Art critics in civilian clothes: Tula Museum urged citizens to write denunciations

It is unlikely that the Tula officials were the first to show such a wild initiative, the authorities of other Russian cities must have joined in this crazy game "Find the Enemy", which they loved to play in the USSR. It's just that the famous Tula artist and publicist Alexander Hotz drew attention to this fact, who wrote in his blog:

“Once this expression (art critics in civilian clothes) seemed to be a sign of the deaf Soviet past, where the “denunciation culture” flourished.

But the police regimes have a common logic. You can also understand if an invitation to "collect information" appears on the website of the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

But a museum? Yes, even "local history and art"? History does not teach anything if local history is proposed to be promoted to the masses in the form of police anonymous letters.

On the Tula site "GUK TO" of the Association "Historical, Local Lore and Art Museum" there was a "Form for collecting information about persons, possibly involved in the spread of radical ideology or affected by it. Here you can report in anonymous mode about persons of the above category. All information immediately transferred to the FSB of Russia for the Tula region and the Russian MIA Administration for the Tula region".

The museum is knocking on the Chekists - what's so surprising? Part of the political tradition, its historical reconstruction.

It is well known what kind of "radical ideology" is feared in the Kremlin and for what they are imprisoned (after torture and falsification) of fictitious "radicals" - students and boys. Judging by the latest news, in the war against "radicalism" the "organs" have taken on 14-year-old schoolchildren.

The culture of political denunciation is implanted on sites related to culture and "patriotism" in their KGB sense...

Patriotism in Tula is a Stalinist denunciation of a neighbor who, in a fit of emotion, wishes "these ghouls" to "finally die." I have no doubt that such "radicalism" will only grow as the "welfare state" degrades.

Although, you have to be a naive person to believe in anonymity on the Internet. The applicant does not shine to keep incognito.

We are dealing with a systemic crisis when political manipulations stop working and the authorities have a request to identify "enemies" that "undermine the foundations." (The latest "laws" of a frenzied printer are in line with the same practice caused by falling ratings).

Of course, this is not about religion. I have not heard in the life of Tula about "Islamic radicals". But the war of local "e-shniks" with the opposition does not surprise anyone. Eight days of arrest for a solo picket against political repression is a common thing here. (The style of the president's "security guard" Dyumin as the governor).

Will the heirs of "Iron Felix" be able to return to us the tradition of "anonymous letters"? - It's not clear yet.

"Who wrote the four million denunciations?" - Sergey Dovlatov once asked. Reconstruction on the march... "Can we do it again?"