Channel Zero’s Russia documentary by Maria Wiernikowska faces criticism for its portrayal of ordinary Russians while missing crucial political context.
Documentary Sparks Media Interest
The first episode of Maria Wiernikowska’s documentary from Channel Zero about her trip to Russia has generated significant media interest. It has echoed widely in circles dealing with international affairs, particularly the post-Soviet region and Russia itself. This is unsurprising as we are talking about the largest country in the world, which due to its past and policy often fascinates or raises legitimate concerns or even terror.
Due to worsening repression and subsequent invasion of Ukraine, Polish journalists, analysts, and scientists specializing in Russia generally do not have access there. This includes myself, the author of these words – I was detained and expelled from the Russian Federation in the summer of 2018. In this way, Russia narrows the circle of people talking about it.
Critique of Documentary’s Focus
I am not a journalist, so my criticism will be limited to some more academic observations. First, I get the impression that the documentary author succumbed to the delusion of the “simple Russian people.” In the first episode, she mainly talks to passersby, small trade workers, or waiters who collectively respond: “We, the simple people, don’t attack anyone.”
These conversations are natural, conducted spontaneously, and Russians themselves appear friendly. The problem is that despite our linguistic proximity and partial ethnic ties, representatives of the “simple people” live in a different world, little known to Poles. For most of Russia’s history, people lived somewhat alongside the state, as the institution of the state was created top-down – by the ruler and his military entourage.
State vs. People in Russia
Therefore, in this centralized, bureaucratized, and militarized country, the population is an object, not a source of power. And people are aware of this, confirmed by indoctrination, a sense of helplessness, and lack of constitutional-political agency. As one leader of Russian emigration tells me, many Russians, even those anti-Putin, are outraged by sanctions for them in the European Union, because in their consciousness the Russian state, including Putin himself, is guilty of the war, not the “simple people.”
They do not feel guilty because they perceive themselves as an entity separate from the state. I will add that I never experienced discrimination in Russia, and this “simple people” helped or hosted me whenever they could. At the same time, I have no illusions that when the state authorities call to battle, part of this people will loyally line up and march, even if it’s toward Warsaw.
What’s Missing from the Documentary
In Maria Wiernikowska’s documentary – in the episodes aired so far – these fundamental contexts are missing. I hope they still appear, especially as many viewers in response to criticism of the Channel Zero documentary point out: “but Wiernikowska showed Russia as it is.” This cannot be agreed with. So far we have only seen a fragment of it.
Maybe soon we will see not just cheese at the market, but also other Russias: intellectual and neo-autocratic. Without explaining contexts or inviting to conversation representatives of other groups of the complex population of the Russian Federation, such a documentary will tell us little. I omit the strange narrative that Russia “is waging war,” although the narrator does not specify against whom.
I was also surprised by the surprise that observation caused, that in Kaliningrad one can order dishes described as Ukrainian. After all, in the currents of official Russian imperialism and nationalism, “Ukrainianness” is simply a historical and geographical part of Russianness. Indeed, even with a certain ethnic-cultural distinctiveness, but still within the framework of the great Russian nation. And this is another goal of this war.
