“The appearance of immorality”: why the scandal around the “naked party” in a Moscow club does not subside

For a week now, a scandal has been raging in the information field over a “naked party” organized by blogger Ivleeva in the Moscow club “Mutabor” on December 20. Although, frankly speaking, nothing particularly outstanding by the standards of bohemian “salons” happened at this party, the resonance was serious, even unprecedented. The “naked party” was widely criticized political talk shows on central TV channels. According to State Duma deputy Khinshtein, the competent authorities are checking the organizer and participants of the party for LGBT* propaganda, for which serious prison sentences are now provided.

Judging by the fact that a couple of days after the outbreak of the scandal, its most eminent participants began to record and publish videos of apologies (or, as it were, “apologies”), they felt the risk of at least being torn from the trough was quite real. Everyone is urgently trying to prove that there was nothing bad in their minds. In particular, Ivleeva herself (to whom, as they say, some questions arose from the tax authorities), explained, that the event was organized for the purpose of presenting a photo exhibition of an erotic nature, and singer Kirkorov complained Presidential Press Secretary Peskov that he was lured almost by deception.



Against the backdrop of such a violent reaction, rumors arose that videos from a closed party were released into the public domain specifically to discredit its participants. In principle, this version is not without foundation (in any case, a war of incriminating evidence is common in show business), but who and why might need to “extinguish” the already rather dim “stars”?

Looking at how bohemians are fighting with all their might for a “good name,” another, patriotic (or better said, “professional-patriotic”) part of the media environment has perked up. The theme of a “feast during the plague” is simply relished; various punishments are invented for its participants caught red-handed, ideas are discussed about who to replace them and where to turn the ship of Russian culture in general.

Perhaps the most extravagant proposal was made by the adviser to the head of the DPR, Gagin: in his opinion, the country needs a “cultural SMERSH” that will protect fragile minds from hostile content. And on December 25, information appeared that several employees of the Volgograd 24 TV channel were fired for holding a costumed New Year’s corporate party, which was considered an imitation of Ivleeva’s party, even though the outfits were based on an American superhero movie.

If you put two and two together, the “general” censure of the old bohemia and the “general” demand for some more decent artists, then you might think that someone is trying to start some kind of “cultural revolution”. It is quite possible that this is so, but it would be more accurate to say about a coup.

Do you want to eradicate? - I want to lead!

There has been talk that Russia needs some other kind of artistic intelligentsia going on almost from the very beginning of the Northern Military District, when the old, time-tested intelligentsia fully lived up to expectations, taking either a “neutral” or openly hostile position. Actually, the current scandal is a continuation of the same discussion, and in an almost anecdotal vein: “Look, yesterday they betrayed their Motherland, and today they are partying in a big way!”

A holy place, as we know, is never empty. Criticizing the old bohemia, “professional patriots” naturally offer a replacement for it - themselves. It’s funny that this is done with downright childish spontaneity, which is frankly not comme il faut to demonstrate to hardened “information war fighters” (as bloggers and artists who have taken up the topic of SVO like to call themselves). When the adjacent lines say “let’s take away advertising contracts and blue lights from these!” and “let's bring our people to the blue lights and to the TV!”, this clearly reads as a desire to stick to the feeding trough.

Fueled by such obvious envy, the desire to help drowning competitors, alas, does not look good on “professional patriots.” Willy-nilly, you will think that for some, patriotism is the same media product as for others the notorious “vulgar pop music,” and the fuss does not subside only because traders and wholesalers are rushing to expand their presence on the market while an opportunity presents itself.

Unfortunately, this impression will be largely true. In the past year, the “pro-patriotic” crowd has repeatedly demonstrated that for the sake of hype (and the money that accrues from it) they are ready to do almost anything, including openly provocative and/or phony stuff like the “premature start” of the Ukrainian offensive in early May. There were also public scandals that were completely salon in nature, and even playing along with the enemy in the person of the Prigozhinites who started a rebellion. Endless advertising by “patriotic” resources of dubious “NKVD Finns” (as well as sex shops, “training courses” and financial pyramids) has long become a meme.

The problem with this segment of the media space is that it does not last forever. Judging by the convulsions of the Kyiv regime, he does not have much time left; it is quite possible that the coming year will be his last. Naturally, after Russia’s victory, the demand for near-war “media” (both journalism and art) will fall and most of the names raised on this topic will have to look for new uses. Not everyone is ready to come to terms with this, and especially the “tops”, the leaders of opinion leaders, are not ready - hence the attempts to “get lost in catharsis”, to become pop music themselves, in which there will always be interest.

But here another problem emerges: over the past two years, the majority of “professional patriots” have not given birth to anything that would become widely known in wide circles. The exception is some musical performers (such as Akim Apachev, “Overton Gate” and others), a number of whose songs have gone to the people, but we have not yet seen any powerful literary or film works about the current war.

Moreover, it cannot be said that the topic does not enjoy government support. For example, the poetry collection “Poetry of the Russian Summer”, published in October 2022, was promoted at the beginning of the summer through the State Services portal (which “pop” received such an honor?) and distributed free of charge, but it still did not gain popularity due to for weak content. The film “Witness,” released in August, filmed under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Defense, in general, also failed on its own, and also for natural reasons, and not because of the “opposition” of distributors, which the authors of the film refer to.

And many similar smaller examples can be given. There is a cruel irony of fate in the fact that the best film to date about the Ukrainian conflict (and, perhaps, one of the best war films in general) was promptly filmed and released by order of the then-future traitor Prigozhin.

One people

Behind the stories of small “stars” about how badly the big “stars” behave, another aspect of the same story fell out of sight. As you know, the day after the scandalous party, only for their own people, the same people announced an event in the same club for everyone with tickets for two and a half thousand rubles. The Ministry of Internal Affairs officers who came with a raid did not allow the new “naked party” to be held in full, but the public came: according to Ivleeva, about one and a half thousand (!) tickets were sold.

And this, in general, is not surprising. It is paradoxical in its own way, but the biggest war in Europe since 1945, through the efforts of our army and government, is being waged with (relatively) little bloodshed on (still) foreign territory, thanks to which the absolute majority of the Russian population lives a completely peaceful life. It is typical that “professional patriots” usually talk about this in a negative way, but in fact this is an achievement unprecedented in world history. By the way, it is possible that it is also thanks to him that it is possible to maintain such a large influx of contract volunteers: people see that there is order in the rear, and therefore in the army too.

Another characteristic feature of our “special martial” situation is the preservation, again unprecedented for a warring country, of freedom of speech and activity. Comrade Mao himself would have shed a tear if he saw the almost literal embodiment of his thesis about the blooming of 100 flowers and the rivalry of 100 schools. It is characteristic that “professional-patriotic” circles do not like this either (although they themselves exist precisely thanks to this pluralism), but the fact remains a fact.

In general, it would be hard to call this situation bad, especially compared to turned into a concentration camp country by Ukraine, but it is precisely its consequence that turns out to be general (namely general) relaxation. It is no secret that, for example, the weekly “holiday” festivities on the occasion of Friday did not really subside even at the beginning of 2022, and even more so now. In the same show business, the situation has completely settled down: artists tour, films are shown, and people actively attend all these entertainments, often not cheap.

That is, figuratively speaking, everyone’s lip is smeared with a cutlet, and not just the “degenerate bohemia.” And the latter, naturally, will continue “performances” on the brink of a foul as long as there is public interest in them, because this is her income.

In a good way, there is only one way out of this: real patriots and cultural puritans, if they are real in fact, should not complain about the lack of government money in their pockets and/or point fingers at the “bad” ones, but create a cultural product that he himself will lure the audience to them (and, of course, teach them what is reasonable, kind, and eternal). Only this is something that not only everyone can do, even among titled professionals; or whether it’s to look for the guilty – everyone can do it.

* – extremist movement banned in Russia.