Russian Artist Margarita Kuleva Speaks Out Against Putin’s Censorship Regime

By Nayan Seth, MGA 2024 Candidate, The Fletcher School

Tufts University’s School of Museum of Fine Arts and Department of Sociology hosted Margarita Kuleva, a Russian cultural sociologist and performance artist, for a special session showcasing her work on March 13, 2024. Kuleva, who is also a Scholar at Risk and Artist Protection Fund Scholar at Tufts University, spoke about her interdisciplinary work in cultural studies, philosophy, and sociology, focusing on creative labor and the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on artists.

She revealed that many artists still residing in Russia are living in a “state of depression.”

“They are very angry about what happened, but they cannot express that. So, it’s like a silent house. It’s very hard for people to live in this authoritarian state,” she said, adding that the current situation in Russia is one of “extreme terror and censorship.”

“Most of the people I was talking to…were anti-war, but it’s very hard to say that. Not just because it’s dangerous, but because Putin’s regime has built a widespread network of social norms, creating a picture that being anti-war is not just anti-Putin but it’s anti-social,” Dr. Kuleva added. 

She also stressed that the state’s crackdown machinery has deliberately avoided defining red lines for artists.

“This new Russian censorship has a feeling of fluidity, no one will give you guidance on what’s right or what’s wrong, and people have to guess all of the time. I think that’s how the Russian government works.”

She said that Putin’s tactics of exerting control involve attempting to create a veneer of legitimacy while clamping down on any form of dissent.

“He tries to put in the image like he’s a democratically elected president, so and by extension, state institutions act exactly like that,” she said.

Kuleva also discussed her initiative, Rita Helps, through which she speaks virtually to ordinary Russians and Ukrainians affected by the war.  

“It’s free sessions for everybody who was affected by Putin’s war in Ukraine. So I do consultations every Friday as individual Zoom sessions. I did more than 90 of them. Among them, many were Russians, many were Ukrainians, and some were Russian-Ukrainians because many families have mixed backgrounds.”