‘The Meyerhold Centre used to be here’
Elena Kovalskaya, the director of the Meyerhold Centre, left the theatre on 24 February. “As a sign of protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, I am resigning as director of a state theatre, the Meyerhold Centre. It is impossible to work for a murderer who pays your salary,” she wrote on her Facebook page. Kovalskaya promised to finish all pending projects pro bono.
In the first few days following the war, the Meyerhold Centre issued official statements condemning the war in Ukraine. Former marketing manager of the Meyerhold Centre Sofa Kruglikova says that they were warned by the Moscow Department of Culture that their social media was being monitored. The officials urged them not to comment on the situation in any way. Following the publication of anti-war statements, the Department of Culture contacted the theatre’s artistic director Dmitry Volkostrelov demanding that the posts be removed, however, he refused to do that. A week later, on 1 March, Volkostrelov was fired with no explanation provided. “At first, they offered him to resign to avoid falling out of favour with the Moscow officials. He told them that he does not understand why he should resign of his own accord,” Kruglikova said. “Then they told him: ‘Alright, then we will fire you for cause.’ They had two binders prepared for that.”