On the quiet of a jubilee noise: why officials so like to celebrate the anniversaries of cities

Sergey Baimukhametov

In the recently published material of Novye Izvestia - “A wide anniversary in a narrow circle. How officials celebrate the 800th anniversary of Nizhny Novgorod", bloggers talked about the festivities organized by the city administration during a pandemic, and not for residents, but only for themselves, for those close to them.

But “anniversaries of the subjects of the federation”, as they are officially called, is a broad topic that requires separate consideration. Let's start with the most enticing thing - counting money. Here sums from several sources are added - the federal budget, regional and so-called off-budget funds, sponsorship contributions.

In 2003, St. Petersburg celebrated the 300th anniversary of its foundation - the anniversary cost 60 billion rubles.

In 2005, Kazan celebrated its 1000th anniversary - 53.7 billion.

In 2008, Astrakhan celebrated its 450th anniversary - 27.3 billion.

In 2010, Yaroslavl celebrated its 1000th anniversary - 26 billion.

In 2011, they walked on the 350th anniversary of Irkutsk - 6.1 billion.

In 2013, 16.6 billion were spent on the 1150th anniversary of Smolensk.

At the same time, the 350th anniversary of the city was celebrated in Penza - 11.8 billion.

Total - 201.5 billion.

In the same period, Petrozavodsk, Pskov, Tomsk, Kaliningrad, Veliky Novgorod, Voronezh celebrated anniversaries less modestly... The exact amount of costs is unknown.

The Ministry of Regional Development reported: “As of May 13 of this year, by decrees of the President of the Russian Federation, the celebration at the federal level of 14 memorable dates of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation in the period from 2013 to 2024 was established. The total amount of funding provided for the implementation of the pre-anniversary plans is 207.2 billion rubles".

Total, together with the previous jubilee spending will be 408.7 billion rubles?

I put a question mark because in 2014 an attempt was made to cut spending, not to give federal money. If you want to celebrate, pay yours. A bill was proposed on amending the presidential decree of 2010 "On consideration of proposals and initiatives related to the celebration of memorable dates of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation at the federal level".

The amendments were made several times, up to 2018. I read it carefully, but I could not find exact instructions. Is that the phrase: "On the celebration at the federal level of these memorable dates in the presence of an expert opinion ... and under the condition of a 100-year multiplicity (emphasized by me - SB) memorable date of the subject of the Russian Federation".

But decrees have already been signed (they are signed in advance, 5 or even 10 years in advance) on the celebration of the anniversaries of many cities. Does the law have no retroactive effect? Or are the anniversaries (with the exception of the "100-year multiplicity") deprived of federal funding? In any case, it was not deprived of it until 2019. In 2019, a high rank from the Kaluga administration explained to residents: "Unfortunately, Kaluga is the first in the list of regional capitals that are not allocated federal money for the anniversary".

650 years since the founding of the city - in August this year.

So, if there is no “100-year multiplicity”, they will celebrate only at the expense of the regional budget and sponsorship fees? And - they celebrate. Have a feast in times of crisis. Do you know how they justified the waste of people's money on fireworks and champagne even in the very difficult 90s? Officials from the top level of the region spoke in confidence, heard with their own ears: "It is in our difficult time that we need to arrange holidays in order to instill optimism and confidence in the people in the future".

Or maybe they are right? After all, our "difficult time" lasts and lasts, does not pass, and what now - not to celebrate anything at all?

So I once thought: could it be possible to channel this seething energy into a socially useful channel?

In the story of my friend, the wonderful Novosibirsk prose writer Nikolai Samokhin, who died untimely, a company of men somehow decided to stop their weekly drinking gatherings. But what and how to replace them? Here is one of them and suggested: "We will, as it were, drink!" Gathered. Mentally chipped in. Mentally ran away for the first time. As if they had drunk. Then they chipped in again. Again, they kind of ran away and kind of drank. And more ... And that's all - mentally. And they seemed to have drunk, "sat down", and the money remained in their pockets.

What if this principle is carried over to the anniversaries of cities?

Imagine just how much money went and will go to the celebrations. These are hundreds and hundreds of billions.

Of course, the anniversary, accompanied by a powerful financial flow, is far from and not only banquets and celebrations: over the years of preparation, projects have been implemented to preserve and recreate the historical and cultural heritage, to modernize and develop engineering and urban planning infrastructure, to improve territories, new facilities are being erected, new ones are being laid. roads, old ones are being repaired. However, it is strange that it all depends on the holiday dates - we live every day. If they did not exist, memorable dates, would they not have reconstructed, built, or repaired?

But what if the jubilee money is used in a different way, as in the story of Nikolai Samokhin?

For example, we establish a jubilee commission, calculate the budget, collect money and... - we put it in a deposit account at high interest rates. We establish councils of trustees from respected citizens. Which will distribute interest on capital. Can you imagine interest from tens of billions? Fixed capital can be exchanged for dollars and euros and placed on foreign currency accounts. To save from inflation.

And so - in all territories, regions, republics.

So, in a short time, we will provide boarding schools, orphanages, nursing homes, hospitals with additional funds ...

We have a lot of cities, anniversaries are constant, in 2021 alone 46 (!) Cities are celebrating, from Apatity to Shchigry. This means that the funds on deposit accounts will constantly increase, and interest payments will grow.

Over the years, social infrastructure will begin to receive additional money from interest on fixed assets. Then the turn will come to culture, education and science. And there, you see, and to the economy as a whole. Let's start building factories, introduce advanced technologies, enter the top five most advanced, most developed countries in the world?

And all - at the expense of holidays, banquets with concerts?

Isn't it an idea?

However, there is one obstacle. In the story of Nikolai Samokhin, when the gatherings ended, one of the participants in the “party”, leaving, said to the landlord: “Listen, give it to seduxen or in the ear. Otherwise, my psyche can’t stand it”.