To Ban Tchaikovsky or Not, That Is the Question

In 2022, Lithuania’s then-Culture Minister Simonas Kairys decided that performing Russian composer Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet "The Nutcracker" was no longer an appropriate way to celebrate the Christmas season. Lithuania is a staunch supporter of Ukraine, and Kairys, believing that Russian culture could not be separated from Russian imperialism, called for a “mental quarantine” — otherwise known as “cultural decolonization.”

At the end of last year, Šarūnas Birutis, the newly installed culture minister, announced that he liked Tchaikovsky’s music and saw no reason to prohibit it. Some Lithuanians agree, including another former minister of culture, who said: “We fought Soviet power to get the freedom not to ban things.”

The Nutcracker debate in Lithuania echoes similar, though usually more fraught, arguments in Ukraine. In 2023, the Kyiv City Council decided that Russian music, plays, books, and art should no longer be showcased in public. Statues of Alexander Pushkin, one of Russia’s greatest poets, were removed from public places.

The patriotic urge to ban works of art associated with an enemy country is not new, of course. During World War I, some British people wanted to prohibit the performance of German music in concert halls, and there was even a proposal to replace German-made pianos with British-made models.