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Michael sender. Mikhail Sender (Dreamgale): Maybe we'll go crazy

Beautiful and mysterious - this is how the music of the Belarusian-Swedish project is most often characterized. According to the famous Swedish producer Peer Adebratt(Per Adebratt), thanks to which the world became known Army of Lovers And Ace of Base, the Dreamgale project has every chance of becoming a giant of the world show business.

Dreamgale released two singles "Wonders" And "Life In A Mirror", and later the album “Memories in Dark Crystal”, which brought great popularity in Belarus. Dreamgale's music is famous in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries, and in this moment successfully finds its listeners in Russia.

At the heart of the project - mystical story, which has long become a legend in the Swedish media and in the Scandinavian segment of the Internet. Project participants, Belarusians Dmitry Palagin(Dmitry Palagin), Mikhail Sender(Michael Sender) and Swedish Sofia Mattson(Sofia Mattsson) claim to have met each other for the first time... in a dream. Much later, having met "live", they were imbued with an interest in inexplicable phenomena of this kind - and decided to build the image of Dreamgale on this. Translated from English, “Dreamgale” means “storm of dreams”, “a gust of wind that brings dreams”. By the name itself, the guys declare: they are ready to pick up the listener, swirl, quickly take him with them into the world of dreams. Each song illustrates an episode from some dream.

The musicians note that the sound of Dreamgale was formed under the influence of Enigma, Roxette, Nightwish, t.A.T.u., Evanescence, Queen, Pink Floyd And Pet Shop Boys.

The creative concept of Dreamgale determines not only the creation of music, but also the interaction with the listener. Dreamgale is currently running a unique experiment on its website to include listeners in the process of creating music.

Members of Dreamgale:

Sofia Mattsson - vocals/keyboards

Sofia was born on June 24, 1990 in Stockholm. Her older sister is a Hollywood actress Helena Mattson, which is known for the films "Surrogates" (2009), "You and Me" (working title "In Search of t.A.T.u.", 2008), "Special: Awakening" (2007).

Sophia is the youngest member of Dreamgale and combines her music lessons with her university studies and successful career models. She spends a lot of time in Los Angeles and Hollywood, working on orders. modeling agencies and just talking with her sister, and returning to Stockholm, splashes out longing for sunny California in the melancholic tones of music.

Sophia's three main passions in life are singing, dancing and theater. She is a source of inspiration and driving force dreamgale. Sofia believes that the Dreamgale project has a bright future with its unique, beautiful and powerful sound.

Michael Sender - vocals/keyboards/programming

Mikhail Sender was born on August 3, 1983 in the Western Belarusian city of Grodno, and at the age of 13 he moved to Stockholm.

In high school, he played keyboards in the school band and performed for the first time own song on the school stage. In 1999, Mikhail and his classmates created the rock band Moonlight, which was then transformed into the band No Sense. At the same time, he was more interested in creating his own music, so he soon left the band and focused entirely on the studio project Sagapolis, which he created with his best friend Dmitry Palagin. In 2005, the idea of creating Dreamgale appeared. In May 2006, Mikhail and Dmitry met Sophia Mattson, which was the beginning of Dreamgale.

For Michael good music is a beautiful melody and impressive arrangement. He is demanding of creativity and believes that simplifications in music or blind obedience to its canons of any one style is a vice that needs to be fought. According to Mikhail, a true artist should never stop surprising his listeners.

Dmitry Palagin - guitar/keyboards/programming

Dmitry was born on March 22, 1984 in Minsk. In 2003 he moved to Stockholm, where he still lives.

Dmitry Palagin taught to play the guitar Sergey Trukhanovich, guitarist of the legendary Belarusian rock band "Krama". Sergey Trukhanovich: “Dima from the very beginning attracted attention with his eccentricity musical thinking, clearly manifested in the work of Dreamgale. This project is noticeably strong with the energy of performance and powerful arrangements.” Mikhail Sender: “In the studio, Dmitry is a very demanding partner. In the fight for the perfection of sound, he will never stop working before the most the best option, and most likely even after that.

Influenced by the musical ingenuity of Queen, Dmitry strives to mix elements of different styles. Musical scale, richness musical content and the fullness of Dreamgale's sound creates a space for such experimentation that can only be limited by the imagination.

Many successful businessmen and top managers have gone through setbacks and failures. And not only in business. Mikhail Sender is no exception. It is today that he leads the large classified site Kufar, and once, while still a schoolboy, he dreamed of a musical career. In 2007 he created musical group Dreamgale, which managed to record an album and three singles, was rotated on the radio. But music did not bring success to Mikhail: in 2011, the group ceased to exist. He did not give up - and was able to build a successful career in a different direction. Mikhail Sender shared his story with us.

— I have always been a very measured and diplomatic musician, and continue to be a creative and philosophical manager. And I don't think I've changed much since then. Unless he combed his hair a little and dressed neater.

And it all started a long time ago...

When I was seven years old, my mother suggested that I go to music school. I categorically refused: arguing that I don’t like music and this is a girl’s occupation. However, I was a little hypocrite - music has always lived in my soul. I constantly listened to it, tried to write and record songs on a tape recorder. When I was twelve, I realized that it was impossible to write music without knowing how to play anything. Then I came to my mother and asked to send me to piano lessons.

Mom bought me a piano under the Belarus brand...

As soon as I sat down at it, completely unable to play and read notes, I immediately began to compose music. Somewhere here is mine musical career and started.

Later I met Dima Palagin, my future bandmate. He knew how to play only with spoons on pots and bowls, which significantly undermined his authority in the family. At some point, he also decided to learn to play the guitar, and we rushed to compose music together. Believe it or not, we created the first drafts of some songs as schoolchildren in 1997-98.

In 1997, my mother and I emigrated to Sweden, but this did not stop Dima and me. We wrote letters to each other - paper letters - to which we attached our new sketches in the form of notes and texts. And when I came to Minsk in the summer, we sat down at the computer and produced what we had previously sketched.

We tried to make strange music

It was atmospheric-instrumental, somewhat close to the New Age style. Our first project was called Pilgrim. After that we renamed it Sagapolis. Then they decided that they needed to do something more accessible to the masses, and they came up with Dreamgale.

We wanted to have female vocals. Placed an ad. Our first vocalist was Sanna Lövstedt, a very talented singer. But it didn't work out with her. And under unexpected circumstances, we met Sofia Mattsson, the younger sister of the famous Hollywood actress Helena Mattsson, with whom we worked very well. As a result, we have formed a new genre, which I call "gothic pop".

Our the target audience was very vague. We wanted to please everyone, but at the same time we tried not to adapt to anyone. Perhaps this was part of the guarantee of the insolvency of Dreamgale as a commercial project.

At first we had one Swedish manager, Kevin Kane. He had great faith in the project. He introduced us to the famous producer, Per Adebratt, who previously produced Ace of Base and Army of Lovers. But we had a very different vision of the format, and ended up working with other people. And in Russia, my friend helped us with the promotion. I remember that in 2011 alone, she arranged for us about 40 interviews with Russian and Ukrainian radio stations.

Our songs were first played on Swedish radio stations. Then rotations began at the Baltic, Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian stations, mainly regional and niche ones. The mainstream channels didn't really want to play us.

Eight tracks from our album got into rotation on Belarusian stations, which for contemporary performer should be considered an incredible success. Maybe the 75% law Belarusian music helped, or maybe the patriotism of DJs - I don’t know. Despite our little knownness, nowhere else did they turn us around like in Belarus

We have always considered Dreamgale a studio project, and therefore avoided live performances. It's very difficult to perform live with this kind of music. At that time, this required a lot of equipment, personnel and training. Dima and I did not like to do this. It was more interesting for us to sit in the studio and do production and recording. In addition, we did not have so many hardcore fans to collect a full concert hall. Somehow discussed with Vacuum group the possibility of a joint tour, but never agreed. But they just tried to perform in clubs in front of a drunken crowd, which any music comes under 0.5, they tried it - they didn’t like it.

Our business plan was ridiculously naive

We expected to make money by selling music, as was done in the 20th century. For a long time, we refused to understand that in the 21st century, paid music has no future from the point of view of the performer and even the author.

It seemed to us that with the help of Internet technologies it would be possible to bypass the layer of music labels and keep a large share of each sale, even with an overall decrease in sales due to piracy.

We also hoped that Internet piracy would sooner or later be stopped. As a result, the pirates were supplanted by paid streaming services, on which only the same major labels manage to earn money due to their huge catalogs. For some performers from possible sources only concerts, merchandising and side incomes from outrageousness remained.

It remains only to state a commercial failure

We didn’t want to do concerts, we didn’t have enough outrageousness. It remained either to fold the wires, or to work further for the soul. At the same time, we never dared to devote ourselves to music 100%. We always had a “normal” life in parallel: school, university, career. There was hope that we would achieve our goal, but we always lived at the expense of something else.

We have released one album and three singles. In 2011, while working on the second album, we realized that we were tired of this project. There was no more desire to invest everything in it free time. And since it brought very little income, it would not have happened otherwise. Such projects can exist only on sincere enthusiasm. When enthusiasm fades, it's time to close the project.

The thought of returning to the stage never left me. There are too many unfinished songs left that deserve to be heard someday. But I can't say that I plan to do it. Rather, I hope. And it's unlikely to be in the Dreamgale format.

So much has already been said about the protests of spring 2017 that the brain is leaking through the ears. A logical point in the question will be put on KYKY by Mikhail Sender, the director of Kufar and the author of the Antimyth blog (yes, these are his articles “why do we read so much cynicism in our people”). “The worst thing that could happen today, even from the point of view of the Belarusian patriots, is the overthrow of the Lukashenka regime,” Mikhail explains.

Question number 1. Why on the 25th was the excessive aggression of the state against the demonstrators?

It is strange to me that someone expected a different development of events, if not those that happened. Everything was leading up to it. The authorities made it clear that it was not worth going out, that there would be serious consequences. What else could be expected?

Our government has been trying to carry out certain liberal reforms for the last couple of years, mainly in the economy. Particularly does not touch the opposition-minded population. All this is due simply to the critical necessity for the survival of the power itself. There is no longer financial support from Russia. A self-sufficient economy has not been built in 25 years of independence. There are no other financial sources - bridges have been burned with all other civilized countries. In such a situation, there is no other way out than to carry out reforms.

Mikhail Sender, photo from FB

Probably, some people, great enthusiasts and romantics, took this for some kind of transformation and an opportunity to finally move on to a democratic society. Which, it seems to me, was a naive illusion. I myself am an idealist by nature, but it seemed to me that it was quite obvious that there would be no transformation.
It is necessary to differentiate, of course, between the opposition leaders and the people who came out to be indignant at the adopted decree on parasitism. There are those who came out because they were upset and angry. And there were those who tried to lead this protest, to take advantage of some opportunity. Offended people can be understood - emotions played in them. And what did the opposition leaders hope for in this situation? What result did they want? Here you can argue.

Question number 2. What further actions of the state will follow after these events, and should the attempt at liberalization be buried?

I will say not the most popular thing among the Democrats. I really hope that these events will not frighten off the authorities and will not redirect their thinking into an even more authoritarian and forceful direction. From all points of view, this would be the most unpleasant scenario for society, and for the authorities, and for the opposition, and for the democrats.

About this theme: Life hack: how to use the indignation of Belarusians with the actions of the police

What situation are we in today? The opposition is very weak. Democratic ideals do not enjoy very broad popular support. Trying to “shake the boat” in a situation where the country is not ruled by a democratic leader, but by a person who is trying to somehow sit and hold on in this “boat” at any cost, can be fraught with much more dangerous consequences than sitting in it with him .

Question number 3. Are there any external forces to “shake the boat” in Belarus?

I've thought about this myself many times. I don’t know the correct answer, but my guess is that it most likely happened spontaneously. As I said, the opposition leaders tried to take advantage of the moment of popular indignation, which was, so to speak, not very massive. Although it was probably the most massive indignation that our opposition movement has seen in the last ten years. Naturally, the opposition leaders were greatly encouraged by this.
I don't think there was any external influence, but I am convinced that it would have taken place if these events had begun to develop in a different direction. If these protests had not been suppressed, if they had begun to develop into something more serious, then here, I am sure, external influence would have made itself felt.

And I am glad that there was no external influence, because there could have been another scenario. Such as in 2010. That's when I'm inclined to think that there was an influence after all. I really would not want the country to be thrown back for 7 years in development. To shut us off from the world again. I would like to keep all those attempts of development towards a healthy market economy. Let them be carried out slowly, gradually, accurately and contrary to the completely conservative-Soviet policy of the head of state, his ideology and, in principle, his mindset. But at least the movement is finally moving in the right direction.

What has the government, or at least the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, achieved? Belarusian officials - maybe they are opportunists? At least some success. They were more useful than what could be achieved and what the opposition movement achieved during that period. This is probably a very unpopular and politically incorrect thing for a democrat, which I am, and I am not saying this at all as a reproach to the opposition, because the opposition simply had no real influence on the system until recently.

But even if you are an ardent nationalist, a holy patriot. Let's reason. What geopolitical situation is Belarus in today? Nearby there is a dangerous neighbor with absolutely manic imperial moods and ambitions. Nearby there is that regime and that information propaganda that takes place on Russian TV channels which, by the way, are watched by the majority of the population of Belarus. In such a situation, the worst thing that could happen today, even from the point of view of the Belarusian patriots, is the overthrow of the Lukashenka regime.

Question number 4. How to find a common language for society and the state now

About this theme: "Propaganda must be Jesuit." Alexander Zimovsky about BT methods and the film "Call a Friend"

Society is a broad concept. Depending on who to keep in mind. If we talk about the townsfolk, then I believe that relatively good channels of communication and influence of the “little man” on the authorities have already been set up in Belarus. Considering the possibilities of an ordinary person to influence, sue, complain about some official or state institution, speaking about consumer protection, we see that in Belarus, in principle, everything is not so bad. Of course, with the proviso that corruption is very highly developed, that there is a clan system in power, and certain bastions that will crush any citizen. But in comparison with neighboring countries, everything is not so scary.

As for fundamental changes: I believe that now there is an excellent window of opportunity for those who want to significantly influence the development of the country. Working in business, I see that it is going very active search decisions and proposals from various ministries. Letters come in a very funny form, typical of our officials, but, nevertheless, there are requests: “Please, bring offers! We are accepting proposals from the business community to improve the investment climate.” That is, there is an active search for solutions. And, obviously, now there is not enough competence and competence in power circles to solve economic problems. That's why I say that the doors are open, the authorities have their ears open. And, despite the fact that the most important holder of power is critically conservative and constantly mentions in his rhetoric that there will be no reforms, we see that the reforms have really been going on for the last two years. And, quite significant.

This is probably the ideal scenario from Lukashenka's point of view. Ideal in very difficult situation where he is now: when you need to look for money, but no one brings them in a bag. The essence of the scenario: to carry out market reforms that will gradually activate the economy, while in the short term worsening the standard of living of the population, which will certainly follow. And at the same time constantly talk about the fact that there will be no reforms. This has been happening for a while, and then these protests begin.

Playing a double game: saying that there will be no reforms, and at the same time carrying them out, is insanely difficult. But it's much more difficult to keep doing it when you have popular protests raging on the streets.

Therefore, as a business person, as a person who wants the best for the country, and as a liberal democrat, I want to hope that this country will someday become civilized, developed and democratic. I really hope that this experiment will still succeed. I would very much like civil society to compromise (I won't say with their conscience, but at least with their emotions) and try to think not one step, but two or three steps forward.

Question number 5. What can you do (and think) in this situation?

If you take a crowbar now and destroy everything, nothing good will come of it. It is important to understand one very important thing that many Belarusian opposition leaders do not understand or do not want to talk about it: living in a police state, power can only be maintained by controlling the power bloc.

About this theme: Open an art hub and restore the tram line. Viktor Babariko on the purchase of buildings on Oktyabrskaya

Even if the authorities had not gone to suppress the action. Even if the protests started to escalate (although I don't think that would happen: too much paranoia - rather, the protests would gradually die out on their own). Even if the protests continued to grow, despite the fact that it was said: “We are for peaceful reforms” (here one can argue: why then collect demonstrations, if for peaceful ones? What do you want to achieve? What, the government itself will go away? Most likely not leave. Not this one, at least). Even if there was some kind of "Maidan", and the government still changed. What would happen the next day? It seems to me that this analysis is very much lacking for those who are trying to lead all these movements and protests.

Suppose you take power, even for a day. How will you keep it in a country where society is permeated with Russian propaganda? In a country where there are security forces, of which there are a lot. Who have been trained and taught for 25 years that it is necessary to kill the Belarusian Popular Front. Who conduct exercises together with Russian troops. Which are imprisoned for Soviet thinking. Nationalist democrats come to power, and what will the security forces do? These one hundred thousand people in uniform? What will they say about all this Russian channels which all of them and their relatives are watching? Most likely, they will say that the junta has come to power, that it is necessary to save the fraternal people. And who will these security forces in uniform protect? "Rescuers" or intellectuals, speaking in Belarusian language, talking about the legacy of the GDL? It seems to me that this strategic thinking is lacking. Analyze what will happen in two steps.

I would very much like to have some kind of romantic scenario, a romantic denouement. So that the whole society simply blossomed with tenderness that, finally, we were saved, we were freed.

But I'm afraid that such a scenario would only be possible if there was a leadership in Russia now that could take a completely passive look at the events in the neighboring country. Which, obviously, will not happen under the current Kremlin regime. They (I'm talking about the Kremlin, I have a very good attitude towards the peoples of Russia) consider Belarus as their territory of interests. The Kremlin authorities today are quite obviously set on confrontation and on the spread of their influence in the world, and they will not allow a calm change of power in a neighboring country, except for a government even more pro-Kremlin than the current one.

More thoughts from Mikhail Sender can be read in his blog Antimyth.

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short biography

Mikhail Sender is a Belarusian blogger, publicist and businessman, former musician and producer. Born in 1983 in Grodno, in the family of a member of the Central Committee of the CPB. He spent his early childhood in the vicinity of the Makurdi air base. He studied at a secondary school in Minsk, then moved with his mother to Stockholm, where he received a higher economic education and began a media career. For some time he lived and studied in Rotterdam. From 2001-2006 he was a member of the Swedish Liberal Party. Later he worked in the television industry in Russia, where he launched and promoted well-known entertainment television projects. He was a vocalist in the pop groups Dreamgale and UltraVozhyk. At the time of publication, he was a co-owner of the Squid news service, director of the Kufar Internet site, a member of the board of the international association of interactive advertising IAB in Belarus, and a co-founder of the community of Belarusians in Sweden.

On our book site you can download books by Mikhail Sender in a variety of formats (epub, fb2, pdf, txt and many others). And also read books online and for free on any device - iPad, iPhone, tablet running Android, on any specialized reader. The electronic library KnigoGid offers literature by Mikhail Sender in the genres of samizdat.

In 1991, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia were the first to leave the USSR. Further, these rather different states, often summarized as the "Baltic States", with varying degrees of success but with similar persistence, took the path of purposeful integration into the Western and European communities. This path passed through very painful market and structural reforms and ended with the entry of these countries into European Union in 2004. The analysis is provided by antimif.com.

Many years have passed since that moment. What gave the Baltic countries accession to the EU? Was it worth it to break down Soviet industry and torture the weak sections of the population with painful reforms for years? Those who have been to these countries before and after the "shock therapy" know the answer. Among the rest, there are many myths about this, often fueled by biased media and word of mouth from the genre “my friend’s friend lives in Latvia and told…”.

The transmission of these myths is so massive that two different realities have already formed in people's heads. In one of them, the Baltic countries, having reformed their economy according to the best standards of developed countries, have successfully entered their number and today live richly and happily in a large and friendly European family. The second reality suggests that, having destroyed all the good that was left of the Soviet system, destroying production and driving hundreds of thousands of people out into the streets, the Baltic countries in 2004 became a second-rate appendage of the rich EU countries, suitable only as a sales market and a source of cheap labor, without any development prospects. To find the truth, I decided to collect some numbers. And everything immediately became clear.

Population decline

Those who believe that the European choice of the Baltic countries was wrong often point to the mass emigration of the population from these countries. The numbers confirm this. The population of these three countries decreased by hundreds of thousands between 2004 and 2016. And while Ukraine and Belarus also experienced huge population declines during this period (see graph), in percentage terms Lithuania (-21%) and Latvia (-15%) lost much more.

You can't say it's weird. The Balts have opened free entry to the richest countries in the world, where the average salary is several times higher than the local one. In such a situation, mass labor migration looks quite natural. Is it bad for the economy? Look who's leaving. When high-quality specialists and managers emigrate, this is certainly a loss for the economy. But if low-skilled workers emigrate, left without work after the collapse of Soviet productions, who since then have been sweeping the streets of Riga for a penny, and who are willing to sweep the streets of London for a decent salary, then the economy, on the contrary, benefits from this, because. unemployment and social spending of the state are reduced, and wage inflation begins in the labor market.

What happened to the economy?

So what happened to the economies of the Baltic countries after joining the EU? The main indicator of the state of the economy is considered to be the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita. I decided to compare this figure in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in 1996, when “shock therapy” was actively going on, in 2004, when they were admitted to the EU, with the figure in 2016 (in US dollars).

As we can see, economic growth has not slowed down since joining the EU. On the contrary, it has grown many times more than in neighboring countries. Notice also how much these economies have grown since the mid-1990s. In the next chart, sorting is by 1996. It is significant that the economies of all the countries included in the comparison were then almost at the same level. Poland was the richest. Russia was ahead of Lithuania and Latvia. The green bars immediately show which countries have been pursuing the most effective economic policy during these 20 years.

If we take the entire period of time since the collapse of the USSR, then the growth of the economies of these countries looks like this:

This graph clearly shows the effects of the global financial crisis of 2007-2013. It can be assumed that the rapid growth of the Baltic economies has almost stopped, and their lagging behind the economies Western Europe cemented. The picture looks different if one of the Western European countries is added to the chart. For example, Italy. Why Italy and not, say, the EU average? The fact is that at different points in the specified period, new countries joined the EU, which affected the average indicator, and therefore it is not suitable for objective comparison in the time range. And I chose Italy because Italy's per capita GDP in 1996 was very close to the EU average.

So, we see that even with very modest growth, the Baltic economies weathered the crisis much better than many other EU countries, and continued to close their gap with the richest countries. It is worth noting that if in 1996 the productivity of the Estonian economy was 7 times less than the Italian one, then in 2016 the gap was only 41%. For comparison, Ukraine in 1996 lagged behind Italy by 25 times, and in 2016 by 15 times (and almost 9 times behind Estonia). The following graph clearly shows how quickly different countries are closing their gap with Italy.

Now about the fact that "they ruined production" and after joining the EU "became a sales market, instead of producing their own." Look at what happened to exports after the Baltics joined the EU.

As we can see, after joining the EU, the foreign trade balance of the Baltic countries, like Poland, has noticeably improved. in plain language: exports grew much more than imports. The fact that the balance is negative is quite normal for many developed economies. For example, imports to the United States in 2016 exceeded exports by 43%.

What did people get?

GDP, exports, productivity... And how did joining the EU affect the incomes of the population? Compare average income of the population in 2004 and 2016 (this includes not only salaries, but also pensions and benefits, etc.). As you can see, incomes are not linear, but rather consistently follow GDP.

To make it clearer, let's compare how much the average income of the population increased during this period.

There is also an opinion that “wages may have grown, but you can’t buy anything with them - everything is very expensive.” In fact, the price level in the Baltic countries for 12 years after joining the EU was no higher than in the southeastern neighbors. Many Belarusians who go shopping to Vilnius on a weekly basis know this. Many things there, as in Poland, are much cheaper, since joining the WTO and the EU freed them from a lot of import duties raising the price of imported goods. The graphic below, based on a study by the international company Pattaya, compares the price level in different countries Europe with an average price level in New York.

If you want to be more specific, then let's see how much milk costs in different countries ...

...and housing...

Somehow it does not really intersect with the graph of the average income, right? But here we must also take into account that in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, public utility costs are partially subsidized by the state, and in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, people pay the entire communal apartment in full. To more objectively assess the economic situation of the population, I took the average cost of utilities in each of the countries and subtracted it from the average income (2016 data).

As you can see, even paying for all services in full and not creating an artificial burden on the country's budget, the Balts cope no worse than their neighbors.

According to the laws of economics, the rapid growth of income leads to a general increase in inflation. However, as can be seen in the following chart, after joining the European Union, inflation in the Baltic countries fell sharply. Moreover, paradoxically, it is much less than in the southeastern neighbors, where incomes grow much more slowly.

Unemployment in the Baltic States and Poland also fell after joining the EU (only in Lithuania it rose slightly). And although everyone is far from Belarus with its 1% (although I, as an economist and employer, consider a moderate unemployment rate necessary for a healthy economy), the Baltic level looks quite normal against the EU average (8.5%).

Looking at all the above data, in my opinion, it is quite obvious that European integration, if not a powerful catalyst for the Baltic economies, then at least did no harm. And no matter how much the gloating Kremlin media is pumping about the brain drain, the increase in the number of suicides and alcoholism, the positive development of not only the economy, but also the standard of living of the Baltic states is clearly visible in the rapid increase in average life expectancy in these countries.

So what do the pro-Kremlin media base their conclusions on when they tell how bad things got in the Baltics after European integration? Read carefully their data, and you will understand. Here is the Russian newspaper "Vzglyad" writes:

“During independence, the share of industry in the Baltic countries has decreased from 23–26 (according to various estimates) percent of GDP in 1995 to 14–20 percent in 2008. The share of transport and communications - from 11-15% in 1995 to 10-13% in 2008, and even the share of agriculture and fisheries - from 6-11% in 1995 to 3-4% in 2008 ."

Sounds awful. What does it mean? It doesn't mean anything at all! The share of industry in the US economy in 2016 was 20%, agriculture - 1%. In France - 19% and 2% respectively. And what? Never mind! This is a perfectly normal ratio for post-industrial society, where economic growth is primarily due to the service sector. Or this one was on Rubaltic:

Or how do you like this seed in Komsomolskaya Pravda:

“Daria Aslamova tried to understand how one of the most developed Soviet republics - Latvia, having gained independence, in 20 years turned into a virtual bankrupt.”

This kind of misinformation in the Russian-language media is a mass, despite the fact that all the data that I have given is public, and anyone can check everything if they wish. It turns out that all these scriptures are designed either for lazy people or for idiots. Why is this needed? Perhaps, then, why did myths once appear about selected Russian children in Norway, or about Russian spirituality, or about 28 Panfilovites, or about crucified boy …

remember, that The best way defeating a lie is not letting it in.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Source of inspiration/annoyance

For more than six years, I have not been in the same city for more than three weeks in a row. I fly at least four flights a month. I regularly communicate on four different languages with the people of different nationalities. If you start to sort out my 20 closest friends by nationality, then among them there are both Belarusians and Swedes, Germans, Poles, Finns, Russians, Dutch, Israelis, Italians and Australians (I will not list how many, so as not to offend anyone). During my life I have visited 169 cities in 40 countries on five continents. In several countries I have lived enough long time to plunge deeply into the life and traditions of these countries.

I was born in the BSSR. In the late 1980s, he lived in Nigeria for several years. Then he returned to the already independent country of Belarus. In the late 1990s he moved to Sweden, in the mid-2000s he studied in the Netherlands, in the early 2010s he lived and worked in the television industry in Russia. Now I work in the Internet sphere and constantly move between Minsk and Stockholm, alternating these flights with frequent business trips to other cities in Europe and a fairly rare vacation outside of it.

In the course of my many travels, I became more and more convinced that the information and cultural space in different countries is imperfect, biased and full of myths about themselves, their countries and the world around them, which often have very little to do with reality.

Through word of mouth and social networks, a petty exaggeration or distortion quickly develops into a big lie, believing in which one day people begin to look for confirmation of it in everything, so as not to admit their mistake. This is how different worldview paradigms are created. Once in one of them, it is very difficult then to jump into another without completely breaking your perception of reality.

Goals of Antimyth

The existence on one planet, or even in one society, of different ideas about what is happening in it, certainly carries a potential danger. Misunderstanding between people often leads to irritation, mistrust and potential conflicts. So, for example, in the world there is famous myth about the existence of the so-called "Islamic world". Some Muslims who believe in this myth and identify themselves with it are convinced that the Islamic world is in a state of holy war with another myth called the “Western world”, which supposedly imposes alien Christian values on Muslims of all countries and denigrates everything holy. These myths become an excuse for terrorist acts, which in turn give rise to new myths about the aggressiveness of Muslims and the danger of dictatorial regimes in Muslim countries, which in turn lead to military interventions in these countries, which in turn are regarded by some Muslims as an attack by Christians on Islam and further reinforces the myth of a holy war between Christian and Islamic civilizations.

I created the Antimyth because I could no longer tolerate this endless labeling and inflating completely absurd and harmful social myths to the level of dogma. First of all, in Antimyth I will expose the myths that generate hatred between people and kindle conflicts and intolerance. My goal is to restore the most objective picture of any circumstance and expose the sources of bias. All my entries are based on the following principles:

objectivity is an end in itself for any self-respecting person;
bias is not a lie, but is no better than a lie;
all beliefs and opinions are subjective; only circumstances can be objective;
any beliefs have the right to exist in conditions of equal competition of opinions;
the concepts of “good”, “evil”, “right”, “wrong”, “appropriate”, “inappropriate”, “morality”, “morality” are a subjective social construct that requires constant reassessment;
any statement can be considered valid only if there is a convincing and exhaustive answer to the question "why?" or "why?";

At the same time, it is worth recognizing that no one can be 100% objective in all matters, and therefore I immediately want to voice the potential sources of my own bias. I am a social liberal and cosmopolitan. I consider personal freedom a basic human value. In my ideal world there are no states and borders, and the main role society - to help each person to realize their individual potential, and not to limit it to norms and dogmas. For me, such phenomena as conservatism, nationalism and the imposition of any ideals on society, including religious ones, are unacceptable. I understand and respect those who consider some things to be holy and unshakable (the word of God, traditions, homeland). However, I reserve the right to critically evaluate any dogma that does not stand up to the question "why?" or "why?" Of course, I also reserve the right to express own opinion in their articles. But if in one of the articles you saw an objective error or distortion of facts, please immediately inform me about it on master[barking animal]antimif[punctuation mark]com, indicating the source of reliable information. I am not inclined to enter into an empty polemic of different opinions, and I do not advise you.

And one more thing: I like to joke sometimes. Sometimes even hard. My philosophy is that you can joke about everything. I do not like political correctness, and I do not advise you to abuse it. However, I do not allow rudeness, insults against specific people and unsubstantiated accusations like "you were paid to write this." And since the conversation has already turned about this, I want to assure you right away that no one pays me for this scribbling. Antimyth is my personal blog, which I maintain with my own honestly earned money, and I do not cooperate with any organizations in this matter.

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