The conflict with Ukraine has fractured the Russian artistic community.
Those who support it have received government support, while those who oppose it have been subjected to intense pressure to conform.
In Russia, speaking out comes at a cost. You can be killed, imprisoned, or exiled, and if you are a cultural figure, you can be barred from critical platforms and venues.
After criticising government policies in Vladimir Putin’s Russia, Andrei Makarevich is one of the best-known performers to fall from favour.
During the Soviet era, he ascended to prominence as the frontman of the rock band Mashina Vremeni (Time Machine). State television once referred to him as “the Beatles of Perestroika” in reference to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s extensive reform programme.
Makarevich, however, grew increasingly critical of President Putin over time. After Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014, Makarevich penned the song My Country Has Gone Mad and participated in anti-war demonstrations. Following this, a number of his concerts across Russia were cancelled, and Makarevich accused the Kremlin of orchestrating a persecution campaign.
After the outbreak of full-scale war in February 2022, Makarevich departed Russia in a state of profound disillusionment. People have proven to be significantly simpler to manipulate. More ignorant and belligerent, he stated in an interview.
On the other hand, Nikolai Rastorguyev is an example of a state-favored performer. He is the main singer of the band Lyube, which is frequently referred to as “Putin’s favourite band.” He is an outspoken supporter of the policies of the Kremlin, including the “special military operation” in Ukraine.
Rastorguyev, unlike Makarevich, appears to have had easy access to Russia’s finest venues for years.
On 15 March 2014, the same day anti-Ukraine activists nearly assaulted Makarevich following a peace march in Moscow, Lyube commemorated its 25th anniversary at the Olympic Stadium in the capital.
The following day, his band performed in Crimea in support of an unrecognised referendum that the Kremlin used to justify its annexation of the Ukrainian territory.
Rastorguyev and his band have performed at Kremlin-sponsored rallies at Russia’s largest stadium, Luzhniki, which were witnessed by President Putin. It has also penned a tune praising a bridge connecting Russia and occupied Crimea.
In a sign of the band’s influence, police searching for political subversives in Moscow have forced pub patrons to recite a Lyube song as evidence of their support for the government.
EU sanctions have been imposed on Nikolai Rastorguyev for his participation in “the Kremlin’s disinformation and information manipulation ecosystem.”
Numerous Kremlin-critical performers, such as Makarevich, have been officially designated as “foreign agents” in Russia.
Film and theatre
Divisions are also prevalent among film and theatre performers.
Nikita Mikhalkov is one of the most renowned actors and film directors in Russia. The Oscar-winning drama Burnt By The Sun (1994), in which he both directed and starred, represents one of the high points of his career. The film depicts lives destroyed by tyranny in the Soviet Union under Stalin.
Mikhalkov’s views are also very similar to the official ideology of the Kremlin: he is a religious conservative and a radical anti-Western extremist.
In his TV programme Besogon (Exorcist), which airs on state television and is reportedly watched by President Putin, he promotes these conspiracy theories.
Mikhalkov is an ardent Vladimir Putin supporter.
In 2007, he co-authored an open letter urging the Russian president to violate the constitution and run for a third term. In the same year, Mikhalkov produced a film commemorating Putin’s 55th birthday, which was broadcast on state television on that day.
Since 1997, the film director has been the president of Russia’s Union of Film-Makers, and he has received numerous awards and funding from the state, such as the Defence Ministry’s award for “developing the Fatherland’s culture and art” and $2 million in state funding for a sequel to Burnt By The Sun.
He supported Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, parroting the president’s claims that Ukraine is governed by a “Nazi regime” and that the Ukrainian language itself is a manifestation of anti-Russian sentiment.
Vladimir Putin bestowed Mikhalkov the title of “Hero of Labour” at a Kremlin ceremony several months after the invasion began. The filmmaker thanked the president and referred to the conflict in Ukraine, stating that “a new Russia” was being forged there.
Mikhalkov has been sanctioned by the EU for his role in propagating “Kremlin propaganda narratives.”
Liya Akhedzhakova holds very divergent political views, and her career has taken a divergent path. She soared to prominence in the 1970s as a result of her roles in wildly popular Soviet films such as The Irony of Fate and Office Romance, as well as her performances at Sovremennik, one of Moscow’s finest theatres.
Since the dissolution of the USSR, the diminutive actress has never been shy about expressing her political views in public and has frequently been harshly critical of government policies.
At a rally in Moscow in 2014, she extolled the so-called Euromaidan – the protests in Kyiv that led to the ousting of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych and the initial invasion of Ukraine by Russia.
As Akhedzhakova urged the audience to honour the pro-democracy demonstrators killed in the Ukrainian capital, there was applause and supportive chanting.
Eight years later, when President Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, such rallies were inconceivable in Russia. Speaking on independent Dozhd TV on the day of the invasion, Akhedzhakova exhorted fellow performers and celebrities to oppose it.
“The time has arrived for all cultural individuals to speak out. We need to be heard. We will not have a second opportunity. “A war is raging, and there are so many lies, an ocean of lies,” she stated.
Less than a week later, Dozhd was compelled to relocate abroad due to increasing censorship and staff safety concerns.
After 45 years in the theatre, Akhedzhakova lost her final role at Sovremennik a year later. According to the actress, the newly appointed theatre director informed her that the theatre had been “inundated” with letters criticising her, a practise reminiscent of Soviet-era persecution campaigns.
In an additional echo of Stalinism, a pro-government activist recently requested that prosecutors determine whether the actress was culpable of treason.
