Business programme
30.06.2022
14:30–16:00

Cancel Culture: The Right to Cancel, or a Cancellation of Rights?

Congress Centre, conference hall D3
People and Law
Broadcast
A number of societies which have proclaimed the loftiest democratic ideals have seen the rise of a new way of regulating social interactions over the past decade. During this time, cancel culture has been consistently cultivated in the West, leading to societies placing less emphasis on legal assessments of individual behaviour, and more on collective hate and obstruction campaigns against people. Indeed, the principles employed appear to more resemble those of a primitive society. In just a few years, cancel culture has gained so much momentum that it can be employed not just to individual people, but entire nationalities, cultures, and even countries. What is the legal take on cancel culture? What was it that caused this shift away from societal responsibility for current events and towards collective irresponsibility? Will the law endure in the fight against cancel culture?

Moderator

Alexander Tsypkin
Writer, Scriptwriter

Panellists

Vadim Vinogradov
Dean of the Faculty of Law, National Research University Higher School of Economics; Head of the Working Group on Legislation in the Field of Internet Technologies and Digitalization, Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation
Natalia Kolerova
Lawyer, Adviser, Attorneys at Law of Saint Petersburg S&K Vertical
Anatoly Kucherena
Chairman of the Presidium, Bar Association Kucherena and Partners; Doctor of Law
Andrey Loginov
State Secretary – Deputy Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation
Mikhail Piotrovsky
General Director, The State Hermitage Museum

Broadcast

Alexander Tsypkin
Writer, Scriptwriter
Alexander Tsypkin is the literary discovery of 2015. From Facebook to the bestsellers.

When you see in Alexander Tsypkin’s book the subtitle ‘A sex situational comedy’ you should take it with a grain of salt. For there are indeed sex situations (rather entertaining and diverse, one should add) in the book. One-night stands and brothels, misalliances and domestic violence, sexting went wrong and almost tragical denouements. But if you leave aside the backdrop and circumstances (which is not a simple task - Tsypkin has a true journo’s grasp of detail, great sense of humour and ear for words), it turns out that all these stories are about eternal issues: devotion and honour, strong women and magnanimous men, and even, literally, about undying love.’

Natalia Kochetkova, Lenta.ru

Born in 1975 to a family of several generations of doctors, he graduated from the School of International Relations of the St.Petersburg State University. An expert in strategic PR, he has worked with major Russian companies. A frequent speaker at major professional fora and conferences, for several years he worked as the PR director of North-Western Megafon. In 2014 he moved to Moscow to get engaged in projects in the field of information politics in corporate conflicts. He has won many professional awards including the Proba-IPRA Golden World Awards.

An opinion journalist, he has also interviewed more than a hundred politicians, cultural, scientific and sport’s figures such as Mikhail Gorbachev, Lev Dodin, Alexander Ovechkin, Ornella Mutti, Diana Vishneva, Konstantin Khabensky et al. He has authored and anchored several TV programmes as well as lectured at the St.Petersburg State University. He is actively involved in the workings of the Children of BELA charity foundation and the Foundation for prevention of cancer.

In July 2015 the AST publishing house brings out the first book of Alexander Tsypkin’s - a collection of satirical stories ‘Long live die-hard women’ that in the span of a month becomes a bestseller, climbing to the first position in the Russian prose list in the ‘Moscow’ book retailer chain. According to the AST publishing house survey, it was the best sold comic book in Russia in 2015. Actually, the book is just a collection of the author’s posts from social networks where breaking all media rules, he posted long-reads, but surprisingly they became a hit.

In October 2015 the author presented his book in Waterstones, a major London bookshop, and gave a lecture in a students’ club in Oxford.

In December 2017 AST published Tsypkin's new book 'The House of Goodbyes' which momentarily became number 1 on the 'Top 10 Best-selling books' list of the 'Moscow' book retailer chain.

Alexander's stories have been read by some of Russia's leading actors, including Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Konstantin Khabenskiy, and Anna Mikhalkova. His project 'UnprincYpled Readings', which he launched in 2015, has quickly gained popularity and sold-out shows took place in top Moscow theaters. Alexander and Konstantin Khabenskiy have traveled to over 10 countries with their programme named after Tsypkin's first book ‘Long live die-hard women’.

Many times have Alexander Tsypkin’s stories being read on stage, including such occasions as the ‘Night of the Arts 2015’and a book festival in the Red Square.

‘Radio Russia’ featured an audio version of a number of his stories performed by the leading St.Petersburg thespians - a ‘Nika’, ‘Golden Mask’ and ‘Golden Sofit’ laureate Sergei Dreiden and an Honoured Artist of Russia, a laureate of the State Prize of the USSR and the State Prize of Russia Pavel Semak.

January 2016 saw a literature reading of Tsypkin’s stories for the Russian community in Singapore, put together with informational support from the Russian Embassy in Singapore.

That very January Alexander took part in a ‘Russian literature’ festival in Paris that brought together a number of prominent Russian writers including Andrei Bitov, Victor Yerofeev, Alexander Snegirev, Vladimir Fedorovsky et al. It was in the framework of the festival that stories of the author from St.Petesrburg were first heard in a foreign language.

In February 2016 came out the video-version of a semi-staged reading of the ‘Tomato juice’ story performed by Danila Kozlovsky, a leading Russian stage and screen actor familiar to an international audience for the blockbuster ‘Twilight’. During one week the video garnered 1 million hits on Facebook and has now over 5 million views.

An audio-book released that month and voiced by Danila Kozlovsky, Pavel Derevianko and many other film actors and TV anchors as well as the author himself became a bestseller in Russia in just two weeks.

In March 2016 a French translation of ‘Long live die-hard women’ was presented in Paris.

Recently, Alexander co-wrote a short film that is part of a feature 'About Love. Adult edition' by Anna Melikyan, which premiered this fall. Tsypkin has also, along with Ksenia Rappoport, directed a short film 'Goodbye, my lover!' that sold for the record 10 million rubles at the charity auction 'Action'.

Quotes from reviews:

‘His stories are gulped in one go and just stay there. Today, when long and big-scale works have but lost all chances of being read, short-story masters who perfect the most complicated form of literature have got a unique opportunity to influence the readers and change their inner world...Brilliantly written, sad and funny, with their words these stories bring us back the meanings, and with the meanings, we regain emotions and caring about people’.

The founder and director of the Multimedia Art Museum Olga Sviblova

Alexander Tsypkin’s book presents a wonderful chance to understand today’s Russia from within. It comprises a multitude of diverse stories, amazing, juicy and always kind. One can trace this young author’s lineage to de La Fontaine’s fables, Balzac’s ‘Human comedy’ and the wit of Sacha Guitry who, too, was born in St.Petersburg. This one is a very contemporary and very Russian book that reminds us that Russians can and love laughing, first of all, at themselves.

Héléna Perroud,

Former adviser to the president of France Jacques Chirac, director of the French Institute in St.Petersburg and Cultural attache of the French Embassy in Russia

‘Alexander Tsypkin’s stories amaze with their staggering nakedness of a masterfully depicted world of a St.Petesrburg slacker. It seems that never before in the history of Russian prose has anyone spoken with such humor and freedom on major serious topics that are very exciting for us today’.

Artistic director of the ‘Stanislavsky electric theatre’ Boris Yukhananov

‘For me, Alexander Tsypkin is the Leningrad’s Isaac Babel’

Pyotr Semak, an Honoured Artist of Russia, actor of ‘MDT - Theatre of Europe

‘One thing is obvious - Tsypkin combines in his short novellas brilliant humor and deep emotions in a remarkable manner, at the same time he is delicate even when he is writing on seemingly taboo subjects. Some sentences from Tsypkin’s stories are so rich, flashy and self-sufficient that they may easily have a life of their own’.

The Russian newspaper

‘Tsypkin’s stories have that thing that I value most in literature and gastronomy - the stuffing. Inside laughter, there’s always sadness, in every drama, there is a smile.

Alexander Malenkov, Editor-in-Chief of Maxim Russian Edition.

‘Life writes bang-up plots. The author outstripped me and millions of other people by turning these plots into short stories’.

Polina Sokhranova, Editor-in-Chief of Cosmopolitan Russia

‘Life in Alexander Tsypkin’s stories is light and nonchalant. Sometimes its lightness is unbearable. Still, in every short story, there is lust for the harmony lost, for the quiet caressing of humanity. And we understand that, no matter how comic they look, people in his texts are not just pictures, not mere pawns. They must be cared for and loved.’
Vadim Vinogradov
Dean of the Faculty of Law, National Research University Higher School of Economics; Head of the Working Group on Legislation in the Field of Internet Technologies and Digitalization, Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation
Doctor of Law, Professor, Dean of the HSE Faculty of Law, Member of the Civiс Chamber of the Russian Federation.
Graduated with honors from the Faculty of Law of Lomonosov Moscow State University.
Author of more than 120 scientific, educational and methodical works on constitutional, digital, administrative, municipal law and legislative process.
In June 2020, V.A. Vinogradov became the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the National Research University Higher School of Economics. Since December 2021, Vadim Aleksandrovich has been a member of the HSE Supervisory Board.
V.A. Vinogradov is a member of the expert advisory council under the Federation Council Committee on Constitutional Legislation and State Building, the expert council of the State Duma Committee on Ownership, Land and Property Relations, the Council for the Improvement of Arbitration under the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.
Since 2014, he has been the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the NGO "Center for Assistance to Lawmaking". In 2020, he became a member of the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation and was appointed as the head of the working group on legislation in the field of Internet technologies and digitalization.
Natalia Kolerova
Lawyer, Adviser, Attorneys at Law of Saint Petersburg S&K Vertical
Anatoly Kucherena
Chairman of the Presidium, Bar Association Kucherena and Partners; Doctor of Law
Andrey Loginov
State Secretary – Deputy Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation
Mikhail Piotrovsky
General Director, The State Hermitage Museum
Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovski was born in Yerevan in 1944. His father, Boris Borisovich Piotrovski, an eminent archaeologist, was Director of The State Hermitage Museum from 1964 till 1990.
In 1967 graduated with honors from the Oriental Faculty of Leningrad State University, specializing in Arabic Studies. Underwent a study course at the Cairo University in 1965-1966. From 1967 to 1991 Mikhail Borisovich worked in the Leningrad branch of the Institute of Oriental Studies, where he obtained his doctorate in history. In 1991 was invited to join the Hermitage staff as the First Deputy Director. In July 1992 he was appointed Director of the Museum by a decree of the Prime Minister.
Dr. Piotrovski has taken part in archaeological excavations in the Caucasus, Central Asia and Yemen. He is an author of more than 250 works including catalogues of Arabic manuscripts, publications of Medieval monuments and ancient inscriptions, works on Islamic political history and Arabic culture, archeology of Arabia. Among them: series of articles devoted to the Muslim mythology in The Encyclopedia of World Mythology, series of articles about the prophet Muhammad and the monographs: The Legend of the Himyarite King As'ad al-Kamil (1977), Fundamentals of Arab-Islamic Art (1984), Southern Arabia in the Early Middle Ages (1985), Yemen before Islam and in the First Centuries of the Hijra (1987), Tales of the Koran (1991), Islam: An Encyclopaedia (a co-author, 1991). The Hermitage: Essays on the History of the Collection (a co-author, 1997); Earthy Art - Heavenly Beauty. Art of Islam (an editor, 2000); On Islamic Art (2001), The Great Collections of the Great Museum. The Hermitage (2003); The Hermitage in the Great Museums of the World series (2003); The Historical Legends of the Koran (2005), The Islamic Art. Between China and Europe (2008), The View from the Hermitage (2009, 2014), The Two Holy Sites Regained. Futuh al-Haramayn (2011), My Hermitage in Russian and English (2014, 2015), For Museums There Are No Taboos (2016).
Dr. Piotrovski is an author and a presenter of a TV series My Hermitage shown on the State Russian TV channel (250 series), My Hermitage – 250 (30 series), an author of the regular column The View from the Hermitage in the Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti newspaper (two books of these articles have been issued).
Dr. Piotrovski is Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, member of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences, member of the Russian Academy of Arts. A member of the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Culture and Art (in 2001 – 2011 was a Deputy Chairman of the Council) and the Council under the President of the Russian Federation for Science and Education.
Professor of the St. Petersburg State University, were he chairs two departments - “Museology” and “Ancient Orient History”, a Dean of Oriental faculty. Honorary Doctor of the Kazan State University, Honorary Doctor of the Saratov State University, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the European University in St. Petersburg.
Foreign member of the Armenian Academy of Sciences, an honorary member of the Academy of Sciences of Tatarstan. Corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute, corresponding member of the Institut de France (Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres), and a foreign member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
President of the Union of Museums of Russia, editor-in-chief of The Christian Orient magazine, the chairman of the St. Petersburg branch of the Imperial Russian Orthodox Palestine Society. President of the Worldwide Club of St. Petersburgers, chairman of the board of the 1st State TV channel (2001 – 2005).
In 2011 elected to the State Duma, gave up his mandate.
Has been awarded the Netherlands Order of Orange-Nassau (1996), the Russian Order of Honor (1997), the French Order of the Légion d'Honneur (1998, 2004), the Swedish Order of the Northern Star (1999), the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic (2000, 2004), the Order of Saint Mesrop (Armenian Apostle Church, 2000), the Order of Yaroslav the Wise (Ukraine, 2003), the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (2004), the Order of Service to the Fatherland (Russia, 2004, 2009), the Order of Honor Al-Fahr (the Council of Muftis of Russia, 2005), the Order of the Lion of Finland (2005); the Order of the Rising Sun (Japan, 2007); the Silver Medal of Amsterdam (2009); Woodrow Wilson Award, USA (2009); the Order of the Crown (Kingdom of Belgium, 2011); medal of Anatoliy Koni (Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation, 2013), the Order of Alexander Nevsky (Russia, 2014); the Order of Merit for science and Arts (Austria, 2014), the Order of Service to the Republic of Tatarstan (2014), the Order of Francysk Skaryna (Belarus, 2014), the Order of St. John of Jerusalem (2015), the Order of Friendship (2016), the Medal of Argishti the First (Armenia, 2016).
In 2003 Mikhail Piotrovsky has been awarded the Presidential Prize in the Field of Art and Literature (Russia, 2003). In 2017 has been awarded the State Prize of Russia for his contribution to the preservation of national and world cultural heritage.
Winner of the public award "Sky Line".
In 1997 a minor planet was named “Piotrovski” by the Astronomical Union in joint honor of Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovski and his father Boris Borisovich Piotrovski.
In May, 2011 Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovski was awarded the title of Honored Citizen of Saint Petersburg.
Mikhail Borisovich is married, has two children.