Culture Wars

After years of tolerating certain trendy and broad-minded institutions popular with the city’s growing middle class, Moscow is purging theaters, clubs, and a media outlet that was at the forefront of covering protest rallies prior to Vladimir Putin’s re-election to a third term. Actions against these institutions have been seen by some as part of an ongoing campaign to promote what the government considers an “acceptable” and “supportive” cultural atmosphere.

After being evicted from the retro-chic former Red October candy factory, Dozhd television channel, whose trials and tribulations Russian Life covered last year, rented space from Snob, a magazine that publishes critical journalism and is owned by billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov. But in December Snob suddenly said it wanted to remodel, and the beleaguered channel had to find a new base for its programming. On its website, Dozhd (“Rain”) announced that it may be operating out of a staffers’ apartments as a temporary measure.

Moscow authorities have also taken action against Teatr.Doc, a small theater known for staging political plays. The theater received a letter last fall telling it to vacate the dusty basement it occupied in historic Tryokhprudny pereulok. The reason: the theater remodeled a window in a manner that suddenly has been deemed problematic by the fire inspector (after twelve years of operation with said window).

Despite thousands of signatures – including from such luminaries as Tom Stoppard, Mark Ravenhill and Konstantin Raikin – on a petition addressed to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, asking that the theater be left alone, authorities did not budge. By December, the theater’s founder and artistic director, Yelena Gremina, was looking for a new basement. Teatr.Doc fans have concluded the city was taking revenge for the company’s productions highlighting the ills of life in post-Soviet Russia, from a play about lawyer Sergei Magnitsky (who died in a Moscow prison under suspicious circumstances), to the play BerlusPutin, which made fun of the friendship between Putin and Italy’s disgraced former president, Silvio Berlusconi.

Another cultural establishment, Moscow’s Museum of Cinema, faces an uncertain future after Russia’s Ministry of Culture fired its highly respected director Naum Kleiman. Although the museum has not had its own space for several years, it has played an invaluable role by collaborating on projects with a number of venues, holding film festivals, and taking part in other cultural events.

The decision to dismiss Kleiman – arguably Russia’s most respected film critic, who had served on a Cannes jury – caused most of the staff to resign (some were later convinced by Kleiman to come back to their posts to keep the institution going). They accuse the culture ministry of appointing a new director with dictatorial tendencies and no knowledge of the field. The staff’s public letter is available in English here: bit.ly/mmc_letter

In another recent development, the city evicted the legendary nightclub Solyanka, which had become a place for the “it” crowd among the capital’s “creative class.” Armed men simply showed up one night in December to shutter Solyanka, no questions allowed. The eviction later turned out to stem from a conflict between the city and the leaseholder of the space, who was subletting it to Solyanka. The club was not aware of the leaseholder’s financial troubles and so, at press time, the club was sealed shut, with an auction to be held to determine the space’s next tenant. It is unclear whether Solyanka will get its furnishings back.

“Moscow authorities – have they directly spat on the people of culture and theater if they could not find a respectable answer for all the emotional letters about a trivial issue, the rental of a basement 172-meters large? This is rumored to be a political decision… I was told – in secret, that very powerful people are not pleased with us. But officially? Nothing, never… If they are so all-powerful, could they at least address us officially? Otherwise this is like the Byzantine empire, which fell a long time ago, in 1453.”

–Yelena Gremina (via Facebook)