A holiday as political statement: Maslenitsa (Shrovetide) against sanctions

Abstract

Actualization of “traditional” forms has for decades been characteristic for Soviet and post-Soviet public festivities. Among them is the burning of modernized Maslenitsa (Shrovetide) effgies, which allows one both to preserve the semantics of destroying evil and to develop a comical playful effect of the activity. For years, burning the Maslenitsa has been an institutionally organized event. In the 2010s, however, the practice signifcantly changed: Shrovetide becomes a more private family or small group holiday, in which activities are not limited to feasting but include burning the effgy. These vernacular festivities quite often turn into ironic political performances, when people burn effgies of crisis or of an external enemy. In 2015/2016 this was US president Barack Obama, who was presumably responsible for anti-Russian economic sanctions. In this paper we discuss the history of such developments in this festive practice and problematize the message and the addressing of it as a political statement.