Should Russian culture be "canceled" over the Ukraine invasion?

Of course, debating cultural identity, cultural influences, and the politicization of culture is all well and good in peacetime. When Ukrainian cities—and cultural sites—are under relentless Russian shelling, and when Russia’s war on Ukraine includes a concerted campaign to erase and destroy Ukrainian culture, one can hardly blame Ukrainians for making overly harsh generalizations about Russian culture or taking down Pushkin monuments.

This is the backdrop that needs to be remembered when the issue of beleaguered Russian artists, canceled concerts, or sidelined movies comes up. No, Russian works shouldn’t be dropped simply because they’re Russian. Yes, it’s frustrating for someone like Serebrennikov to be forced out of his own country for his opposition to the regime and then be treated in the West as tarnished by a presumed association with that regime. But to describe cultural boycotts as “unbearable” when cities are being reduced to rubble, millions have lost their homes, tens of thousands have lost their lives, and untold numbers have been victims of wanton cruelty is, to put it mildly, tone-deaf.

An apt comment on this subject was offered earlier this month in an interview in Novaya Gazeta, the now-exiled independent Russian newspaper, with Russian political scientist Sergei Medvedev (also exiled and now teaching in Prague). Asked what he thinks of “bans on Russian music, poetry and literature in Western countries,” Medvedev replied:

Firstly, I believe this is largely mythologized, inflated by Kremlin propaganda. Secondly, against the background of what is happening in Ukraine, this is a secondary issue for me. Let’s stop the war in Ukraine first. When Russia stops killing Ukrainians, then we’ll get together and talk about the fate of Russian culture in the West. But until then, I just have a kind of moral block against talking about attitudes towards Russians, toward visas, toward Russian culture, Russian books, [about] the stigmatization of all things Russian. If it’s happening—all right, we’ll have to deal with it. At least we are alive and our house hasn’t been bombed to pieces.