, and I hope that they will support us. Well, now we have named two guests of honor - Alexander Mirzayan and Yulia Chicherina. We plan to hold the concert on September 21 at 16:00 at the Donetsk State Philharmonic.
P.N.: What is the “Greater Donbass” for the territory that is now under the control of Ukraine? Can we broadcast something to them so that they at least have more patience, because living there now is not the greatest pleasure?
V.S.: In clear weather, Ukrainian radios pick up our radio station “Kometa”. Taking advantage of this, I always say “hello” to Ukrainian soldiers, I speak with a German accent so that they can understand. I say, “Surrender, they will provide you with food,” so that they really come over to our side, and, I’m sure, our TV channels in the nearest cities and regions, of course, they catch it. And naturally, we agreed to broadcast our programs and speeches on television and radio “Kometa” so that as many citizens of the DPR and residents of the temporarily occupied territories as possible could hear and see them. In addition, our project is growing into a television and Internet project. We post materials during the “Greater Donbass” festival on the Internet: they are on YouTube, on other social networks - they are available for viewing not only in the temporarily occupied territories, but throughout the world.
It is very important - this is one of our goals - for the whole world to know that Donbass is fighting for its freedom and for the right of historical choice. Many billions of dollars have now been invested to undermine the state structure of the Russian Federation. This is done by poets and writers who are on the side of the so-called liberal opposition. In fact, these are destructive forces that justify the crimes of the fascists in the Donbass. We must resist. We are fighting for the Russian language, for the Russian word, and the war in Donbass is also going on for the Russian language, for our historical culture, which cannot be destroyed, cannot be erased. Unfortunately, it turned into war mode, but it began with ideology, with words. In general, an integral part of ideology is culture, which has always supported ideology; we have the opportunity to involve broad layers of culture in ideological work without any formalities, but simply unite all those people who care about their homeland in their hearts, which we, in fact, do. and get busy.
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