How they made us Russian: music, TV series and the culture of occupation

How we were made “Russian” through music, TV series, and books. The 1989 Chervona Ruta festival in Chernivtsi became an explosion of Ukrainian culture and, according to Ivan Malkovich, ignited the spark of independence. But after the collapse of the USSR, the Kremlin took revenge — not with tanks, but with mass culture. In this issue of The Documentary, we learn how, in the 90s and 00s, Ukraine was purposefully immersed in the Russian cultural space: through pop music, “blatnyak,” crime series, TV shows, and cheap literature. Why did Ukrainians listen to “Lyube” and BI-2, watch “Brigada” and “Banditsky Petersburg,” while their own culture found itself on the margins? How did Russian pop culture form apathy, tolerate lawlessness, and instill “concepts”? We’re talking about Russia’s cultural expansion, the role of television, radio, and the book market, the missed opportunity of the 1990s, and the slow but inevitable revival of Ukrainian culture. Why this plan almost worked—and why it ultimately failed. Watch to understand how culture has become a hybrid weapon, and why listening to, watching, and reading your own today is not a matter of taste, but of survival.