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Tag: Culture

Even after the borders were marked, the songs remained

The Balkans is often thought of as an area marred by conflict and its legacy today. Despite this, a great number of cultural practices unite the varied peoples of the region. This is clear regarding many things that are part of everyday life.

June 5, 2026 - Tunacan Tuna

The songs that can unite Latvia

How Latvians of all identities find common ground through choir music.

June 1, 2026 - Caitlin Keller

How a battle over the management of a cultural centre in Latvia became a geopolitical issue

In a town near the border with Russia, concerns over a mayor’s move to decide the fate of the GORS cultural centre sparked a national crackdown.

April 23, 2026 - Gabriel Matias Castilho

Bukhara delights with art, while the authorities count political dividends

The first Biennale in Bukhara attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors and became one of the most talked-about cultural events in Central Asia. However, behind the aesthetic spectacle and narrative of cultural dialogue lies the question of whether art in Uzbekistan is a space of freedom, or rather a carefully designed tool for building the image of an authoritarian state.

February 20, 2026 - Anna Gzubicka

Reframing Ukraine: a review of Olga Khomenko’s The Faraway Sky of Kyiv: Ukrainians in the War

Writing has become a powerful weapon for Ukrainians contending with Russia’s ongoing invasion. This is particularly clear with regards to Olga Khomenko’s new work, which forges novel connections between Ukraine and the world during this difficult time.

January 27, 2026 - Nicole Yurcaba

More than culture: The UK–Poland Season as a test of relations in a post-Brexit Europe

Relations between Britain and Poland remain obscured by issues such as Brexit and foreign policy realignment. Nevertheless, the realm of cultural diplomacy can prove a suitable forum for maintaining and strengthening links outside of government actions.

September 9, 2025 - Zula Rabikowska

Repression and resilience: the voice of Belarusian culture

Since 2020 Belarusians have fled en masse from growing repressions inside the country. Civil society and independent culture are now only possible in exile. The stories of Belarusian artists and cultural activists illustrate the resilience and creativity of a community determined to preserve its identity and proceed aspiration for freedom.

Belarusian artists and cultural figures have found themselves increasingly targeted by a regime that views independent thought and creativity as threats to its control in recent years. As a result, the cultural sphere in Belarus has become one of the battlegrounds for the suppression of dissent. The government’s efforts to control and politicize culture have led to censorship, forced closures of cultural institutions, and the persecution of artists who challenge or fail to align with the state's ideological narratives. Yet despite these obstacles, Belarusian culture continues to evolve, with artists voicing their messages at the international level; integrating into a new environment; forming new communities and connections; and spreading the culture.

November 21, 2024 - Alena Hileuskaya

Repressions, wounds and blood. Anti-regime culture in Belarus

In Belarus, discrimination in the cultural sector has been shown to be both institutional and systemic, with the Belarusian PEN Club reporting that cultural life is the area where civil liberties are regressing most rapidly. At least 105 cultural figures have now been imprisoned in Belarus for their commitment to democratic ideals and freedom.

In Belarus, protest movements have always drawn strength from some societal undercurrents that may not be immediately visible to all people. This latent power resembles similar movements in other parts of Europe and the post-Soviet states. Historically speaking, despite the constraints of the Iron Curtain, the societies living in the socialist states were never completely isolated from global developments, including the protest culture of the 1960s. Thus, throughout the history of protest actions, we have witnessed such significant events as the 1965 demonstrations at the Red Square; the Sinyavsky-Daniel trial of 1966; the Prague Spring in 1968; the Solidarity movement in Poland; and the Autumn of Nations in 1989-1990 across Central and Eastern Europe.

November 21, 2024 - Magdalena Lachowicz

Nascent, destroyed, aspiring: three cinematic visions of Dushanbe

The past century has seen the Tajik capital Dushanbe change in many ways. As the city celebrates its first one hundred years at the country’s heart, it is worth looking back at the media that has encapsulated its many eras.

August 14, 2024 - Karolina Kluczewska

UKraine 2023: How Eurovision in Britain is promoting Ukraine

Ukraine’s victory at Eurovision last year was the first time a country engaged in full-scale war has won the competition. However, such circumstances have ultimately resulted in runners up Britain organising the event this May. How did this come about and how does the UK plan to promote Ukraine during this year’s Eurovision?

May 5, 2023 - Niall Gray

Ukraine’s defiance goes beyond the battlefield

Poetry may not have the power to stop Russian missile strikes but Ukraine’s literary festival season, which carried on in spite of the horrors of war, became a testament to the importance of defending culture during the invasion. After all, the Russians have been very clear that they do not recognise the Ukrainian identity.

In Chernivtsi, a small Western Ukrainian city located on the border with Romania, September begins with poetry. Artists from throughout Ukraine and all over the world have been gathering there for the past 13 years during the annual Meridian Czernowitz Festival. Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, this year’s festival was different, and, in the words of Meridian’s chief editor Evgenia Lopata, “a small miracle”.

December 7, 2022 - Kate Tsurkan

Culture is an indivisible good: on the margins of “Ukrainians are calling for a cultural boycott of Russian artists. Is the world ready to listen?”

Many people have now called for an outright boycott of Russian culture, as if it bears some responsibility in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But such a radical move would only harm a new wave of Russian cultural figures attempting to challenge the essentialist understanding of the country’s values, as imposed by Kremlin’s propagandists.

August 4, 2022 - Joanna J. Matuszewska

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