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Maria Vassilievna Rozanova: a Major Figure of Russian Literature and Dissidence
It is not easy to profile Maria Vassilievna Rozanova (1930, Vitebsk - 2023, Fontenay-aux-Roses), a publisher, author, art historian, architect, jeweler and fashion designer. This valiant, brilliant and unclassifiable woman was a key figure in Russian intellectual life and a great mind. In the 1970s and 1980s, Paris was the...
“Bavovna” and Other Ukrainians Memes : how Laughing Helps to Keep Going
The Ukrainian intellectual Marianna Perebenesiuk tells us about some funny memes circulating on the Ukrainian Internet with great success since the beginning of the war. On August 28, the UK Ambassador to Ukraine, Melinda Simmons, tweeted a photo of a cotton flower on her table, captioned: “I have recently had...
A war Against Russian Culture Constitutes Support for Vladimir Putin
In this paper, the former Soviet dissident explains that Russian culture lives through difficult times under Putin’s regime, especially after the invasion of Ukraine. He proposes not to put an equal sign between Lev Tolstoy’s pacifism and Vladimir Putin’s militarism. “When I hear the word culture, I reach for my...
Imagine Wearing “Fascist” Clothes
The war against Ukraine has placed Russia in the category of pariah states. As far as the Russian "state" is concerned, there is no doubt about it. But what about the individual responsibility of each citizen in a country with a dictatorial regime? This is the question posed by...
Is Russian Culture Responsible for “Putin’s war” in Ukraine?
Ukrainian philosopher and essayist, Olekskiy Panytch, originally from Donetsk, examines in this text the Western attitude towards Russian culture. Should we stop all cultural collaboration between Russian and Western creators? Should we boycott Russian culture? Since the very beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, hot debates have erupted, not just on...
How the West Should Treat a “Bad Guy”
Russian-American relations are looking more and more like a high-school rivalry between a dumb-ass bully and an intelligent boy from a good family who does not like to fight. The leader of the local scum realizes he is incapable of pleasing his classmates, so he tries to keep them...
Sergei Kovalev: Conscience of Russia and Conscience of the West
Sergei Kovalev died at the age of 91, on August 9, 2021. According to the journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza who also fights for a democratic Russia — and was apparently poisoned twice because of that —, the former dissident was part of this "handful of people who saved the honor...