Two developments dominated discussion in Russia’s cultural sphere this week. The first was the appointment of director Konstantin Bogomolov as acting rector of the Moscow Art Theatre School after the death of Igor Zolotovitsky. The second involved the Bolshoi Theatre, where an obscene inscription was noticed on stage during a closed performance for war participants; some commentators interpreted it as an anti-war message, while the theatre said the image had been manipulated.
The author argues that Bogomolov’s appointment appears unexpected, yet has its own internal logic. He did not teach at the school and was not part of its administration, and his relations with its faculty are described as cool. At the same time, he worked for many years at the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre under Oleg Tabakov, and the school has close institutional ties to that theatre.
The article presents Bogomolov as a convenient choice for several reasons: he has already established himself as a theatre manager, he publicly demonstrates loyalty to the state, and he has his own views on theatre education. He is also familiar with the system while still remaining somewhat outside it, which, in a period of tighter control over federal cultural institutions, may be seen as an advantage.
The author links this decision to the state’s broader personnel policy in culture. In her view, the presidential administration and the Culture Ministry now treat major institutions primarily as strategically important assets, where controllability and political reliability matter more than artistic results.
Against that backdrop, the Bolshoi episode is portrayed as another illustration of the same system. Even if the image of the inscription was altered, the author says the management’s internal reaction still points to an atmosphere of fear and rigid vertical control. Citing an article by journalist Natasha Kiseleva in the German magazine Zeit, the piece notes that people connected to the theatre allegedly refused to speak to her anonymously because they feared Director General Valery Gergiev.
The author also stresses that Gergiev, like Bogomolov, combines several leadership posts. Gergiev heads both the Bolshoi and the Mariinsky Theatre, while Bogomolov already leads the Theatre on Bronnaya and the Melnikov Stage. In the commentator’s view, this concentration of authority has become standard in Russia’s cultural system, where attempts to build management around open competition and transparent appointments have effectively been left behind.