The President of Italy called the abolition of Russian culture a mistake – Kommersant

Italian President Sergio Mattarella called the abolition of Russian culture a mistaken gesture. Attempts to retroactively brand her works, which have become a full-fledged part of Western history, have already been criticized by the most prominent Western intellectuals, Mr. Mattarella added.

“There is a well-known aphorism by Terentius from the Latin comedy The Self Torturer, which says: “Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto” (“I am a man, and nothing human is alien to me”). Attitude towards a culture created by a variety of people can be characterized exclusively by openness and curiosity, manifested in cognition and comparison. Progress comes from this – not from refusal and not from cancellation, ”the Italian president said in an interview with the newspaper Corriere della Sera.

In October 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking at Valdai, emphasizedthat even during the Cold War it never occurred to anyone to deny the culture of their opponents. Before that, in the summer of 2022, against the boycott of Russian culture spoke Minister of Culture of Germany Claudia Roth.

Read more about the “cancellation” of Russian cultural figures in Mikhail Gurevich’s column on Kommersant FM “At the request of the workers”.

Grigory Leiba