Moscow and kyiv enter a new phase of their particular cultural battle

The ban on Russian songs in Ukraine adds a new chapter to another derived from the war conflict

July 3 () –

The cultural battle between Russia and Ukraine has intensified after the Ukrainian Parliament approved a law just two weeks ago that bans the performance of Russian songs on public television and radio in the country.

This new measure, which delves into a conflict quieter than the bombs, such as music and literature, plans to increase by 70 percent the information and entertainment programs “in the state language”: Ukrainian.

The regulations will be applied to Russian artists who have lived in the country since 1991, a key date for Ukraine, since in that year an independence referendum was held that would give rise to the Ukraine we know today after the coup attempt against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

The parliamentarians also supported, within the framework of said law, the prohibition of imports of products from Russia and Belarus; the publication and sale of books by Russian citizens in Ukraine and the promotion, on the contrary, of Ukrainian books, both in their publication and in their distribution.

“I am pleased to welcome the ban at the legislative level on Russian content: songs, performances by Russian artists and the distribution of Russian books. The war showed that it was time to change content in the Ukrainian language. And this must be enshrined in the law,” said Minister of Culture and Information Policy Olexander Tkachenko.

A spokesman for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has told Europa Press that, in the face of this move by Ukraine, in accordance with the United Nations Charter and the principles of International Law, States “have the sovereign right to adopt measures and policies to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions in their territory.”

UNESCO has also stressed that they are concerned “about the consequences of the war in Ukraine and are in constant contact with all relevant authorities and institutions to assess its impact on culture, including tangible and intangible cultural heritage, museums and cultural expressions. “.

It should also be remembered that the leader of the official formation Servant of the People, Olena Shuliak, requested the expulsion of Russia as a member state of UNESCO precisely because of the destruction of Ukrainian heritage spaces in the framework of the war.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Culture has already pointed out on previous occasions that the cost of repairing all damaged cultural and historical facilities, including museums and churches, could amount to billions of euros.

Apart from these denunciations by kyiv, the decision to ban Russian songs in Ukraine comes after the Ukrainian group Kalush Orchestra has won the Eurovision Song Contest 2022, a victory that was also an important moral, media and propaganda triumph. since it received the support of the jury vote and also the support of the popular vote.

THE CULTURE WAR

Despite the fact that the recent law approved by the Ukrainian Parliament will not affect classical writers, at the end of May the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, was uncomfortable with the “cancel culture” imposed against Moscow, apart from economic sanctions.

“They have banned classics such as Tchaikovsky, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy or Pushkin. They have started a persecution against the artists and culture of Russia. In general terms, I am sure that this situation will last for a long time,” said the head of the Foreign Ministry Russian, citing apparent “Russophobia” on the part of the West.

In this sense, the director of the Ukrainian Book Institute Aleksandra Koval, following the instructions of the Ministry of Culture, gave the order in May to clean the Ukrainian libraries of “all Russian books found there.” In total, one hundred million books.

“There are many opponents of this issue who believe that there is something sacred, such as Russian classics, that cannot be touched. There are no arguments why this cannot be done (…) The first round of seizures will include anti-Ukrainian literature with imperial narratives and propaganda of violence, pro-Russian chauvinist policies. How is it possible that these books with such a narrative end up in libraries?

No artistic expression is saved. The hysteria about the control of cultural discourse also reached the opera in the first weeks of the conflict. Russian soprano Anna Netrebko, who has come under fire for her ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, has canceled several concerts showing her opposition to the war.

The Russian ‘prima donna’ reacted to a decision made by the Metropolitan Opera, which issued a statement vetoing the singer from performing in the play ‘Turandot’, scheduled for April and May in New York, precisely because not pronounce on the conflict.

The recent law, approved by two-thirds of the Ukrainian Senate, precisely excludes artists who condemn Russian aggression against Ukraine. The secret service (SBU) will be in charge of drawing up the list of exceptions.

NATIONALISM, PROHIBITION AND LANGUAGE

The culture war, which does not make as much noise as projectiles or bombs, begins to gain prominence, especially at a time when social networks and the media amplify the messages. To this is added, in addition, a key component: language.

Russian is the mother tongue of 26 percent of the population of Ukraine, with Russian being the most predominant in the eastern and southern areas, according to the 2001 census of the linguistic structure of the Ukrainian population published by the State Committee for Statistics of Ukraine.

It is not trivial, therefore, that the authorities established by Russia in the occupied provinces in the Donbas region have accelerated the processes to make Russian the official language, a step that was already taken in Crimea after its annexation by Moscow. in 2014.

In fact, the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has actively and passively appealed to the historical and cultural values ​​of the Russian nation, even stressing that social “self-cleaning” is necessary as a vehicle for “cohesion”.

In this context of maximum surveillance and censorship to avoid dissident thoughts, both on the Ukrainian side and on the Russian side, the words that are most used are those related to nationalism, such as “homeland”, “betrayal”, “threat” or “invasion”. “, among many.

The language of books, where “chauvinist ideas” are promoted, as Ukraine has pointed out, has thus become one more way of waging war since Putin gave the “green light” to the invasion against the country on February 24.