Whether or not they are opposed to the invasion of Ukraine, Russian personalities from the world of culture find themselves in the crosshairs of Ukrainian activists supported by their government. Wherever they are. Caught under the fire of criticism, Western cultural institutions continuing to program Russian artists more than a year after the start of the war were called upon to choose their camp. Sometimes they crack under pressure.
This is what just happened Tuesday, May 16 in New York. Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen has walked out of PEN America, a writers’ club that has been promoting freedom of expression for a century. A noted voice of the Russian LGBTQ community and acerbic critic of Vladimir Putin, she resigned from the organization’s office after the cancellation of the roundtable she was to host three days earlier.
PEN America scrapped the event after two Ukrainian writers, Artem Chapeye and Artem Chekh, threatened to boycott another World Voices Festival roundtable, which was scheduled to feature two Russian authors, Anna Nemzer and Ilya Venyavkin. Both writers and fighters in the Ukrainian armed forces, the two men told PEN America that they had not been warned of the presence of Russians at the festival.
The Ukrainian government has urged its nationals never to participate in cultural events where they share the stage with Russian citizens. Anna Nemzer and Ilya Venyavkin left Russia soon after their country invaded Ukraine and clearly oppose the Russian invasion.
“Rule served in advance”
Measured, Masha Gessen sees in PEN America’s decision “a mistake, but not a malicious act”and avoids any attack on the Ukrainians. “They are waging a defensive war with all the means at their disposal. The litigation concerns only the decision of PEN”confided the journalist to the New York Times.
Ukrainian writer Iryna Tsilyk, who participated in the roundtable on “fighter writers”, regrets that the error of PEN America is used by some commentators to stigmatize “those cruel and vindictive Ukrainians”. In a text published on her Facebook page, she recalls that the rule of not sharing the scene with the Russians has been “notified well in advance to the organizers”. “We did not blackmail or coerce anyone (…), but we cannot go against our principles”she writes, irritated that the Russians are presented as victims.
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