The Battle of the Kebab House

As everything in Russia, this was farce bordering on tragedy.
During the Soviet era, a kebab house opposite the Soviet Hotel in Moscow was unofficially known as “Anti-Soviet” (a pun on its location in relation to the hotel). The businessman who runs the place has recently given the name official status.
However, a deranged Soviet veteran (who’s a former member of the Politburo, by the way) filed a complaint with the local city district, saying the name of the joint insulted the feelings of those who lived in the Soviet Union, including Soviet veterans.
Enter Oleg Mitvol, head of the city district. This political clown was widely known in Russia even before the event. He used to be a top environmental official and ousted Shell from Sakhalin Island on allegedly environmental grounds, though it was clear to everyone that the clown had been hired by state-controlled natural gas monopoly Gazprom, which eventually took over Shell’s Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project. Mitvol has also become infamous for waging a war against a gay bar in his district.
Mitvol was immediately up in arms against infidels who dared to sin against the Soviet past. He declared that he would not tolerate such an insult. First – what a coincidence! – fire inspectors and other bureaucratic vermin found “violations” at the joint. Subsequently Mitvol was delighted to find out that the “Anti-Soviet” sign had been displayed without official registration. Just imagine a moronic city that requires registration even for kebab house signs. It was later found out that the joint’s owner had attempted to register the name several times before Mitvol’s siege of his business began and had been denied registration without any explanations. For his valiant deeds, Mitvol was awarded a state medal, which became widely known as “the medal for the battle of the kebab house.”
Alexander Podrabinek, a well-known Soviet dissident, then wrote an article about this farce. He addressed Soviet veterans, who are now something akin to priests in the Russo-Soviet “Great Patriotic War” (WW2) cult. Any criticism of said veterans is regarded as blasphemy, and anyone who dares to doubt their sacred status is regarded as a heretic. Podrabinek said that there is nothing to be proud of in the heritage of the totalitarian regime that butchered millions of people. He said that many Soviet veterans (though not all) had been accomplices in the regime’s crimes and that the people we should be proud of are not those who were “building communism” but those who fought against Soviet authorities.
Naturally, Podrabinek was declared enemy of the people number one, and the entire pseudopatriotic bullshit-manufacturing machine trumpeted that he had exceeded the atrocities of Hitler and even Beelzebub himself. Nashi, (literally “Ours”) popularly known as nashists (a pun on fascists) – a Kremlin-run Hitler youth clone – started picketing Podrabinek’s apartment, threatening and molesting him. He was forced to go into hiding.
I’ve just watched a talk show devoted to the issue at hand. The show reveals much about the way Russian media work. Most of the Russian media are controlled by the Kremlin either directly (through state ownership) or indirectly (through tycoons loyal to the Kremlin and such), with some marginal exceptions on the fringes of the media environment (such as some programs (not all) on the Echo of Moscow, a radio station, and Novaya Gazeta, a newspaper). Censorship is milder than in the Soviet period. The Kremlin is trying to create an illusion of “free press.” It allows some latitude to journalists as long as they don’t overstep the “party line.” Thus sham “discussion” and counterfeit “civil society” are created. In a way, it is akin to the leftist establishment’s domination of US media. The difference is that US media are not controlled by the government (so far), and there is much more free speech there.
The show I watched was perhaps even more farcical than the kebab house tragicomedy to which it was devoted. What’s the best way for the Kremlin to defeat an opponent? First, by the sheer force of numbers. Not one of the show’s guests was a proponent of the “extreme” pro-kebab house position. Two (Mitvol and some United Russia jerk) were pro-Soviet, while one (the editor-in-chief of GQ Magazine’s Russian edition) was relatively neutral, and the host was also neutral. Neutrality is, of course, a deadly poison that allows evil to triumph. Second, an opponent’s position should be misrepresented, distorted and shown in the form of a caricature. The kebab house and Podrabinek were “defended” by the person who did not present a single clear argument and only sputtered inane platitudes (his opponents were no better but won by default). What does GQ, a glamor magazine, have to do with political and ideological issues anyway?
The show polled spectators on whether the USSR is something to be proud of, to be ashamed of or to be accepted without moral judgment. Naturally, the first option won by a wide margin.
What is shocking, however, is that the possibility of being proud of a cannibalistic regime run by mass murderers or being morally neutral towards it WAS EVEN CONSIDERED. This issue is much more important for Russia than hollow (and false) promises by ruling thugs Medvedev and Putin to move towards a free-market economy and establish closer ties with the West. As long as the USSR evokes pride among the populace, it is destined to remain what it was under the mass-murderer regime – gun fodder and lab rats for lethal social engineering experiments.