And in this exacerbated cult of conservative values, whose pillars are the Orthodox faith, patriotism and the defense of “historical truth” as seen from the Kremlin, the cultural world is called upon to play one of the first leading roles.
For film star Sergei Bezrukov, persona non grata in the European Union for his public support for the military intervention in Ukraine, “we must take advantage of isolation to reestablish ties with our traditions.” “For 30 years we lived in the American Marvel universe. It is time to create our own”, considers the 48-year-old actor, who receives the press at the Moscow Gubernski theater, which he directs.
“Returning to the USSR is impossible, but it is possible to regain faith in Russia and no longer slap our true values,” adds the actor. “And the word ‘patriot’ should no longer be an insult,” he adds.
Like him, many famous Russians hailed the offensive in Ukraine and the conservative turn that goes with it. “The epic events we are witnessing launch a true conservative revolution,” says Eduard Boyakov, creator of the New Drama contestant theater festival and today an ardent supporter of
of the military operation.
On the other hand, celebrities who publicly criticize the offensive in Ukraine are now on a “blacklist”. “More than 100 musical activities have been canceled since February,” says Alexei Kozin, director of Navigator Records, the main Russian rock publishing company.
According to him, a “black list” circulating in these media includes some forty musicians, including rocker Yuri Shevchuk, who accused the Kremlin of “killing young Russians and Ukrainians” at a concert in May.
At the end of July, the head of the pro-Kremlin parliamentary group “Fair Russia”, Sergei Mironov, called for drawing up a “white list of patriotic artists” to explain to the public “who is who in Russian art today”.
Intervention
Waiting for this, the power began to intervene in the theaters.
At the end of June, the mayor of Moscow did not ratify the contracts with the artistic directors of three New Drama theaters, including the Gogol Center of director Kirill Serebrennikov, opposed to the offensive in Ukraine. “The contracts expired,” justified the mayor’s office, which had already announced five theater mergers in March to “optimize” the system.
“Power no longer wants provocative art, but art that is calm, even boring, but that gives security,” explains the playwright of the Gogol Center, Valéri Pecheikin. “As a result, the theater will return to the great classics, the cinema to quiet comedies, and the museums to balanced exhibitions,” he said.
Added to this are the cancellations of exhibitions, such as that of the Russian-American artist Grisha Bruskin, devoted to
the “ideologies and their myths”, closed in April, three months ahead of schedule, “for technical reasons”.
“In the middle of the war in Ukraine, a cultural revolution is taking place in Russia,” warns Marina Davydova, editor-in-chief of the magazine Teatr, now in exile, on social networks.
“After 30 years of pro-Western liberalism, a conservative revolution is taking place in Russia,” congratulates Olga Andreeva of the Russian conservative weekly Expert. “It is the moment of truth on Russia’s path along the paths of the eternal struggle between Westerners and Slavophiles”, which finds its origins in the 19th century.
In March, Putin called on the nation to “purify itself” from “traitors” who “earn their money here, but live there (in the West, NDRL) not even in the geographical sense, but in their thoughts, in their servile conscience.” .
In July, he spearheaded a new youth movement, Bolshaya Peremena, reminiscent of the Soviet “Pioneers.” Symbol of this change is the monument to the unknown soldier that replaced the Greek god of the arts Apollo on the pediment of the entrance to the Bolshoi theater on the new 100-ruble note, in circulation since the end of June.
AFP Agency
Source: Ambito
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