Orthodox activists of the Forty Sokorov movement have written a letter to the Ministry of Culture of Russia, asking to ban Harry Potter. In their opinion, the story of the famous wizard of Hogwarts born from the pen of JK Rowling would be “a propaganda of witchcraft and satanism”
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In Russia, Orthodox activists from the Forty Sokorov movement have written a letter to the country’s Ministry of Culture, asking for a ban on Harry Potter.
In their opinion, the story of the famous wizard of Hogwarts born from the pen of JK Rowling would be “a propaganda of witchcraft and Satanism”. These are the reasons why they are clamoring for the “dangerous” (dangerous according to them…) bespectacled wizard is banned from Russia.
The Harry Potter films are produced by Warner Bros., a film house that lately does not seem to get along with Russia at all: the Hollywood company recently banned the transmission of its products to the Ngm holding.
In October 2022 Dmitry Kuznetsov, a member of the conservative and social democratic party called “A Just Russia – For the Truth”, said that only cinemas can receive content from “hostile countries”, while the nation’s TV channels and platforms would not could have done it.
Now it is therefore Warner Bros. to receive a backlash, with the news that there are those who expect their films based on Rowling’s novels to be banned (even in theaters, therefore).
Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova received reports from Forty Sokorov members, who wrote to her that “scoundrels have appeared in Russia who organize musicals and concerts about the life of the Antichrist with a scar on their forehead. Even for Christmas day. Which means that the godless must be driven out.”
These words refer to the series of wizard-themed musicals scheduled in Moscow and in other cities of the country for the Christmas period. Furthermore, in the weeks of December and January, several concerts with music from the film saga are scheduled in Russia, performed in Lutheran and Anglican churches.
The words of Orthodox activists
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Orthodox activists of the Forty Sokorov movement express their concern with the following words, addressed to the Ministry of Culture of Russia: “We are facing a spiritual and cultural time bomb for our children and youth. The saga of Harry Potter it is the brilliantly designed quintessence of Western culture: rationalism, individualism and materialism, saturated with spiritual values alien to us. The main characters of the novels are not people, but sorcerers, witches and wizards, and the ordinary people around are either scoundrels or half-witted, and in any case beings of an inferior level. Witchcraft and Satanism, absolutely forbidden by God to Christians, are the engine of the plot”.
This is just an excerpt from the letter, which was published in full by the Telegram channel Mash.
Forty Sokorov’s Proposals
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Orthodox activists have also suggested strengthening the Ministry of Culture, increasing its powers so that officials are able to categorically ban anything that does not appear in line with Russia’s traditional values.
They also asked to enact a law under which the Ministry of Culture can control “creative events”, to respect state policy and the moral and spiritual values on which the nation should be based. According to the law that Forty Sokorov would strongly like, Harry Potter novels could not circulate in Russia nor, obviously, the related adaptations to the small and big screen, just as stage adaptations should also be prohibited (given that the dispute was born precisely to via musical theatre).
The question that naturally arises is the following: why are the members of the Forty Sokorovs calling right now to ban films by Harry Potter at home, now that in Russia all Warner Bros. products (including therefore the various chapters of the famous wizard’s epic) have been removed from the country’s television channels and streaming platforms?
Putin had compared the fate of Russian culture to that of JK Rowling
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And to think that in March 2022 Vladimir Putin himself had used the author of Harry Potter as a comparison to the Western ostracism of Russian culture following the invasion of Ukraine.
“Russian culture erased as the author of Harry Potter”, Putin said. In a televised meeting organized by the Kremlin with various exponents of the cultural world, Putin accused the West of wanting to make a clean slate of his country.
“Today they are trying to erase an entire millenary culture: our people”, these are his words. “They are banning writers and books. Now they are trying to obliterate our country. I’m talking about the progressive discrimination of everything to do with Russia.” Precisely during this speech, Putin quoted JK Rowling, saying that the fate of Russian culture is close to that of the novelist accused of transphobia.
The President of the Russian Federation said that the author of Harry Potter it was canceled from all cultural schedules “only because it did not satisfy the demands of gender rights”. You had also mentioned the book burnings organized by the Nazis in the 1930s. “It is impossible to imagine such a thing in our country and against this we are insured thanks to our culture. And it is for us inseparable from our Motherland, from Russia, where there is no place for ethnic intolerance, where representatives of dozens of ethnic groups have lived together for centuries,” Putin added in March 2022.
Russia, Orthodox accuse Harry Potter of ‘witchcraft and Satanism’