Since 2022, Moscow has Sought to ‘Rebrand’ Jazz as an Authentic Part of Russian Tradition, Okhotenko Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 29 – As Putin increased repression in the years before he launched his expanded war in Ukraine, “music emerged as one of the few remaining areas for public dissent,” Yana Okhotenko says; but  after 2022, the Russian music scene was “transformed” both as an instrument of state ideology and a form of personal expression.”

            In a lengthy article, the Russian musician now living in emigration offers an intriguing answer to the question: “If the state turns music into a weapon of propaganda, can music in turn become a weapon of protest?” (posle.media/article/russian-music-after-2022-between-propaganda-and-protest).

            After the expanded war began, the Kremlin stepped up its “demands not just for passive patriotism from its citizens – the silent loyalty that had once been enough no longer was – and insisted on active allegiance,” thus forcing musicians who had tried to remain apolitical to choose between working for there regime, actively opposing it, or choosing to emigrate.

            She gives numerous examples of how various musicians have navigated this divide but provides an especially intriguing example in how the Russian authorities have shifted in their treatment of jazz. “From the early 2000s until 2022,” she writes, jazz in Russia “thrived as part of an independent club and festival scene” closely integrated with western artists.

            But following the invasion, she continues, the regime redefined jazz not as a recent import but “as an authentically Russian tradition, downplaying the repression the Russian and soviet authorities had inflicted on it and even making the claim that “Russia has the coolest jazz musicians.”

            That is just one of the changes since 2022, Okhotenko says. Since then, “the Russian state has not only worked to reengineer the cultural landscape but also to systematically purge independent voices.” And is has come up with as strategy that makes protest by many musicians extremely difficult.

            This tactic consists of allowing musicians with opposition views to continue to perform alongside artists that the state approves of but not advertising the participation of the former in any advertising of the shows they are part of. Consequently, many Russian artists now are in a limbo: they can continue to perform but can’t count on reaching new audiences.

            Nonetheless, many Russian musicians have left the country since the expanded war n Ukraine began. According to estimates at the end of 2022, approximately 30 percent of Russia’s professional musicians have emigrated, sometimes to halfway houses like Armenia and Georgia and increasingly often to western countries.

            These artists face many problems including making a living and maintaining a distinct national identity while integrating with the music scene in the countries they now live in. Many continue to protest but their voices are mostly heard only abroad and only by those who already share their views, limiting their impact however much Western coverage they receive.