Leonid Parfenov: “Let the Jewish Jews film it to themselves. Leonid Parfenov announced the names of famous people who hid their Jewish origins. Never has the situation in the Western world been as tolerant as it is now

“I have already been settled in the USA twice. Wherever I live, if you believe the conversations"

Lately, there has been only talk about the fact that the famous journalist and TV presenter, author of the “Namedni” project, Leonid Parfenov, accepted Israeli citizenship and left his homeland. And then there was the picture “Russian Jews. The first film. Before the revolution." Its author and presenter was Leonid Parfenov, and its director was Sergey Nurmamed.

The first and inevitable question.

— What prompted you to accept Israeli citizenship?

- Nothing prompted it. I have already been settled in the USA twice. Wherever I live, if you believe the conversations...

Together with Sergei Nurmamed, Leonid Parfenov worked on the films “Zvorykin-Muromets”, “Bird-Gogol”, “Ridge of Russia”, “Eye of God”, “Color of the Nation”. Interest in their new project was involuntarily fueled by Vladimir Pozner and Ivan Urgant, whose serial film “Jewish Happiness” caused a stormy and mostly negative reaction among our former compatriots in Israel. As Sergei Nurmamed will say, the authors of “Russian Jews” sought to make a spectacular film and at the same time preserve the signs of documentary.

The first part of the trilogy tells about the Jewish way of life, the “Beilis case”, the first wave of emigration, Lenin’s comrades-in-arms. The narrative begins in modern Kyiv, but from its past, where already in the 11th century there was a Jewish quarter. “It was not the Jews who came to Russia, but Russia came to the Jews,” will be heard from the screen about the results of the partition of Poland.

What we don’t learn from Leonid Parfenov: about Amalia Natanson from Western Ukraine, who became the mother of Sigmund Freud, about the Russian artist Levitan, whose biography began with the words “born into a poor Jewish family,” about Lenin, who hid in Razliv with Zinoviev, although 50 For years we were told about his loneliness.

In our history, there were three peoples who came into Russian culture brightly and en masse at certain periods: Jews, Germans, Georgians,” says Leonid. — The first film of the current trilogy about Jews ends in 1917, this is the period of tsarist anti-Semitism, the second is the period from 1918 to 1948, the period of Soviet Judophilia. The third - from 1948 to 1990 - from the beginning of official Judeophobia to the mass exodus.

We are interested in civilization, the Jews who wrote in Russian and left us a more serious literature than that written in Yiddish. Mandelstam, Brodsky and Pasternak are classics of Russian poetry of the 20th century, and they are Jews in our memory only by the origin of their parents.

Galina Borisovna Volchek told me that in the Ministry of Culture all the main directors were considered Jews, except for Efremov. Because that’s how they tried to spread the ideological infection. They always have subtext in their performances. Yuri Petrovich Lyubimov was an obvious Jew for Furtseva. This is the extent to which dissidence and Jewry were mixed towards the end of the USSR.

One of the most colorful scenes in “Russian Jews” is the arrival of Leonid Utesov’s father, then Lazar Weisbein, at the butcher shop. He begs his butcher neighbor to let his son study with his. It is necessary to bring “your Russian” so as not to violate the percentage quota for Jews at the Faig School in Odessa. Utesov’s father is ready to pay for Nikita’s education, for breakfast and a uniform in addition. Another famous Jew of recent history is Mishka Yaponchik. Leonid Parfenov remembers him while sitting in the famous bandit’s favorite cafe. A special episode is the “Case of Beilis,” accused in Kyiv in the 1910s of the ritual murder of an Orthodox teenager.

— People are primarily interested in whether your project is Russian or Israeli?

International, and above all Russian. It was filmed in Russian by our professionals. And the audience in Russia will probably perceive it best.

For broadcast around the world, subtitles are made in Hebrew, English and German. In Israel, unless the audience comes from the former USSR, there will certainly be some difficulties. I showed “Color of the Nation” at festivals in both Krasnoyarsk and London. The reaction was, of course, very different, and they asked about very different things after the show. How, for example, can we translate the RSDLP, which is mentioned more than once in the current film, for a foreign audience? You can’t leave the abbreviation, and writing the whole thing every time is too long for a subtitle. In our country you can say once - the party or the future CPSU, but in translation this is not enough. Moreover, you can’t explain on the fly what it is: the only party that has been ruling for more than 70 years. When the film takes place in Russia and the authors are Russian, it is difficult for foreigners to watch due to ignorance of the context.

— Do you set yourself educational goals or is it important for you to speak out on a topic of interest and that’s it?

— The most important task for me is: what? Here is “The Color of the Nation” about the fact that there was a country before last, which can be seen in today’s standard image in Prokudin-Gorsky’s photographs, and compare it with the current one. And here are cases with Jews, Georgians and Germans - about how diverse Russian civilization is, how all kinds of people came and became part of it. And thus enriched. Our film is about Russian Jews, about those who at some time turned into the second titular nation in the cities. This is not a story about Jews at all.

— Do you think about what kind of people are sitting in front of the TV, how educated and capable of feeling they are?

- I do it as they said in Soviet times - for pioneers and pensioners, so that any viewer can see something of their own. I proceed from the fact that a person may not know anything about the “Beilis case”, see Levitan’s paintings for the first time, but still understand something if he is interested in something in principle. What you are talking about is a matter of professional intuition, and not a once and for all fixed law.

— Are you an analyst by nature, studying a body of material, or do you go from an emotional feeling?

— People are interested in life, rich in its manifestations. And it is important for me to show that here is the town of Brody, here is a river in it, here is a ford, and this is where all the Brodskys came from.

— You spoke so emotionally about your film! But why did you decide to film about Jews?

— I have so far shot about 150 documentary series about Russian history and culture of different times. And now I’ve made a film about the diversity of its manifestations, which I consider a precious property. I am interested in understanding what is in our civilization where Germans, Jews and Georgians became Russians.

— What's good about mixing cultures? Isn't it better to preserve your originality?

“I don’t think it’s a mix-up.” Vladimir Dahl, who was of German-Danish origin, was impressed by the word “clouds.” This is where his famous Explanatory Dictionary began, in which there is nothing Danish or German. Joseph Brodsky came to literature as the heir of the Acmeists. In emigration, he had a need to write lines on the death of Zhukov, just as Derzhavin once wrote on the death of Suvorov. What's Jewish about this problem? Do the French even wonder if Yves Montand is an Italian Jew? The main French chansonnier. Where is the confusion?

- How do you know all this? About Montana and Leonid Utesov, about many people who appear in your film?

— The scene in the butcher shop is from Utesov’s memoirs. It is intended to make it clear what the percentage rate is. You need to bring a Russian with you, then the ratio will not be violated. I’m ready to make a film about Russian Germans, that’s why I know. We have a whole great novel “Oblomov”, dedicated to the Russian and the German, like yin and yang. How can Oblomov live without Stolz, and Stolz without Oblomov? How can you be Russian without reading this? Yes, our country was ruled by Germans and Georgians for the longest time.

— And will they be the subject of your consideration?

- Including them. But only they are Russian. Pushkin even claimed that the Russian Peter made us Germans, and the German Catherine made us Russians. She was, in the concepts of that time, the mother of the Russian land. And what is the phrase of Vasily Stalin said to his sister Svetlana: “Do you know that your father used to be Georgian?”

“Your answer now is to stand for all Jews.” Ready?

— I am engaged in a public profession. This means that some will like what you do, and some will not. If you sit quietly at home next to a warm radiator, you definitely won’t make anyone happy or make anyone angry. Someone will consider what I remember to be a “phobia”: Levitan is Isaac Ilyich. Some will be outraged by the “philia” when I say that for me he is a more Russian landscape painter than Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin. I look at Levitan’s aching sadness, and it’s familiar. And Ivan Ivanovich’s nature is too cheerful.

— Why do Jews still hide their origins today? Although because of this they will not be denied admission to work or to a university.

— In the 2000s, I no longer encountered this. Once upon a time it really mattered for a career. We're talking about Russia, right? For a long time now, the “nationality” column has not been found anywhere. But we don’t have people who speak Yiddish or Hebrew, and there are very few religious people among Russian speakers. What kind of Jews are they? This is a type of Russian urban population. Don't they work on Saturdays? Don't eat pork? Jews could have been their grandfathers and grandmothers who lived in some place, in Vitebsk, Zhitomir, Vinnitsa. If it weren't for Schindler's List, would you still be thinking about Spielberg's nationality? How many American filmmakers come from the Russian Empire. As Lyudmila Gurchenko said: “Oh! Our people from Odessa. Golden and Mayer. Thank you, comrades, for the trophy movie.” It seems to me that this is the wealth of Russian civilization if Matvey Isaakovich Blanter wrote the main Russian folk song of the 20th century - “Katyusha”. He did not become a Jewish composer. That is, it turns out that the Jews lost, there were fewer potential composers, but the Russians gained, an author appeared who composed “In a sunny clearing”, “With the birches it is inaudible, weightless”, “Migratory birds are flying”, “Bulgaria is a good country, and Russia is the best."

— Does a Russian person have any reason to be ashamed of the fact that he is Russian?

I haven't found myself in a similar situation. I understand the feelings of dissidents who were ashamed of the activities of the state when tanks were brought into Czechoslovakia. So why be ashamed? Russian parents? The fact that Russian is your native language? This is definitely not for me. I simply can’t feel like anyone else.

Stills from the film “Russian Jews”.

Moreover, I have a clear division - a Russian northern person and a Russian southern person. I am northern. I have a hard time understanding the southern dialect with its “ghekan”: “Oh, Hala! But it's him! That one in our choir, in the district! Let's take a photo." In my homeland they don’t behave or speak like that. I’m from the Vologda region, and “if you want me to talk like that, then I know how to talk.” (Here Leonid switches to the northern dialect, he turns out dashingly.)

- Did you say that?

— (Continues to speak in Vologda.) I literally haven’t said that myself, but I can say that. And when I find myself at home, I inevitably begin to let it happen. Especially in conversation - it’s easy. Once we were renting there with the guys, and I discussed with the locals that the land plots were not divided according to the cadastre... They then asked me what kind of Vologda words these were? It's impossible to understand anything.

“You’re your own boss, don’t you go to work?” How do you find funds for films? How does the name work for you?

I regret that I switched to free bread too late and hesitated. In 2007, I had author’s projects scheduled for two years in advance, and I realized that I would not have time to complete them if I worked somewhere for a salary along the way. I haven't served since then.

I haven’t worked anywhere for almost nine years and have never worked so much. Over the years, seven volumes of “Namedni” have been published, with newly written texts, each containing 500-600 illustrations, which I selected. And six films were made, mostly two-part.

- You are always in the frame. Do you feel like an author or also an actor?

I remain myself, I don’t pretend to be anything. Of course, in the frame you try not to slouch and pronounce your words more clearly. But this task is journalistic, not gaming. What is the image here? That's not what acting is all about. She is in reincarnation. You need to become different. I can't do this.

I was invited to small roles many times. For example, I was clerk Shchelkanov in “Boris Godunov” with Vladimir Mirzoev. Since this is a modernized story in current costumes, I know how the press secretary of the head of state should come out to reporters and report the suicide of Irina Godunova. Everyone told me: “No, of course you can’t play.” If I portray something in feature films, it is rather myself, as in “Generation P” by Victor Ginzburg.

- You look great - slim and agile.

- Moderately well-fed?

- We climbed the Potemkin Stairs so easily! Close-up, and no shortness of breath.

“But on that day it was impossible to film anything else.” We started at 9.30 and finished by 15.

— You’ve been making films for so many years, but the excitement never goes away. And the film turned out funny, with irony.

- Not everyone likes it, that I have an ironic squint. Someone will think it’s comical that I’m wandering around the fords and leading the Brodskys out of it. I always do what interests me. This is the only gasoline you drive on. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to do anything.

— Don’t you have any directorial ambitions?

“I don’t even have directorial duties.” I can suggest something, and then hear in response at the Russian Museum that I will not have a comment on Serov’s portrait of Ida Rubinstein, because it cannot be removed there. In ordinary documentary films there is no person who leads. But the director sometimes uses me in secret. I don’t know how many times you need to cross this very river, how much dirty silt you need to scoop out before the episode is filmed.

Leonid Parfenov's opinion on the Russian national question.

Leonid Gennadievich, do you consider yourself Russian? As I understand it, you consider yourself a “person of Russian culture.” A man, one might say, of the World.
You have made an excellent career, providing for yourself and your family, making a name for yourself, receiving well-deserved honor for your enormous contribution to journalism in Russia and Europe.
Do you realize that well-deserved money, as in your case, influences a person for the better? You say the right things about human capital, but is investment in human capital possible when the economic system, more than 50% state-owned, is not aimed at investing in people? And for investments in offshore companies, controlled, as we see, by bandits and crooks. Some crooks have been controlling offshore companies for more than a century. And the word “offshore” has a characteristic name. As a rule, each new phenomenon is given a name by the people who discovered or invented the phenomenon. In your national language.

Why is our system set up in such a way that investments are made in the economies of the USA, France, England, and Austria?
Here, for example, is a picture taken the other day in Vienna. Please note in what year VTB Bank was founded, which many call almost Vneshnorgbank, and which occupies one of the leading positions in Russian finance.

You say that the main value of Russia is the Russian people. And that's true. But how can the best representatives of the Russian people give their children a good European education if they do not have the money for it? Russians in Russia are excluded from money. If we are not talking about “people of Russian culture”, but about Russians. Any Forbes list and a detailed study of any asset from a market tent to nickel empires will show that there are very, very few Russians there. How and why did this happen? We can argue for a long time, but we have a fact: Russians, being the main wealth of Russia, are losing to Armenians in business competition. This means that we must give preferences to the Russians. We must train them, we must subsidize them, we must provide them with administrative support. Many diasporas, for example the Jewish one, organize trainings for Jews on the basis of Sokhnut, Ulpan, ICC. Trainings on rhetoric, public discussions, national cuisine, history and national values. These organizations are funded by the State of Israel. Why does the Russian state call trainings “only for Russians” extremism, but calmly watches how diasporas and states pour money into people of their own - oh no, not “culture”, but into people of their own nationality?

You are apparently not aware of modern Russian realities. But in Russia, Russians do not have the right to gather more than three. This is called an extremist organization. And you say that self-awareness does not allow.
We have dozens of unregistered parties that the Russians tried to organize. We have dozens of closed Russian parties. We have the words of Vladimir Putin, who says that nationalism will never be in the legal political field. And we have hundreds of political prisoners, prisoners of conscience.
You give the example of Poland, but didn’t Solidarity exist in Poland with obvious shortcomings and support from the KGB? If we look at the political level of Poland in 1971, we are surprised to see that modern Russia is a tyranny in comparison with Poland in 1971.

In fact, we live in a concentration camp, where all property has been stolen and does not belong to the Russians. In conditions of national oppression and ethnocide, where many representatives, including journalists, directly think that “there are no Russians,” under the conditions of a government whose goal is to take money, children and wife to London or the USA, and fly to Moscow on a rotational basis. In conditions when election fraud is already tired of shaking the imagination, and civil protest is being crushed by force.

Well, where does self-awareness come from in a concentration camp? Many concentration camps, such as those built during the Boer War, lasted for decades. Did primary grassroots organization, elections, the democratic process, political parties begin there? Did they start in the Gulag?

You say, “Thank God, we haven’t sunk into dynasties.” At the same time, your family lives in a country where, thank God, they have come to the point of dynasties. How so?
In England people have self-awareness. And if anyone doesn’t, there’s a camera on every corner, and the Royal Court works like clockwork. Stopping the execution of children in 1908. And spanking in schools was generally abolished recently.

Leonid Gennadievich, do you really want the best for the Russians? Or are you a spy recruited by Her Majesty? Your daughter rapping on the streets of London about how Putin needs to be brought down immediately - what does she care? You directly say that the growth of self-awareness cannot be imposed from above, it must come from below. But why does your daughter want to prepare public opinion for the overthrow of the government? According to your logic, the overthrow and installation of a new government cannot lead to an improvement in self-awareness and an improvement in the quality of life. If Maria wanted good for the Russians, she would have organized a circle of rhetoric and oratory. For Russians.

Early biography

Mother, Alvina Andreevna Parfenova (nee Shmatinina, born 1931), originally from the village of Uloma, ancestors of her father, metallurgical engineer Gennady Viktorovich Parfenov (1931-2004), from Yorga. My father was the chief engineer of the Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant (in his free time he was a fisherman and hunter, he loved to hunt ducks). Brother Vladimir Parfenov (born 1966) - businessman, owner of a company selling medical equipment; loves hunting.

He studied at Cherepovets school No. 4. In 1973 he received a diploma as a junior correspondent from Pionerskaya Pravda. The first major material for the State Prize was dedicated to the film by Sergei Solovyov “One Hundred Days After Childhood” (1975). In 1977, he entered the Faculty of Journalism at Zhdanov Leningrad University. He lived in the dormitory with students from Bulgaria, thanks to which he learned the Bulgarian language, which to this day, in his own words, remains the only foreign language that he can speak fluently. Graduated from the faculty in 1982.

The Soviet press published everything from Krasnaya Zvezda and Pravda to Moskovskie Novosti and Ogonyok. In 1983, he was a correspondent for the Vologda Komsomolets newspaper. He wrote articles for the newspaper on the most current topics (youth culture, fashion, art), in particular, he wrote a number of notes about the Leningrad rock club. After some time, two resolutions followed on behalf of the Vologda Regional Committee of the CPSU: “On shortcomings in the newspaper Vologda Komsomolets” and “On serious shortcomings in the newspaper Vologda Komsomolets.” After them, Parfyonov will be forced to resign from the newspaper and go to work for Vologda Regional TV in Cherepovets, where he worked until leaving for Moscow in 1986. On regional TV, he conducted a television interview with Alexander Bovin, disgraced music journalist Artemy Troitsky and the leader of the Magnetic Band group Gunnar Graps.

In journalistic circles he was friends with the future famous rock musician Alexander Bashlachev. It was at Parfyonov’s apartment in September 1984 that a fateful meeting for Bashlachev took place with Artemy Troitsky, after which he organized the first apartment concerts for Bashlachev in Moscow and Leningrad.

Television career

In 1986, he was a special correspondent for the youth editorial office of Central Television, and at the same time worked as a correspondent for the “Peace and Youth” program. In 1988, he moved to work for Author’s Television. In 1989, in collaboration with Andrei Razbash, he shot a three-part documentary film “Children of the 20th Congress” about the generation of the sixties (Evgeny Yevtushenko, Len Karpinsky, Egor Yakovlev, Andrei Voznesensky, etc.).

In 1990-1991, he was the author and presenter of the information and analytical program “Namedni”, which Parfyonov did together with the television company “Author’s Television”. At the beginning of 1991, Parfyonov was removed from the air for “incorrect” statements regarding the resignation of Eduard Shevardnadze from the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In 1992, he made a series of programs “The Case”, telling about the events that took place in the world in 1991.

“The generation of historians and commentators who grew up in the USSR and became adults in the 1970s includes Leonid Parfenov, whose television programs and the luxuriously published books that accompanied them introduced us to the seventies (as well as the sixties, eighties and nineties) as “that which is impossible to imagine us without, and even more difficult to understand.” Parfyonov gives the viewer the opportunity to succumb to the charm of objects and habits of Soviet everyday life, perhaps even fall into nostalgia, although he himself maintains a certain ironic distance.”

In 1995-1996, he was the author of the first two parts of the popular New Year's show “Old Songs about the Main Thing” (ORT). The idea of the project was conceived together with Konstantin Ernst back in 1993, during the filming of a film about Alla Pugacheva from the series “Portrait against a Background” in Nizhny Novgorod, but the idea was realized only two years later, when Ernst became the general producer of ORT.

In 1997-2001 - presenter of the historical program “Namedni 1961-2003: Our Era”.

From April 1997 to March 1999, he served as chief producer of NTV, and since December 1997, he has been on the board of directors of this television company. In this position, he was responsible for the non-political broadcasting of the TV channel, as well as for the design, broadcast schedule, premieres, and third-party programs. Under his leadership, in the fall of 1997, the infamous program “About This” was launched with Elena Hanga, which became the first talk show about love and sex in the history of Russian TV. While occupying this position, around the same time he invited Lev Novozhenov and Dmitry Dibrov to join the staff of the television company. In the spring of 1999, he left his post of his own free will.

In 1998, together with Elena Khanga, he led the Russian version of the game “Fort Boyard”.

In the late 1990s - late 2000s, he was often invited to the jury of the KVN Major League. Twice he was a member of the jury of the Voting KiViN festival (,). In October 2000, he was the host and commentator of the broadcast of the TEFI-2000 television award ceremony on NTV. From November 2000 to May 2003, he hosted the historical documentary project “Russian Empire” on NTV.

From January to April 2001, he presented the column “Leonid Parfenov’s Special View” as part of the information and analytical program “Results”. He was the author and presenter of several films from the “Recent History” series.

From September 2001 to May 2004 - author and presenter of the information and analytical program “Namedni”. On January 31, 2003, the program was awarded the TEFI Prize in the “Information and Analytical Program” category. Some reporters of the program (including Andrey Loshak and Alexey Pivovarov) were also separately awarded this prize.

At the beginning of 2003, the team of the “Namedni” program, led by Parfenov, launched the information program “Country and World”, aired on weekdays at 22:00 on NTV. The program will last until the end of December 2004, after which the episodes of the “Today” program at 22:00, and then at 19:00 (the main episode) will be stylistically reminiscent of the “Country and World” program.

In January 2003, a satirical story by Pavel Lobkov about the new general director of NTV, Doctor of Medical Sciences Nikolai Senkevich, the boss of Parfyonov and Lobkov, caused a great public outcry. In the story, Lobkov provided evidence, citing Senkevich’s article “Advice to Voltaire,” that the new general director of NTV, in his medical specialty, is not so much a therapist, but rather a proctologist. After this, the “Namedni” program goes on vacation for several months, and airs again on May 18.

In July 2003, the Country and World program was unexpectedly put on leave and almost closed. In November, a story about the book “Tales of a Kremlin Digger” by Elena Tregubova was removed from Namedni, which Parfyonov announced directly on air of the program. A similar story happened in May 2004, when Parfyonov planned to include in his program an interview with the widow of the Chechen separatist Zelimkhan Yandarbiev. NTV editor-in-chief Alexander Gerasimov issued an order prohibiting the broadcast of this story on European air (the story had already been shown in the eastern part of the country), allegedly at the request of Russian intelligence services, so as not to influence the trial of Russian citizens suspected of killing Yandarbiev in Qatar. Parfyonov published the text of the order in the Kommersant newspaper, where the full text of the interview was also published. The management considered this a violation of corporate ethics, and on May 31, 2004, the Namedni program was closed, and Parfyonov himself was fired from NTV.

Activities after 2004

Personal life

Married since 1987 to Elena Lvovna Chekalova (born January 8, 1967). Her father Lev Chekalov was a journalist, worked in the newspaper “Soviet Russia”, then in industry publications; his mother was an editor and compiler of dictionaries and a lexicographer by profession. Graduated from Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov. She taught Russian and literature to foreign students for a year. Then she worked as a journalist in the newspapers “Soviet Culture”, “Moscow News” and others. In 1990, she wrote the books “Our portrait is being returned to us” (together with her husband), “Before and after “Vzglyad””, “Night broadcast 1”. In 2009-2013, she was the host of the Channel One program “There is Happiness!” ". Since March 2007, he has been writing a column about food in the Kommersant newspaper.

I was friends with one teacher of advanced training courses for television workers, who periodically showed me the work of her students - journalists who worked at local television studios. And among these works I came across an absolutely amazing essay by some boy from Cherepovets about the group “Aquarium”, about Boris Grebenshchikov. I was struck by the stunning, non-standard style - light, cheerful, relaxed, which practically never happened in Soviet times. I remember telling my friend: “Galya, this is probably some kind of extraordinary guy.” She says: “Really, very interesting. When he comes to Moscow, I’ll introduce you. By the way, order him some article for your newspaper. I think he’ll do great.” And one day, when another company gathered at my house, she came with Lyonya. We met, I ordered him some material, he wrote it, then there were other articles...

Son - Ivan Leonidovich Parfenov (b. 1988) - economist, studied in England, in Germany, and graduated from school there. He graduated from the Milan University of Economics, works at RIA Novosti, promotes Internet projects. On September 6, 2015, Ivan married Maria Mikhailovna Broitman, an architect and the daughter of an investment banker.

Daughter - Maria Leonidovna Parfyonova (b. 1993), studied in Italy at the British Council school. Graduated from the University of Restaurant and Hotel Business.

Social activity

Filmography

Documentary film

- Children of the 20th Congress (about the generation of the sixties)
- - Portrait against the background
- - The other day 1961-2003: Our era
- All Zhvanetsky (television collection of works by Mikhail Zhvanetsky)
1998 - Recent history. Seventeen moments of spring 25 years later (about the TV movie “Seventeen moments of spring”)
1998 - The Life of Solzhenitsyn (for the 80th anniversary of Alexander Solzhenitsyn), together with director Alexei Pishchulin and producer Yuri Prokofiev
- The Age of Nabokov (to the 100th anniversary of Vladimir Nabokov)
1999 - Recent history. Meeting point. 20 years later (about the TV movie “The meeting place cannot be changed”)
1999 - Living Pushkin (to the 200th anniversary of A.S. Pushkin)
- - Russian empire
2000 - Red Calendar Day (about the two main ideological holidays of the Soviet state - November 7 and May 1)
2000 - Zykina (about Lyudmila Zykina)
2000-300 years of the New Year
2000 - Gennady Khazanov. Once upon a time I lived (about Gennady Khazanov)
- Presenter (for the 70th anniversary of Vladimir Pozner)
2004 - Oh world, you are a sport! (about the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens)
- Deadly flight (about Alexander Bashlachev, an eyewitness to the events)
2005 - Lyusya (to the 70th anniversary of Lyudmila Gurchenko)
2005 - War in Crimea - everything is in smoke (to the 150th anniversary of the Crimean War)
2005 - Private Rubens for a hundred million (about the fate of one of Rubens’s main masterpieces, the painting “Tarquin and Lucretia”, taken after the war from Germany to the USSR)
2005 - Gambit. At the scene of the events (television introduction to the film “Turkish Gambit”)
- And personally Leonid Ilyich (on the 100th anniversary of Leonid Brezhnev)
- Eternal Oleg (to the 80th anniversary of Oleg Efremov)
- Contemporary (to the 75th anniversary of Galina Volchek)
- Bird-Gogol (to the 200th anniversary of Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol)
2009 - With a solid sign at the end (to the 100th anniversary of its founding and the 20th anniversary of the resumption of publication

The first and inevitable question.

- What prompted you to accept Israeli citizenship?

Nothing prompted. I have already been settled in the USA twice. Wherever I live, if you believe the conversations...

In our history, there were three peoples who came into Russian culture brightly and en masse at certain periods: Jews, Germans, Georgians,” says Leonid. - The first film of the current trilogy about Jews ends in 1917, this is the period of tsarist anti-Semitism, the second is the period from 1918 to 1948, the period of Soviet Judophilia. The third - from 1948 to 1990 - from the beginning of official Judeophobia to the mass exodus.

One of the most colorful scenes in “Russian Jews” is the arrival of Leonid Utesov’s father, then Lazar Weisbein, to the butcher shop. He begs his butcher neighbor to let his son study with his. It is necessary to bring “your Russian” so as not to violate the percentage quota for Jews at the Faig School in Odessa. Utesov’s father is ready to pay for Nikita’s education, for breakfast and a uniform in addition. Another famous Jew of recent history is Mishka Yaponchik. Leonid Parfenov remembers him while sitting in the famous bandit’s favorite cafe. A special episode is the “Case of Beilis,” accused in Kyiv in the 1910s of the ritual murder of an Orthodox teenager.

- People are primarily interested in whether your project is Russian or Israeli?

International, and above all Russian. It was filmed in Russian by our professionals. And the audience in Russia will probably perceive it best.

For broadcast around the world, subtitles are made in Hebrew, English and German. In Israel, unless the audience comes from the former USSR, there will certainly be some difficulties. I showed “Color of the Nation” at festivals in both Krasnoyarsk and London. The reaction was, of course, very different, and they asked about very different things after the show. How, for example, can we translate the RSDLP, which is mentioned more than once in the current film, for a foreign audience? You can’t leave the abbreviation, and writing the whole thing every time is too long for a subtitle. Here we can say once - the party or the future CPSU, but in translation this is not enough. Moreover, you can’t explain on the fly what it is: the only party that has been ruling for more than 70 years. When the film takes place in Russia and the authors are Russian, it is difficult for foreigners to watch due to ignorance of the context.

- Do you set yourself educational goals or is it important for you to speak out on a topic of interest and that’s it?

The most important task for me is: what? Here is “The Color of the Nation” about the fact that there was a country before last, which can be seen in today’s standard image in Prokudin-Gorsky’s photographs, and compare it with the current one. And here are cases with Jews, Georgians and Germans - about how diverse Russian civilization is, how all kinds of people came and became part of it. And thus enriched. Our film is about Russian Jews, about those who at some time turned into the second titular nation in the cities. This is not a story about Jews at all.

- Do you think about what kind of people are sitting in front of the TV, how educated and capable of feeling they are?

I do it as they said in Soviet times - for pioneers and pensioners, so that any viewer can see something of their own. I proceed from the fact that a person may not know anything about the “Beilis case”, see Levitan’s paintings for the first time, but still understand something if he is interested in something in principle. What you are talking about is a matter of professional intuition, and not a once and for all fixed law.

- Are you an analyst by nature, exploring an array of material, or do you go from an emotional feeling?

People are interested in life, rich in its manifestations. And it is important for me to show that here is the town of Brody, here is a river in it, here is a ford, and this is where all the Brodskys came from.

- You spoke so emotionally about your film! But why did you decide to film about Jews?

I have so far shot about 150 documentary series about Russian history and culture of different times. And now I’ve made a film about the diversity of its manifestations, which I consider a precious property. I am interested in understanding what is in our civilization where Germans, Jews and Georgians became Russians.

- What's good about mixing cultures? Isn't it better to preserve your originality?

I don't think this is a mix-up. Vladimir Dahl, who was of German-Danish origin, was impressed by the word “clouds.” This is where his famous Explanatory Dictionary began, in which there is nothing Danish or German. Joseph Brodsky came to literature as the heir of the Acmeists. In emigration, he had a need to write lines on the death of Zhukov, just as Derzhavin once wrote on the death of Suvorov. What's Jewish about this problem? Do the French wonder if Yves Montand is an Italian Jew? The main French chansonnier. Where is the confusion?

How do you know all this? About Montana and Leonid Utesov, about many people who appear in your film?

The scene in the butcher shop is from Utesov’s memoirs. It is intended to make it clear what the percentage rate is. You need to bring a Russian with you, then the ratio will not be violated. I’m ready to make a film about Russian Germans, that’s why I know. We have a whole great novel “Oblomov”, dedicated to the Russian and the German, like yin and yang. How can Oblomov live without Stolz, and Stolz without Oblomov? How can you be Russian without reading this? Yes, our country was ruled by Germans and Georgians for the longest time.

- And will they be the subject of your consideration?

Including them. But only they are Russian. Pushkin even claimed that the Russian Peter made us Germans, and the German Catherine made us Russians. She was, in the concepts of that time, the mother of the Russian land. And what is the phrase of Vasily Stalin said to his sister Svetlana: “Do you know that your father used to be Georgian?”

- Now your answer is to stand for all Jews. Ready?

I am engaged in a public profession. This means that some will like what you do, and some will not. If you sit quietly at home next to a warm radiator, you definitely won’t make anyone happy or make anyone angry. Someone will consider what I remember to be a “phobia”: Levitan is Isaac Ilyich. Some will be outraged by the “philia” when I say that for me he is a more Russian landscape painter than Ivan Ivanovich Shishkin. I look at Levitan’s aching sadness, and it’s familiar. And Ivan Ivanovich’s nature is too cheerful.

Why do Jews still hide their origins today? Although because of this they will not be denied admission to work or to a university.

In the 2000s, I no longer encountered this. Once upon a time it really mattered for a career. We're talking about Russia, right? For a long time now, the “nationality” column has not been found anywhere. But we don’t have people who speak Yiddish or Hebrew, and there are very few religious people among Russian speakers. What kind of Jews are they? This is a type of Russian urban population. Don't they work on Saturdays? Don't eat pork? Jews could have been their grandfathers and grandmothers who lived in some place, in Vitebsk, Zhitomir, Vinnitsa. If it weren't for Schindler's List, would you still be thinking about Spielberg's nationality? How many American filmmakers come from the Russian Empire. As Lyudmila Gurchenko said: “Oh! Our people from Odessa. Golden and Mayer. Thank you, comrades, for the trophy movie.” It seems to me that this is the wealth of Russian civilization if Matvey Isaakovich Blanter wrote the main Russian folk song of the 20th century - “Katyusha”. He did not become a Jewish composer. That is, it turns out that the Jews lost, there were fewer potential composers, but the Russians gained, an author appeared who composed “In a sunny clearing”, “With the birches it is inaudible, weightless”, “Migratory birds are flying”, “Bulgaria is a good country, and Russia is the best."

- Does a Russian person have any reason to be ashamed of the fact that he is Russian?

Stills from the film “Russian Jews”.

- Did you say that?

- (Continues to speak in Vologda.) I literally haven’t said that myself, but I can say that. And when I find myself at home, I inevitably begin to let it happen. Especially in conversation - it’s easy. Once we were renting there with the guys, and I discussed with the locals that the land plots were not divided according to the cadastre... They then asked me what kind of Vologda words these were? It's impossible to understand anything.

- You are your own boss, don’t you go to work? How do you find funds for films? How does the name work for you?

I haven’t worked anywhere for almost nine years and have never worked so much. Over the years, seven volumes of “Namedni” have been published, with newly written texts, each containing 500–600 illustrations, which I selected. And six films were made, mostly two-part.

- You are always in the frame. Do you feel like an author or also an actor?

- You look great - slim and agile.

Moderately well-fed?

- We climbed the Potemkin Stairs so easily! Close-up, and no shortness of breath.

But on that day it was impossible to remove anything else. We started at 9.30 and finished by 15.

- You’ve been making films for so many years, but the excitement never goes away. And the film turned out funny, with irony.

Not everyone likes it, that I have an ironic squint. Someone will think it’s comical that I’m wandering around the fords and leading the Brodskys out of it. I always do what interests me. This is the only gasoline you drive on. Otherwise I wouldn't be able to do anything.

- Don’t you have any directorial ambitions?

I don't even have directing duties. I can suggest something, and then hear in response at the Russian Museum that I will not have a comment on Serov’s portrait of Ida Rubinstein, because it cannot be removed there. In ordinary documentary films there is no person who leads. But the director sometimes uses me in secret. I don’t know how many times you need to cross this very river, how much dirty silt you need to scoop out before the episode is filmed.

Will the most popular “face of the 2000s” return to the country’s main TV channels?

The history of new Russian television journalism is unthinkable without this man. Even today, without working as a program presenter, Leonid Parfenov remains a household name. An impeccable gentleman on screen, he often found himself in the middle of conflict. In June 2004, Parfenov was fired from the NTV channel, formally due to disagreements with management.

Young correspondent

Parfenov’s childhood was, as he himself admits, uninteresting. In his native Cherepovets, the young man was “terribly bored.” He was born in 1960 in the family of an engineer. Of all the joys of life - hunting, which his father often took him on, and the library, in which the guy spent a lot of time.

When Lena was 13, he was already actively sending notes to district and regional newspapers. For one of them he received an award unprecedented at that time - a trip to Artek. By the way, Parfenov distinguished himself there too - he received a certificate as the best cadet of Pionerskaya Pravda.

The first "abroad"

Parents did not really believe that Leonid would enter the Zhdanov Leningrad State University (current St. Petersburg State University) after school. However, he easily passes the entrance exams and starts a new life in the big city. In addition to studying, he does part-time work - he takes tourists around Leningrad as a tour guide. He also does not forget about journalistic practice; he writes a lot in Smena, Ogonyok, Pravda, and Soviet Culture.

At the university, Parfenov meets students from Bulgaria (they live together in a dormitory) and in his second year goes to visit new friends. Then Leonid experiences his first cultural shock from living abroad and realizes that he is “not a very Soviet person.”

To Moscow, to Moscow!

After graduating from university, the young journalist returns, according to the then established order, to his native Cherepovets. The regional newspaper did not accept the young man in jeans; he began working in the regional newspaper, in Vologda Komsomolets. Then there was regional television, from which he was invited to central television. In 1986, at a very interesting time for Soviet citizens, he became a special correspondent in the youth editorial office of Central Television and worked in the “Peace and Youth” program.

Parfenov together with Andrey Razbash They are filming a three-part documentary film “Children of the 20th Congress”. The film about dissidents and the first democrats - the generation of the sixties - is an unprecedented success; it is bought by television companies from nine countries. Parfenov receives his first substantial fee, for which he purchases an apartment in the capital, and moves to the “Author's Television” team.

Photo: booksite.ru

At natural frequency

In 1990, when the country was at the crossroads of eras, Leonid Parfenov decided to engage in “non-Soviet journalism.” The first episodes of the “Namedni” program are being released. This is a slightly different program than the one with which Parfenov will later be associated. Then “Namedni” was published weekly in the format of “non-political news”. A year later, he was removed from hosting the program for speaking too harshly about his resignation. Shevardnadze from the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Then Parfenov briefly worked at the VID television company with Vladislav Listyev until he is invited to the new NTV channel. At that time, the channel did not even have its own frequency, but was broadcast under an agreement on the St. Petersburg Fifth Channel. On weekdays there was a news program "Today", on Sundays - "Itogi" with Evgeniy Kiselev. “Namedni” was published on Saturday evenings.

Parfenov received his first TEFI for the project “New Year's Television” in 1994. By this time the channel had already acquired its own frequency.

Next year, along with Konstantin Ernst they come up with and implement “Old songs about the main thing.”

Kissing Monroe

One of Parfenov’s main brainchildren is a project whose full name is “Namedni 1961-2003: Our Era.” A series of documentary programs dedicated to the history of the USSR and Russia was conceived, a brilliant attempt at historical reflection. Here Parfenov hones his style - in the script, historical events are mixed with a story about the life of a particular era. For example, after a story about visiting Khrushchev exhibition of avant-garde artists there was a sketch about increasing prices for dairy products and meat, and a story about the execution of workers in Novocherkassk in 1962 was followed by a sketch about hula hoop. Viewers also remember Parfyonov’s video jokes, where he is present at negotiations between world leaders and helps wash their hands Nikita Khrushchev, kisses Marilyn Monroe.

The program was published in several cycles, in addition, there were also special episodes in the New Year program at the end of 2001, 2002 and 2003, where Parfenov talked about the events of the past year that will go down in history.

Photo: booksite.ru

NTV case

At the beginning of the two thousandth NTV, which by that time had become part of the media holding Vladimir Gusinsky, will change owner. Until this time, the channel had been developing successfully, but was making enemies due to its critical and even satirical (the “Dolls” program) coverage of the country’s life and politics. Outwardly, everything looked like a takeover by the Gazprom-Media holding. NTV employees are collecting signatures for open letters demanding public attention to the violation of freedom of speech, but Parfenov remains neutral in this conflict. On the “Anthropology” program, where he was invited Dmitry Dibrov, he stated that he did not agree with the actions of the head of the channel, Kiselev, and was leaving the team. After the eighth floor of Ostankino, where NTV was located, was stormed on the night of April 13-14, 2001 and came under the control of Gazprom, Parfenov became the channel’s top manager. Of course, among his colleagues in the shop he was immediately called a “traitor” and a “strikebreaker.”

Very soon, in 2003, the channel’s management changed again, NTV was headed by Nikolai Senkevich. Parfenov first goes on a long vacation, but then returns to work again. In November, “Namedni” publishes a story about the book Elena Tregubova from the presidential pool “Tales of a Kremlin Digger”, which Sienkevich prohibits. In May 2004, Parfenov again had a conflict, this time with the deputy general director Alexander Gerasimov. The reason is the plot of “Marry Zelimkhan”. It contained an interview with the widow of a Chechen separatist Zelimkhana Yandarbieva, who died in Qatar, that Russian special services were involved in the murder of her husband. Parfenov was fired for violating his employment contract after he published a written order to the channel’s management to ban the story about Yandarbiev.

On Channel One

Leonid Parfenov waited six months for offers from other channels, without waiting, apparently, he realized that this was serious and for a long time, and agreed to the post of editor of Russian Newsweek.

Now he has time to create video content that he likes. He is creating the film “Anchorman” for the 70th anniversary Vladimir Pozner, the painting “Oh world, you are a sport!” about the Olympic Games. Channel One broadcasts them. And also the films "Lucy" about Lyudmila Gurchenko, “Bird-Gogol” for the 200th anniversary Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol. Parfenov writes books, voices cartoons, and acts in films.

In 2010, Parfenov, at the Vladislav Listyev Prize ceremony, gave his sensational speech on the state of Russian media. In it, he criticizes the “evergreen techniques” of Soviet central television, which have taken root in modern media, and says that you don’t need to be a hero, but you need to at least have the courage and “call a spade a spade.” Of course, this was not shown on TV.

New songs about the main thing

Today Parfenov does not work on television channels. Over the past 8 years of such “unemployment” he created 7 films and 7 books. Since 2012, he has been a member of the Presidential Council of the Russian Federation for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights (HRC).

Last year 2016 I took part in the project Mikhail Khodorkovsky The Open University spoke about its view on the language of modern media.

Another documentary film by Leonid Parfenov, “Russian Jews,” has been released; it is planned to create a film about Russian Germans.

Other plans include the release of a new program for the RTVi TV channel “The Other Day at Karaoke.” The new format will incorporate the features of an informational and analytical program and an entertainment program (“Old songs about the main thing”). The show will be broadcast abroad. It will be available to Russian viewers on the Internet.