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A prominent Russian critic has said that the country’s culture scene is ‘fully returning to the 1930s era of control and censorship’ following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine
Tom Anstey | Planet Attractions | 06 Aug 2024
The Bolshoi Ballet has stopped touring since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine
A prominent theatre critic has said that Russia is “fully returning to the 1930s era of control and censorship,” following the nation’s invasion of Ukraine.
In Russia, those who oppose the war have found themselves exiled, while President Vladimir Putin has reportedly compelled artists remaining in the country to demonstrate their allegiance.
According to people working and performing in the culture space in Russia, a once vibrant landscape has been replaced with “turbocharged patriotism”, with scenes like this last seen in the 1930s when Joseph Stalin was overseeing the Soviet Union.
Speaking to The Washington Post, Boris Akunin - a prominent Russian theatre critic who has now left the country - said that control and censorship were destroying Russia’s rich cultural landscape.
“I am afraid what we are witnessing now may be the end of Russia as we have known it, the end of the cultural phenomenon that is associated with the term ‘Russian culture’,” he said. “Everyone has a curator. We are fully returning to the 1930s era of control and censorship.”
In February, a court in Moscow charged Akunin with “justifying terrorism” and “spreading false information about the Russian army” and ordered his arrest. He was already in London at the time and has described Russia’s acts as “a purge of the cultural sphere”.
Russia has strict rules against criticism of the war in Ukraine, with Center E - a department within the Interior Ministry - reportedly sending agents to watch performances. According to Akunin, curators assigned by Russia’s FSB - the successor to the KGB - now control what goes onstage, with major cultural institutions having such minders.
Among those impacted, several stars of the famous Bolshoi have left Russia, while its longtime director has been replaced with a “Putin loyalist” following their resignation. The institution has also been ordered to remove works by those who have criticised the invasion of Ukraine.
This month, theatre director Yevgenia Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk were sentenced to six years in prison for producing ‘Finist, the Brave Falcon’ - a play that prosecutors in Russia said “justifies terrorism”.
Museums are also impacted, with top-level directors, such as Zelfira Tregulova, former head of the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, replaced after accusations of a display of showing ‘signs of destructive ideology’. Tregulova was succeeded by Yelena Pronicheva, who has links with the FSB. Other museum chiefs to leave following the outbreak of war include the Pushkin Museum’s Marina Loshak and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg’s Mikhail Piotrovsky.
Culture
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