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Julie Curtis, Professor of Russian Literature (Emerita), University of Oxford

How Russia's theatre scene has been obliterated by Putin’s culture war

View from stage of Moscow's Vakhtangov Theatre. Pavel L Photo and Video/Shutterstock

Over the past decade, Russian president Vladimir Putin’s regime has introduced ideologically driven cultural policies intended to shape a new, virtuous Russian citizen for the future.

For those – like Putin himself – old enough to remember the Soviet Union, the imposition of an authoritarian cultural policy in the name of ideology comes very naturally. In those days it was called “socialist realism”, and was intrinsic to the goals of the ruling Communist party.

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