Vitaly Borodin, known for filing repeated complaints against cultural figures and opposition activists, has asked Russia's Prosecutor General's Office to investigate former Pushkin Museum director Elizaveta Likhacheva over her comments about the traditional Russian headdress. Borodin announced the complaint on his Telegram channel.
The complaint stems from a June interview Likhacheva gave to video blogger Pavel Kostin. In it, the art historian said many familiar symbols of 'Russianness' were actually borrowed from other cultures. Specifically, she said that kokoshniks were invented by Art Nouveau artists who 'stole headdresses from 15th-century Italian paintings.' Likhacheva also mentioned that the novel 'War and Peace' is 'approximately half' written in French.
Nearly three weeks later, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova criticized Likhacheva's remarks. In her Telegram channel, Zakharova called the art historian a 'pretentious false morel' and claimed, citing 'concerned citizens,' that French words make up less than four percent of the text of 'War and Peace.'
Later, Vladlena Grinblat, founder of the Russian Kokoshnik Museum, refuted Likhacheva's statement about kokoshniks. In a comment to TASS, she claimed that 'all married women in Rus' wore kokoshniks from the end of the 16th century.' Borodin cited Grinblat's comment in his own complaint.
In his complaint to the prosecutor's office, Borodin asks that Likhacheva's words be checked 'for discrediting cultural heritage.' He also demands an investigation into the former museum director's sources of funding — whether she received grants, subsidies, or other support from abroad.
Likhacheva, in a comment to MSK1.RU, expressed surprise at the attention from the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman. 'Apparently, we have already defeated all enemies and reached agreements with everyone, since a high-ranking employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is busy searching for statements by an unemployed art historian and refuting them on her blog,' she said.