Authors

Anna Namestnikov¹;  ¹ Ghent University, Belgium

Discussion

This paper explores how the emerging 'fifth wave' of Russian literary emigration, triggered by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, activates cultural tradition and heritage to define its identity, legitimize its creative practices, and engage with questions of continuity, language, and belonging. This wave encompasses individuals who left Russia in previous years, frequently due to intensifying authoritarianism, as well as those who fled directly as a result of the war. Through new publishing platforms and creative networks such as Pjataja Volna, Vidim Books, and Freedom Letters, these authors consciously position themselves within a historical lineage of Russian émigré literature and culture. 

Rather than merely replicating past models, the fifth wave reclaims and reconfigures émigré practices from earlier movements—especially the first wave of the 1920s–1930s and the third wave of the late Soviet period—as tools for cultural resistance and renewal. These historical repertoires are not only referenced but actively mobilized to create new forms of artistic expression and solidarity, often mediated through digital infrastructures and community-driven methods. 

By examining recent cultural outputs, including the work of writer and activist Daria Serenko and the collaborative music album After Russia, this paper shows how tradition is used not nostalgically but strategically: to sustain artistic continuity in exile, to redefine belonging beyond the nation-state, and to reclaim the Russian language as a contested yet unifying medium. In doing so, it argues that the fifth wave represents both a continuation and a transformation of Russian diasporic culture—where protest, memory, and innovation converge.