Dostoevskij under fire: Milan university cancels course, Florence statue targeted amid Ukraine war

On March 1, 2022, writer and translator Paolo Nori read on Instagram a statement by Dmitrij Muratov, Nobel Peace Prize-winning editor of Novaya Gazeta, condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Nori then revealed that the University of Milan-Bicocca had cancelled his course on Fyodor Dostoevskij, citing a desire to avoid internal polemics during the tense period. The decision sparked public outcry, leading the university to reverse it. Meanwhile, Florence mayor Dario Nardella rejected calls to remove a Dostoevskij statue donated by the Russian embassy in December 2021 for the bicentenary of the writer's birth. Nardella tweeted that the war is a dictator's folly, not a people's war, and urged focusing on stopping Putin rather than erasing centuries of Russian culture. The article, by Mariasole Garacci on Artribune, criticizes the trend of iconoclastic simplification and defends Dostoevskij's legacy, noting his own near-execution in 1849 for attending anti-tsarist meetings. It highlights that thousands of Russians have protested the war despite risking five-year prison sentences, with over 6,000 arrested.