The note was brought

Musical critic Artemy Troitsky - about the anti -war performances of Russian artists and the future of Russian "loyal" musicians in the conditions of international isolation

The war changed life in Russia. So, as it was before, it will not be. Therefore, we decided to investigate how exactly she influenced society, institutions, and people.

Music is an important part of anti -war protest, but in recent months it often became a marker of loyalty to the state. Artemy Troitsky is a music journalist, critic, researcher of rock music. We talked with him about what will happen to the artists who opposed the war and whether artists loyal to the state course will be able to make up for losses from international isolation.

- Now it seems that the Russian world of music is divided. Some play concerts in favor of refugees, while others perform in Luzhniki in the “Crimean spring”. Is there such a split?

- Of course, there is a split, and it has always existed. There were always cultural figures and deceased artists, and in the same way there were artists, musicians, actors, directors who acted from independent positions and did not wave to the state. I think that if Russia becomes a democratic country, the situation will change slightly. It’s just that those artists who are now poisoned and forbidden will be in perfect order and will be able to speak freely. And the artists who ruined their reputation by making services to the mean authorities and earned at its expense, of course, they will not be in honor.

- February 24 was a turning point in the life of the Russian musical industry or are these trends more long -term?

-I do not think that specifically in the field of culture, some tectonic changes have occurred, because everyone remained more or less in their positions. I can say, for my part, that the reaction of some artists pleasantly surprised me. For example, these are some people from the field of pop music. Valery Meladze, Svetlana Loboda spoke out against the war.

Some artists unpleasantly surprised me, but in many respects it got worse. Censorship, of course, became much stronger and more cruel in terms of punishment: all kinds of criminal and administrative articles. But this is a phenomenon that could very easily be predicted and extrapolate from what has happened in the last two years in Russia.

-Someone can be canceled by international concerts, someone forces it to do this. Are there any examples of similar sanctions in history over the past 10-20-30 years for other countries that unleashed military conflicts?

-In some forms, this probably began after Russia's intervention in Georgia in 2008. But, unfortunately, it was a rather local story that did not acquire any world scale. In a broader sense, this began to manifest in 2014. For the first time there were some black lists. Then some Russian artists, say, Gazman or Valeria fell into forbidden lists for tour, primarily, of course, in Ukraine.

But this was also repeated in some other countries, in particular in Latvia and Lithuania. The process went what is called, but, of course, he did not accept such scale and such forms as in February-March 2022. All these black lists, all these persecution of representatives of Putin’s culture, about which now Russian propaganda is now aching in every possible way - this is a consequence of their own actions. There are a lot of artists who oppose the war.

In my opinion, there are much more of them than artists of lezobes. And no one forbids them to speak. They are very actively touring both in Europe and the USA. There are opportunities for uncompromising artists abroad, especially when you consider that a lot of Russian youth has now left for Cordon. So these artists definitely have an audience.

- There are large artists who worked with huge budgets for many years. Will this loyalty be paid additionally with money, or will, on the contrary, be a battle for the remaining budgets?

-Throughout the world, cultural financing is built in such a way that the fundamental cultural values, say, large symphonic orchestras, large academic theaters, museums are financed at the expense of the state or some rather close to the state of funds. As for mass and popular forms of culture, they are all over the world, but not in Russia, unfortunately, are completely separated from the state. First of all, it is necessary to adopt world practice and separate mass culture from the state.

That is, all pop music, all the cinema, all non-surpassed theaters, all private museums, galleries-all this should live on the principles of self-sufficiency. If I could perform the fate of Russian culture in the near future, then the first thing I would do was to separate the whole culture from the state. As for those objects of culture and art that will not survive without a state, since they are non -profit, these institutions, of course, should finance. But again, based on their real quality, and not for some thieves or corruption considerations.

- In what condition is the musical industry now? Is this her peak in several decades? Or are we on decline now?

- It has long been noticed that the most interesting art is created in crisis periods. So it was, say, in Russia 10-20s, during the great Russian avant-garde. Moreover, this is a global law. This applies not only to Russia, this also applies to American culture, say, in the 60s: the war in Vietnam, the hippie movement, the movement of protest and so on.

This applies to some closer times. Say, if we recall the same Russian rock, underground or Moscow conceptualism in fine art, and so on. Perhaps the most boring and barren period of culture in modern Russia was zero years. Those very zero years that were the most well -fed, the most calm, so not even supercanious and so on.

-What are the prospects of artists for whom the Russian market is closed for some time? Will they be able to economically and ideologically exist in emigration? Or is it a very individual story?

- All creative people are different. That is, there are artists, writers, artists who are politicized, who are not alien to social and anti -war topics. There are others who are interested in completely different problems. If you do not write songs of protest about the war in Ukraine, then you are a scoundrel and there is no place for you among good people. No. These are creative people, this is a rather thin breed.

I think the prospects for our emigrating artists, in any case, are much better than the prospects of those artists who remained in Russia. Because censorship will only grow stronger, all kinds of persecution of such non-conformist music, and indeed non-conformist art will only intensify. As for the artists, having crossed abroad, I just have a very optimistic sensation about them, because their audience grows and grows very quickly, as more and more young and not very young people from Russia leave.

-What could have been done in two years so that the musical sphere reaches a new level and any problems solve in it?

- I am afraid that the problems are not solved in the field of culture. This is in the economy, in production, in all these things - yes. It all depends on such completely tangible things. The situation is completely different with culture. And the planned economy in the field of culture is neither theoretically nor impossible. Therefore, I said that the only thing to do is to free masters of culture and artists from the pressure of the state and free them on some dependence on the state budget.