Yevgeniy Fiks Analyzes Post-Soviet Diaspora's Cultural Shift from Postmodernism to Nationalism

Yevgeniy Fiks examines the post-Soviet diaspora's cultural trajectory following the collapse of the USSR. He argues that the Second World relocated to Western ethnic enclaves during the late 1980s and 1990s, with approximately three million former Soviet citizens migrating westward. A pivotal moment occurred in 1994 when Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn returned to Russia after two decades in Vermont, symbolically pushing dissidents abroad while marking a shift from postmodern to high-modernist rhetoric in mainland Russian culture. Moscow's art scene, including figures like Alexander Brener and Oleg Kulik, embraced modernist innovation during this period, while diasporic artists preserved late-Soviet postmodern traditions. Fiks notes that post-Soviet diaspora artists, unlike earlier émigrés, engage with Western identity politics while embodying complex overlapping identities. This generation often references the historical void of the Second World, actualizing a form of diaspora nationalism comparable to Cuban or Puerto Rican communities. The tension between globalism and local diaspora contexts characterizes the post-Soviet condition, with the diaspora serving as a reminder of Soviet trauma that contemporary Russia seeks to suppress. The article originally appeared in 'pH: Pro-Contemporary Art Edition' No. 3 (Spring 2004) from Kaliningrad, Russia.