Max Trutt in an interview with Novaya Gazeta Europe

When asked what choice socially engaged professionals should make today if they want to continue working within the Russian political context, Trudolyubov has his own answer: “One can take inspiration from the many people who become masters of their craft, who build projects, startups, and services that are not tied to Russia. This matters for the future and for supporting one another.”

Trudolyubov himself is also trying to find new ways of expressing his position and conveying meaning through channels beyond text alone.

“I decided not to take the position of a victim of some external dark force”

In March 2025, the Vienna gallery Maya Galerie hosted a solo exhibition by the artist Max Trutt (also known as Maxim Trudolyubov), one of the founders and former editor of the opinion section of Vedomosti. His works depict rabbits, wolves, and other animals that evoke classical, fable-like, and religious imagery. As Trudolyubov says, they are “not so much about Russia as they are about humans.” 

He chose the pseudonym Max Trutt partly because “it’s easier for people who don’t speak Russian to pronounce,” and partly because it allows him to think of his artistic work more freely — as a project or even a startup.

Trudolyubov began reflecting on alternatives to journalism after 2014, when Vedomosti was essentially taken away from its owners. That year, a law was passed limiting foreign ownership in Russian media to 20 percent. Until then, more than 60 percent of Vedomosti had belonged to the British FT Group (Financial Times) and the American Dow Jones & Co. (Wall Street Journal).

Maxim wrote op-eds for The New York Times, edited the Ideas section of Meduza, moved into the expert/analytical field, and began working with research institutions including the U.S.-based Kennan Institute, which focuses on the USSR and post-Soviet Russia. But at some point he realized that he “needed to shift his perspective.”

“Everything that happened after the failed 2012 protests and the annexation of Crimea in 2014 made me doubt much of what we, the expert community, had been doing. But I decided not to take the position of a victim of some external dark force that punishes you for telling the truth. It’s always easy and even advantageous to feel persecuted. Instead, I began to think critically about what I had personally done. I wanted to change my angle, and that’s when I returned to my earlier attempts to make art,” Trudolyubov recalls.

Trudolyubov studied at the Moscow Architectural Institute and had always enjoyed drawing, though he never pursued it seriously. Over the last two or three years, he decided to make art his, something that, among other things, would need to earn money. This, he says, was “a very important internal shift, a descent from the elevated position of an expert-editor to the position of a person who shows up at some construction site and barely understands what’s going on.”

At first, Maxim focused on graphic work, then turned to painting, and gradually learned to use digital tools. Last year he began navigating the world of galleries, open calls, and online art-sale platforms, as well as building social connections and trying to integrate into Vienna’s art community.

“A year ago we reached an agreement with the first gallery, and I began the path from zero to one. I had works shown alongside other artists. We exhibited at one gallery, then found another, where the works hang for sale. In March we did a separate exhibition dedicated specifically to the work of Max Trutt, and recently we held an artist talk at Babel bookstore,” Maxim says.

“I am moving in small steps, but persistently and consistently. I talk to artists, curators, try to join group projects. For example, we are now preparing a collective project with an artist from Nigeria. At the same time I am working on a newsletter that will combine art, politics, and images. I am not Austrian but I do represent a certain community, a migrant one if you like, and I’d like to grow beyond its boundaries. Of course, in Moscow, where I was born, it would be different. But here it’s like this. And it’s a big school of humility,” Trudolyubov says.

In parallel, Maxim continues his work with expert institutions and occasionally collaborates with various media outlets. He remains interested in writing and does not want to abandon it entirely.

“But I probably cannot do it the way I used to, I cannot speak as someone who knows. I am very disappointed by the monologic nature of the media space and of contemporary culture more broadly, where people sit in their own containers, stew inside them, and gradually convince themselves that only they are right,” he says. 

Novaya Gazeta Europe 

09.04.2025

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