Viktor Sumsky. Filippin's Fiesta: Reforms, Revolutions, and active Violence in a Developing Society. In 2 books-Moscow: Vostochny lit., 2003, 527 p., 494 p.

The author modestly considers his task primarily as an effort to "close a gap in Russian philipine studies", hoping that his work "will add some touches to the picture of changes that have gripped the world at its end and determine today's life." Lacuna is the story of February 1986, when civil disobedience by the people of Manila led to the fall of the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. Finishing touches to the picture are the form in which changes were made, the festival-fiesta, where prayers are intertwined with festivities and amusements, and religious ecstasy - with powerful fun.

Sumsky's book is like a symphony, the parts of which are devoted to a separate topic, but merge into a single whole. The main topic is the February 1986 events and what happened in the Philippines in 1983-1986. The author accurately defines the psychological state of society after the senseless and tragic murder of Ninoy Aquino at the Manila airport in August 1983: not only indignation, anger and complete alienation from power, but also a whole complex of emotions designated by the concept of hiya, that is, "a painful feeling of embarrassment, embarrassment, shame for mistakes and actions committed in front of witnesses". The popular cry of the Filipinos turned into joy at the shared rush to freedom.

Explaining why the situation in 1983-1986 led the Philippines to its February, Sumsky also refers to Philippine history and the specifics of the 1980s. Here you can hear those separate themes that merge into the main melody of the Philippine drama-carnival.

The first topic is the Spanish colonization of the Philippines. Sumsky dwells on the urbanisation of the archipelago and the role of the Catholic Church. Breaking down stereotypes, he explains, among other things, "why, for non - Western but modernizing countries, contact with the Jesuit order - a force that was quite counterrevolutionary by the standards of the time-could have unexpectedly dramatic consequences." The reason is that education in Jesuit educational institutions is based on attitudes towards the education of leaders and the acquisition of communication skills. In the context of colonial society, this contributed to the formation of a new type of people, the best of whom, " filled with self-esteem, who have realized the universal meaning of human rights, will see their vocation in transmitting these thoughts and feelings to other disenfranchised..."

As the main idea of the order, the author highlights a bet on Catholic action - a movement launched by the Vatican to introduce the laity to the social doctrine of the Church, to fill the spiritual vacuum (since Western liberalism has gone bankrupt, and communist plans are dangerous). The Jesuits collaborated with the top Philippine clergy, who in turn used the Society of Jesus and its individual members as a critical political resource, and "ultimately strengthened the entire Church as a flexible, contextual' collective mediator.'

The second topic is the" colonial experiment " of the United States in the Philippines. On the one hand, its essence is the suppression of the struggle for national liberation, and "the counter - revolutionary essence of these acts is indisputable." On the other hand, "the logic of self-preservation and retaining power requires the counter-revolution to implement at least part of what the revolutionaries wanted, but were unable to do. It seems that this logic set the tone for the "colonial experiment" staged in the Philippines... although the energy, innovative instinct and quasi-religious attitude of Americans to" their " democracy as a panacea for all ills also played a significant role."

According to the saying, Filipinos, after spending 300 years in a monastery, ended up in Hollywood for half a century. At the same time, "in the socio-economic sphere, there was more continuity than a break with the Spanish era, and far from its best features were reproduced."

The third theme - revolutionism and reformism-begins to sound in the chapters devoted to the eve of the revolution and the revolution of 1896-1902. But not in the usual way: revolutionaries vs. reformers. The Philippines has repeatedly had to choose between reform and revolution, " and time after time the nation has seemed to shy away from the choice... Instead, palliatives were invented to numb social pain and even create the appearance of progress for a while... In the end, however, the country returned to the frontiers where it was again necessary to decide either on reform or on revolution - despite the fact that this choice itself looked more difficult than before."

The author's sympathies are on the side of a reformist solution to the eternal Philippine (and not only Philippine) problem. But here he is, analyzing, admiring, and suffering as he recounts the events of February 1986, the culmination of a century-long Philippine fiesta. And he comes to the conclusion that a kind of "velvet revolution" did not become a real social revolution, turning into another metamorphosis of the neo - patrimonial system, and the main dilemma - "reform or revolution" - remained unresolved.

Sumsky's book is populated by people: politicians, entrepreneurs and urban planners, poets and artists, reformers and revolutionaries, Filipinos and Americans, Germans and Indonesians... And one can understand the author's less attention to the actual economic component of life in the Philippines: after all, in history there are only people and nothing but people.

Another participant of the Philippine fiesta is also present in the book. Its name is City. "Oh, Manila, The Likeness of God, The Likeness of stone, The Twin Of man, The Likeness of fire In a garbage pit "(Domingo Landicho). "Manila Hyde Park" Plaza Miranda, where the explosion of grenades on August 21, 1971 gave Marcos the reason for the introduction of martial law. The bridge where peaceful and not-so-peaceful demonstrations took place after Aquino's murder. "Parliament of the Streets" 1983-1985 - "combining indignant speeches with religious rituals and elements of carnival action".

And in the last chapters, various forces (spontaneous, legitimately oppositional, conspiratorial) merge with the City into one whole. The Fiesta is the theatrical and political embodiment of the life that Manila embraces.

It is good when people do not forget about the holiday, which, in fact, is our life. It is understandable if people the next day indifferently pass through the deserted streets, along which the wind drives strange masks, fragments of garlands, extinct firecrackers. But it's even better if people are thinking about a new holiday, even if the old one didn't quite work out.

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