Flag Day

On the 22nd of August 2022, almost six months after ‘the special operation’ in Ukraine began, a National Flag Day concert was staged in Saint Isaac’s Square in Saint Petersburg, featuring TV-style comperes (‘This is our Russia! This is our story! Tell it to your children!’), singers, dancers, and sy...

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Main Author: Smith
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Berlin Universities Publishing 2023-02-01
Series:The February Journal
Online Access:https://thefebruaryjournal.org/index.php/tfj/article/view/68
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author Smith
author_facet Smith
author_sort Smith
collection DOAJ
description On the 22nd of August 2022, almost six months after ‘the special operation’ in Ukraine began, a National Flag Day concert was staged in Saint Isaac’s Square in Saint Petersburg, featuring TV-style comperes (‘This is our Russia! This is our story! Tell it to your children!’), singers, dancers, and synchronized flag wavers. The only thing missing was an audience. Because most of Saint Petersburg had, for whatever reason, chosen to absent itself from the celebrations, there was no clapping at the concert, no cheering, and no response to the comperes’ vivid injunctions to participate in their version of Russia’s national story. This project consists of a short introductory essay on the relationship between silence and resistance and a photographic account of what happened when a fictional young woman decided to conspicuously resist the comperes’ injunctions by turning her back on Saint Petersburg’s 2022 National Flag Day celebrations.
format Article
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issn 2940-5181
language English
publishDate 2023-02-01
publisher Berlin Universities Publishing
record_format Article
series The February Journal
spelling doaj-art-4c5d728ad18645cea32bcd0b434911b52025-08-20T03:58:23ZengBerlin Universities PublishingThe February Journal2940-51812023-02-0101-02Flag DaySmithOn the 22nd of August 2022, almost six months after ‘the special operation’ in Ukraine began, a National Flag Day concert was staged in Saint Isaac’s Square in Saint Petersburg, featuring TV-style comperes (‘This is our Russia! This is our story! Tell it to your children!’), singers, dancers, and synchronized flag wavers. The only thing missing was an audience. Because most of Saint Petersburg had, for whatever reason, chosen to absent itself from the celebrations, there was no clapping at the concert, no cheering, and no response to the comperes’ vivid injunctions to participate in their version of Russia’s national story. This project consists of a short introductory essay on the relationship between silence and resistance and a photographic account of what happened when a fictional young woman decided to conspicuously resist the comperes’ injunctions by turning her back on Saint Petersburg’s 2022 National Flag Day celebrations. https://thefebruaryjournal.org/index.php/tfj/article/view/68
spellingShingle Smith
Flag Day
The February Journal
title Flag Day
title_full Flag Day
title_fullStr Flag Day
title_full_unstemmed Flag Day
title_short Flag Day
title_sort flag day
url https://thefebruaryjournal.org/index.php/tfj/article/view/68
work_keys_str_mv AT smith flagday