Lyudmila Ulitskaya may be recognized as a foreign agent as early as February 2

The addition of new names to the Ministry of Justice lists on certain days is called “Friday replenishment”

“The one who spoke about the article,” following the foreign agents Bykov and Akunin (the latter is also included by Rosfinmonitoring in the register of extremists and terrorists), writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya with a high degree of probability can be recognized as a foreign agent as early as Friday, February 2, 2024.

Publicist and literary critic Andrei Rudalev agreed with this assumption of MK. The fact is that social networks have long noticed that the Ministry of Justice supplements the register most often on the same day – this process is called “Friday replenishment.” Of course, this is more of a “folk sign” of the 21st century than a fact, but the trend is obvious.

“Of course, she will be recognized as a foreign agent; Ulitskaya has gone too far. And if this doesn’t happen today, it doesn’t matter – Russian society has already done this, many are outraged by her statements,” Rudalev said, clarifying that although “the status of a foreign agent is deserved after Ulitskaya’s revelations,” one should not perceive her as an enemy. You need to do something completely different:

– Here a symptom of a disease manifested itself, a protracted experiment in twisting, abolishing national culture, rewriting traditions and orientation towards the West, which reached the level of religious faith. We need to understand this disease, this seduction, which periodically leads to grave consequences and splits society.

The fact that Ulitskaya fell for the bait of pranksters became known on January 30, and there were no other calendar Fridays between Tuesday and today. Considering the radical nature of Ulitskaya’s statements (he admits to financing the Armed Forces of Ukraine, glorifies terrorist acts against Prilepin and Dugin, believes that Russians should not live in Crimea), the authorities’ reaction will be immediate.

So the publishers’ decision to deprive Ulitskaya of royalties for her works is just the beginning, according to Rudalev.

“The fact that sales of her books are now being suspended means that changes have begun in the monopoly publishing business. Ulitskaya is a certain industry, or rather, its top. For decades, there were “social elevators” for writers, which you could climb only if you accepted certain rules of the game. Ulitskaya, Guzel Yakhina and many others appeared with the theme of “combing out” national traumas. The “Star Factory” worked at full capacity, imbuing Russian literature with certain guidelines. How could this happen? This question, of course, needs to be asked to those in charge of literature and to specific publishing houses,” says our interlocutor.

The critic believes that Ulitskaya has taken a very definite position regarding Ukraine since 2014; her books contain attacks on the Orthodox Church, anti-Sovietism, and attempts to deconstruct national history, so her latest statements are not something unexpected.

“We vitally need a competitive environment and an alternative, another weighty word that we could oppose to Ulitskaya,” sums up Rudalev. And he adds that the pranks of Vovan and Lexus, in a sense, remove “a stone from the soul” of Russian liberals.