It is written cancel culture but it reads "cognitive delay": and lately, with the invasion of Ukraine in progress, the phenomenon has been updated with the further nuance of hysterical "russophobia" devoid of any logical sense. Thus, after Bicocca's indexing of Dostoevsky in Milan - then ridiculously retracted on the condition that the Russian author is integrated with unspecified Ukrainian writers - it is the turn of poor Yuri Gagarin. The name of the first man to fly into space was in fact wiped out for pure and simple being born in the Soviet Union.
Who knows what cosmonaut Gagarin would have thought of Putin, Zelensky and the ongoing war. We will never know: instead it seems that in Colorado Springs, USA, they know it very well. In the city that hosts the Space Symposium every year - one of the most important events in the world dedicated to the aerospace sector - the evening that has always been dedicated to Gagarin, the "Yuri's night", was in fact abolished immediately after the start of the conflict, and renamed Celebration of Space: Discover What's Next, converting the celebration of the astronaut into that of American conquests in space. "In light of current world events, the Space Foundation's Yuri's Night of 2022 was renamed A Celebration of Space: Discover What's Next. The goal of this fundraising event remains the same: to celebrate human achievements in space by inspiring the next generation to reach for the stars, "the event's website read.
Poor Gagarin has another reason for revolting in his grave: the mayor of Mondorf Les Bains, a small Luxembourg town, has in fact decided to pack the bust dedicated to the cosmonaut with a black bag to "avoid tensions in this historical moment, but also vandalism" . A choice that has caused various discontent in the town, so much so that some citizens have to "undress" the statue in protest: "Gagarin died 54 years ago and can have nothing to do with this conflict", is the sensible motivation of those who oppose the timid blows with the sponge. But the man of the stars is in good company: in Spain the screening of Tarkovsky's Solaris was banned, while in Lithuania the documentary by the futurist poet Chlebnikov was vetoed.