Sergei Morozov

More than three years have passed since Russia launched its full-scale war against Ukraine, annexed a significant part of its territory, and devalued the very principles of humanity — both on the battlefield and within the minds of Russian citizens. The self-isolation of the Russian cultural community inside the country from political reality, together with the absence of artistic reflection on the ongoing violence, has created conditions for the loss of identity, a sense of disorientation, and the feeling of being trapped inside an “eternal yesterday.” On a broader social level, the anticipation of civil conflict continues to grow, while family ties are strained or entirely severed year after year.

Since February 2022, many artists and cultural practitioners have found themselves inside this temporary gap filled with hatred and hostility. Nearly blocked within a condition of provisional existence, overcoming endless barriers of communication, struggling simply to preserve their health and social stability within a new country, these authors and thinkers continue to resist the timeless state in which they have been placed.

The experience of emigration to Germany and the first years of adaptation to the German academic music environment become an important point of observation within this context. The trajectory begins with unsuccessful attempts at assimilation in Armenia in the spring of 2022, continues through two years of study at the Berlin Conservatory, and leads to the current position at the State Opera Theatre in Wiesbaden.

A central place within this narrative belongs to the project Echo of Lyubimovka, which perhaps most accurately reveals the depth and consistency of the anti-war position within Russian-language theatrical emigration in recent years. A crucial role in the project was played by Anastasia Patlay (Spain), Nana Grinshtein (Germany), and Elena Gordienko (France). Echo of Lyubimovka deserves a separate and full-scale study in itself, yet already now it allows one to see how a new theatrical and cultural environment is being formed beyond Russia’s borders.