Artist and graphic journalist Victoria Lomasko presented her latest book, The Last Soviet Artist, a sociological and creative panorama of post-USSR Eastern Europe. The event, titled after her book, happened Wednesday in King 106. 

Assistant Professor of Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Vladimir Ivantsov and the Center for Russian, East European, and Central Asian Studies helped curate the event. It was Oberlin’s second time hosting Lomasko, as she had visited the previous year to discuss the role artists play in documenting history. 

“Lomasko’s work is included in the curriculum of the Russian, East European, and Eurasian studies Program,” Professor Ivanstov said. “I teach her book Other Russias in my first-year seminar on art and dissent in Russia.” 

During the talk, Lomasko revealed both the physical and creative process of crafting her book, which is divided into three distinct parts. In the first part of her book, titled “Traces of an Empire,” she sought out invitations from various feminist movements across European countries that had previously been a part of the Soviet Union. Her first stop was Kyrgyzstan in 2014, where she developed an approach combining sociological thinking with journalistic curiosity. 

“I did not want to repeat Russian orientalism,” she said, describing her time spent immersed in local life, culture, and perspectives.

In Georgia, she reflected on the Church’s influences in burdening women with social responsibilities. In Armenia, she interviewed female prisoners, divorcees, and members of the LGBTQ+ community who were facing suppressed rights. 

The journey of documenting and understanding others’ oppression at the hands of the government led her to uncover her own suppression via education and cultural propaganda. She reflected on her background as someone who lived through the fall of the Soviet Union. Physically inhabiting the spaces that were impacted by the deconstruction of the USSR gave Lomasko a new perspective in thinking about Europe as a collection of cultures, not a republic. Artwork such as murals, magazines, and monuments had promoted a propagandistic lens of a united whole under Russian rule in Lomasko’s childhood; as a graphic journalist, she retools art as an agent of truth and nonfictional storytelling. 

In the second part of the book, Lomasko discusses the revolution in Belarus. Her original plan was to visit Ukraine and the Baltic states, but she had to readjust due to the unprecedented COVID-19 outbreak. During this time, Lomasko discovered the main subject that would connect her travels: addressing the conflict between the young generation and those who lived through the Soviet era. She wanted to create dialogue without condemning or idealizing the past in absolutes. 

This led to the creation of a third and final part where she discusses present-day Moscow, which only exists in her newest English edition. She interviewed young, liberal Russians on their visions of what a progressive Russian nation-state would look like. She attended anti-Putin rallies, depicting the protests and defacement of government icons in striking visual graphics, until Russia’s attack on Ukraine. 

While living in exile, Lomasko held an exhibition which reflected upon the identity of post-Soviet Russia and her own background as artist, journalist, and activist. Her exhibition was made up of five murals that each touched on specific concepts: isolation, for being born in a totalitarian empire; escape, for putting distance between herself and the country; exile, for embracing culture foreign and familiar; shame, for discrimination based on nationality; and humanity, for hope. 

Victoria Lomasko is currently based in Berlin, Germany. The Last Soviet Artist depicts Eastern European culture both in celebration and reflection, as well as expressing Lomasko’s desire for the demolition of absolutist, nationalist thinking, which is equally propagandistic and dangerous. It is available in the English language on the magazine N+1’s website. 

OCREECAS will host  two events in April with Russian filmmaker Toma Selivanova via Zoom. More information can be found on the Oberlin Events Calendar.