ABSTRACT
Nastia, a civic activist from Tver’, Russia, sent me an e-mail in November 2004. She had set up an art club with her friends that received financial support from the regional governmental committee of youth affairs. The club published a journal and had recently prepared an issue on nationalism in Russia. However, this issue was censored by the authorities with the words ‘now is no time to write about nationalism’. Nastia wrote to me saying:
Here everyone is afraid of their position, afraid to tell the truth. We tried [with our journal] but we were silenced.… Here in Russia everything is much more complicated than it seems. People are not inactive, but they are not allowed to be active; their mouths are shut, everything is decided by those who have power!
