Last Monday, two messages appeared simultaneously on the web site of the Ultra Kultura publishing house. "Sad News 1: Our editor in chief, Ilya Kormiltsev, is in a London hospital, and his condition is very grave." "Sad News 2: The Moscow office of Ultra Kultura is closing down on Feb. 1."

Ultra Kultura is relatively small, but it is active enough to attract attention from the powers that be. As its name suggests, its publications are mainly devoted to various subcultural and countercultural themes; it also dabbles in opposition politics, publishing the works of people like Eduard Limonov, founder of the National Bolshevik Party. Last year, a State Duma deputy accused Ultra Kultura of distributing pornography, and Moscow prosecutors opened an investigation at his request; in the Sverdlovsk region, a couple of books on clubbing came under scrutiny for allegedly containing pro-drug propaganda, and their print runs were impounded.

The staff of Ultra Kultura told reporters that its owner, businessman Alexei Biserov, had gotten tired of such problems. Biserov himself said to Kommersant: "The publishing house stopped presenting subculture for readers and started creating subculture instead. Political opposition is of no use these days; what we need is intellectual opposition."

Some time ago, Gazeta asked Kormiltsev himself what he thought about the possibility of Ultra Kultura closing down. "No comment," he said. "The climate these days doesn't seem very promising. The country is in a prolonged spiritual crisis, with all the usual consequences."

Given Kormiltsev's illness, the timing of the closure seems especially malicious. Media outlets reported that he had been diagnosed with spine cancer and that his condition prevented him from returning to Moscow. A fund has been set up to collect money for his treatment; details are available at Ultraculture.ru.

Kormiltsev has several claims to fame outside of Ultra Kultura. He is well-known in rock circles, having written some of the most famous lyrics for the cult band Nautilus Pompilius. He was also a prolific translator (translating, among other things, the novels of Bret Easton Ellis) and a cultural and political guru with strong ties to various fringe figures.

Now, I never found Ultra Kultura's output that interesting; sometimes they published books out of sheer anti-establishment sentiment, even if they weren't very relevant for today's Russia. But criticizing books is one thing; suppressing them is another. And this sudden show of force when the editor is abroad and seriously ill just doesn't look pretty. Apparently, some people still reach for their pistols whenever they hear the word "culture."