My views have never changed, says Russian musician Andrei Makarevič

Makarevich founded Mašina vremen as a schoolboy and quickly rose to enormous popularity in the Soviet Union. Later, however, he also became a prominent social influencer, whose relations with his homeland were eventually severed completely.

The musician and poet will arrive in Finland to perform on Monday, August 3. HS interviewed Makarevič before his concert in Helsinki.

Still at the beginning of the millennium, Makarevič consistently supported the new rulers in Russia.

Among other things, he served as president Boris Yeltsin as an adviser to the administration and expressed his support as well Vladimir Putin that Dmitry Medvedev for presidencies.

However, after Russia’s occupation of Crimea in 2014 and the expansion of the war in Eastern Ukraine, Makarevič publicly took a different side from Russia’s official line.

He got caught up in a real car chase. Representatives of the Russian Duma demanded a ban on performances in Russia and the cancellation of all titles and state awards.

In the year 2022 Makarevich condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and moved to Israel.

He was entered in the register of “foreign agents” in his home country. Relations with Russia were completely severed.

“You wouldn’t believe how little space Russia and everything happening there is taking up in my head at the moment,” says Makarevič.

“The only thing I really hope for is for the war against Ukraine to end as soon as possible. That’s what I look forward to every single day. But for everything else, sorry, I’m pointing with a glove.”

If in Russia For years, Makarevich had appealed to the authorities to stop the violence and listen to the public opinion, in his new home country of Israel, he encountered a different society.

When the terrorist organization Hamas attacked Israel in the fall of 2023 and the conflict in the Middle East raged again, society in Israel demanded that the government take as hard as possible, citing security.

Makarevich stood resolutely in support of the Israeli Defense Forces and wished for a quick victory for the Israeli soldiers.

How to deal with the fact that pacifist values ​​defended throughout life appear in one context as a fight for freedom, but in another as life-threatening naivety?

“As far as I understand, people have always sought the same thing throughout the centuries. They have wanted simple things. They have wanted peace, love, family, joy, creative work and travel. Sometimes humanity managed to live in this paradigm for a while,” Makarevič reflects.

“Even I had time to live through such a period. And I naively thought that now we, having learned from bitter experiences, will finally live in peace. Unfortunately, we don’t. Apparently, it is written in the nature of man and society, and everything goes around the circle again.”

“But there are differences in wars. A lot depends on which side is the aggressor. When you’re having your throat cut open, talking about pacifism at that moment is kind of special, isn’t it?”

From Makarevich an impression is created of a man who often ends up in opposition with the environment in which he lives.

“My position has never changed. The world around me is changing radically, sometimes at a frightening speed,” says Makarevič.

“So if the world is considered constant, then of course my position seems to change relative to it. But in reality it doesn’t change at all. It’s about what revolves around what: does the Sun revolve around the Earth or does the Earth revolve around the Sun?”

In his concert in Helsinki, Makarevič will perform songs from his new album “9” in addition to his well-known songs.

In the song A little song about good and bad there is a verse: “Cowardly evil is not hard to banish, but it cannot be killed.”

How then can evil be banished from the earth?

“If I knew, I would have already written the user manual.”