Spectators are not at the cashier

“The abolition of Russian culture” does not take place in the West: the Alexandrinsky Theater shot the popular performance “1881”, because - Akunin*

The Alexandrinsky Theater canceled the schedule of one of its best performances planned on January 12, 13 and 14 - “one eight eight -one”, telling about the last days of the reign of Emperor Alexander the Second, his murder, the first days of the reign of Alexander the Third and the failure of attempts to carry out at least small but liberal reforms.

The playful performance (tickets are sold instantly) and incredibly relevant (not without reason the main antagonists-the Minister of Internal Affairs Mikhail Loris-Melikov and the chief prosecutor of the Synod Konstantin Pobedonostsev-unlike other characters-are dressed in expensive and modern office costumes).

In November 2023, when I watched the performance, there was a feeling of “complete immersion” in that era-he was so masterfully set by Valery Fokin.

And yet it is removed - why?

Yes, because it was staged based on the play of the now disgraced by Boris Akunin, announced by a “foreign agent” yesterday, and before that - included by Rosfinmonitoring in the list of “terrorists and extremists”.

My assistant, who bought tickets for “1881” for January 14, informed me of the cancellation of the play. But in the afternoon of January 12, she received an email that the performance was canceled. On the theater’s website, in the poster on January 13 and 14 (the days when the performance was supposed to go), instead of “1881” there was information that the tour “brilliant Alexandrinsky Theater” will be held on the main stage these days.

It is not necessary to doubt that this is due to the inclusion of Akunin in a well -known list, although the theater did not give any explanations for journalists yesterday. The St. Petersburg media write that the VKontakte network in the theater group only reported that “everything is true, the closest shows of the performance are canceled, all funds will be returned for the purchased tickets”, but do not answer the question of the reasons for the cancellation.

Meanwhile - although Akunin was introduced to the register of “foreign agents” only on January 12, 2024 - his name in the fall of 2023 was no longer mentioned in the 1881 poster or in the programs sold at the play. Apparently, because-despite the absence of Akunin’s socio-political position in different “lists” (living abroad since 2014) was well known and radically different from the official one. Recall that his books began to be removed from the shelves from the summer of 2022 (then the Zakharov publishing house accused the house of the book “Young Guard” of that he removed the works of Boris Akunin from his shelves on his own initiative in order to avoid possible troubles due to the writer’s position).

This is a visual illustration of the current situation, when no one really understands what is possible and what is impossible, and they are rebuilt to the maximum, because they will definitely not punish for excessive prohibitions, but for permission even not forbidden, but it may well “fly up” ...

In December 2023, after Akunin was played by the prankers, his performances (before the subsequent initiation of a criminal case under the article on fakes about the army) removed the Moscow Russian Academic Youth Theater and the Provincial Theater, all theaters where the performances of Akunin’s plays were taken from the Investigative Committee, and the AST publishing house, the network of book The stores "Read Gorod-Bookwood" and Internet sites suspended the spread of his books.

At the same time, it is worth noting (the famous St. Petersburg critic and publicist Mikhail Zolotonosov drew attention to this) that none of Akunin’s books is included in the federal list of extremist materials, and there are no court decisions on them. Nevertheless, on December 30, Zolotonosov discovered that writer Boris Akunin disappeared from the General Electronic Catalog of the Russian National Library. There is not a single bibliographic record on the author with such a surname and with that name.

Meanwhile, even the inclusion of extremist materials in the list of extremist materials, Zolotonosov says, forces the RNB to not be issued to readers, but at the same time not to delete from the catalog.

However, it was deleted - on the principle of "better to overdo" ...

This, of course, is a complete replica of Soviet practice, when the books of the authors who emigrated and lost citizenship were immediately removed from the libraries, and the films were “laid on the shelf”, although there were no court decisions about this.

And now - the Alexandrinsky Theater. The audience will definitely not see the audience in the near future.

This is how the “culture of cancellation” looks in Russian.

More precisely, the “abolition of Russian culture”, which is not at all in the West, as propagandists say.

* Recognized by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation "Inoagent".