The Invisible Victory: Experimentum Linguae and the Appropriation of Anomie

Abstract

In November 2003 President Putin awarded Boris Grebenshikov the Order of Merit for the Fatherland (4th degree). A number of artists have received such a decoration in the postcommunist period, but hardly ever anyone with an ‘underground’ reputation such as Grebenshikov’s.Many of Grebenshikov’s fans were horrified by his acceptance of the Order, expecting him to use the opportunity of refusal to make a public statement of his opposition to the regime. Nonetheless, Grebenshikov’s own explanation of his decision to accept accords strongly with the ethics of disengagement and play addressed in the previous chapters.