How the war changed the cultural life of Russian speakers in the USA - ForumDaily
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How the war changed the cultural life of Russian speakers in the United States

The outbreak of a full-scale Russian war against Ukraine changed life not only in both of these countries, but also in the Russian and Ukrainian diasporas around the world. ForumDaily already told about the numerous forms of cultural and creative leisure of Russian-speaking immigrants in the United States. This includes musical and poetry evenings, picnics and haikeys, performances and theatrical readings, intellectual games and gatherings of bards. However, after February 24, the theme of the war began to voluntarily or involuntarily permeate all types of immigrant creativity.

Photo: Shutterstock

"Island of Crimea" and assistance to refugees

Irina Gruminskaya immigrated from Russia to the United States with her husband eight years ago, the same year that the first Russian aggression against Ukraine began. It was this event, according to her, that was the last point in the long-awaited decision to leave.

«Even before the war, my husband and I were disgusted by total corruption and the need to bribe every official. At the same time, we traveled a lot around the world, and therefore we saw a completely different life. In 2014, we finally realized that we did not want to raise our future children in such an atmosphere.", - shares Irina.

In Northern California, Irina and her actress friend Irina Brodskaya have created creative team Art of Life, which held theatrical and musical evenings throughout the Bay Area, including with the invitation of world-class stars. After the invasion, the team organized a number of anti-war events, the most striking of which was the staging of excerpts from the novel Vasily Aksenova "Island of Crimea" in the Russian-language theater Starbright Theater. As Irina Brodskaya, who read the excerpts, noted, the novel written more than forty years ago seems prophetic today.

According to Irina Gruminskaya, the diaspora responded very vividly to the fact that the usual neutral format of cultural meetings had acquired a clearly anti-war message.

«There was a full house on the "Island of Crimea", people came up and thanked us for such an evening. I want to believe that a new, anti-war Russian culture is really emerging in our country.“, she believes.

The organizers note that even if the events did not formally deal with military topics, such as, for example, the theatrical reading of Pushkin's "little tragedy" "Mozart and Salieri" held in May and the concert of the famous cellist Jana Maxine, the performers openly expressed their position against aggression on them. In addition, the money collected for tickets was sent to help Ukrainians affected by the war - primarily for food and medicine for people who found themselves in front-line areas.

How Joseph Stalin was buried in California

Actor and director of theatrical readings Sergey Solovyov (creative pseudonym - Serge Solo) has been living in the USA for about ten years and is well known in the Californian diaspora for organizing numerous creative meetings. Most of all, the Russian-speaking audience liked reading satirical stories Alexandra Tsypkinaregularly held by Sergey and the actress Tatyana Uvarova. However, the war changed everything.

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«When the invasion began, I took it very personally. My cousin lives in Kharkov, so for me the war became a personal tragedy. In the first weeks, I decided not to do any more literary readings. But then, when I met with friends, many people, including those who came from Ukraine or those who had friends or relatives there, said that, on the contrary, they needed some kind of outlet and the opportunity to support each other.", - explains Sergey.

At the request of the audience, Serge and Tatyana resumed readings, but now their events have become charitable.

«Thanks, among other things, to our readings, the total amount of donations to the affected residents of Ukraine from the local diaspora amounted to more than three thousand dollars", - states Sergey.

The subject matter has also changed. The “frivolous” ironic stories about the life of the Russian bohemia were replaced by more caustic and profound tragic farces. For example, in June, Serge managed to assemble a whole acting team and organize a reading of the play. Artur Solomonov "How we buried Joseph Vissarionovich." This is a story about how an ordinary director of the Moscow theater, who, under pressure from the president, urgently began to remake a satirical performance about the death of Stalin that was already ready for the premiere, turns into a dictator himself and arranges “Stalinism” in a single troupe. The play was written before the invasion, but after the start of the war, it began to be perceived with particular poignancy. By the way, the actress also took part in the reading. Lana Shcherbakova, about which previously wrote forum daily.

Photo: Ksenia Kirillova

«I would single out three main types of audience reactions. One part is grateful to us for the fact that, despite everything, we continue to conduct readings and take current topics. The other part believes that there is enough evil in this world, and therefore they would like to be distracted by something lighter. Still others, on the contrary, would like to see on the stage a harsher and more principled condemnation of Putin's policies. However, among my acquaintances, I have not met a single person who would justify the Kremlin's aggression against Ukraine.", - emphasizes Sergey.

Serge Solo believes that Russian anti-war culture is not even born in the work of the Diaspora, but continues.

«The Russian Empire throughout its history waged aggressive wars. On the territory of modern Russia there are many enslaved peoples who at different times tried to resist forced assimilation. They had their own leaders and their own culture. The anti-war and anti-imperial narrative has been present in Russian culture at all times, but it has not been clearly identified and most often hushed up.", - the actor believes.

According to Sergei, now the anti-imperial, non-militaristic culture has a chance, since modern Russia, unlike the Russian Empire and even the Soviet Union, is not capable of generating any high-quality cultural product.

«I agree with Viktor Shenderovichthat when people of culture leave Russia, in fact, this is real Russia leaving those who remained”, sums up Serge.

Anti-war poetry and anti-Putin picnics

Immigrants admit that even the most common forms of creative leisure that have become familiar over many years, not related to Russian-Ukrainian themes or charitable collections, are literally riddled with references to the war. At bard gatherings and concerts, Ukrainian songs or compositions are performed that show the horror of wars; anti-war poems are read at poetry evenings, and yellow and blue symbols are present at the most “neutral” events.

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Even at the recently held poetry contest in the Bay Area Joseph Brodsky one of the performers Vladimir Bazarsky, chose to read the poem "Letter to General Z", written, in his words, "as if yesterday." And, it would seem, the performanceoutlandish disease» Benoit Fourchart, staged by the local Yu Theater, has nothing to do with the events in Ukraine, unless you know that both performers of the main roles Alexander Litovchenko и Elena Sikorskaya - originally from Kyiv. Oleksandr has been living in the USA for a long time, and did a lot to help Elena leave war-torn Ukraine for America.

Vladimir Bazarsky and Dmitry Semakin. Photo: Ksenia Kirillova

Even informal picnics by Russian-speaking immigrants are increasingly turning into anti-Putin gatherings, largely due to a large influx of new political emigrantsthat started yet before the invasion and intensified after February 24.

«I remember my first feeling when I learned about the beginning of the war - it was panic. We saw footage of how Kharkiv was bombed, and did not know how to live amid this madness", - recalls the political refugee Yulia Kalashnikovawho arrived with her husband in the United States shortly after the invasion.

«Just shortly before this, some of my Ukrainian friends moved to Russia, and I understood that otherwise they would have been bombed now. It was simply impossible to adapt to this, because if you support it or simply do nothing to resist it, you too participate in the massacres.", - Julia is sure.

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