Culture Shocks

Several cultural institutions lost their longtime directors this summer in what appeared to be a massive firing spree by the Russian government.

Irina Antonova was unceremoniously let go as head of Moscow's Pushkin Museum, a position she had held since 1961 – for 52 of her 91 years. Antonova, who has steered the famous museum through the Soviet era, perestroika, and now the Putin years, had recently renewed her contract for five years, but seems to have been let go for picking a fight with St. Petersburg's Hermitage Museum. For years she has sought to restore the State Museum of New Western Art, destroyed by Stalin in 1948 as the Cold War heated up. The fine works of art from that museum were divvied up between the Pushkin and the Hermitage, and the St. Petersburg museum apparently did not want to give up its share to restore the museum.

Antonova is being replaced by Marina Loshak, curator of the Manege exhibition space, Russia's culture minister, Vladimir Medinsky announced.

Another scandal erupted when revered cinema scholar Naum Kleiman, who heads the Museum of Cinema, was informed that his contract would not be renewed and that he would be replaced by a deputy culture minister with little film expertise.

Since 2005, Kleiman and his team of cinephiles have been operating without an actual museum, housing their vast film collection at Mosfilm since the theater where they held screenings kicked them out. Kleiman, a film critic and specialist on Sergei Eisenstein, has headed the museum since 1992.

Some of Russia's best known film directors, including Alexander Sokurov and Sergei Solovyov, signed an open letter protesting the decision. Kleiman's contract has been extended to next year, but the museum remains without a home.

In what was perhaps the biggest surprise of the summer, the Culture Ministry announced that it is firing Bolshoi Theater General Director Anatoly Iksanov.
Under his tenure (2000-2013), the Bolshoi became the most scandal-ridden cultural institution in Russia.

The theater, and especially its ballet troupe, has suffered through years of melodrama-related indignities, culminating in an acid attack on its artistic director earlier this year.

Critics have greeted Iksanov's sacking with mixed feelings. While there is some hope that the new general director, Vladimir Urin, from the Stanislavsky Theater, can rein in egos in the troupe, some have noted that the government should have given more credit to Iksanov for transforming the Bolshoi from a Soviet relic into a modern venue that attracts international stars. Instead, Iksanov was canned just as the Bolshoi Ballet was departing for a long-awaited London tour.

Culture minister Vladimir Medinsky stated in an interview with gazeta.ru that: "We don't inhibit the development of culture in all of its forms. But we support those trends that we consider correct. Let all flowers bloom, but we will only water the ones we like. Or the ones that we need."

How often do you go to the theater:

Once per year: 20%

Every 2-3 years: 15%

Almost never: 45%

Never been: 19%

Why have you never attended a performance?

No theater nearby: 27%

Don't care for theater: 23%

No time: 22%

STATS: All-Russian Center for Public Opinion Research. In 2008, 25 percent said they have never gone to a theater, 16 percent said they go at least annually.