Pushing Pushkin: the imperialism and decolonisation of Russian culture, 7 March 2023

Vertimas į lietuvių kalbą: The primacy of “high” Russian culture in foreign eyes creates a near-hegemonic control of narratives and discourses involving non-Russians living within the Russian Federation, and impinges on the languages, cultures and even sovereignty of neighbouring countries. The “low” or backward nature of these other cultures is exemplified by the annihilationist approach to Ukraine taken by Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin and it also extends to Russia’s declared superiority over “the rotten West” and its culture. “Paradoxically, while being anti-European and contemptuous of Western ideas at its core, Russian culture is perceived as part of a common European heritage by many Western countries,” argues Dr Kristina Sabaliauskaitė, a leading Lithuanian cultural critic. In discussion with the British writer Edward Lucas, Dr Sabaliauskaitė, the most internationally read contemporary Lithuanian author, will scrutinise the tacit and so