The Museum of the History of the Gulag canceled the screening of the film “Captain Volkonogov ran away”

The Museum of the History of the Gulag in Moscow canceled the screening of the films about the repressions of Stalin’s times – “Captain Volkonogov Bezhl” and “For Us with You” scheduled for August 27. This was reported, in particular, by “Sota” and “Podyom”.

The films were supposed to be shown as part of the “Movie Night” action, but the screening did not take place without an explanation. The museum told the “Podyom” publication that they could not officially comment on what happened, they only noted that the show was not postponed, it simply did not take place.

The Gulag History Museum is an institution subordinate to the Moscow government. There is no information about the planned show on the museum’s website, but the announcement of the show with the note that “the event is over” has been preserved on the official website of the mayor’s office.

Telegram channel “Ku-Ku”, which is hosted by art critic Ksenia Korobeynikova, writes that the show was canceled on the instructions of the Department of Culture of the Moscow City Hall “after denunciations of particularly agitated citizens.” The museum said that “the museum has not received any complaints.” The Moscow Department of Culture did not comment.

Both films were not widely distributed in Russia, although they were not officially banned. Natasha Merkulova and Alexey Chupov’s film “Captain Volkonogov ran away”, which premiered in the fall of 2021 at the Venice Film Festival, tells the story of a repentant NKVD captain. The release of the film in Russia was refused due to the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The film “For us with you” directed by Alexei Smirnov tells about the events of 1952. The film was shown several times in Russia, it was also released on Kinopoysk, but it was not widely distributed. In an interview with RTVI, the director said that Russian cinemas refused to rent for political reasons.