Andrei Konchalovsky - Russian Film Director HARDtalk

Ukrainian servicemen were forced to cross the border following fierce

fighting with Russian separatists. Now it is time for HARDtalk.

Welcome to a special edition of HARDtalk. August 19 14, 100 years

ago, the five great powers of Europe declared war on each other. The

significance of the First World War is regularly debated and

commemorated but what of that great power, Russia? It also fought

against Germany but the desire had been murdered and the Bolshevik

revolution brought Lennon to power. How far does what went on in Russia

then explains what is going on now? My guess is the renowned theatre and

film director, Andrei Konchalovsky. Andrei Konchalovsky, welcome to

HARDtalk. Russia went into World War I to defend Serbia against Germany.

It lost around 1.7 million and maybe 5 million were injured. Really

terrible loss for it. How far has what happens then helped shape

Russia Today? It was one of the crucial moments, perhaps one of the

most important for the 20th century for Russia. The First World War

brought the Bolsheviks to power. That means revolution is the effect

and the cause was the war. The Bolsheviks, Trotskyites, or

revolutionary parties were in favour of the war because they were hoping

that Russia would fail. The Imperial War will ruin Russia, they said, and

they were right. I will give you a quote from a representative from the

Institute of Slavic studies in Russia. It says that Russia rarely

talks about World War I. It was overshadowed. It was quite murky

water. The Bolsheviks used, used the world for in order to destroy the

fabric of the state. It was important for Bolsheviks to use the

world War to promote defeat. Defeat of a dynasty? Defeat of the state.

They were sure that the government will fail and that the state will

disintegrate during this war and they were right. It was such a

significant event, sweeping away centuries of czarist rule. I don't

think, in that sense, the First World War and revolution just

happened. It was just a trigger. The revolution was, Russia was pregnant

revolution since the end of the 19th century. Dostoevsky's novel, the

Devils, it is all about revolution. And Russian society at the time, as

now, consists from two different nations. There is, what I would call

white Russia, a tiny fraction of the Russian nation that basically was

born after Peter the Great. European Russians. Intelligentsia. Like you?

I am Russian European. They were all ancestors, children of Peter the

Great. In the civil war we had the White Army that you refer to, at the

White Russians fighting against the red Army of the Bolsheviks, Lenin

and his colleagues. They wanted Russia to become European. 95, 90 7%

now are not Europeans. `` 95`97% are not Europeans. They are orthodox.

Moscow as a symbol of a very conservative, extremely self

protective, I would say dogmatic. They are two nations and Russia, we

don't understand is two nations. I will ask you about the two nations

you talk about but finishing up on what happened after the First World

War, the aftermath we saw the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the

Austro`Hungarian Empire. Although France and Britain were victors and

they did carve up the remnants of the Ottoman Empire, there are on the

colonies was quite weak. It is ironic, as Professor Simon Franklin

says, there was a peculiar paradox, he says World War I and the

revolution in eight Strangeways retarded Russia. The other empires

began collapsing however the Soviet Union was really a continuation of

the Russian empire in new clothes. Exactly. You kept this Empire made

up of different peoples. They are not different, they are two

mentalities. When I save Russia was pregnant with revolution, I want to

say Europeans, Russian Europeans wanted to have a change. `` when I

say. Most of the Tsar family wanted to quit in 1905. They despised the

system themselves. That is very important to understand. Russian

peasants didn't want a revolution. They were monarch as is. This idea

of Russia being east and west, the combination of east and west, let me

put to use something which a very prominent Russian has said, an old

friend of President Putin, now head of Russia's railways. He says Russia

is not between Europe and Asia. Europe and Asia are to the left and

right. We are a separate civilisation space. Does Russia have

a third way? It is a very popular idea today. Russia is still trying,

for some reason, to find self identification. One of the theories

today is to have a third way. We are not the west, we are not the east,

and I don't think it is correct. We are part of Judaeo`Christian

culture. You have got so many Muslims in the Russian Federation.

Chechens, the Tatar is. Judaeo`Christian means Russian

culture itself. It dominates the Judaeo`Christian is, those not of

its background? Russia had to expand far, far east. For 300, 400

centuries. Didn't have to, wanted to because it was an imperial power.

No, if under terrible was the first Tsar. He wanted more land. `` Ivan

the terrible was the first star, he wanted more land. The author Martin

Sexsmith says Russia looks both ways, to the democratic, law

governed traditions of the west and at the same time to the Asiatic form

of government she imbibed in the early years of her government. The

iron fist of central power. What is the question? Russia defines itself

as not being part of the west, even though as you say the dominant class

is European. Dominant class does not determine the mentality of nation.

There was a wonderful American, who said the central point is that... I

am Conservative. I was liberal for the time being but Conservative then

because I realised that only Russian culture will determine Russian

politics. Russian tradition, unfortunately, we didn't have Magna

Carta. We didn't have any kind of government except Russian nation

always delegates power to one person. And then does not want to

be, doesn't want to have any responsibility for what is going to

happen. Whoever comes to the Kremlin, without even realising what

he is going to face. He is going to face, everyone will deliver power to

him and he has to be responsible for everything. So when people refer to

Vladimir Putin today as having ambitions like a Tsar, the Tsar

Russians always seek because this has been a common feature running

through Russian history, you think that is a valid point? Every Russian

ruler was a Tsar, every, including Lenin and then Stalin and then

Christophe and even Gorbachev. Power was delegated to him, not by

nations... You get the personality cult and so on. I think Putin

underwent extraordinary... Change of psyche because I don't think he

understood what was going to happen to him in big, whatever, 12, 14

years, when he came to power. When he came to power he had to face the

Chechen war, he had to finish that, he had to reunite somehow a state

that was falling apart and he was quite European and Western. If you

remember, 2003 he said he can even envisage that Russia will join Nato.

But the west stumped him. I am sure. And I think the west did not want to

level with Putin. They've rejected, is what you are saying. And then it

becomes, the trajectory becomes further and further. One of his

slogans is Russia returns to itself and a biographer of Putin says he is

preparing Russians for something else. Whatever this means is very

difficult to say. You have met him a few times. Would you say there is

such a thing as Putinism? He does not prepare Russians for anything,

Russians prepare him for something. What is that? I have no idea. It is

a mystery because in the 21st century, we deal with an enormous

country with nuclear power that is, in many senses, has a mediaeval

mentality. It has been one of the great

superpowers of the world. The first man in space. The idea that if you

kill the tyrant and make a democratic election, everything is

going to be fine. We see this going on in Iraq. What does it prove? The

idea that freedom to pursue prosperity is an absolute mistake.

`` freedom to pursue prosperity. It is a mistake to watch how other

centres of culture, great civilisations like India, Hinduism,

China, is lamp, they have completely different understanding and values.

These values cannot be changed by politics. `` Islam. It is very

difficult to change. It is the same with Russia. It is very difficult.

So you think Russia is backward? Why are you giving that word pejorative

meaning? It is arrogant to say that. I am not saying backward.

Stalin said that Russia is 50 `100 years behind advanced countries and

the distance must be made up in ten years. Is there a sense that Russia

is inferior? He failed. He believed that politics could change of

mentality. It is a big mistake for Europe to think that what you put

in, or whoever else, can change Russian mentality. `` Putin. Some

hardline people hanker for the days when Russia had control of Ukraine.

That this part of the narrative that they want to be a part of. Putin

went into Crimea and he has taken Crimea, hasn't he? He is part of

that nationalist pitcher for Russians. I am not sure it is

nationalism. What is it? I think he is reading the Russian psyche very

well. Which is nationalistic? You can call it nationalistic.

Nationalism is not necessarily evil. Your father, Sergei Mikhalkov, wrote

the lyrics to the Soviet national anthem and put them again in 1977.

Three times. Yes, 1977. And, again, when President Putin revise it, he

did it again. He first wrote it when Stalin was around. In 2000, a letter

from Russian artists and musicians, open letter to Putin, pretty wanted

to revise it, it said that it risked lives wrecked in phantoms of an era

when millions of innocent Russians were imprisoned and killed. It is

estimated around 20 million Soviets died under Stalin. Rudy you stand on

this? Did you want to see your Father's lyrics restored? Yes. We

should not forget that a lot of people still live from the Soviet

period and live under the Soviet illusion. This generation of Soviet

people, they welcomed this anthem, strangely enough. My father used to

say it was not anything more than a political document in rhymes. He was

trying to make it as simple as possible, the idea of the Russian

state. Then he changes the name, to bring fresh now but have been in

power. Yes. We had to have Stalin's name. He changed the whole idea. He

was asked to take out references to communism. You are a renowned

director. One of your films is based around the main character and shows

a village that is pining for the order of the old Soviet Union to

encapsulated in a sentence. Do you think that with the revival of the

old anthem, there is a hankering for that certainty? It is about a

gesture. It is not what determines the politics of the state. I spent

three months last year shooting a film about peasants. With real

persons, and the north of Russia. There are adorable people. They are

extraordinary. They have no idea what is going on in the world.

People think they can save Russia from imperialism or the West. My

British friends who saw the film said it was extraordinary. He said

it was a film about happy people living in a post` apocalyptic

period. You have brought us back full circle. Throughout history,

people like Tolstoy have always celebrated the Russian peasant as

being someone of great value. There was a novel where the peasants

servant was seen as a better human being than the petty Brewer schwa

family. `` Brewer schwa. That kind of extolling the virtues

of the Russian peasant is something that we have seen many decades ago.

Even now. There is a continuity. Whether you are talking about the

opening of the First World War or the revolution. Absolutely. Stalin

had some profound thoughts. He said that Lenin misunderstood the Russian

peasant. He said that Lennon was thinking that the Russian peasant

would go to democracy and production of culture. It did not happen. That

is important. Russian peasantry was completely suppressed by Walsh River

Exe. `` the Bolsheviks. We have topped about how `` toxid about how

Russia was involved in the First World War and did the most to defeat

the Nazis but it is however seen as more of a fall than a friend. Is it

more friends than fall into reality? I think enemy is the word. It

started in the 13th century. The start of this competition for the

land started when the first Russian occupants took over. The fight

between West and East started when the Latin Church was trying to take

over. The Russian church was trying to withstand it. The Ukraine is one

of the places throughout these forces clash. I made a film about

it. East Rocher always considered the West as invaders because of the

Latin religion. That comes very deep. I hope there will not be an

end. You will inevitably join Russia. Russia will not join Europe.

Europe will need Russia more than Russia will needs Europe. I am sorry

for my bad English. Thank you for being on HARDtalk.

Goodbye. Hi there. On Monday, temperatures in

a few spots across eastern England reached 25 Celsius. We are looking

at similar highs as we head to