Actress Chulpan Khamatova says she's been drowning in hate mail since appearing in a TV miniseries about a woman who survived Siberian exile under Stalin

Actress Chulpan Khamatova says she’s received a torrent of hate mail in response to her starring role in the television miniseries Zuleikha, which is based on Guzel Yakhina’s historical-fiction novel about a woman surviving exile in Siberia from 1930 to 1946. 

“Right now, because of this miniseries, there are so many people swearing at me and insulting me for not loving my country and saying that I’m defiling my country’s memory. They’re referring not just to Tatarstan but also to the history of modern Russia,” Khamatova told the television network Dozhd. 

On Instagram, in a live stream for her “Podari Zhizn” charity, Khamatova also recently revealed that she’s been the target of hate mail and allegations of “distorting” Russia’s historical record since the Zuleikha miniseries debuted. 

Zuleikha (literally in Russian: “Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes”) is an eight-part miniseries based on Guzel Yakhina's novel, which won the Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award and the Big Book Award in 2015. In the story, the titular protagonist is sent from a patriarchal Tatar village to Siberia with other victims of the Soviet repressions. The show premiered on Rossiya 1 on April 13. On social media, Zuleikha has received negative reviews from many supporters of the USSR. For instance, the Communists of Russia Party (not to be confused with the Communist Party of Russia) says it intends to try to get the miniseries banned from television.