On January 16, Yuri Shevchuk, the lead singer for the Russian rock band DDT, met with the press and his New York fans at the Brooklyn Public Library. Shevchuk spoke about his American tour and discussed the current political situation in Russia.
© Photo by Anatoly Kashlevskiy
Yuri Shevchuk came to America with his latest program, entitled Otherwise, which gained acclaim and popular support in Russia, with many critics and fans calling it the best rock show in the country. In the last several years, Shevchuk has been in the center of political news, speaking and performing at protest rallies and making sharp public observations about the authorities. He flew into New York on January 13, the same day a large protest march against the Russian government’s ban on the adoption of orphans by U.S. citizens took place in Moscow. As the DDT frontman noted, if he were not on the plane, he would probably be at that protest.
Given the success of DDT's tours in Russia, it seems clear that Shevchuk has found the right words and the right music to make his songs resonate in the hearts and souls of the thinking public. Songs such as A Song about Freedom or New Russia have a social, political and humanitarian subtext, and are the pivot of his show.
At the press conference, the DDT frontman pointed out that during his Russian tour, he got to perform in several cities, and he saw many “good young people there, who are not scared of anything.” “There is a lot of ‘heavy action’, as they say, in the country today, and it is connected with the civic movement. And I think that these young people will eventually win,” Shevchuk said. “In that sense, the situation in Russia makes me optimistic.” He added that people have stopped being indifferent: the cynicism of the 2000s is now out of fashion, and money is no longer the most important thing, having been replaced by other values. “Look at the upsurge in volunteer work. People are feeling compassion for each other once again,” he said.
Shevchuk added that people have stopped being indifferent: the cynicism of the 2000s is now out of fashion, and money is no longer the most important thing, having been replaced by other values.
Shevchuk mentioned that he has recently read the history of the 1789 French Revolution and found plenty of similarities with the current political situation in Russia. “But history does not repeat itself, it only rhymes with the past,” he continued. “At my concerts, I see many radical, sensitive young people. Their eyes are glowing and their dream is to sacrifice everything for the sake of revolution. And I would welcome a spiritual revolution in Russia.”
In the musician’s opinion, the reactionary forces in Russia are struggling against the emergence of something new. “The minds of the majority of the population are not yet modernized. Our authorities are very sly, and their brainwashing actually works: they have dealt with the first wave of protests. We will wait and see what happens next. We are witnessing an interesting process that requires a lot of patience and love from us. As Paul the Apostle said, truth spoken without love is a lie.”
Reflecting on the future of the protest movement, Shevchuk noted that the protests may end up bringing up the question from which Russia’s thinking society is trying to hide: “If Putin goes away, who comes after him – that is the question. Today, many opposition leaders have finally begun to think about the ways they can reach out to the common man. They began to realize that it would take time and hard work to make it happen. And our country is torn apart…”
Answering questions from the audience, Shevchuk made it clear that he has no political ambitions of his own. “I cannot be a politician,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about it for a long time, and I’ve realized that in order to be a politician, one must be able to send a person to their death. I cannot do that. So I am not a politician, I am a citizen, which is already quite a lot,” Shevchuk concluded.
