Black mirror
Political satire and protest culture in Russia
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The more repressive the state, the sharper the wit. This insight from the cultural history of Russia and the Soviet Union resonates today with regard to the treatment of Alexei Navalny. His return to Russia, his arrest, his Kafkaesque trial and the publishing of the video “A Palace for Putin” triggered different responses. While the Putin regime deployed force and intimidation, users of social media turned to jokes and irony. They posted memes, which may be short-lived and ephemeral, but which can also be so on point that they gain global notoriety within a very short space of time. In Russia, they mobilise people who are critical and dissatisfied.
(Osteuropa 12/2020, pp. 19–40)