Alexander Gorodnitsky: If people stop reading, they will turn into animals. Alexander Gorodnitsky: If people stop reading, they will turn into animals Improving thinking skills

Russia is being turned into a country of fools

A generation that will not read Chekhov, Turgenev, or Jules Verne will grow up cruel and cynical. At the beginning of summer, the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) conducted research that the powers that be somehow did not notice. But in vain.

Their results are such that at least two ministries - culture and education - need to press all the “panic buttons” and hold emergency meetings of the cabinet of ministers.

Because, according to VTsIOM polls, 35% of Russians DO NOT READ BOOKS AT ALL! But Russia, if you believe the speeches of the president and prime minister, has taken the path to innovative development.

But what kind of innovations, scientific breakthroughs, development of nanotechnology, etc. can we talk about if more than a third of the country’s population has never picked up a book in a year? None, not even a failed detective!

Why Russia, once the most reading country in the world, stopped reading and how this threatens society.

Sergey Kapitsa: “Russia is being turned into a country of fools”

VTsIOM data suggests that we have finally arrived at what we have been striving for all these 15 years - raised a country of idiots. If Russia continues to move on the same course, then in another ten years there will be no one left who today even occasionally picks up a book.

And we will get a country that will be easier to rule, from which it will be easier to suck out natural resources. But this country has no future! I uttered these exact words five years ago at a government meeting.

Time passes, and no one even tries to understand and stop the processes that lead to the degradation of the nation.

And labor productivity in society several decades ago was higher than it is now. Today, almost half of able-bodied youth work in security organizations!

It turns out that all these young guys are stupid, limited people who can only punch people in the face?

Where does the Volga flow?

And intelligence is based on the exchange of information and language. And the greatest tool for exchanging information is the book. Previously, starting from the time of Homer, there was an oral tradition: people sat and listened to the elders, who in artistic form, through tales and legends of past eras, passed on the experience and knowledge accumulated by the generation.

Then writing arose, and with it reading. The tradition of oral storytelling has died out, and now the tradition of reading is also dying out. Take it sometime and, at least for the sake of curiosity, leaf through the correspondence of the greats. Darwin's epistolary legacy, which is now being published, consists of 15 thousand letters. Leo Tolstoy's correspondence also takes up more than one volume.

What will remain after the current generation? Will their text messages be published for the edification of their descendants?

I have long proposed changing the criteria for admission to higher education institutions. No exams are necessary - let the applicant write a five-page essay in which he explains why he wants to enter a particular faculty. Skill express your thoughts correctly, the essence of the problem is demonstrated by a person’s intellectual baggage, the level of his culture, and the degree of development of consciousness.

But the Unified State Exam, which is used today, cannot give an objective picture of a student’s knowledge. It is built only on knowledge or ignorance of facts. But facts are not everything! Does the Volga flow into the Caspian Sea? The answer to this question deserves not a tick in the appropriate box, but a separate serious conversation.

Because millions of years ago the Volga flowed not into the Caspian, but into the Sea of Azov, the geography of the Earth was different. And the question turns from a textbook into an interesting problem. To solve it, it is precisely understanding that is required, which without reading and education impossible to achieve.

Feelings instead of minds

And our ability to comprehend all this and live wisely in this technical and information environment lags behind this pace. The world is now experiencing a very deep crisis in the sphere of culture. So the situation in our country is quite typical for the rest of the world - in America and England they also read little.

And such great literature that existed in the world 30-40 years ago no longer exists today. Nowadays, masters of minds are generally very difficult to find. Perhaps because no one needs minds - they need sensations.

Money is not the purpose of the existence of society, but only a means of achieving certain goals. You can have an army whose soldiers will fight valiantly without demanding reward because they believe in the ideals of the state.

Or you can have mercenaries in your service who will kill both their own and others with equal pleasure for the same money. But these will be different armies!

And in science, breakthroughs are made not for money, but for interest. Such a cat's interest! And it’s the same with major art. Masterpieces are not born for money. If you subordinate everything to money, then everything will remain money; it will not turn into either a masterpiece or a discovery.

Great masters worked at the request of the Church; a great tradition illuminated all this. Today people go to Church much less, and television gives a generalized picture of life. But there is no great tradition, no art here. You won't find anything there except fighting and shooting.

Television is engaged in the decomposition of people's consciousness. In my opinion, this is a criminal organization subordinated to anti-social interests.

There is only one call from the screen: “Get rich by any means - theft, violence, deception!”

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Specialist's comment

Have the "jumpers" forgotten how to think?

Firstly, at school teachers are still chasing high scores reading speed.

But because of this, students’ reading skills and their quality are poorly developed,” says Tatyana Filippova, leading researcher at the Institute of Developmental Physiology of the Russian Academy of Education. - As a result, the child, reading the prescribed number of words in a minute, does not understand the essence of what he read, cannot retell the text.

And when a person does not know how to do something, he does not want to do it of his own free will. Sometimes 3rd and 4th grade students come to our Center for Diagnostics of Child and Adolescent Development and read syllables.

It is naive to expect that these children will spend their free time reading books. Secondly, if 5-6 years ago it was mainly students and adults who sat at computers, then two years ago, as our research shows, elementary school students were stuck at the monitors. In addition, parents themselves do not teach their children to read books.

Only 10% of parents regularly read to preschoolers, and only 0.2% of fathers and mothers read to schoolchildren! Many people think: once you have learned to read at least syllable by syllable, read on yourself. But this is a misconception.

The task of parents is to make reading a necessity, as urgent as brushing your teeth or washing your face. Select interesting books for your child, help him choose, read aloud, even if he is already 10-12 years old.”

According to experts, television also plays an important role in the fact that we read less and less. Specifically, a huge number of TV channels and... a remote control.

For those who prefer to watch TV, “jumping” from channel to channel, the West even came up with a special term - “zapping”. In total, such “jumpers” account for about 47% of those watching TV.

When constantly switching from channel to channel, the picture perceived by the viewer turns out to be composed of fragments of programs running in parallel on different channels.

It’s as if the viewer “assembles” his own program from pieces of heterogeneous video material. Add to this constant breaks for advertising, TV series in which one story is sometimes “chopped” into several hundred small pieces, and you can start watching it almost from anywhere.

“As a result, we have the following,” says Daniil Dondurei, sociologist, editor-in-chief of the Cinema Art magazine. - Over the past couple of years, a trend has emerged: schoolchildren are losing the ability to follow the plot and the actions of the characters.

They have practically lost the skills of retelling the text they read - elementary, not to mention such complex things as Anna Karenina, for example.

And with the introduction of digital television in the country (and, as a consequence, an increase in the number of channels), such phenomena will only increase.”

Write your opinion below in the comments. Let's discuss.

Their results are such that at least two ministries - culture and education - need to press all the “panic buttons” and hold emergency meetings of the cabinet of ministers. Because, according to VTsIOM polls, 35% of Russians DO NOT READ BOOKS AT ALL! But Russia, if you believe the speeches of the president and prime minister, has taken the path to innovative development. But what kind of innovations, scientific breakthroughs, development of nanotechnology, etc. can we talk about if more than a third of the country’s population has never picked up a book in a year? None, not even a failed detective! AiF decided to figure out why Russia, once the most reading country in the world, stopped reading and how this threatens society.

Sergei Kapitsa: “Russia is being turned into a country of fools”
VTsIOM data suggests that we have finally achieved what we have been striving for all these 15 years - raising a country of idiots. If Russia continues to move on the same course, then in another ten years there will be no one left who today even occasionally picks up a book. And we will get a country that will be easier to rule, from which it will be easier to suck out natural resources. But this country has no future! I uttered these exact words five years ago at a government meeting. Time passes, and no one even tries to understand and stop the processes that lead to the degradation of the nation.

We have a complete disconnect between words and deeds. Everyone talks about innovation, but nothing is done to make these slogans come true. And the explanations “I work so hard. When else should I read?” cannot serve as an apology. Believe me, our generation worked no less, but there was always time to read. And labor productivity in society several decades ago was higher than it is now. Today, almost half of able-bodied youth work in security organizations! It turns out that all these young guys are stupid, limited people who can only punch people in the face?

Where does the Volga flow?

You ask why a person should read at all. Again, I’ll give an example: the human and monkey organisms are very similar in all their characteristics. But monkeys don't read, but humans read books. Culture and intelligence are the main differences between man and ape. And intelligence is based on the exchange of information and language. And the greatest tool for exchanging information is the book. Previously, starting from the time of Homer, there was an oral tradition: people sat and listened to the elders, who in artistic form, through tales and legends of past eras, passed on the experience and knowledge accumulated by the generation. Then writing arose, and with it reading. The tradition of oral storytelling has died out, and now the tradition of reading is also dying out. Take it sometime and, at least for the sake of curiosity, leaf through the correspondence of the greats. Darwin's epistolary legacy, which is now being published, consists of 15 thousand letters. Leo Tolstoy's correspondence also takes up more than one volume. What will remain after the current generation? Will their text messages be published for the edification of their descendants?

I have long proposed changing the criteria for admission to higher education institutions. No exams are needed - let the applicant write a five-page essay in which he explains why he wants to enter a particular faculty. The ability to competently express one’s thoughts and the essence of a problem demonstrates a person’s intellectual background, level of culture, and degree of development of consciousness. But the Unified State Exam, which is used today, cannot give an objective picture of a student’s knowledge. It is built only on knowledge or ignorance of facts. But facts are not everything! Does the Volga flow into the Caspian Sea? The answer to this question deserves not a tick in the appropriate box, but a separate serious conversation. Because millions of years ago the Volga flowed not into the Caspian, but into the Sea of Azov, the geography of the Earth was different. And the question turns from a textbook into an interesting problem. To solve it, it is precisely understanding that is required, which cannot be achieved without reading and education.

Feelings instead of minds

The question of losing interest in reading is a question of what is happening to people now. We have reached a very difficult moment in the development of humanity as a whole. The pace of technology development today is very high. And our ability to comprehend all this and live wisely in this technical and information environment lags behind this pace. The world is now experiencing a very deep crisis in the sphere of culture. So the situation in our country is quite typical for the rest of the world - in America and England they also read little. And such great literature that existed in the world 30-40 years ago no longer exists today. Nowadays, masters of minds are generally very difficult to find. Perhaps because no one needs minds - they need sensations.

Today we do not need to change our attitude towards reading, but to radically change our attitude towards culture as a whole. The Ministry of Culture should become the most important of all ministries. And the first priority is to stop subordinating culture to commerce. Money is not the purpose of the existence of society, but only a means of achieving certain goals. You can have an army whose soldiers will fight valiantly without demanding reward because they believe in the ideals of the state. Or you can have mercenaries in your service who will kill both their own and others with equal pleasure for the same money. But these will be different armies! And in science, breakthroughs are made not for money, but for interest. Such a cat's interest! And it’s the same with major art. Masterpieces are not born for money. If you subordinate everything to money, then everything will remain money; it will not turn into either a masterpiece or a discovery.

In order for children to start reading again, an appropriate cultural situation must exist in the country. What defines culture now? Once upon a time, the Church set the tone. On weekends, people went to church and instead of watching TV, they looked at frescoes, icons, stained glass windows - at illustrations of life in images. Great masters worked at the request of the Church; a great tradition illuminated all this. Today people go to Church much less, and television gives a generalized picture of life. But there is no great tradition, no art here. You won't find anything there except fighting and shooting. Television is engaged in the decomposition of people's consciousness. In my opinion, this is a criminal organization subordinated to anti-social interests. There is only one call from the screen: “Get rich by any means - theft, violence, deception!”

The issue of cultural development is a matter of the future of the country. The state cannot exist if it does not rely on culture. And it will not be able to strengthen its position in the world only with money or military force. How can we attract our former republics today? Only culture! In the era of the USSR, they existed perfectly within the framework of our culture. Compare the level of development of Afghanistan and the Central Asian republics - the difference is huge! And now all these countries have fallen out of our cultural space. And, in my opinion, the most important task now is to return them to this space again. When the British Empire collapsed, culture and education became the most important tools for restoring the integrity of the English-speaking world. The British opened the doors of their higher education institutions to people from the colonies.

First of all, for those who could later become managers of these new countries. I recently spoke with Estonians - they are ready to study medicine in Russia. But we charge them a lot of money for studying. Despite the fact that they get the opportunity to study in America or England for free. And how can we then attract the same Estonians so that interaction with us becomes more important to them than interaction with the West? In France, there is a Ministry of Francophonie, which promotes French cultural policy in the world.

In England, the British Council is considered a non-governmental organization, but in fact it pursues a clear policy to spread English culture, and through it, global English influence in the world. So cultural issues today are intertwined with issues of politics and national security of the country. This important element of influence cannot be neglected. In the modern world, it is increasingly science and art, rather than resources and productive forces, that determine the power and future of a country.

It always surprises me when someone says, “I don’t read books.” Yes, there are many things in the world that occupy our time - movies, video games, media. But you should still find time to read. If you don't read books, you're missing out.

1. Reading improves imagination and creativity

When we read, we give new life to the written words - they are transformed in our imagination. We reintroduce the sights, sounds, and smells of a fascinating story. And this work develops the “creative muscles” of our brain - and there are few places where you can find such effective exercises.

2. Improved intelligence

Despite all the achievements of modern technology, reading remains the best way to learn and store information. Those who read more become smarter. They filled their heads with information that others do not have and would not have without books.

3. Reading can change your life

Some books can change your life in ways you might not expect. Books like The Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, and Flowers for Algernon made me see the world differently. These books had a profound effect on me and I was changed by reading each one. This is the power of reading - a journey into yourself, and not just through a fascinating plot. Just like after a trip, after such books, you are no longer the same as before.

4.Readers are sexy

According to research, women consider smart guys sexier than those with average intelligence. Intelligence is one of the most sought-after qualities that women look for in men. So, single guys, check out the bookstore!

5. The ability to empathize

It's hard to imagine yourself in someone else's shoes, especially if their world is very different from yours.
Reading is a great way to “look into another person’s head” and learn about their thoughts and feelings. Instead of looking at life from one point, you can look at the world through different eyes!

6. Wisdom

Every time you open a book, you fill your head with knowledge, facts, opinions, stories. Reading is like a continuous delivery of information. Along with this information, the reader also receives experience. Books are stories about someone's life lessons, about experiences gained. This is an opportunity for you to understand how the world works. By reading books, you become wiser.

7. Self-improvement

The more you read, the wider your vocabulary. It’s not surprising - after all, you regularly come across so many words in different books that you soon begin to use them in everyday life. Good readers are usually good writers themselves. Any successful writer will tell you that to improve your writing skills, you need to read every day. Moreover, reading helps improve self-confidence. It can help you in many areas of life, such as social relationships or career advancement.

8. Improved thinking skills

Reading enhances analytical thinking. People who read identify patterns faster than people who don't read. Reading makes your mind sharper and strengthens the synapses in your brain, because it also trains your memory. In other words, your brain gets stronger and faster because you read.

9. Improved attention and concentration

Most of us are accustomed to “multitasking” and have learned to divide our attention between TV, the Internet, telephone and a lot of other things. But this way we lose the ability to focus on one important thing at the right time. Reading a book improves your ability to concentrate. After all, the book itself requires full concentration, because if you are distracted, you lose the thread of the story.

10. People who read have a better chance of success.

You can probably find successful people who don't read books. But it's difficult. Remember famous scientists, businessmen, writers, politicians. If they all have a common interest, it is reading.

11. Generating ideas

Ideas are a powerful engine. Scientific and technical achievements are based on them. They solve world problems and cure diseases. Ideas can change our lives. When you read, you get many new thoughts. These thoughts swirl around in your head - and help you create your own amazing idea.

12. Reading will help you set your priorities correctly.

Reading opens up new possibilities for you. You will read about new adventures, a different way of life - about different things that you had never even thought about before. Perhaps you will think about it and realize that you want to change your life and set other goals for yourself. And what is important in your life is not at all what you previously put in first place.

13. Live multiple lives

People who don't read can only live their own lives. Readers have access to many, many lives - real or fictional characters. We can feel what they felt, experience what they experienced.
Our own life experiences make us stronger and wiser. But if you only live one life, you are depriving yourself of other people's experiences and lessons from their lives.

14. Improved mental health

Just like the muscles in the body, the brain needs a boost to stay healthy and strong. Research has shown that mental activities such as reading can slow down (or even prevent) Alzheimer's disease and dementia. And people who read a lot during their lives experience much later age-related decline in memory and mental abilities, compared to those who did not like to read.

15. Around the world without leaving home

Traveling is the best way to get to know other peoples and cultures. And the second best way is reading. It can open up a whole new world for you - right outside your doorstep. A lot of books have been written about different countries; you can read about any corner of the globe and get acquainted with the life of different peoples through books.

16. Improved physical health

We usually read in silence, alone with ourselves. When you are captivated by a good book, you are in a state close to meditation. Reading is relaxing and calming. The result is a reduction in stress and normalization of blood pressure. People who read suffer less from mood disorders.

17. More topics to talk about

The more you learn about new topics, stories, and opinions, the easier it becomes to strike up conversations. After all, you have an endless source of new discussion material at your fingertips!

18. Explore yourself

Have you heard the expression “lost in a book”? Reading is an active process, and you yourself are actively involved in it, as if participating in the action. You can learn a lot about yourself through reading. For example, you may ask yourself what you would do if you were in the book's place. And the answer may surprise you.

19. Expand your horizons

If you don't read, then your world is small. You only know a small fraction of what is happening around you. Reading will reveal to you how big the world really is. There are many subjects that I knew nothing about. It was only when I started reading about them that I realized how little I knew before!

Thousands of books are printed every month. Add to this blog posts and magazine articles. You can always find something to suit your taste among this variety. Moreover, now there is nothing easier than becoming a reader. Libraries are everywhere - and they are free! Now there are digital copies of books, which means you don’t even have to go to the library.

So, given all the benefits of reading listed, there is no reason not to read.

02.09.2015

Alexander Gorodnitsky is the only scientist in the world who not only wrote a fascinating book about the scientific basis of myths and myth-making in science, but also illustrated it with his own vivid poems! Our interlocutor is a person with an unusually wide range of professional interests. He is a Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, author and presenter of popular television programs, traveler, explorer of the deepest ocean abysses, legendary poet, singer-songwriter of popular songs. We asked Alexander Gorodnitsky to tell us about his book preferences.

I adored Gaidar, Chukovsky... I still don’t understand how the man who wrote “The Cockroach” was not shot in 1937. After all, this tale is a direct reference to the great leader.

Probably Korney Chukovsky himself did not understand what he was writing?

Maybe... In general, children's literature is very important to me. About two years ago, my book “Gorodnitsky for Children” was published, in which my “sort of” children’s poems and songs were published. It is very difficult to write for children, because a child is an open creature, he feels falsehood and pretense. However, this book was decorated with children's drawings. So they believed me. A worldwide children's drawing competition based on my poems and songs was announced, and the jury received about 1,500 wonderful works. The drawings arrived really beautiful. It was a great gift for me. So, in my old age, I again returned to the deification of good children's and youth literature, in the version in which we remember it.

What is this option?

Well, completely obvious names: Daniil Kharms, Korney Chukovsky, Samuil Marshak. I still love Robert Burns in Marshak’s translations. Next, of course, is Pushkin, first his children’s poems, then his more adult poems. He was and remains my favorite poet. Among the more “adult” poets of my youth, my favorites are Eduard Bagritsky and Mikhail Svetlov, romantics of the Soviet era. And, of course, my favorite Soviet poet was and remains Vladimir Mayakovsky, no matter what. I dedicated several poems to him and still sincerely worry about his untimely death.

The next stage is the poets of the war generation. These are, first of all, Boris Slutsky and David Samoilov, whom I consider my teachers and with whom I had the good fortune to be friends... Well, not in the literal sense of “friendly”, since we had a top-down relationship, but, nevertheless , I knew them. I'm currently making a documentary, Portraits on the Wall, in which I try to talk about them. The film will also talk about some bards, but first of all I want to talk about these poets.

It seems to me that in your youth you adhered to a romantic view of life...

As a child, I was greatly stimulated by the exploits I witnessed. First of all, this is a feat of the Chelyuskinites. I remember the first poem that I learned by heart was Marina Tsvetaeva’s poem “Chelyuskintsy”. Chelyuskinites, Papaninites, Chkalov, who flew over the North Pole. I perceived all this heroic pre-war time as one continuous highest feat. I always dreamed of becoming the same person, like the heroes of that era. Now young people are becoming dealers, brokers, bank clerks, but before polar explorers were role models.

The value system that was formed in my childhood was based on two things. The first is military exploits. It is no coincidence that after the tenth grade I applied to the Frunze Higher Naval School, and then to the Mining Institute. The second is expeditions, journeys of discovery. I am still convinced that there are values in the world that cannot be converted into currency!

It is strange that, remembering your senior colleagues in the literary workshop, you did not mention your peers, for example, the “quadriga” of pop poets Yevtushenko, Voznesensky, Rozhdestvensky, Akhmadulina.

You see, what a thing, I am a Leningrader. Not a Petersburger, but a Leningrader. I am a student of Gleb Semenov, a member of the literary association at the Palace of Pioneers. I was part of the circle of Leningrad poets, which included Alexander Kushner, Gleb Gorbovsky, Leonid Ageev. The Leningrad school of poetry and the Moscow brilliant “quadriga” of pop poets are completely different things. I recognize their significance for the 60s, especially the significance of Evgeniy Aleksandrovich Yevtushenko, whom I love and believe that he played a huge role in the development of public consciousness. But I have different criteria in poetry. I am much closer to Evgeny Rein and Alexander Kushner than anyone from the Quadriga. At one time, Boris Abramovich Slutsky, scolding my poems, told me the following phrase: “You build your poems out of sand! Learn from Andrei Voznesensky to work with words. If you don’t study, you’ll die like Korzhavin.” And even then I liked Naum Korzhavin, aka Mandel. Especially his poem about Russian women.

And if you look “outward,” can you see a Western author from the same post-war wave who influenced your worldview?

This is Ernest Hemingway. He is much closer to me than Scott Fitzgerald and his other great contemporaries. Sometimes it is difficult to understand why some authors, like Thomas Mann, “passed” by me, others, like Heinrich Mann, were and remain my favorite writer. Many famous writers “passed by” me. Marcel Proust, for example, is the favorite writer of my friend, the wonderful poet Alexander Kushner. Well, Hemingway played a huge role in my development, especially his novels “To Have and Have Not” and “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” I still love many of his stories, such as “The Snows of Kilimanjaro.”

What other books impressed you and influenced your worldview?

Rudyard Kipling had a huge influence on me, both as a scientist and as a poet. At first I read his “Mowgli” and various kinds of children’s fairy tales like “Why does the baby elephant have a long trunk.” And a little later I was shocked by his poems. Kipling not only created poetic masterpieces, but also recorded the special attitude of man to the world around him, such a worldview of a brutal, courageous personality who can resist nature and various kinds of evil forces, can achieve victory in any situation. I drew the romance of travel, of course, from the works of Kipling. A little less from Jack London.

Alexander Moiseevich, you speak a language that allows you to read the most ancient book...

Are you talking about the Bible?

No, I'm talking about an even more ancient book. It's called "The Evolution of Planet Earth." Its author is Nature. This book has been written for over five billion years. As a Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, you know how to read this “text”, imprinted in the movement of continents, volcanic eruptions, the occurrence of faults in the earth’s crust and the appearance of mountain formations. Which chapter in this book is of most interest to you?

First of all, I am concerned about a period about which I have not the slightest idea - the era of the emergence of life on Earth. I am also very worried about the possibility of her death, the possibility of which I see based on scientific research. Both life on Earth, as such, and the civilizations of our planet, in particular the civilization of Atlantis, could repeatedly arise and die. This concept completely contradicts everything that I was taught at school and at the institute. First of all, this contradicts the teachings of the classics of Marxism-Leninism, on which the Soviet scientific school formally relied. From the point of view of dialectical materialism and its continuation - historical materialism, nature develops sequentially: from lower to higher, from amoeba to primate. According to the same scheme, the development of human society occurs - from a lower, primitive communal system, through feudalism, capitalism, socialism - to a bright paradise, communism. This is the only straight and true road. A step to the left, a step to the right - execution for trying to escape! But my experience and my many years of scientific practice have shown that this is not so. Of course, Darwin’s theory of evolution, which I loved as a child, remains, but nowadays it is suffering a crisis, just as Newtonian primitive mechanics with its three laws in the age of quantum mechanics, near-light speeds and the Higgs boson suffers a crisis of clarity. Everything slips from under our fingers. The world turns out to be much more complex and ambiguous than the one we discovered thanks to physics textbooks in the early 50s.

Yes, indeed, everything around is very difficult... However, each person still has a specific certainty, spiritual soil under his feet, for example, favorite books, to which he feels affection all his life. Is not it?

I agree with you. As for fiction, I loved and love Russian classics. Pushkin and Tolstoy are two main writers for me. I was and still am afraid of Dostoevsky. From my school years to this day. I don’t really understand why the brilliant writer Nikolai Leskov, who had a magnificent Russian language, was not included in the galaxy of great Russian writers.

Why did Fyodor Mikhailovich frighten you?

Yes, he's scary. It must be admitted that Dostoevsky is a brilliant detective master, the creator of magnificent stories. But it’s not by chance that I mentioned Leskov just now. In the history of Russian literature there are a number of writers who create works of fine artistic fabric. This line of geniuses includes Leskov, the wonderful stylist Babel, the great Tolstoy, Merezhkovsky, and Melnikov-Pechersky. But Dostoevsky’s prose, forgive me for such a blasphemous opinion, does not have much artistic merit. On the one hand, it is tough, devoid of any epithets, and on the other, it has absolutely brilliant characters and unpredictable plot development. But the main thing is that Dostoevsky, even before Joyce, began to turn to the “subcortex” of a person, to his subconscious. But, this area is scary. The motive that motivated Raskolnikov when he killed the old woman, the dispute between the Karamazov brothers about an innocent child whose tears are not worth the whole world, conversations with the Grand Inquisitor, all this raises huge layers from the most hidden depths of the human soul. Why was Dostoevsky so beloved in the 20th century? Because he was ahead of his era. But, unlike the depths of the ocean, I am still afraid of such depths. Even in yourself. These open abysses are truly frightening.

When talking with you, it is impossible not to touch on the topic of scientific and popular science books. Which ones would you put on a shelf of honor?

Perhaps, among popular science publications, I would highlight the books of Yakov Perelman. But in my life, popular science literature quickly gave way to scientific literature. But I watched a lot of popular science films. And in his old age he entered into this area. My original program “Atlanteans in Search of Truth” was broadcast for quite a long time on the “Culture” channel - forty-two episodes. Nowadays there are many wonderful foreign popular science films on the “Culture” channel, but, unfortunately, there are no Russian ones there at all.

Today, popular science books are not as successful as they were in Soviet times. What is this connected with?

Well, how can I say... In general, this is true. But I can’t help but brag: a year ago, the Eksmo publishing house published a book, “Secrets and Myths of Science. In search of truth". The first edition sold out very quickly. And now a new re-release has been released, which is simply called “In Search of Truth.” This is the same book, but without illustrations. At the moment I am starting to write a new book. People still miss popular science literature. Of course, today a popular science book cannot match the influence of popular science television. But! Just recently I had a concert at the Wood Grouse Nest, where a sale of my books was organized. So, the poems were not “taken” very well, but this book “Secrets and Myths of Science” was all snapped up. There is a need for good non-fiction literature.

It is also necessary to understand what can be called popular science literature. For example, Nikolai Chukovsky’s book “Frigate Drivers” can hardly be called scientifically popular. And she played a big role in my life, instilling in my childhood an interest in swimming and discovering new worlds. What's this? The science? It doesn't seem like science. On the other hand, if it weren’t for books like this, there probably wouldn’t be a whole branch in science, oceanology.

What other books made you fall in love with the sea and awakened your passion for travel?

First of all, I was quite influenced by Jules Verne. As a child, I read Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Five Weeks in a Balloon, and similar novels. It was Jules Verne who instilled in me the idea, when I was still a child, that we live in a mysterious world that is little known. I was also greatly influenced by Jack London as a child. We read them a lot as boys. Here we must take into account that I am, after all, a child under siege. In 1942, in a state of dystrophy, I was evacuated from Leningrad to the city of Omsk along the ice route running through Lake Ladoga.

In Omsk, I lost almost a year in my studies because I was recovering my health. In the house where I lay and where they nursed me, there was a very good library. And I read non-stop. I read the files of the magazine “Around the World” with various kinds of stories, with descriptions of expeditions, travels, voyages.

Therefore, after school, when I decided on a specialty, I did not choose science. I was interested in a profession related to adventure and travel. I went to the mining institute, geological exploration department. True, I ended up in the uranium search department. And this is a top secret specialty, which, in general, excluded any trips abroad. Then, by the will of fate, I changed my specialty, and my sea expeditions began. Having cast my lot in with the ocean in 1962, I remain faithful to it to this day. It is the legends, myths, and science associated with the ocean that still occupy me. I am very interested in connecting legend with reality. After all, many myths have scientific confirmation. Let's say, I am convinced of the existence of Atlantis. We were involved in work that led me to believe that it actually existed in the North Atlantic. I also tried to scientifically substantiate the death of the army of Pharaoh, described in the Bible, which was actually destroyed by a tsunami; the death of Sodom and Gomorrah as a result of a methane explosion. All my life I have been studying not only the structure of the oceanic lithosphere, but also the structure of the universe. Continental drift, the emergence of life on earth and the End of the World - all this is in my latest book. She hopes that the new circulation is unlikely to be the last.

In popular science literature, the absence of quackery is very important. For me this criterion comes first.

One of my closest friends was the wonderful writer and literary historian Nathan Yakovlevich Eidelman, who passed away untimely. I consider his popular science works on Russian history: “Your Eighteenth Century”, “Your Nineteenth Century”, “Herzen against the Autocracy”, “The Edge of Ages”, “Lunin” to be my reference books. My love for Russian history is largely due to what Nathan Yakovlevich instilled in me with his books and his communication.

It seems to me that science fiction also could not “pass” you by. Which science fiction authors would you highlight?

Firstly, Alexander Belyaev, who died in my native Tsarskoe Selo during the Nazi occupation. Recently, Belyaev’s daughter wrote a book of memories about him. It was a great honor for me to be the author of the foreword to this book. Alexander Belyaev is buried at the Kazan cemetery, next to my parents. Whenever I am there, I try to visit this grave.

I was very interested in both Adamov and Kazantsev. Our science fiction writers were closer to me than such brilliant authors as Isaac Asimov or Ray Bradbury. But my favorite science fiction writers were and remain the Strugatsky brothers. And I am proud that I was friends with Arkady Strugatsky, with whom, while he was alive, we constantly communicated. Science fiction is of great importance in our time, because in addition to solutions to scientific problems, it also offers socio-political solutions or criticism of socio-political decisions, which is no less important in our controversial days. Therefore, these authors influenced and influence me in many ways. I loved and love this literature. Moreover, from an artistic point of view it is very good.

What are you reading?

I rather do not read, but re-read. I have a poem on this topic:

Textbooks teach us from childhood,

That genius and villainy are incompatible,

But take a closer look at Pushkin’s poems:

And Mozart and Salieri - in equal measure,

Or maybe unequally - it’s not for us to know.

Sometimes it’s not easy for us to determine

Dialogue with yourself is possible.

And the Bronze Horseman gallops, and Eugene

A sad genius is running down the street

Mickiewicz sees everything between the lines.

Faces emerge from the midnight darkness.

The image is unsteady and doubles.

The lamp smokes and the pen creaks.

Who is more right before cunning fate -

Gloomy Tsar Boris or Dimitri,

What does the people's opinion value?

Not just everything in this sublunary world.

It is not enough to know that two and two are four,

Cunning and love are confused in him.

There is little use in the torn quote -

Read the poet carefully

And, having lived your life, re-read it again.

Several years ago, due to someone’s oversight, I ended up on the Booker jury. My duties included reading thirty-six modern novels in Russian in six months. This work discouraged me from reading prose in general for a long time. This is not said as a reproach to the writers I read: there were also good authors. But, nevertheless, modern literature, including fashionable literature, does not excite me. Let’s say I read with interest “The History of the Russian State by Boris Akunin” and am completely indifferent to his detective stories with Fandorin.

However, the habit of reading is very difficult to break...

I fell in love with memoirs and biographies. Maybe because he wrote his memoirs himself. This genre is very interesting. I read Dima Bykov’s wonderful book about Pasternak. I love this kind of literature much more than fiction. I also love military prose. For me, the highest peaks remained Viktor Nekrasov, Emmanuel Kazakevich, Vasil Bykov and Viktor Astafiev. Tough war prose still moves me very much.

That is, modern literature is, by some criteria, inferior to the literature of the past?

You see, as they say, old people don’t sing songs, and if they do, it’s the ones they sang in childhood. And I am no exception in this regard. Everything connected with my young years, with childhood, especially with the blockade, I now seem to be experiencing again. My documentary film “My Peter” is based on these experiences. The first episode of “Vasilievsky Island” is dedicated to what I experienced during the siege. Somehow everything comes back again.

The less noise you hear from outside the window,

The more accessible the past is to hearing.