Alla Pugachova's plane landed in Hostomel, on the Antonov Aircraft Works' airfield. When asked if she was not offended by the plane being directed to a suburban field, rather than the central airport, Ms. Pugachova replied: "The main thing is that the plane landed, the sun was shining, and we made a soft touchdown." Then, hidden behind her limousine's tinted window (the car had driven up to the ramp), she was off.
For many here and all over the former Soviet Union the woman's life and songs are landmarks in their own lives. Have we all acted decently over the years? First, we looked for the sense of life in our own and other peoples' backyards. Now we look for ways to make a living which is measured for some by dozens and for others by thousands of banknotes. Our generation learned its sense behind the Iron Curtain and very soon we were nauseated by it and put and end to it. But we turned out infantile and totally unprepared for the harsh realities of the free world. Or perhaps on the contrary, we almost instantly adapted to it? Perhaps the true answer will come with time. So far we see Pugachova acting contrary to her old self, making mistakes, acting vulgarly, indulging in prima donna outbursts and getting involved in politics (she had the presence of mind to stay away from the presidential campaign but then got involved in the election of governors). And then she returns to the ultimate Truth, trying to find the way to that which is eternal. She is capricious. She suffers. She gets contemptuous and is engrossed in her daughter's future and two grandchildren. She is human, like all of us. She wants to believe and hope, and she wages a war of her own. For her pride and dignity, against journalists, for hot water in her hotel room, for a Lincoln to be driven up to the plane, against local authorities, for Zubov who is on the losing side. Does she side with money or against it? Well, she is Alla Pugachova, with all her whims and great talent, fighting her own war — against herself, for the right to be herself.
Photo by Volodymyr Rassner, The Day:
Alla Pugachova – Who does not grow older in body and spirit? Hostomel, July 7







