Russia has been the scene of many cultural conflicts in recent years, but now that it is in the midst of a global economic crisis, the country is once again at the centre of controversy.
In a country that was once the playground of intellectuals, a generation of young people is now looking for a way out.
“They have become disillusioned with traditional ways of life,” says Ekaterina Kolesnikova, a cultural historian.
“They are looking for something new and different.”
“Culture is a very old, old thing,” adds Ekaterinas Ponomareva, director of the Russian Institute of Culture, who is also a journalist.
“When we were young, there were very few Russians who would watch a documentary about the USSR.
Nowadays, it is very popular and it has become a topic of conversation among people in Russia.”
Cultural clashes are not a new phenomenon in Russia, but they have been happening for a long time,” she adds.
This month’s celebrations of the centenary of the birth of Vladimir Lenin in Moscow are a perfect example of the changes that are taking place in the country.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has not only turned the country into a political and cultural powerhouse, but has also turned it into a country with a unique culture.
It is more important than ever for the country to have an active, vibrant, and modern, but in a way that is very different from its past.” “
We are seeing the change in the national culture and the country’s relationship to its history,” Kolesnikovs Ponomarenas says.
“It is more important than ever for the country to have an active, vibrant, and modern, but in a way that is very different from its past.”
And it’s not just the young who are trying to find their place in Russia’s new culture.
“A lot of people are trying new things and taking a new look at Russia’s past and its culture,” Ponomares says.
“There are people who are doing a lot of research and they are starting to understand what happened to the Soviet Union.”
The Russian leader has been making efforts to bring in more people from the former Soviet republics to his country, but it is still a relatively small and isolated population, according to KolesNikova.
“There is still not enough people who have a taste for this kind of stuff,” she says.
The cultural centre of the capital, St Petersburg, is being transformed into a multi-cultural village, but there are also concerns that some of the city’s cultural institutions, such as museums, are not being adequately funded.
There are concerns about how the Russian government will pay for these cultural institutions in the future, says Ekaters Ponomarias.
“This is a concern for all of us in Russia,” she continues.
“The current government is in a really difficult situation.
They have to do something about the budget gap.”
The president has promised to increase funding for the arts and the arts are now receiving more attention than ever.
But this may be about more than just money.
A recent poll showed that Russians were increasingly sceptical about the state of the arts, with just over half of those polled saying they had no trust in the authorities.
Kolesnikovas Ponomarianas says that the issue is not about money, but about how artists and their audiences are portrayed in Russia and how that affects their work.
“We need to talk about these issues openly and openly, not in secret,” she explains.
That is the biggest problem in Russia: an over-saturation of artistic and cultural projects, which, in turn, creates an environment that is too difficult for artists to work in.
“Artists are really struggling in Russia right now,” says Ponomarinas.
“Artists feel that the government doesn’t listen to them, and it doesn’t pay attention to them.”
“It’s about creating an atmosphere that is friendly and friendly with the artist, but not so friendly that artists feel like they are not valued.”
Artists have also noticed a shift in the way Russian culture is represented, which is creating a climate of mistrust.
“I think it is quite clear that the media is the main driver of cultural conflict,” Ekaters Kolesikova says.
According to Ponomarides, this has been especially the case in the arts.
“In the arts it is more difficult for young artists to be able to get their work in the public domain, and I think this is also the reason for the growing distrust of the media,” she added.
“Young people are really frustrated with the lack of progress in the media, and this is not just with Russia, this is happening in every country in the world.”
KolesNikas Pomarenas is also concerned that some cultural institutions are not paying enough attention to their own funding. In
