ABSTRACT
The annexation of Crimea and Russia’s participation in the conflict raging in Eastern Ukraine divided the Russian cultural elite. A number of prominent writers, artists, journalists and musicians never got on board with the Kremlin and its politics. Meanwhile, another set of artists, ideologists, writers, musicians and theatre personalities, no less prominent, enthusiastically embraced the ‘Russian Spring’ and began actively participating in information support for the separatist movement in Donetsk and Lugansk. This second group of contemporary Russian culture is much less known and studied in the West, probably due to its anti-Western rhetoric and the ideological views which can be described as highly critical of current Western politics and mainstream culture. The most notable figures of the post-Soviet conservative camp who actively take part in information support for the projects ‘Novorossiia’ and ‘Russian Spring’ [Russkaia Vesna] are the ideologists and writers Eduard Limonov, Alexandr Dugin, Alexandr Prokhanov, Zakhar Prilepin, Sergei Shargunov, Mikhail Elizarov, German Sadulaev and Egor Kholmogorov; artists Alexei Belyaev-Gintovt, Anton Chumak, Dima Mishenin and his art group Doping-Pong; musicians Alexander Skliar, Julia Chicherina and the ‘Elefunk’ band (Zakhar Prilepin’s band), who film videos for their songs in the combat zone; and popular actor and orthodox priest Ivan Okhlobystin, to name but a few.
