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AllaPugachevaNatashasAdventuresRomanNFKRZDepressedRussian.jpeg

One Year After the Invasion: The Russians Who Didn't Hush

By Alberto Cox Délano | Social Media | March 8, 2023 |

By Alberto Cox Délano | Social Media | March 8, 2023 |


AllaPugachevaNatashasAdventuresRomanNFKRZDepressedRussian.jpeg

One of the ultimate acts of bravery as a principled person is to denounce your own country when your country, one that you might love for all the right reasons, is doing something evil. And when that evil thing is (as usual) invading a foreign country with genocidal rules of engagement, that ultimate act of bravery will demand something even harder: Rooting for your country being defeated. And I say country because even though it is always a corrupt, broken government calling the shots, such decisions require for a lot of the population to willfully look the other way, to willfully refuse to question propaganda, and to willfully embrace the entitlement to aggression.

In pretty much every article I’ve written relating to Russia, I’ve been transparent that, for a Leftist, my feelings about the Russian government and its supporters are not that different than those of a US General in the 80s. I’m still convinced that, just like most Germans in the 30s, Russians chose this by looking away.

But for the very same reason, it’s crucial we acknowledge all the Russians that, while living in Russia, have taken a stance not just against Putin, but against the entire structure of authoritarianism, reactionarism, and ethnic-supremacist beliefs that have underpinned the Russian Empire, whether that configuration is OG Tsarism, the USSR or Putin’s current mix of the former and the latter. The Russians that didn’t just need to be recognized because they have gone further in political journeys that have taken them further than most Russian oppositional figures, the ones lionized by the English-speaking liberal press. A “further” that has become, as of last year, exile.

They did it while having a lot to lose, even though they are nowhere near as well connected as other prominent opposition Russians. As Russian history has proven over and over again, there is never such a thing as “having nothing to lose”. Consider Russian Youtubers and Music acts.

There is a very popular sub-genre of vlogs and travelogues from Russian creators on YouTube. Their popularity is a result of “Western” curiosity, but let’s say that there are more than a few that are just Putinist propaganda plants. We’ll get to them in a second.

First, I would like to shout out Roman, from the channel NFRKZ, who has been very popular since at least 2017. Through his affable but energetic personality, he has dedicated himself to explaining issued with Russian politics, history and pop culture in a painfully honest, heartfelt and critical way. He has made no attempts to hide his contempt for Putin or his Social-Democratic leanings. The channel demystifies the issues of contemporary Russian life, stereotyped in “the West.” One of my favorites is his rant against Westerners, especially on the right wing, and their fetishization of Russian women. Roman mopped the floor with them, their dog-whistles, and their idolization of Russia.

None of that could hold after the Special Military Invasion, so he left for Georgia, as millions of other young Russian people. It wasn’t just the political persecution, he is 25 and in good health, he probably would’ve been forced into the draft. Ever since, he has continued to post about how Russia lost its goddamn mind with Z propaganda, crucial moments in recent Russian history that explain the situation today, but more importantly, he is probably one of the most interesting and regular voices describing the plight of anti-Putin Russian in exile, especially with them being in diplomatic limbo: Unable to enter the EU or US on a regular visa, unable to go elsewhere but mostly authoritarian countries. And yet, in every video about his and his … generation’s current status, he always reminds everybody that his plight doesn’t even compare to that of the Ukrainians. He still has resources and a very popular (but probably not advertising-friendly) YouTube channel. But even for him, the future looks stagnant. His channel had always been interesting, but it has now become a proper chronicle. Sometimes they are hard to watch because Roman’s self-deprecating and Russian sense of humor are clearly hiding exhaustion and hopelessness, but they are a “need” watch.

In fact, several young Russian vloggers ended up becoming chroniclers of their own Historical shock, of their own country’s further moral decay, and ultimately of their exile. They are all either barely out of the Uni, or halfway through it, they started English-language channels because they wanted to show their countries’ cultures, cities, and geography. They were probably politicized from before, but all they actually wanted was to start an international community, the exact thing the Internet was always supposed to do. They just happen to coincide with the other good thing the Internet could do: Be a platform against oppressive regimes. They include @DepressedRussian, @RussianPlus, Niki Proshin. But perhaps the one I’m most in awe of is Natasha, from the channel @NatashasAdventures. Not to diminish Roman’s braveness, but he had already had a long career (in YouTube) and a solid fanbase, while the career of the creators was just blowing up. Same thing with Natasha, who just liken Roman, comes from a working-class family in Siberia. Roman from Chelyabinsk (closer to Kazakhstan’s capital than to Moscow) and Natasha from near Khabarovsk, closer to Tokyo, Seoul and freaking Hawaii than Moscow. Perhaps the fact that she lived so far from the two capital poles prevented her from suffering any backlash (even completing her undergrad studies last year). But still, she has been direct, vocal and unrelenting in her opposition to Putin and her support for Ukraine. Literally just a few weeks into the invasion. She has participated in public protests before, which was the one, absolute, no-go for Russian opposition before the war. Not to mention she has always been openly pro-Queer in all her public platforms, in ways that I’m pretty sure are against the Russian laws that got Ron DeSantis and the GOP salivating. As to be expected, she has also gone into exile in Georgia.

Seeing her videos-blogs, or those of her peers, you feel admiration, but also anger. Not at the tragedy in general, other types of anger that can deal with that.

It makes me angry at other Russian social media personalities or artists who have stuck with Putin, said nothing, or worse, nothing of substance. There is another popular Russian Vlogger, Eli from Russia, who has said nothing but banal “war is bad” platitudes in her Instagram and YouTube uploads, deflecting the painful questions with “I’ve never been political” and “I just want to show the wonderful things about my country”, in glossy, high-quality (too high quality, suspiciously high quality) travel videos set to wafer-thing insights. It makes for facile content for conservative people everywhere, just a lovely Russian showing the good parts of Russia (in the name of “balance”). The same thing can be said of US propagandists residing in Moscow, like Rachel Blevins. Or the myriad of Russian artists who collaborate with their silence or their support, eschewing dignity for a career.

Someone should remind them of Chilean actors and artists during our dictatorship, who overwhelmingly and vocally opposed it. They were threatened, at least one was murdered. And unlike their Russian counterparts, they lived far and away from places of shelter, like the US or Germany. They barely had money, compared to the economies of scale of Russia’s cultural industry. The insularity of our cultural industry prevented them from having many connections outside Chile, even in Argentina or Mexico. Moreover, some couldn’t even rely on white privilege.

You might understand why I feel zero sympathy for the whatever excuses pro-Putin celebrities and artists might have in the future.

But since we are talking here about the ones who are doing the right thing, let me leave you with two video essays, one by Roman, about the Russian music stars that have been vocally opposed to Putin, many of them legacy acts that opposed the Soviet regime. A huge surprise for everybody was how Alla Pugacheva (in the banner photo), one of the biggest Russian-language singers ever, denounced the war. And now is in exile, in Israel. But as Roman says, it helps so much to see someone as establishment like her doing the right thing, it means it’s not you, the ground citizen, that is doing the crazy thing being anti-war.

Both videos are great introductions to Russian Rock, Pop & Hip-Hop scenes, deeply politicized and unique in sound and aesthetics, and which like every worthwhile piece of Russian art, it succeeds in rejecting the official Imperial line.

There is a lot of bravery in staying in your country to fight a dictatorship. But there’s also bravery in saying “not me” when your country forces you into wars of aggression, there is bravery and risk in going into exile, depriving a depraved country from another easily disposable body. And the International Community should do something to help them, at least in resettling, and yes, provided that they denounce the regime. Because while millions of young Russian men and women are scrapping whatever cash and Turkish, Georgian or English skills they have to flee, a few hundred children of oligarchs or pro-Putin celebrities are allowed to live their influencer lives all over the planet. The ones who hush are the ones we shouldn’t allow in.

No smarm now, Alberto Cox really, really hopes all these Russian artists manage to find a way to stabilize their residence status.