Twenty words to tell the story of Russia: without the claim to fully understand it, but with the intention of overcoming stereotypes and legends, not surrendering in front of its arcane “soul”, penetrating the strategies of Putin's propaganda, discovering how rhetoric and narratives have, once again, prevailed over History and reality.
All through the analysis of 20 cultural concepts that have traveled from antiquity, filtered through the Soviet experience, to the present day. Often mystified, resemantized, selected to rewrite history multiple times from the perspective of the ruling regime. “Russian idea,” “ecumenism,” “stability,” “monumental patriotism,” up to batjuška, the “dear father-master” that many leaders have taken as a model and that many citizen-subjects still seem to appreciate and yearn for.
A way to free Russia from the monopoly of its own image and not condemn it to yet another cliché. Gian Piero Piretto
Thursday at 7 p.m. From boundless space to nostalgia for the past, a linguistic Russian salad that tells of a country that is talked about a lot but understood little. Vodka maybe not, but toasts guaranteed.
