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Liavon Volski: Adoption of democracy spares culture from handcuffs

07.12.2012  |  Society   |  Zmicier Kazlouski, EuroBelarus,  
Liavon Volski: Adoption of democracy spares culture from handcuffs

The culture feels more liberal when there is democratic rule in the country, while under the totalitarian rule or dictatorship it is confined within narrower bounds.

This opinion was shared in the talk with the EuroBelarus Information Service by the musician Liavon Volski.

 He believes that if the country under dictatorship or totalitarian regime has certain achievements in the cultural sphere, this is not because but rather despite what is happening in the country. “For instance, almost all achievements in the Soviet literature were created despite the Soviet system. And even worth-while works but for rare exception were created with the inner censor. And if such thing happens, then it already decreases the quality of the work”, - Liavon Volski assumes.

He notes that the cultural sphere in undemocratic countries is usually narrowed and put in the underground without reaching broad masses. “And it is understandable that adoption of democracy spares culture from the handcuffs”, - noted the musician.

He was rather skeptical about the experience with the Western help to the Belarusan cultural projects, as they haven’t brought any extraordinary results. Moreover, noted the creator, the situation has even worsened in some sense, as certain structures got excessively accustomed to the foreign funding. Indeed, he believes that the main support comes to parapolitical rather than the cultural sphere.

The interlocutor noted that the idea of culture funding is largely reasonable, as it “should promote the creation of some projects that educate, liberate people’s thinking”. “In the normal countries culture is subsidized. Take, for instance, Poland, where it is considered one of the priorities, as education and culture mean nation’s development”, - noted Liavon Volski.

Today’s situation with the ban on concerts doesn’t look similar to the Soviet practice, the musician assumes: “In those days there existed a completely different system of music presentation to the audience. It was more honest; there existed an apparatus that has its own rules. You had to be certified. If you had something suspicious in the texts, then you automatically were not to pass, and you had the right to play only some home concerts. And this situation is more natural than the calls from some “Alcoholics Anonymous”.

The interlocutor noted that for today he doesn’t see any effective possibilities to evade the existing bans. “Under today’s authorities everything will be as it is. Perhaps, something will be different in this or that way, but nothing will change radically”, - believes the creator.

Because of the technical progress today’s situation in Belarus seems better in many aspects than in the Soviet times: “Young perspective musicians appear. Look at the websites, there is a whole million of them there! And the development of music is happening as there is more information. Besides, in our pirated country one can freely listen to songs, watch music video, download albums of music bands, buy a musical instrument of good quality at last. There was nothing of that kind in Soviet Union”, - Liavon Volski reminds.

At the same time he reasons that there are no opportunities to earn your living by music: “It will be possible to earn, however strange it may sound, in capitalism. For instance, this happens in Poland which switched to other rails. Earlier lots of famous music bands there had to simply go to business sphere. And now everyone came back to music and regularly plays concerts. And we don’t even have the infrastructure they have”.

The interlocutor called situation with temporary absence of Ministry of Culture in Belarus “rather concordant”. “What for is he there? One can hold “Slavianski Bazaar” without the Minister of Culture, and Eurovision selection can be run, for instance, by the Minister of Sports and Tourism”, - said Liavon Volski. 

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