This week began with Valerie Gergiev and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. The famous Russian leader is no longer welcome in Rotterdam after refusing to abandon Vladimir Putin and his bloody raid on Ukraine. Gergiev has been known for years as an ardent supporter of the Russian president.

But Russians with no ties to Putin are now banned, too. Philharmonie Haarlem decided on Thursday to replace the festival weekend with “48 Hours of Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky” with two instrumental concerts for Ukrainian refugees. According to the press release, the hall does not want to exclude Russian composers or artists, but “in the current disturbing conditions in Ukraine, it seems inappropriate to celebrate Russian music for an entire weekend.”

This surprised some Russian experts. Stravinsky spent most of his life outside Russia. Under Joseph Stalin, when repression was at its peak in Russia, his music was banned there.

The exhibition was held at the Hermitage in Amsterdam The Russian Vanguard / Art Revolution Closed until further notice. This happened after the severance of relations with the Russian Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The director of this museum, Mikhail Petrovsky, participated in the writing of the new Russian constitution. “Putin has been my husband since the early 1990s,” Petrovsky told the site last year. art newspaper† As a result, the works of Kyiv-born painter Kazimir Malevich can no longer be viewed in Amsterdam.

stop sharing knowledge

On Friday, universities, colleges and teaching hospitals announced that they would temporarily cut ties with Russia and Belarus. This is done at the request of the Cabinet. This means that no more money will be transferred from Dutch institutions to both countries and no more knowledge will be exchanged. “But many collaborations in education and research are based on”peer to peerRelations “with Russian and Belarusian researchers,” according to a statement from the universities of the Netherlands. Many of them openly criticized the invasion, putting their lives at risk. This is why institutions want to give their employees every opportunity to continue existing personal contacts with these researchers, when appropriate.”

A Russian woman in Amsterdam received a letter from her landlord stating that the rent would be immediately cancelled

Also, contacts with the Russians were cut off outside the realm of art and science. For example, hikers from Russia and Belarus are not welcome at the upcoming edition of Nijmegen’s four-day rallies. The organization says it is following Koninklijke Wandelbond Nederland’s call to exclude athletes and sports teams from both countries.

Amsterdam’s AT5 channel reported on Friday that a Russian in the city had received a letter from her landlord, ending the lease immediately. Sanctions against Russia were cited as a reason for the cancellation. The woman has filed a complaint with the Won Foundation and is receiving legal support from her employer.

He. She general newspaper He wrote this week about Russian shopkeepers receiving hate mail and losing business. The Russian Embassy reported threats and demands from the Russians in the Netherlands to leave.

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But there is also the opposite movement. Well-known Dutch politicians and politicians have called on social media to leave people with Russian background alone. Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb has decided to keep the city’s link with Saint Petersburg intact for the time being. “Not all people in Saint Petersburg are bad,” he said.

There’s also quite a bit going on in the book trade right now. The Russian Library, which contains books by great Russian writers and published by Van Urchot since 1953, is available as usual. What is striking is that Ukrainian books in particular are doing well now, says Lars Meijer, publisher and bookstore Pegasus, who specializes in Russian and Central European languages ​​and cultures. “Russia is much more than Putin and customers know how to distinguish Russian culture from Putin.”

MMV Culture Editors