Kyiv imposes ban on Russian-language culture
Kyiv imposes ban on Russian-language culture
A temporary ban has been imposed on Russian art and culture in the Ukrainian capital. Human rights activists say the move is discriminatory and unconstitutional.
Street musicians singing Russian songs in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv could soon face problems. Likewise, bars and restaurants playing Russian background music may end up getting in trouble.
The reason is that Kyiv city council has issued a temporary ban on performing or showcasing Russian-language art and culture — such as books, music, plays and concerts — in public. This ban also encompasses cultural and educational programs. The restriction not only applies to works by Russian authors and creators, but to all cultural products publicly presented in or translated into Russian.
Ukrainian MPs said the move was designed to protect Ukraine from Russian influence. "Russia is the language of the aggressor and it has no place in the heart of our capital," said Vadym Vasylchuk, the deputy chairman of the Standing Committee on Education and Science, Youth and Sports. Mere symbolism?
The move is backed by Ukraine's Vidsich (Defense) movement, which began calling for a ban on the Russian language and Russian goods, films and music in 2014, following the annexation of Crimea. "A ban on Russian-language cultural products is necessary," Vidsich activist Kateryna Chepura told DW. "This is an additional lever for activists working to boycott everything Russian, so we can say: shut it down, remove Russian from public life."
The Kyiv city council ban, however, is temporary, lending it a symbolic quality only. A permanent, legally binding ban would require support from Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.
As a result, Chepura calls Kyiv's temporary ban "an ineffective instrument, because you cannot be held accountable for disregarding it." She regards it as a "moral factor encouraging people who do not want to continue tolerating Russian music on the streets or in theater."
In fact, certain Russian-language cultural products are already prohibited in Ukraine. The bans date back to September 2019, when the first restrictions were imposed in the region of Lviv. Subsequently, other cities like Ternopil and Zhytomyr in the Volhynia region, followed suit. Cause for controversy
Human rights activist Volodymyr Yavorskyy of the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties, however, said such bans are discriminatory and unconstitutional. "These are illegal decisions, because local authorities have no right to regulate such issues and impose such bans," Yavorskyy told DW. "That is why they have no legal consequences." The judiciary, he added, had already deemed such local bans illegal.
A person violating the Kyiv city council moratorium on Russian cultural products cannot be held accountable, Yaworskyy said. "These bans issued by local authorities are nothing but political gestures — only the Ukrainian parliament can turn such bans into law." Only then, he said, would they become legally binding and enforceable.
In June 2022, the Ukrainian parliament already banned publicly playing songs by Russian artists. The restriction does not, however, apply to Russian singers who condemn Russia's war against Ukraine. Recently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also signed a law banning the import and distribution of Russian books. It was passed by parliament last year.
Regardless of whether or not local bans are in place, playing Russian music in public is bound to cause controversy. Take, for instance, a recent disagreement between a 17-year-old busker and Ukrainian MP Natalya Pipa. She complained when the teenager performed songs by Russian rock legend Viktor Tsoi on the street in Lviv, who in return insulted the woman, saying he was allowed to play whatever music he liked. Later, however, the busker published a video in which he apologized to the lawmaker.
Another altercation occurred in the village of Pohreby, in the Kyiv region. There, a young woman was thrown out of a cafe for complaining that the establishment was playing a song by Russian pop singer Grigory Leps supporting Russia's war against Ukraine. Do not copy Russian aggression
Yevgenia Belorusets, a Ukrainian artist, translator and author who works in Ukrainian Russian and German, says the Russian-language ban is discriminatory. "These bans perpetuate the myth that Ukrainian culture is always being discriminated against," she told DW. "This then supposedly gives it the right to discriminate against other forms of cultural expression." Yevgenia Belorusets is seen looking into the camera
"Ukrainian-language culture knows too well how discrimination feels," she added. "It should not try to overcome this trauma by inflicting similar pain on others." The creator said Ukraine should not mirror Russian aggressors and refrain from "projecting Russia's aggressive intentions onto Ukraine's complex cultural situation."
Belorusets said language bans could divide Ukrainian society, warning that "it's getting harder and harder to talk about this in Ukraine, because doing so is immediately labeled as a hostile act." Ukraine's future as a democratic state, she said, depends on granting everyone their rights and accepting their own complicated past. "The challenge consists in accepting competing views within society."
It's horrible. Art is one of scarce things that builds bridges over intolerance and differences.
Unfortunately invasions make tolerance pretty difficult.
Yes, that's true.
For context: The UK and US did not ban German classical music during WW1 and WW2, and works by Beethoven, Mozart, Wagner, Brahms etc were performed and broadcast on radio.
Unsurprisingly the Nazis did censor a lot of music. Don't be like the Nazis is the lesson, I guess.
For context, the US threw almost everyone of Japanese ancestry into camps in WW2 and banned Japanese-language assemblage, worshipping, cultural events, and recreation.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/107769900308000407
While the US government didn't. The people did.
The coming of World War I brought with it a backlash against German culture in the United States. When the U.S. declared war on Germany in 1917, anti-German sentiment rose across the nation, and German American institutions came under attack. Some discrimination was hateful, but cosmetic: The names of schools, foods, streets, and towns, were often changed, and music written by Wagner and Mendelssohn was removed from concert programs and even weddings. Physical attacks, though rare, were more violent: German American businesses and homes were vandalized, and German Americans accused of being "pro-German" were tarred and feathered, and, in at least once instance, lynched.
https://www.loc.gov/classroom-materials/immigration/german/shadows-of-war/
Don’t be like the Nazis is the lesson, I guess.
Ohhhh
😆 😆 😆 😆
lowkey roast, totally evil
Sorry not allowed peace, art and communication anymore. Got a probrem? Bombs only
Nope, its not art by itself. Its Artists that create art with the intention to build bridges and recipients enjoying and spreading the art because they like to see those bridges being built.
Then it's good that I said that Art is one of scarce things that builds bridges over intolerance and differences, rather than made the claim that it's the only thing that does and needs no people to do that, yes?
Russia is committing genocide against the Ukrainians and you’re worried about building bridges over “differences”?
Of course, the unprompted violence against a people must be the first thing to be addressed. But this new policy does nothing to actually help in that fight while doing harm to the peace which one would hope would happen afterward. There have been nations in perpetual states of war, and it's rather horrible. No one should want this to become one.
Well at least kyiv seems to take the time out of their day over it.
I hate Putin but the language and the culture being banned is a bit much.
I think it makes sense. It's unfortunate, but Russia isn't doing much in good faith, and it limits certain otherwise freedoms. Same with access to Internet. Trolls are everywhere in numbers. They play dirty in politics and are driving forces behind much of what I hate in the world, from the NRA og brexit. Anything that destabilises the west is in their playbook. Not getting to play, would be such a breath of fresh air.
Eh, while the invasion is ongoing it makes sense.
So, you think this is going to be reversed after?
I don't think so, not as a temporary measure. We are talking about a country being invaded, imaginr your friends, family, and fellow countrymen being murdered, displaced, and their rights and freedom stripped from them.
And you think it's wrong to stop honoring the invaders culture while the invasion is actively in progress?
Wasn't "protecting Russian language and culture" one of Putlers first justifications for the invasion? Like, I think it's kinda fucked up to ban the language and culture, but then again my country has never been invaded by a neighboring war criminal who used "we're just protecting our language and culture in your land" so my opinion isn't nearly as valid as the opinion of people who are currently in that situation
Exactly. I remember that happening all the way back in 2014, as my Ukrainian friend was complaining that speaking Russian on university campus in Kiev could get you expelled. But then there's a group of people who are just trying to provoke Russians, like those idiots who are shitting on Russian opposition, mocking dead soldiers, and the whole nafo thing where they meme about completely unrelated Russian's death. Its weird when like a third of their population is straight up Russian and the rest is bilingual with close ties to it. One could say those are kremlin's bots but lots of them have blue checkmarks. I hate to say it, but there's a little grain of truth behind Russian propaganda because someone is definitely fueling hatred between nations. Well, aside from Putin himself.
Come on Ukraine, don't be a China.
I don't think there's anything wrong with boycotting Russian language and culture in Ukraine due to current situation, but banning it? That's just against the freedom of speech, and this should not be allowed in a country that wishes to be a western democracy and wants to join our multinational organizations.
Disclaimer: I might be slightly biased because I have been learning Russian for more than 3 years. But I also separate politics from language and culture.
This is not a good news but it's also not so difficult to understand the viewpoint of some Ukrainians that can't stand any longer the language of the invader, that bombs them everynight, that destroyed entire cities, raped women and children, kidnapped them, created an ecocide at the former dam, and the list goes on and on and on.. Russian was widely spoken in Kyiv before the war, this is a direct consequence of all these horrors.
created an ecocide at the former dam
This will age poorly.
Or do you already know?
This is fucked up even if temporary. I do understand why they did it, I mean if my country was being invaded I probably wouldn't want the language and culture of the invader on my doorstep, but this still is a violation of freedom of speech.
there's no freedom of speech during a war. nothing odd, imo.
I speak Russian and generally think Russian is one of the most interesting languages in the world but the culture attached to it is so incredibly toxic. I think separating culture from the language itself is basically an impossible task. I don't disagree with this decision tbh.
Why is the culture toxic? Asking from pure curiosity, I don't know much about Russian culture.
I don't know if this is what the op had in mind, but from my perspective the propaganda of success is a huge issue. Basically they can do no wrong, e.g. Chernobyl disaster. That and unhinged imperialism that makes them think other countries should be happy for the opportunity to live under Russian rule (Which is poverty and corruption).
Speaking Russian doesn't make you an asset of the enemy. We have a lot of Legion of Freedom personnel who are unable to speak Ukrainian.
" a young woman was thrown out of a caffe by complaining that the establishment was playing music from a russian pop singer"
As a chad aux enthusiast i can only say deserved
hell naw. that's too far. don't drag the people into this again
Seems incompatible with our values tbh.
Good on ‘em.
As long as you allow Russian culture in your orders, Russia will use the angle of “saving the Russians in X” country to invade.
It sucks that Russia has forced this outcome but it’s the only safe move left as long as Russia is still around committing genocide against its neighbours.
This is bullshit, they actively discriminate against ethnic russians that are a huge part of ukrainian population