Evil comes from a failure to think. It defies thought for as soon as thought tries to engage itself with evil and examine the premises and principles from which it originates, it is frustrated because it finds nothing there. That is the banality of evil.
The war in Ukraine started by Russia on the 24th of February 2022 turned the lives of many Russians upside down. To date, more than 200 000 had to leave the country, many protested, more than 15 000 were arrested, prosecuted and even tortured. The political regime in Russia makes it impossible to protest against the war inside the country. Those who dare, face up to 15 years in prison. And yet, even the most conservative research proves that there are tens of millions of Russian people who do not support the Russian military aggression against Ukraine.
#TheVoiceOfRussia (TVOR) is a non-profit international group of Russian-speaking artists, producers, journalists and other creative professionals around the world united by one purpose – to demand the end of the war, to amplify the anti-war voices among Russians around the world, and to campaign for a free democratic Russia. Our tools are art and journalism. Our method is developing critical and analytical thinking. We also aim to prevent the disconnection of the Russian people from the world and international cultural communities.
We stand firmly with Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in our opposition to the military aggression by the Russian government.
In partnership with the Belgian literary magazine L'Arbre-à-Palabres we are issuing two literary anti-war anthologies - for Ukrainian and for Russian authors.
Anti-war artworks by the Russian artists and illustrators are displayed on the advertising screens in the London Underground
An interactive media experience asking difficult questions about the Russian identity
An anti-war street x digital art project at the Red Square in Metaverse
Fundraising anti-war poetry event #Verses in support of the Ukrainian refugees
Record your favourite anti-war poem on video and forward it to us. A collaboration with ROAR The Russian Oppositional Arts Review
A Russian portraitist Victoria Baigulova is investigating the mark the war is leaving on people's faces
21 Rose on a man's body is a name of torture that was explained in detail by a Russian soldier in a phone conversation with his family intercepted by the Ukrainian forces.
The international Art Against War telegram channel was created on March 13 by a Moscow curator & member of the Feminist Anti-War Resistance Group who prefers to remain anonymous. Journalist and writer Clementine Cecil (London) helps run it.
Right now Russians are experiencing an identity crisis, trying to answer the question: how to live after Bucha? Anna Fenko, an Associate Professor of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Amsterdam, reflects on the lost national identity.
On the 11th of April 2022 Vladimir Kara-Murza, a prominent Russian politician, journalist, historian and a consistent Putin’s critic was arrested in Moscow outside his home. The arrest took place hours after Kara-Murza appeared on CNN criticising the Russian regime and days after he address the US Congress. Kara-Murza has survived two attempts on his life similar to the Novichok poisoning suffered by Alexey Navalny.
Kara-Murza’s speech to US Congressmen in Arizona >>
Photo: Alexey Agaryshev, RIA Novosti
Ilya Yashin is a Russian dissident, politician and public figure, a long-term opponent of Putin’s regime, a municipal deputy, the founder of the democratic movements Solidarity and the People’s Freedom Party (PARNAS), a long-term ally of Russian opposition politician Boris Nemtsov, who was killed in 2015. At the end of June 2022, he was detained and sentenced to a two-week administrative arrest on the trumped-up pretext of allegedly resisting the police, and on the 15th of July, when he was supposed to be released, a criminal case had been initiated against him under a new criminal article, for allegedly “discrediting” the Russian army.
Yashin’s speech in the courtroom >>
Photo: A. Astakhova, Mediazona
Two activists from Ivanovo, lawyer Anastasia Rudenko and businessman Dmitry Silin spent 100 thousand rubles of their own money buying more than 600 copies of Orwell’s dystopian novels “1984” and “Animal Farm” and distributing them for free among their fellow citizens of the town. A court case was initiated against Silin for “discrediting the Russian army” after this action.
Dmitry Skurikhin, a small business owner from the Leningrad region, is listing the names of the bombed Ukrainian cities and towns and anti-war graffiti in the village of Rusko-Visotskoye. He also refuses to shave his beard as long as Putin is in power.
Photo: Viktor Yuliev
From the first day of the war, an activist from Smolensk Vitaly Tsitsurov protests publicly with a placard “No to **r! (“Нет **йне!”). He has been arrested a few times since and has also been bitten by passers-by. But he continues his action.
Photo: Ilya Voroshilov
From the very first day of the war, the activists of the art project The Party Of the Dead are continuously taking part in the anti-war protest. Their faces are hidden under the skull masks but their position is loud and clear – in their unique style, they show that the war brings nothing but death and must be stopped. Their first action on the 22nd of February took place at the Piskaryovskoye Cemetery in St Petersburg, where the victims of the Siege of Leningrad are buried, where they took pictures holding the placards “The dead don’t need the war”, “Are there not enough corpses?”, “Russian power will grow on graves”. The Party of the Dead continues their protest .
“I am Russia and I am trying to stop the tank. But the machine is hiding its operators reliably. I cannot get through to reach them because of the armour. Will you be able to hear me?” An artist Kristina from St Petersburg published this photo on her social media and placed printed copies of it in different locations in her city in protest against the war. This photo is a part of her series “We will never forgive you for this”.
Artur Dmitriev from St Petersburg went out to protest against the war in a sole demonstration with a hand-written slogan: “War has brought so much sorrow making it impossible to forget. There is no forgiveness for those who, again, are plotting aggressive plans.”
Who said that? President Putin himself. These words were pronounced at the Red Square in Moscow on the 9th of May 2021 during the parade celebrating the 76th anniversary of the end of WW2. Artur Dmitriev was arrested and fined 30 000 RUB for “discrediting the purpose of the use of the Russian troops outside Russian Federation”. The author of this discrediting phrase was not affected.
In Moscow, an anonymous activist performed an action “Bucha-Moscow” in protest against the Russian army’s war crimes in Ukraine. It was reported by the “Kholod” internet magazine. In the images taken in the most popular locations in central Moscow, including the Kremlin, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and the Old Arbat the activist is lying on the ground with his hands tied up behind his back – a reference to the war crimes in Bucha near Kiyv where bodies with tied up hands were found after the town was reclaimed from the Russian troops.
The Russian architect and artist Sergei Sitar was arrested in Moscow on the 24th March for hanging a 10-meter-long Ukraine flag with the words “Freedom, Truth, Peace” from the Crimean Bridge. He stood trial and was sentenced to a fine and 15 days in prison.
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