Repurposing found archival material, this work analyses the discursive eclecticism and political eschatology of contemporary Russia, which has been used as the new ideological justification for the military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 in a so-called “denazification” operation—a mirror projection of the country’s internal process of leaning towards fascism.

The work studies the prerequisites of a new war doctrine in modern Russia. Formally, it is built on a speculative polyphony of voices belonging to the older generation of the author’s family.

The divisions within this micro-community were defined through origin, geography, class, “low” culture, and the ubiquitous expansion of ”high” culture. These elements might have continued to coexist had they not been held hostage by aggressive propaganda, which emasculated all differences and reduced them to a single aesthetic conception of hubris.

The symbolic point of connection for the author is her grandmother of Jewish-Greek-Ukrainian origin, a native of Mariupol (which was destroyed by Russian troops in 2022), who escaped the Nazis during their occupation in 1941–1943.

The paradoxes of language mixing quotes from Ivan Ilyin with propaganda from the state TV channels and symbolisms of hostility are displayed in the contrasting archival and video sequences created by the author, where the counterpoint is the pathos of ideologies that foreshadow tragedy and grotesque faith bordering on schizophrenia.

Forum screening, participation on invitation.