May 14, 2024

Theater Directors Face More Detention


Theater Directors Face More Detention
Zhenya Berkovich in a hearing on May 5, 2023.  AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko

Theater director Zhenya Berkovich and playwright Svetlana Petriychuk have been sentenced to six more months of detention before their trial.

Berkovich and Petriychuk recently marked one year since the beginning of their imprisonment. The pair were arrested on May 5, 2023, on charges of "promoting terrorism" in a play staged in 2021, in which two Russian women are recruited into ISIS. 

Over the past year, Berkovich and Petriychuk have become key figure of dissent against the Kremlin and its persecution of artists and journalists who have spoken out against the war. In March, Berkovich wrote a letter for Pravmir about adopting her two daughters in 2019 and how painful it has been to be separated from them.

In a hearing on May 3, Berkovich reported that her daughters had fallen into ill health as a result of her imprisonment and argued to the court that her children should not suffer for her alleged wrongdoing: "They are simply not guilty of anything, they are not accused of anything, but they suffer much more seriously." 

Their trial is now set for October 2024. 

You Might Also Like

Words from Behind the Glass Box
  • March 04, 2024

Words from Behind the Glass Box

A playwright and a theater director were arrested for a play criticizing ISIS. After months in jail, they spoke from their defendants' glass box.
Detained for Criticising ISIS
  • May 07, 2023

Detained for Criticising ISIS

A director and a playwright were arrested for "promoting terrorism," for a play that criticizes how the Islamic State recruited Russian women.  
Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Chekhov Bilingual

Chekhov Bilingual

Some of Chekhov's most beloved stories, with English and accented Russian on facing pages throughout. 
The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.  
How Russia Got That Way

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 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.
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.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
Davai! The Russians and Their Vodka

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.

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