While the international media focuses on the battlefield, Russia’s military operation in Ukraine is having a broader effect domestically. Another “front” has opened in the cultural sphere, and this will have long term consequences.
Poets, artists, and singers from all walks of life have embraced the realities of the conflict. An interesting factor has been how artistic techniques that the ‘liberal intellectuals’ once viewed as their own are now being adopted by patriotic voices: from high literary genres to satire and short poignant poems.
We are witnessing a return of World War II agitprop-style verses and a resurgence of long narrative poems and epics to Russian poetry tradition.