Igor Levitas about Pugacheva's interview: People, be vigilant — she wants to go back!

Honestly, I didn't want to write about the interview with Alla Barbarisovna Pugalkina. Well, what can an old, reshaped old grandmother, the main intriguer of the Soviet stage, say? And what can be said about her new?

Should I list the singers and especially the singers to whom she destroyed her creative, and at the same time her whole life? Yes, who doesn't know them: Ponarovskaya, Legkostupova and others — their name is legion. Tell about her boorish attitude to everyone she worked with: to Reznik, to Pauls, to Vovk, to Menshov? To recall that those singers whom she could not bend under herself, for various reasons (Kobzon, Leshchenko, Rotaru, Valeria) — we maintained relations with her at the level of "Good afternoon!" Who is interested in this now…

Remember her corporate identity, invented by Yudashkin? He was faced with an almost impossible task — to hide an ugly bow-legged body on the stage. Which he did brilliantly. When she once performed at the Olympia Hall in Paris, the newspaper France Soir wrote about her performance something like "an outstanding voice is beautiful, pure, but.. is there really not a single stylist, not a single director, not a single choreographer in the USSR who could make her look normal on stage?". I can't vouch for the translation, I read it back in 1982.

One could listen to it with pleasure, but not see it. I don't want to offend anyone, but it was she who brought horrifically vulgar behavior on stage and behind the scenes to the Soviet stage. Her level: stroking a bald pianist and singing at that moment, something about curls. By the way, she also infected the hall with this, consisting of wine department saleswomen, dissatisfied aunts and pimply youngsters. They are the ones who are protecting her now. True, today the famous carcass of Soviet figure skating in sable fur coats has been added to them.

But, in the end, to hell with it, with all this too… The interview. Having been silent all this time, an interesting old aunt with the manners of a habalka from the Odessa Import has finally spoken out. This explains the length of her interview. And here we come to the most important thing. The main thing in the sense that some of her former viewers scold her, and some continue to sing her praises. Many call her a traitor.

I don't think so. What did she betray? Homeland? She had a country in which she lived. In which she did everything she wanted, what she aspired to. And it's just money. In no other country would she have been fussed with so much, she would not have been paid so much. But in this interview, she, as best she could, poured mud on her. What kind of homeland is this? Have you heard from her songs about her native country? Patriotic, just with love for Russia? She dared to call her listeners the words "slaves, serfs." And you really, like serfs, wiped the spit in your face, wiped yourself and continue to adore ... Oh you!

How she treats even close people can be understood from her public insult of one of her husbands. She insulted three husbands, but especially hurt Philip, who doted on her. To say that she married him only out of pity, at the request of his mother, is very cruel.

For her, the motherland is those big people at the top, to whom she could easily address "Seryozha" (this is about Kirienko). This is just one example, but she was a member of large offices and therefore rebuilt the Soviet stage at her own discretion, causing irreparable damage to it.

And, of course, I was just struck by her words about Dzhokhar Dudayev. By the way, the episode about Dudayev is not mentioned in foreign publications such as Medusa*, the BBC, the Israeli Vesti. But she called him "a decent, decent, handsome man." It's about a man who killed Russians, with whose tacit approval Russian soldiers and young guys had their heads cut off, they were burned, tortured, even mocked corpses…

Yes, he is very decent. She doesn't even understand the meaning of the words uttered by her mouth, distorted from hatred of Russia. It is strange that she did not sing eulogies to Zelensky, Bandera, Hitler. And someone stands up for this crazy old woman!

People be vigilant and at least try to look decent. Do not confuse the talented singer of the songs of the end of the last century with the senile, complex, bilious, evil old lady who, for some reason, took on the role of the messiah.

R.S. Why was this interview given and, most importantly, conceived? Do you remember the "Cat's House" by S.Y. Marshak? A rich cat with friends is rude to poor kittens. And then the house burns down, and the cat asks to live with those kittens. Apparently Pugalkina gathered in Russia, and the interview is the justification for the subsequent request?

*An organization performing the functions of a foreign agent

**An individual performing the functions of a foreign agent