Yeltsin Center cancels ‘I Killer the Tsar’ performance in Yekaterinburg amid online conservative backlash

Without explanation, the Yeltsin Center in Yekaterinburg has canceled a performance of I Killed the Tsar scheduled for June 5. The play is a post-documentary drama about the execution of Russia’s last emperor, Nicholas II, and his family in 1918. The performance was part of a tour by the Moscow-based theater Vnutri Space. Online conservative groups affiliated with propagandist Vladimir Solovyov have denounced the play, complaining that it “desacralizes the image of the holy royal martyrs.” Critics have also attacked the play’s director, Vladimir Mirzoev, as “anti-Russian” and its author, Oleg Bogaev, as a “liberal Russophobe.” 

The Yeltsin Center may have faced administrative pressure after the pro-war Telegram channel RIA Katyusha called on readers to file complaints about the play with the Federal Investigative Committee, the Russian Orthodox Church, and the Culture Ministry “in defense of the feelings of believers” and “the preservation of historical memory.”