Notes of an Elderly Person

2019. 102 years have passed since the Great October Socialist Revolution—also known as the Bolshevik coup. 39 years since, according to Khrushchev, communism was supposed to arrive—yet instead there was the Moscow Olympics and the war in Afghanistan. 28 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union. 60 years since the author’s birth.

Everyone’s in a terrible mood. The economy is stagnant and ready for depression. Officials responsible for it speak openly to the president that there will be no upturn according to his decrees. The pension reform has been carried out—why, God knows: the budget is in surplus and the treasury is bursting with money, though the country can’t see it like its own ears. The security forces are suffocating business. Taxes and fees are rising. Capital flees, but emigration is free.

A turn toward the East brings China in place of America and Europe, but the country’s development strategy as a raw-material appendage remains. We rose from our knees—the question is: into what position? Elections, protests, arrests and detentions of protesters, protests against arrests, detentions, and sentences handed down to them merge into one whole. The democratic opposition is drawing up lists for purges it will carry out if it comes to power. Power isn’t moving—power isn’t making any progress.

Cities and villages are flooded, forests burn, everyone steals, but they can’t sort out the trash. Science and education can’t be saved, but with religion everything is fine. In Ukraine there’s a new president—here we have the old one. Only the people don’t understand their own happiness. Russia…