State Duma deputy, People’s Artist of Russia Nikolai Burlyaev, in a conversation with Daily Storm, called for a ban on the sale of paraphernalia and toys from the Marvel and DC universes in Russia and to replace them with goods from the domestic cultural universe. The parliamentarian considers American superheroes “alien” and “evil”. Now, according to him, is the time of Ivanov.
“According to the providence of God, we have been given a new time, a time of separating the grain from the chaff, rubbish from the true. And therefore, these “heroes” alien to our national consciousness, to the Russian spirit, who were introduced to us over 30 years of cultural permissiveness, when our children were forced to grow up in a foreign land, will leave,” said Burlyaev.
The deputy noted that now, when children are asked to draw heroes at drawing lessons, they depict “not Ilya Muromets and Russian heroes”, but “spiders, one-eyed monsters”. “Harry Potter became their hero!” the parliamentarian was indignant.
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Burlyaev expressed the hope that now the spread of American culture will come to naught: “I’m still a man of culture, I gave culture 62 years as an actor, director, playwright, and I watched it all with horror and thought:“ How could we all from them shut yourself off from this abomination!”
With the imposition of sanctions against Russia, the West lowered the iron curtain and “left us alone,” the deputy stressed.
“Now it’s time for the Ivanovs. Remember your kinship, where they come from, your most powerful culture. I am sure that time will tell our toy manufacturers what they need to do, ”he said.
If foreign toy manufacturers refuse to leave the Russian market, this will have to be done by a “strong-willed decision,” Burlyaev said. The deputy promised to raise this issue, “to clear our counters from this evil spirits.”
“If banned, a fairly ordinary thing will become the ultimate dream”
Not everyone in the State Duma agreed with Burlyaev’s position. Thus, the first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on Education, deputy Yana Lantratova, believes that it is not worth banning the heroes of American culture, as this will limit the ability of Russian children to play the same as their peers abroad.
“Rejecting Batman and Superman is wrong. A child in Russia should have the same opportunities as a child in Europe, America, China. So that a situation does not happen when some fairly ordinary thing becomes the ultimate dream, an object of envy. After all, our children will still see these things and want them,” says Lantratova.
However, according to the parliamentarian, there are toys, the sale of which she, as a mother, wants to limit: “skeleton dolls in a coffin, for example.”
Another deputy, Nikolai Valuev, is sure that it is impossible to ban superheroes and other toys from foreign manufacturers without legal grounds.
“It’s like saying “do I need to get a star from the sky”. <...> It doesn’t matter what kind of toys, but if they have some kind of extremist sense or a different reason, for example, they are made of non-environmentally friendly material that causes oncology, and so on. But here we are not talking about toys in general, but rather about a specific toy manufacturer, ”he said.
Now children in Russia are playing “Americanism” to a greater extent, the parliamentarian admits, since the influence of Western culture on Russian society has been going on for decades. At some point, “we were culturally replaced with mass Hollywood” heroes of Russian folk tales, Valuev noted. “She flooded all kinds of irons, and, naturally, the children began to play all this,” he was indignant.
What do MPs offer in return?
At the moment, there are good manufacturers of beautiful dolls, educational wooden games, constructors and other children’s toys in Russia, the creation and sale of which should be supported, Lantratova noted.
“We need to help Russian toy factories develop and expand their assortment. Because first of all it is also a safety issue. Toys made in Russia undergo strict quality control. In addition, they popularize our domestic cartoon characters – new ones and those on which more than one generation of Russians grew up. I know that some parents trust Russian products,” the deputy said.
Valuev, on the other hand, believes that it is possible to popularize domestic cartoon characters and characters from Russian fairy tales thanks to a high-quality PR company. In this case, Russia should follow the example of India, China or even Japan.
“(You can solve the problem of a small number of toys in the form of heroes of national culture) only by producing a lot of your own content, as the Indians and Chinese did. In the end, even the Japanese did it. They did not ban anyone, they simply simply increased the volume of their films to impossible heights and volumes. At the same time, they do not cancel Hollywood and do not prohibit their citizens, children from watching it, ”the deputy said.
The forbidden fruit is always sweet, the parliamentarian noted. Therefore, if restrictions are imposed on the sale of toys or viewing foreign films, “children will go online and watch this Marvel through a VPN.” “Who are you fooling? Who do we want to deceive with this ban, ourselves? Do we want to make the world laugh?” Valuev concluded.
