August 11, 2025

Authoritarianism Is a Disease


Authoritarianism Is a Disease
Nadya Tolokonnikova's punk group "Pussy Riot." Denis Bochkarev, Wikimedia Commons

From August 15 through September 4, Amsterdam’s De Balie Cultural Center will host Artists Against the Kremlin. It is their second exhibition there.

The exhibit, curated by the Berlin-based art collective All Rights Reserved and supported by the Moscow Times, had its first run in August 2024. The initial exhibition drew over 5,000 visitors, making it one of the largest independent political art events last year, with over 100 artists, more than 150 works, and a series of accompanying talks and performances.

The second iteration of this exhibition will follow the same themes (anti-authoritarianism and dissent), and and a third: “Virus.” The artists will explore authoritarianism as a disease, looking at the infectious spread of the Kremiln’s dangerous narratives throughout Russia and beyond.

This year some 50+ artists have contributed to the exhibit, many of whom are returning. The roster includes Nadya Tolokonnikova, an activist and founding member of the punk group "Pussy Riot"; Danila Tkachenko, a prominent documentary photographer; and Sasha Skochilenko, an artist, musician, and author formerly held as a political prisoner.

Many of the participating artists have had their own experiences combatting the Russian government’s strict crackdowns. Some live in exile, some have been labeled “foreign agents,” and some have served time. This year, all profits from ticket sales will be donated to charities aimed at supporting political prisoners.

The more things change, the more they…:

“Bolshevism it’s not a policy, it is a disease. Civilization is being completely extinguished over gigantic areas while Bolsheviks hop and caper like troops of ferocious baboons amid the ruins of cities and the corpses of their victims.”

- Winston Churchill, April 1919

 

 

You Might Also Like

Artists in Custody
  • March 25, 2025

Artists in Custody

Russia currently has 42 "cultural" figures who are political prisoners and another 176 on their way to becoming the same.
Facing Up
  • March 26, 2024

Facing Up

"Faces of the Russian Resistance" is a traveling art project that humanizes dissent in Russia.
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of our Books

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka
November 01, 2012

Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

In this comprehensive, quixotic and addictive book, Edwin Trommelen explores all facets of the Russian obsession with vodka. Peering chiefly through the lenses of history and literature, Trommelen offers up an appropriately complex, rich and bittersweet portrait, based on great respect for Russian culture.

Jews in Service to the Tsar
October 09, 2011

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.

Moscow and Muscovites
November 26, 2013

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. 

How Russia Got That Way
September 20, 2025

How Russia Got That Way

A fast-paced crash course in Russian history, from Norsemen to Navalny, that explores the ways the Kremlin uses history to achieve its ends.

The Moscow Eccentric
December 01, 2016

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.

A Taste of Russia
November 01, 2012

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.

Bears in the Caviar
May 01, 2015

Bears in the Caviar

Bears in the Caviar is a hilarious and insightful memoir by a diplomat who was “present at the creation” of US-Soviet relations. Charles Thayer headed off to Russia in 1933, calculating that if he could just learn Russian and be on the spot when the US and USSR established relations, he could make himself indispensable and start a career in the foreign service. Remarkably, he pulled it of.

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