Declan Hayes
To ban Dostoevsky and Tolstoy is to destroy not only Russian literature but all literature, Declan Hayes writes.
The recent criticism by Nikita Isakin, press secretary of the Russian Embassy in Vichy Ireland, of a recent article in the pro NATO Irish Times, was much too kind both to the idiotic article and to NATO's Philistines behind this latest effort to boycott Russian art.
Isakin focused her short statement, firstly, on the sheer stupidity of trying to ban Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, both of whom I have repeatedly cited in previous articles, not because they were Russian but, along with a handful of others, because they are the gold standard in literature. To divorce those and other Russians we previously came across from the global body is to destroy not only Russian literature but all literature and anyone who says otherwise is as an ignoramus at best and an incorrigible fool and Banderite apologist at worst. This NATO cultural fascism is far too reminiscent of Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus, written when Ukraine's original Banderite Nazis were in full throttle.
To suggest, as these Nazis do, banning Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich, even temporarily, displays an ignorant arrogance that one should only find amongst our four-legged friends. Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich are, each in their own way, up there with Brahms, Rachmaninov, Elgar, Wagner, Prokofiev, Schubert, Chopin, Sibelius, Mozart, Stravinsky, Bach and the great Beethoven himself, who dedicated his no 3 Symphony, conducted here by former Nazi Herbert von Karajan, to Napoleon Bonaparte.
It is in that context that Isakin next turns her attention to Ukrainian Minister of Culture, Oleksandr Tkachenko, whose calls to boycott Russian art are mentioned in the Irish Times article, as well as those of Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina, whose idea of culture is to have an orgy with her fellow NATO agents on the altar of Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.
Although Isakin correctly states that "to present Pussy Riot as a source of opinion on cultural matters is a rather exotic proposition, bordering on an insult to the readers", it is much worse than that. Pussy Riot, Femen and all like them are the enemies of art, all art and, in the case of Pussy Riot, both the Crimean Cossacks and the Russian authorities went far too easy on them. Their goal and the goal for which they are NATO funded and for which NATO's Irish Times cynically promotes them, is to destroy and denigrate all culture but Russian culture specifically in this case.
Pussy Riot's violent attack on Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour is directly related to the far more violent attacks on Orthodox worshippers in Zelensky's rump Reich and for the Irish Times or other NATO outlets to deliberately ignore that is both criminally negligent and criminally answerable.
But let's get back to the Irish Times' offending article, which is capped by a brace of masked Pussy Riot terrorists engaging in low-level vandalism, which is the very antithesis of the arts. The article kicks off by telling us Maryna Odolska, a Ukrainian "performer" who washed up in Ireland last March, engaged in cultural appropriation by singing Phil Colclough's Song For Ireland, the definitive version of which is here and the lyrics of which have absolutely nothing to do with Eastern Europe or of the struggles of Russian speakers to preserve their culture.
To see how real artists use Irish music to the benefit of both, check out these talented Serbs, the Orthodox Celts as they call themselves, do their own fantastic take on The Star of the County Down , an Irish staple. A compare and contrast between these good Serbs and Ukrainian parasites would make for a good article but we must press on.
The Irish Times' second paragraph bemoans that neither Pussy Riot nor Maryna Odolska can return to their respective homelands of Russia and Ukraine. But there is nothing, bar the good unearned life she enjoys in Ireland, stopping Odolska shagging off back to her native Kiev and, if Pussy Riot claim to be fugitives from justice, as well as pretending to be artists, they are not NATO's only ones pulling that cheap stunt.
Ukraine's culture minister Oleksandr Tkachenko is then quoted to explain why we must stop listening specifically to Tchaikovsky and why we should toss our copies of War and Peace and The Brothers Karamazov onto the pyre, as if we were Banderites having a bit of Jew baiting fun in 1930s' Berlin.
"This war", Tkachenko opined to NATO's hard-line Guardian newspaper, "is a civilizational battle over culture and history" and that is why the Kremlin is "using all the opportunities available to it, from promoting Russian ballet to protecting the rights of Russian speakers abroad, in order to advance its interests."
Just take a moment to consider how dangerously stupid that woman must be. She is saying the ballerinas of the Bolshoi Ballet are another Wagner group, as dangerous as General Armageddon's front line troops and, even more sinisterly, that Russia is amiss in trying to defend "the rights of Russian speakers abroad".
That is straight forward, hard core fascism. And it comes from a rump Reich regime that instituted this war because a large number of Ukrainians have spoken Russian from when they were babies and, thanks to the Wagner Group, they and their children's children now have the right to continue to speak it. And, incidentally, Tkachenko is spreading this bile in the Irish Times, which has been an avowed enemy of the Irish language, which was long banned in Vichy Ireland and which has long suffered from the cultural vandals of the Irish Times, Tkachenko, Odolska and their ilk.
After giving economic migrant Odolska and a few Irish collaborators several column inches to sound off, the article then returns to Swan Lake, performed here by Putin's Disney fifth columnists because "in Russia Swan Lake has a subversive significance". Though I somehow doubt the Russian soldiers fighting around Bakhmut are broadcasting Swan Lake to unsettle their enemies, I am not surprised that NATO's Irish Times would give a platform to Ukrainian and treacherous Russian Philistines to make such an inane critique that would not be out of place in one of Clown Prince Zelensky's semi pornographic comedy sketches.
But then it is back to Pussy Riot, who tell us that cultural icons, presumably Russia's famous ballet troupes, are just another Russian assault group and that is why acts of terrorism within Russia are to be encouraged and "we call for full embargo to Russian resources such as gas, oil and actually all the resources." No problems from NATO or the Philistines of the Irish Times on that call to arms.
Though the author concludes her rubbish by saying culture, Russian culture presumably included, should be used to build bridges that, together with her attempts to corner the Russian Embassy into furnishing her a boomerang statement, is just a face-saving exercise in covering her bare butt.
But to conclude, I must now cover mine. Like most Irish people I never buy the Irish Times, even though my taxes are used to keep this NATO propaganda sheet afloat. Though I have made some derogatory remarks about the Philistines, these were unintentional and merely the result of the bad press the Philistines have received since Gutenberg invented the printing press. The Philistines can, however, relax, as this article and the statements it is based on, make it plain that NATO, Zelensky's rump Reich and their self-serving Western apologists will soon replace them as the alpha and omega of cultural barbarity and whatever about the Philistines, in their case, the opprobrium will be more than well-deserved.