Dumbing Russia Down

Mikhail Prokopenko, spokesman for the Russian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate, said last week that it intended to use its "influence and good relations" with the state to "protect children from the negative influence" of certain TV programs that "corrupt moral values." "The state intends to turn young Russians into zombies so that they do not have any independent political thoughts," complains Anna Tikhomirova, director of a Moscow-based center for the study of teenage development.

Still, pockets of free speech and creativity remain—just as long as artists don't attract too wide an audience. Dmitry Bykov, one of Russia's best-known writers, denounces state-controlled television for creating "imbeciles" out of Russians. Yet his "Novoe Vremechko" cultural TV show is tolerated by the authorities, largely because of its low ratings. The same goes for the often passionately anti-Kremlin Ekho Moskvy radio broadcasts. In a nation of 140 million people, it attracts just 848,000 listeners at its peak. Meanwhile, a new generation of writers is starting to emerge, like Chechen war veteran Zakhar Prilepin, who writes brutal novels and short stories about day-to-day life in modern Russia. The question, though, is whether writers like Prilepin will shape Russia's intellectual future—or if it will be determined by a highly conformist mainstream.

© 2008