March 19, 2023

20 Years for Rehearsing a Play?


20 Years for Rehearsing a Play?
Grigory Beresnev. Screenshot from Olga Savina-Zulaeva's short doc film, "Grigory Beresnev's Process." Youtube Screen Capture

Grigory Beresnev, 29, faces up to 20 years in prison for rehearsing a play.

A local actor and a teacher and directory at the Children's Theater in Tolyatti, Beresnev was taken by British playwright Rebecca Prichard's pathbreaking, award-winning 1998 play, Yard Girl, which takes a hard, in-your-face look at the reality of violence against young women and how little attention society pays to this.

After cutting from the play its strong language and references to the characters' sexual experiences, Beresnev began working with students to stage the play. Later, when those students' parents asked their kids what play they were staging, and then they looked it up, they were shocked – because they looked at the unedited play.

The upshot is that nine charges were filed against Beresnev for "knowing that the work was material of a pornographic character, he, with the assistance of underage minors, undertook actions that acquainted his students with the work. He also undertook the distribution, demonstration, and advertisement of material of a pornographic nature depicting minors."

Further, according to investigators, he “did all this with a sexual motive because of his attraction or causing excitement in minors.”

But here's the rub (or several of them).

An adaptation of Prichard's play ("Разбивая стекло") has been staged in Russia since 2000, including in Tolyatti.

The so-called expert called in to provide evidence that let to Beresnev's charges is nothing of the sort. His method of determining "pornographic content" amounts, apparently, to simply counting up the number of words in a work, and seeing what percent those words comprise of the entire work.

Beresnev is currently under house arrest, awaiting the first hearing in his trial, which will take place March 27, which also happens to be International Day of Theater. There has been support for Beresnov raised internationally, including statements from Prichard and the Western theatrical community. Playwright and linguist Olga Savina-Zulayeva has also started a Telegram channel in support of Beresnev, and has created a short documentary film about his case (embedded below).

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Dostoyevsky Bilingual

Bilingual series of short, lesser known, but highly significant works that show the traditional view of Dostoyevsky as a dour, intense, philosophical writer to be unnecessarily one-sided. 
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

Maria's War: A Soldier's Autobiography

This astonishingly gripping autobiography by the founder of the Russian Women’s Death Battallion in World War I is an eye-opening documentary of life before, during and after the Bolshevik Revolution.
The Samovar Murders

The Samovar Murders

The murder of a poet is always more than a murder. When a famous writer is brutally stabbed on the campus of Moscow’s Lumumba University, the son of a recently deposed African president confesses, and the case assumes political implications that no one wants any part of.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

Life Stories: Original Fiction By Russian Authors

The Life Stories collection is a nice introduction to contemporary Russian fiction: many of the 19 authors featured here have won major Russian literary prizes and/or become bestsellers. These are life-affirming stories of love, family, hope, rebirth, mystery and imagination, masterfully translated by some of the best Russian-English translators working today. The selections reassert the power of Russian literature to affect readers of all cultures in profound and lasting ways. Best of all, 100% of the profits from the sale of this book are going to benefit Russian hospice—not-for-profit care for fellow human beings who are nearing the end of their own life stories.
Survival Russian

Survival Russian

Survival Russian is an intensely practical guide to conversational, colloquial and culture-rich Russian. It uses humor, current events and thematically-driven essays to deepen readers’ understanding of Russian language and culture. This enlarged Second Edition of Survival Russian includes over 90 essays and illuminates over 2000 invaluable Russian phrases and words.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955