On Thursday, Oct. 8, at 6 p.m., the Warsaw Kultura cinema will screen the documentary film “Gods of Hammer and Sickle” by Yuri Khashchevatsky. The evening will be dedicated to the memory of the Belarusian director and critic of the Lukashenka regime, who died on July 23, 2026.
The film “Gods of Hammer and Sickle” explores the links between Orthodox Christianity and Soviet ideology.
After the fall of communism, more and more people in Russia began attending churches and turning to the country’s traditional culture — Orthodoxy. The question often arises of how it could be that the Russian “people” “rejected” communism just as quickly as they had “rejected” faith in 1917 and embraced a new ideology. Yuri Khashchevatsky examines this phenomenon, focusing mainly on the relationship between religion and Soviet ideology. Moscow was supposed to become the new Rome, with Lenin taking on the role of the new Messiah. Soviet iconography, customs, methods of exercising power and ceremonies all drew on models from Orthodoxy. Khashchevatsky’s film is based mainly on film archives. The author combines scenes recorded at different stages of the history of the USSR and accompanies them with his personal commentary.
If Russians did not need a “strong hand” to lead them, it would have been impossible to confuse faith and ideology so easily. This is what Yuri Khashchevatsky’s film explores.
A discussion with the director’s colleagues will take place after the screening.
Darota Rashkouskaya, head of the “Dialogue Through Film” project and a producer who worked with Khashchevatsky, believes that Yuri Khashchevatsky was a very perceptive documentary filmmaker. Therefore, the courage with which he expressed his views in his films remains relevant today and can inspire us.
Yuri Khashchevatsky died on July 23, 2026. He is remembered as one of the most courageous Belarusian documentary filmmakers and critics of the Lukashenka regime. His best-known film is “An Ordinary President” (1996), about Lukashenka and made in the genre of a political pamphlet.
Admission is free — a free ticket must be obtained at the cinema box office.