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'Close our eyes': To escape war, Muscovites flock to high culture
Museum attendance in Moscow rose 30% in 2025 as residents seek cultural engagement to emotionally cope with the ongoing war in Ukraine, officials said.
- Concert halls and museums across Moscow saw increased visitors, with museum attendance rising approximately 30 percent, and the Marc Chagall exhibition at the Pushkin Museum sold out.
- Faced with restricted public discourse, Muscovites have turned to museums and performances to find normality, as analysts say, pushing coded conversations and cultural outings as safer outlets for coping.
- Photographer Viktor Chelin: `There seems to be very few things left to cling to,` reflecting visits as a shared, protective practice, according to AFP.
- Visitors say museum trips ground them and foster shared admiration, while the surge in cultural attendance reinforces normality aligned with Russian authorities' messaging that 'life goes on'.
- The ongoing Ukraine war, launched in 2022, has led to increased museum visits in Moscow as sanctions and isolation influence cultural engagement, sociologists say.
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21 Articles
21 Articles
Radio France Internationale+19 Reposted by 19 other sources
'Close our eyes': To escape war, Muscovites flock to high culture
·Paris, France
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‘Close our eyes’: To escape war, Muscovites flock to high culture
In front of Moscow's ornate Bolshoi Theatre, its soft yellow lights illuminating a snowstorm in the Russian capital, Valentina Ivakina had come to "escape today's problems". It is a knowing reference to the war that has been raging between Russia and Ukraine for the past four years, with Muscovites increasingly turning to culture and art
Coverage Details
Total News Sources21
Leaning Left4Leaning Right2Center7Last UpdatedBias Distribution54% Center
Bias Distribution
- 54% of the sources are Center
54% Center
L 31%
C 54%
15%
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