Twenty years later, Viktor Shenderovich comes back on his “Puppets” show

Viktor Shenderovich was a popular, and even unavoidable character during the 1990’s in Russia.

While the country was undergoing radical economic and social transformations due to the “perestroika”, the political climate was more than unstable and unpredictable. However, every saturday evening was brightened up by the satirical show “Kukly” - translated as “Dolls” - broadcasted by NTV channel. The show represented the major political leaders and oligarchs of that time in a satirical way (as puppets), putting them in absurd situations and revealing their sometimes illogical behaviour. 

Viktor Senderovich

The success of his legendary show

The strong censorship imposed on the media during the communist era was finally over, and criticisms against the power were allowed. “Kukly”, thus, combined a political dimension - keeping the public informed of the latest news - and a humorous one, relieving the tension created by these precarious times.

Viktor Shenderovich was the screenwriter of that show, and entertained all the country with it until its closure due to political pressures in 2002. Afterwards, he became a political commentator on the opposition radio “Echo of Moscow”, and an activist known for his dissidence against Vladimir Putin’s policy (particularly concerning the war in Chechnya).

Twenty years later, a retrospective 

The small conference room, located in a Parisian cultural center, was filled with fans of Shenderovich’s work, and almost all were members of the Russian community living in Paris. During his talk, that lasted more than two hours, Shenderovich came back on the various issues he encountered with the show, and how he managed to solve them. 

For instance, he mentioned the numerous trials he had to go through, never giving up on his freedom of expression and his fine sense of satire. As he was the screenwriter, he had to bear the responsibility to deal with an easily offendable public, not always understanding sarcasm. From public excuses, to personal letters and even going to jail, these were the “necessary sacrifices” to keep his show going on.  He was also proposed to collaborate by high officials of the Kremlin, but always declined them in order to preserve his integrity and ideological neutrality. 

Puppet from Kukly show

Showing several extracts of Kukly - alternatively with explanations about the context and about his personal experience - Shenderovich made the public laugh, almost exactly as twenty years ago, but this time with a bitter smile probably provoked by nostalgia. The most successful episode represented Eltsin and his advisor inventorying all the items in the country after the “Scandal of Statisticians” (a tax fraud and data falsification affair): Elstin went from Moscow to Siberia and the Russian countryside, discovering with surprise the huge inequalities of development. 

 The second one that was most applauded was more serious, talking about an “optical lens” - a metaphor for the media - allowing the people to see the raw reality around them. Vladimir Putin decided to forbid those “lenses” he found dangerous for the stability of his regime. 

Finally, Shenderovich depicted the sad closure of the show, boosted by the multiplication of pressures - as for example the demand to remove the puppet of Putin. Today, most of the episodes of Kukly are available on Youtube, and the equivalent of this puppet show exists in other countries such as Les Guignols de l’Info (France) or previously Spitting image (Great Britain).