Down with the fifth and sixth columns! How Russia is canceling its own culture

Ivan Zubov

Less than a week ago, Moscow theaters received an order to cancel all performances by one of Russia's most popular theater directors, Dmitry Krymov .

Writer Natasha Kiseleva commented on this event as follows:

“Productions at the Pushkin Theatre, the Pyotr Fomenko Workshop, the School of Modern Drama and the School of Dramatic Art have already been cancelled. Officially, all this happens for technical reasons. Yeah, something broke in all the theaters at once. I think conscience. Will Serezha be canceled at the Moscow Art Theater? Probably yes. But the terrible treacherous West is canceling Russian culture.

Krymov is one of my favorite theater directors. Together with Andrei Moguchy, Kirill Serebrennikov and Yuri Butusov.

Poor Moscow will now have to go to the mediocre attempts of Bogomolov. My condolences."

Kiseleva is echoed by the writer Leonid Sokolov :

“Very correct and timely decision. I approve and welcome. Now in Moscow these performances cannot and should not go on. They are not compatible with what is happening in Russia. They, by no means, can be part of our cultural landscape. Performances about the struggle of the Donbass and Luhansk miners can, but the Crimean theatrical philanthropy without straightforwardness and primitiveness cannot.

Krymov, like all Russian culture, is about man - as the highest value - in his confrontation with the animal, about the truth of feelings, about the need, despite all circumstances, to uphold humanism and mercy, at least for the fallen, at least not for the fallen. Well, what is Krymov? (…)

There is no need to leave good performances in the current poisoned air. If you think that you can continue to play Krymov now without prejudice to these productions, you are mistaken. Worms have already settled in them, fleas and lice are already crawling over them, they are already with dust in their bodies, with terrible ulcers and non-healing wounds - because all the soil is sprinkled with poison, carrion flies swarm in the air, and the light has faded. It's great that they were removed - but the memory of them will be bright. And they themselves will turn into legends, into the highest achievements of the Russian theater of recent years. Why do you need skins eaten by moths?

The indefatigable Russian censorship also took up the musicians, although, it would seem, how can one distinguish sedition in classical music? Can! Here is what the famous Russian pianist Polina Osetinskaya wrote a few days ago:

“I have just arrived in Petersburg. I just received a phone call saying that I am not playing Beethoven's Triple Concerto tomorrow at the Great Philharmonic Hall.

I think it's clear to everyone. In other instances, except for a few, I was banned even earlier. I just didn't write about it. I see no point in sharing essential. Inside there is a feeling that for more than six months my tongue has been cut off. Ok, I'm not ready to take a vow of silence, but now you can hardly wait for the feverish chirping of an akyn in the middle of a vanity fair. I don't know why, and who needs it. All I can do is speak in sounds. This is what I will continue to do, what is rich, as they say. Thank you for your attention…"

Among the responses to this news from fans of Osetinskaya’s talent, the following prevailed: “You know, this is more of a medal for you than a slap in the face. You were attached to a good team: Shostakovich, Metok Weinberg, Schnittke and so on ...”

The prominent Russian writer Lyudmila Petrushevskaya did not go unnoticed by vigilant censors, who wrote in her blog:

“Bye, MKVYA! For the first time, I was not invited to participate in the Moscow Book Fair, although this year my book Black Coat was published. Che, where am I, 84 years old.

As in the case of Osetinskaya, the support of Lyudmila Stefanovna from her fans was the most ardent:

“- Lyudmila Stefanovna, you have no equal among your contemporaries. You are among the classics of Russian literature. What's with the fair.

-Do you need it? Lyudmila Stefanovna Petrushevskaya is a world figure. And some kind of internecine mouse party. Why get dirty? Themselves will die out

“You are a figure of such magnitude in Russian culture that not being invited to the fair is a fact of the fair’s biography…”

Against this background, it is especially noteworthy that the new, 102nd season of the Vakhtangov Theater was opened by the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin. According to Rossiyskaya Gazeta, he told the actors that the main thing is loyalty to the “teacher, leader and commander” and reminded that now they are “needed by the motherland”, and not by the “fifth or sixth column”.

A simply amazing understanding of what culture, in general, and theater, in particular, was demonstrated by the chief investigator of the country. And therefore, there is no doubt about the complete cleansing of all the best in Russian culture. We have already been through this for 70 Soviet years in a row.

In this regard, journalist Dmitry Grazhevich notes that Russian culture, as in the days of the USSR, goes “to the kitchens”:

“Not only Moscow galleries received an oral order about the impossibility of participating in exhibition projects of artists who have a “stigma in the cannon”, who walked crookedly along the party line and spoke in social networks in a wrong way. Now the muzoboz Demidov, under the guise of the eternal pioneer Kibovsky, went "tanks" to Moscow theaters and canceled all the performances of Dmitry Krymov in them. Cheap. I'm sorry, sir, tutki.

But the artists also took a strange position / sometimes they want to talk about it, sometimes they are offended by the journalists who write about it / and the theater-goers, too, are almost all “silent in a rag”, “filling their mouths with water”, and only in the kitchenettes are they ready to quietly talk about horror in which we live. Both can be understood. But again I don't understand. You yourself draw time in brown and then compare it with Stalin. Try it differently. Maybe it will work? Maybe nothing will happen to you for what you will? Arrange exhibitions not in official galleries, but in the same kitchens together with theatergoers who will stage performances there? Kitchens are now large, there are even large private houses ready for home protest. Here I present some of Krymov's performances in the kitchen. For ten spectators. And I also represent apartment exhibitions. And they are already passing. But you will have something to remember and tell your children and grandchildren. So what are you going to tell them? As usual? You see, son, it was such a difficult time.

They won’t put everyone in jail, or rather, none of you will be jailed at all, they have someone to jail, don’t worry. But no brown mutant will close the mouth of art, and the heart of an artist, actor and director should not be wrapped in a chain. It won't last the chain. Will break along with the chain. It is better to live in modest freedom than to be deceived and adjust your heart to the tone of the "rich" time. Or does the Russian intelligentsia only exist in fairy tales? I talk to myself and understand that now I understand everything for sure, but again I don’t understand anything ... "