He is also very grateful to the Latvians and Russians in Latvia for the warm welcome, but one of the brightest impressions for him was the Song Festival last summer, in an interview “Rus.LSM” said the artist, waiting for his concert, which will take place on December 8.
Being at the Latvian Song and Dance Festival – it was a huge emotional event, living the sharp joy of being, says Smoljaninovs:
“Listen, I have never seen or heard anything like that in my life, that 20 thousand people would sing under the open sky! And I don’t know how many thousands danced.
I had a feeling that it was just a hymn to life as such. It doesn’t even matter in what language they sing – at this moment you already forget about something specific…
Especially under the open sky – I first look at all this, then I look up and realize that this is the positivity, the flow of consciousness of our life: that we live, that we are, that we are created and that we can together, in such a huge human to create some kind of divine beauty.
Well, it’s really a catharsis – it’s an incredible feeling, incredible! Everything just freezes inside, and happiness, and that’s life as it is, life at its best.”
In his entry “X” from the Song Festival, the artist also wrote “Thanks to Latvia for everything”. He said that he not only got asylum in Latvia, but also the opportunity to continue his creative work:
“Of course, I am grateful – they welcomed me here, gave me shelter, warmed me, literally fed me. They gave me a place to live, gave me a place to sleep…
It’s not like I’m going to a new place in the middle of nowhere – I don’t want to look like a superhero; the fact is that I filmed here a couple of years ago (the film “A Jew in Liepāja”), and I had some impressions, first of all good ones. I mean, I realized that I know someone here.
Plus, it so happened that after the start of the war, I got to know some of the “Meduza” guys who have been living here for a long time, and some of them helped me a lot, also helped to build the route, and so on. Everything coincided in such a relatively random way in Riga and Latvia. So I didn’t drive to an empty place. Plus I knew that Chulpana Hamatova was already here, some other people I already know. I knew I wouldn’t be alone.”
After Smolyaninov’s public speech condemning the Russian army’s invasion of Ukraine, there was a public response, and it turned out that many in Russia share his opinion, although they are unable to say it out loud:
“However, this (emigration) was the case when I directly experienced the power of the saying “you shall reap what you sow”. to help me. That’s why I concluded to myself that people made me understand: I became their voice completely unintentionally! Because not everyone has the opportunity to speak to such a large audience.”
The adaptation in Latvia has started well, says the stage artist:
“Both in Russia and here, people were maximally open to me. And, of course, I did not expect that I would be received so well. I had thought that I would probably not be chased away from here with a dung broom, but that such good and sincere people would accept … Moreover, everyone – both Russians and Latvians, absolutely no division.
People always remain people. Therefore, thank you for everything to Latvia! And this applies both to ordinary people and to those who work in the state system, in migration – they also came to meet me. It is clear that within the law – naturally. But where they could move left and right within the framework of the legislation, it was a regime of the greatest favor, and it was always a shock to me: that when they saw me, people flourished and gave me both hands at once.”
2023-11-28 03:51:00
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