Since the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Russian regime has spat out civil activists and oppositionists, independent journalists, sociologists and political scientists, writers and poets, lawyers and human rights activists, artists and directors. The cleansing of theater space is taking place not only in Moscow - unreliable figures and directors are being removed and fired all over the country. The theatrical world in Russia became quiet and crouched, trying not to catch the eye and not to annoy - maybe it will blow over.

The call for “self-cleansing of the people”, announced by President Putin with the beginning of the military invasion of Ukraine, was accepted by the people with enthusiasm and with a readiness to “self-cleanse” immediately and in all directions.

After all, the people are pleased when the leader trusts him. When the goal is clear, and the task is simple, and there is no need to clarify anything. It's nice to hear about yourself - the Russian people "will always be able to distinguish true patriots from scum and traitors and simply spit them out like a fly that accidentally flew into their mouths."

After a long applause, turning into a standing ovation, "Putin's foot soldiers" rushed through the territories entrusted to them to clear them of garbage.

They spat out civil activists and oppositionists, they spat out independent journalists, sociologists and political scientists, they spat out economists and historians, they spat out university professors and teachers, they spat out writers and poets, lawyers and human rights activists, gays and lesbians, rappers and stand-up comedians, feminists and pacifists, artists and directors, screenwriters and producers, bloggers, tiktokers and youtubers.

Looked around - beauty! Mooing faceless beauty. Only the wind is blowing and a lone centaur with Prilepin's head, Pevtsov's torso and Mashkov's smoking ass is striding across the steppe. Frightening Russian culture.

Yes, it must be admitted that the special operation to cleanse the nation was successful and in record time with the complete silence of the surviving elites and professional communities.

Many were only surprised, crying out in bewilderment: “What is this for?” So we ended up inside a dark joke about Jews and cyclists, and it turned out not to be funny at all.

Unfriendly

In the theater, the biggest rout was the day when three Moscow theaters were beheaded by almost one decree of the Department of Culture: artistic director Alexei Agranovich and director Alexei Kabeshev were fired from the Gogol Center, Iosif Raichelgauz from the School of Modern Play, and Viktor Ryzhakov from Sovremennik. But the theatrical pogrom began much earlier.

From the Mayakovsky Theater, its chief director Mindaugas Karbauskis was quietly removed, who headed the theater for ten years and made Mayakovka one of the most successful theaters in Moscow, carefully preserving its history and traditions, managing to combine European detachment with Russian scorching temperament. For what? For origin, Lithuanian accent and belonging to alien Western values. Mindaugas wrote a letter of resignation the day after the invasion - 25 February.

Three Moscow theaters were beheaded by one decree of the Department of Culture

The day before, Moscow theaters received a strong recommendation from the depcult not to discuss the topic of “special operation” publicly and on social networks and to convey this to all employees of the teams entrusted to them. The theater humbly obeyed, and instead of a gag, they pushed the young and promising Yegor Peregudov into his mouth. Who may be a good guy, but he didn’t say a good word about his predecessor in public and never even called him.

Some time after the high-profile scandal and the provocation arranged by the pranksters Vovan and Lexus, Rimas Tuminas, who had headed the theater since 2007, left the Vakhtangov Theater. Thanks to the talent and leadership of Tuminas, the Vakhtangov Theater has reached unprecedented heights, comparable only to the success of the theater's founder Yevgeny Vakhtangov. Tuminas made the best drama theater in the country, a real showcase, a facade of Russian theatrical art. At the same time, he always showed loyalty, did not allow himself either seditious speeches or ambiguous metaphors, respected the authorities and obeyed his director Kirill Krok - a statesman, patriot, faithful Putinist, signer of loyal letters.

Despite such patronage, Tuminas was still a stranger. As he once came to this theater as a stranger, rather aggressively met by the patriarchs of the troupe, he left as a stranger, with the complete silence of the team, to which he gave worldwide fame and unprecedented success. Not a single person from the theater said a word in his defense. And the state also spat after him, depriving him of government awards, which he himself presented in the Kremlin halls. The last performance of Tuminas in Russia became a kind of theatrical testament of the master, a visionary warning, a powerful anti-war manifesto. He is still walking. It's called War and Peace.

Moscow

The dismissal from the post of artistic director of the theater Iosif Reichelnauz also raised the question “What is he for?” Reichelgauz is not just the head of the School of Modern Drama - he founded this theater, he is its builder in every sense of the word - both artistically and literally: he punched through the premises on Trubnaya, jumped around the construction site, miraculously saved the theater after a terrible fire, when he did not allow Moscow officials quietly select a unique old building, did everything he could to return to his house after repairs. And returned.

At the same time, Reichelgauz was always friends with the Moscow authorities, tried not to annoy them, invited them to all premieres and club evenings, and the Moscow Minister of Culture Kibovsky generally plays a whole one-man show with him. All the years of the existence of the ShSP, the right hand of the artistic director was a very odious lady - patriotically gifted - well-known in the theater world Ekaterina Kretova. Like Krok at Tuminas, and Kretov at Reichelgauz, the lady served as such a special screen to balance the liberal ardor of her boss.

Kretova served as a special screen to balance the liberal ardor of her boss

Reichelgauz went to all political talk shows, charmingly and artistically playing the role of a “systemic liberal”, a “whipping boy”, a very popular type in television propaganda. However, the outbreak of war betrayed an enemy and a renegade in Reichelgauz - not only is he from Odessa, who does not hide his pro-Ukrainian convictions, but he is also a close friend of the disgraced fugitive Chubais, who was not only a friend, but also a patron of the theater. With one touch, Reichelgauz became a stranger. And in his place they put Dmitry Astrakhan - maybe a good man who once showed promise, but over the past decades has not created a single cultural event.

In April, chief director of the Viktyuk Theater Denis Azarov was fired after his anti-war statement. All Azarov's projects have been cancelled. "Unreliable" employees continue to be fired from the theater on the orders of director Smertin.

The chief director of the Viktyuk Theater Denis Azarov was fired after his anti-war statement

Dmitry Krymov, one of the most sought-after theater directors in the country, a unique artist and teacher, left for America at the beginning of the war for a planned production and decided not to return to Russia. Now he is staging performances in Lithuania and Latvia. In Riga, Krymov accepted the invitation of Alvis Hermanis, the chief director of the New Riga Theatre, and is working on a performance with the participation of Chulpan Khamatova.

Viktor Ryzhakov held the position of artistic director of Sovremennik for a year and a half. All this time, he was subjected to skillfully organized persecution by all sorts of fake public organizations - such as "Veterans" or "Officers of Russia". He was accused of desecrating the great victory for the project "Dialogues about War" (young actors recorded conversations for the site about their understanding of the history and significance of the Great Patriotic War and Victory, the conversations are very sincere, without false pathos and ostentatious patriotism). He was accused of abuse of veterans and gay propaganda for the play “First Bread” (staged by the Polish director Beniamin Kots), and the performer of one of the main roles, People’s Artist Liya Akhedzhakova, was demanded to be deprived of titles and awards.

Inside the theater, too, everything was not easy: part of the troupe, brought up by Galina Borisovna Volchek in the traditions of state patriotism (alas, alas!) Considered Sergei Garmash to be the heir to traditions and successor, and Viktor Ryzhakov’s plans to reform the theater and return to Contemporary his original meaning - to be modern - were actively resisted. Garmash has not yet returned to the theater, he is thrown to his native Kherson to revive Russian spirituality. But it is possible that, having done away with spirituality in Kherson, he will deal with it in his native Sovremennik. And finally, he will drive out all “Akhedzhakovism” from there.

“Please be fired. I'm sick of you, ”the Tsimovites wrote to the new director

Viktor Ryzhakov came to Sovremennik from the Meyerhold Center he created, where he gathered a unique team of free, modern-minded, bright non-standard artists. CIM under the direction of Ryzhakov was a real "contemporary" - it was a multi-storey field for theatrical experiments, lectures, seminars, master classes, debuts, festivals. After Ryzhakov, his team, headed by art director Elena Kovalskaya and director Dmitry Volkostrelov, remained at TsIM. On February 24, Elena Kovalskaya publicly announced her resignation from the theater in connection with Russia's military aggression against Ukraine, and Dmitry Volkostrelov published an anti-war statement on the theater's website.

Further events developed rapidly. Volkostrelov was fired without explanation, the Meyerhold Center was merged with the School of Dramatic Art, and Olga Sokolova, known for the fact that Dmitry Krymov left the theater under her leadership, with the words “Olga Eduardovna, you make me sick!” Exactly with these words, the statements about the resignation of the CIM employees, who massively left the house they created, ended: “I ask you to dismiss. You make me sick,” the Tsimovites wrote to the new director. Thus, another center of contemporary art was erased from the map of Moscow.

liberal nest

What can we say about such a nest of liberalism as the Gogol Center!

The destruction of the Gogol Center is compared by theater historians with the destruction of the Tairov Chamber Theater, which happened back in 1949 in the wake of the struggle against formalism, cosmopolitanism and lack of ideas. A year after the pogrom, Alexander Tairov died. And the Chamber Theater has forever remained a legend - in many ways ahead of its time, declaring the freedom of artistic language, discovering a new style of acting and expressiveness, combining in its performances all possible genres of art - from ancient tragedy to vaudeville, from opera to circus, from oratorio to plastic drama . The Chamber Theater did not fit into the aesthetics of socialist realism in any way, like the current Gogol Center.

Kirill Serebrennikov built his "Chamber Theater" on the model of a modern European theater - open (literally - one could come to the theater at any time, and not just for a performance), multi-genre, multi-level. It was the Center - the Center for Contemporary Art, which welcomed any form of creative expression. Here people were engaged in art cheerfully and recklessly, doors were not closed here, public discussions were held here on the most topical topics, lectures were held before performances, book presentations and film premieres were held here, musicians gave concerts in the foyer, a bookstore of modern literature and theatrical periodicals worked, on celebrities painted on the walls.

Gogol Center was the center of contemporary art, which welcomed any form of creative expression

In less than ten years, Serebrennikov alone has staged about 20 performances in the theater, and the entire repertoire amounts to dozens of premieres, and each of them is an event. The theater was fantastically successful - not a single failure, not a single half-empty hall. Being on probation after a shameful senseless humiliating trial (the so-called "theatrical case"), Serebrennikov understood that the contract with him would be terminated. When Alexei Agranovich, an ally and colleague of Kirill, was appointed to the place of the artistic director at the theater, it became clear that this was a temporary candidacy. That the defeat is inevitable, but they decided to postpone it. Then no one even thought about the coming national catastrophe. But the decision on the Gogol Center was made: to return everything back. And just as in May 1949, workers knocked down the logo of the Chamber Theater from the wall of the building on Tverskoy Boulevard with hammers, in May 2022, the sign of the Gogol Center was dismantled on Kazakov Street. Time has collapsed.

Anton Yakovlev was appointed the new artistic director of the Gogol Theater (just so as to completely erase the entire period of the Gogol Center from memory), who may be a good guy and even a capable director, but ...

The cleansing of theater space is taking place not only in Moscow - unreliable figures and directors are being removed and fired all over the country. Many, without waiting for reprisal, leave the country, joining the ranks of emigration around the world - Russian directors, musicians, playwrights, theater critics, artists can now be found in Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Turkey, Israel, Berlin, Paris, Warsaw ... In Russia, the theatrical world became quiet and crouched, trying not to catch the eye, not to stick out, not to annoy - maybe it will blow over.

The cleansing of the theater space is taking place not only in Moscow - unreliable figures and directors are being removed and fired all over the country

But there is bad news for them - they won't carry it through. It is impossible to dodge and dodge. How impossible it is to pretend: over the years, the authorities have learned to distinguish between insiders and outsiders, learned to see through the rotten intelligentsia, learned to identify and humiliate them. Actually, these traditions did not go anywhere: to break people and demand recognition of their loyalty through threats, blackmail or primitive purchases - these skills have not been lost by the authorities, but, on the contrary, have been cleaned to a medal shine. But today, even the letter Z on the facade or on the belly is not enough - they require true unshakable faith and devotion from you. The ideal option is Vladimir Mashkov. Who ziguetes with all his ardor, with a tear in his eye, to the point of fainting. Conducts “political information” and “preventive conversations” with doubters in the theater. It is surprising that the most devoted, the very first henchmen of the dictatorship were precisely Tabakov's students: Mashkov, Mironov, Bezrukov. It's scary to watch. And even more terrible is to watch their colleagues watching them, silent and humbly waiting for their turn.