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Paper abstract:

In the immediate aftermath of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, the post-Soviet cultural space was soon ablaze with different forms of cultural reactions against the assault. By far the most common were calls to ‘cancel Russia’, to boycott artists, musicians and other cultural actors tainted by their endorsement of the war or collaboration with the Russian regime. More profound reflections focused less on the immediate effects of the invasion and more on the Russian history of assimilation and colonial oppression, often opposed by the global sympathisers of the Soviet modernisation project. Nevertheless, most of these calls have been one-dimensional and often failed to address the structural complexity of the issues, e.g. difference between moral and legal responsibilities or positionality.

In my paper, I propose a more complex and nuanced analytical framework for the ways the history of art and culture will have to be redrafted with a special focus on Central Asian modernity (late 19th to late 20th century). The presentation is a further development of the talk 'What is common between the Russian Army and the Russian contemporary art?' which I have given in recent months to different Central Asian audiences. I will discuss five different ontological levels at which these cultural issues may be identified and the practices associated with them, in particular in the Central Asian context. These include: 1) immediate and somewhat superficial ‘cancel Russia’ policies; 2) deconstruction of the Russian ‘internationalist’ discourse and national re-appropriation of non-Russian actors, places and themes; 3) decolonisation of the Russian / Soviet cultural project and its colonial epistemology; 4) displacement of Russia-centred cultural narratives (e.g. ‘Russian cosmism’, ‘Moscow conceptualism’); 5) de-normalisation of Russian urban culture and recognition of other syntagmatic and paradigmatic localities. I will also talk about the roles of different forms of the Russian language in Central Asia in the post-imperial context.

I will conclude by proposing to set up a working group or a think tank specifically addressing these issues in the CESS / ESCAS community.