Editing Openai/6874b524-4134-8013-b5e6-0601c853d841 (section)

==== 2023–2024: MEMORY AS A POLITICAL ACT ====

As war drags on and disinformation grows more sophisticated, memory becomes an act of defiance.

===== AI and the New Misinformation =====
* Deepfake videos circulate showing Franka performing for Stalin at a fabricated 1943 gala—meant to glorify “unity between artist and state.”
* A right-wing American influencer misquotes Israel’s early poetry to support a talking point about “Western decline,” drawing outrage from scholars.
* State-backed Russian bots flood YouTube with “explainer videos” simplifying Yakob’s work as “proto-nationalist art” and accusing the West of “corrupting his legacy.”

===== Countermeasures =====
* The Gershovitz Trust (established by Rozanova’s great-niece) begins watermarking and timestamping verified materials. They publish a statement: > “These works were made without permission and preserved against silence. They belong to no state. They belong to truth.”
* A Moscow underground zine called Фантом (“Phantom”) begins publishing excerpts of Israel’s censored poems alongside essays about Yakob’s unreleased scores.

In the final issue before the editors are detained, one page simply reads:

: You want them as saints. They were survivors. You want them as weapons. They were warnings.