Dmitry Glukhovsky, creator of the sci-fi series Metro 2033, was recently arrested for criticizing the Russian invasion of Ukraine and sentenced by a Moscow court to 8 years in prison. This arrest marks the ongoing war the Russian government is waging against its critics and artists.
Glukhovsky’s book series Metro 2033 is a post-apocalyptic story from the perspective of nuclear holocaust survivors. The book was eventually adapted into a pretty gnarly first-person shooter horror game of the same name. Anyone who’s ever played those games knows just how terrifying and difficult they can be. We mentioned way back in 2012 news about a Metro 2033 movie in the works, but, as of 2023, we’re still waiting on it.
So … what exactly is going on in Russia right now? Glukhovsky isn’t the only artist to be jailed for dissent, as a slew of other creators have also been handed prison sentences for anti-war sentiments. Glukhovsky had posted both videos and texts across various social media accounts criticizing Russian state for war crimes. As AP News reports, Glukhovsky wrote of the Ukraine war, “unleashed by Putin is becoming more terrible and inhuman every day, and the pretexts under which it was started look more and more insignificant and false.”
It’s not the first time Glukhovsky’s been critical of the Kremlin. He’s actually been quite the prolific activist for a good part of his life now. He showed support for Alexei Navalny, an imprisoned Russian opposition activist, back in 2021, after Navalny was arrested.
Glukhovsky is a very political writer as well. According to an interview with VG247, he’s always thinking about history, Capitalism, the USSR, and Eastern European life after the fall of the Soviet Union. Metro 2033 and its sequels tackle these themes extensively. The series’ characters are trapped in the ghosts of the past, longing to relive what they cannot ever truly have again.
Before his arrest, the sci-fi author was put on the Russian government’s most wanted list for opposition back in 2022. As Reuters reports, Glukhovsky was apparently the first popular artist to be placed on such a list. Jailing artists is often an attempt to send a message to others who dare criticize totalitarianism with their works. It’s a scare tactic that the Kremlin wants to get significant use out of as the war goes on. This is not just a military conquest, but a cultural one as well.
I can’t help but think about the tragic irony in the whole situation: an author known for writing about dystopia gets imprisoned by a dystopian government. It is the ultimate crime against free speech and human rights. As The Mary Sue has talked about before, the Ukraine-Russia war is Imperialism plain and simple. These violations aren’t exclusive to Russia, as America has also been known to strip its own citizens of basic rights, but it is deeply harrowing to see it happen in such a short time window.
(featured image: Deep Silver)
