What happened to the pussy riot. "Pussy Wright" - who are they? Feminist punk band "Pussy Wright"
In this article we have collected more than 60 cartoons by domestic and foreign artists.
Girls who performed a civil feat and performed a prayer to the Mother of God with an appeal Mother of God, drive Putin away!, were sentenced to 2 years in a general regime colony.
Most sensible people understood this sentence correctly. The well-known paranoid godfather was sentenced to two years of continuous shame and contempt.
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NEW PUSSY RIOT CLIP IN SOCHI 2014
In Sochi 2014, members of a punk band were filming a video for a new song in the port and were attacked by Cossacks. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova was sprayed with pepper gas in the face. She and other activists were pushed, thrown to the ground and whipped. In the recording you can hear the Cossacks swearing. Even the photographer who was filming what was happening got it. Some participants needed health care. Tolokonnikova wrote on Twitter that she had bruises and marks from the whip on her body, and an abrasion and bruise on her temple.
IOC press attache Mark Adams called the actions of the Cossacks a shameful act. According to him, the video and photographs taken the day before caused him concern. The governor of the region, Alexander Tkachev, expressed regret over the incident. He demanded that those responsible for the attack be punished.
The clip is called “Putin will teach you to love your homeland.” It includes footage of several balaclava-wearing Pussy Riot members and one Pussy Riot member being attacked by Cossacks as they are about to begin their performance.
Pussy Riot - Putin will teach you how to love / Putin will teach you to love
Before the whole world had time to enjoy the spectacle of the liar and scoundrel of the president of a once great country at a shameful press conference on March 4, 2014, a picture of women crippled by Russian fascists appeared on all news channels.
The beating of women by Putin’s Hitler Youth is quite in the spirit of Putin’s press conference on Ukraine, at which there were only two interesting points:
1. How Putin continuously jerked his leg and shook his sore head (restless leg syndrome).
2. How Putin, without blinking an eye, blatantly lied that his Russian troops in Crimea are a gang of unknown ragamuffins without family or tribe, who found 26,000 sets of Russian ammunition, machine guns, machine guns and armored vehicles in an unknown landfill.
The St. George's ribbon is now used in Russia instead of prohibited fascist symbols. The abuse of millions of patients who are not given painkillers in Russia, when even rear admirals shoot themselves because of it, is the fate prepared by Putin for all Russians. It’s clear that Ukrainians are running away from such a scumbag...
Courageous girls who accomplished a civic feat and performed a prayer to the Mother of God with an appeal Mother of God, drive Putin away!, were sentenced to 2 years in a general regime colony.
Most sensible people understood this sentence correctly. The well-known paranoid godfather was sentenced to two years of continuous shame and contempt.
Even German Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel harshly criticized the conviction in the case of members of the group Pussy Riot. “An inadequately harsh sentence does not correspond to European values, the principles of the rule of law and democracy, to which Russia must remain committed as a member of the Council of Europe,” the head of the German government said in a statement issued on Friday, August 17, 2012 in Berlin. “A vibrant, developing civil society and politically active citizens are an indispensable precondition, and not a threat, to the modernization of Russia,” Merkel said, emphasizing that she had been watching the trial of the group members with concern.
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| In Paris, unknown people stylized a monument to the Russian Expeditionary Force in France to resemble the image of the punk group Pussy Riot, two members of which were sentenced to two years in prison for holding a punk prayer service in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Russian-speaking users of LiveJournal report this. A yellow balaclava was placed on the officer's head and a pink dress on his body. The officer's legs and boots were painted with bright blue paint. Unknown people also painted in purple horse sculpture His face was wrapped in blue cloth and a green cape was placed on his back. On the pedestal, unknown people wrote Free Pussy in pink paint. The memorial to the soldiers and officers of the Russian Expeditionary Force who fought in the Allied armies in 1915-1918 was opened in the presence of Vladimir Putin on June 21, 2011 in Paris, on the Seine embankment, next to the Alexandre III bridge and the Grand Palais exhibition palace. . The author of the monument was Vladimir Surovtsev. |
And on November 16, 2012, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, at a meeting of the St. Petersburg Dialogue forum, asked Russian President Putin directly to his face a question that Bundestag deputies asked Vladimir Putin to pass on to him. Merkel expressed doubts about the fairness of the punishment of the group members and suggested that the resonance of this verdict in Germany would be much stronger. “If the story with Pussy Riot had happened in Germany, the discussion in society would have been heated. But was it necessary to send two young girls to a camp for two years? I don’t know if this would have happened in Germany.” The Russian President immediately reacted with his usual lies and slander, reminding the Chancellor and German deputies about the public allegedly anti-Semitic actions of a punk group in a Moscow shopping center. Addressing the forum participants, Putin emphasized the inadmissibility of “supporting people who take anti-Semitic positions.” Putin lied as always. It's like wetting two fingers for him. After all, in fact, the mentioned action was not anti-Semitic, but grotesque and satirical in nature: the art group “War,” protesting against xenophobic sentiments in society, staged the “execution” of homosexuals and migrant workers. Five activists playing the roles of the “condemned” (one of them was a Jew) were “hanged” in a shopping center in Moscow. The group members unfurled a rainbow flag with the inscription “Pestel on ***.” Told about this action ideological inspirer art group "War" Alexey Plutser-Sarno in his blog and Oleg Vasiliev in the article SCARED JEW IS ME. One of the events that prompted “War” to protest was a video of the “execution of a Tajik and a Dag,” which was distributed on the Internet in 2008. Russian authorities were much more active in hunting down those who copied blog posts rather than those who killed people on camera.
“I do not approve of the trial of the girls from the punk group Pussy Riot. They should not have been punished, but forgiven, released and compensated for the damage caused during the persecution. Loud trials cannot strengthen the authority of either the Church or the people who on its behalf created such a precedent. Apparently, the whole point is in the precedent; someone wanted to create it. I will refrain from harsher statements."
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) criticized the decision taken by the Moscow court. “Charges such as hooliganism and incitement to religious hatred should not be used to restrict the right to free expression,” the OSCE Representative on Freedom of Means said in Vienna mass media Dunja Mijatovic. Freedom of expression should not be limited or suppressed - no matter how provocative, satirical or sensitive a particular point of view may be. And under no circumstances should free expression lead to imprisonment, the OSCE representative emphasized.
Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina.
PAUL MCCARTNEY STANDED UP FOR
PUSSY RIOT MEMBER
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The famous British musician wrote a letter to the Russian authorities in support of Maria Alekhina on May 20, 2013. The girl went on a hunger strike after she was denied personal presence at a meeting on the issue of parole.
Maria Alyokhina, today announced a hunger strike after being refused the right to attend her own parole hearing. Paul hopes that Russian officials will grant Maria the right to be present in court in the city of Berezniki.
Paul wrote handwritten letters to Russian officials in support of both Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who was last month denied password, asking them to consider release on password.
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In his letter regarding Maria, Paul wrote:
"My personal belief is that further incarceration for Maria will be harmful for her and the situation as a whole, which, of course, is being watched by people all over the world.
"In the great tradition of fair-mindedness which the Russian people (many of whom are my friends) are famous for, I believe that you granting this request would send a very positive message to all the people who have followed this case."
And in his letter regarding Nadezhda:
"I have had a long relationship with the Russian people, and, with this in mind, I am making the following request in a spirit of friendship for my many Russian acquaintances who, like me, believe in treating people - all people, with compassion and kindness."
Maria and Nadezhda were jailed last August for a breach of public order motivated by religious hatred.
“I believe that the fulfillment of this request will be good news for everyone who is following this case,” the musician said in a letter published on his official website. "I am convinced that continued imprisonment of Maria will have a negative impact on both her and the situation as a whole," McCartney wrote. He also expressed support for another Pussy Riot member, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, who was denied parole by the court at the end of April.
Pyotr Verzilov, husband of another convicted Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, published handwritten document signed by Paul McCartney on May 20. It begins with an address to judge Lidia Yakovleva: Dear Lidia Mikhailovna (dear Lidia Mikhailovna).
German TV channel ZDF disgraced Komsomolskaya Pravda
The Germans even issued an appeal in Russian. It all started with the fact that on the day of the Pussy Riot verdict, June 17, 2012, on the social and legal television channel ZDF in the program “Aspects”, among other famous cultural figures, actress Anna Thalbach spoke in support of the convicted girls, DW-World recalls. de. "This is a violation of freedom of expression! These are young women, this is their opinion, they just want to be heard. Is Putin afraid of three punk girls, since he punishes them so cruelly as a lesson to others?" - said Talbach, in particular.
Later, in September 2012, the actress joked on the satirical program Roche und Böhmermann that she received “a lot of money” for speaking out in support of Pussy Riot. "Komsomolskaya Pravda" foolishly took her words at face value and, after more than six months, suddenly, either from a hangover or from her own idiocy, she published an article in which she quoted Anna Thalbach and called the actress’s “first sensible thought” a comic statement about what she considers stupid, "when actors suddenly start talking about politics." It is noteworthy that KP was not the only publication that raised this topic in June 2013. TV channel "Russia" a day later, Talbach also quoted idiotically, at the same time “convicting” ZDF of misusing taxpayers’ funds. “Russian journalists clearly did not understand or did not want to understand that the program Roche und Böhmermann was satirical, that Anna Thalbach was only jokingly mocking the actors who seriously discussed politics, that she jokingly assured that she also speaks out on other serious or funny topics “only for money,” notes DW-World.de. Anna Thalbach, in turn, has already apologized for bad joke and assured the audience that she did not receive any money for speaking out in support of the girls convicted of the “punk prayer service.” At the end of June ZDF released a special video, in which the TV channel presenter addresses journalists in Russian and explains that Talbach’s statement about money is “ clean water irony, sarcasm, in other words, a joke." "But you passed off a joke from a funny show as a serious fact. So, first of all, your plot is completely false. And secondly, it’s too late... Colleagues, you are selling old jokes,” says the presenter of a German TV channel. She also invites pro-Kremlin media to use this Russian-language material in their reports.
ZDF disgraced VREME, VESTI and Komsomolskaya Pravda
The video element is not supported by your browser. .
ZDF employees are at a loss as to why Russian media They grabbed hold of this story only now, when programs from Talbach came out last year. “Perhaps there are some internal political motives, perhaps an attempt to convince Russian citizens that the members of the Pussy Riot group do not enjoy as much support in the West as it seems, that votes in their defense have to be bought,” he suggested Chief Editor program "Aspects" Daniel Fiedler in an interview with DW-World.de. Answering a question about a journalist’s duty to carefully check information, he said that a representative of the Rossiya TV channel approached them, and they explained to him that Talbach spoke in a satirical program and joked. “It seemed that he understood everything. Our amazement was even greater that these insinuations continued. We were surprised and surprised, and then we were offended,” Fiedler concluded.
All over the world the conviction is growing that Russia is led by a crazy paranoid. The article contains statements on this topic by many famous people and politicians.
Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize for Best documentary On an international theme, a punk film about the punk group “Pussy Riot: Punk Prayer” by Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin was awarded.
Maxim Pozdorovkin about the film “Pussy Riot: Punk Prayer”
A Russian-British documentary about the punk band Pussy Riot was first presented to Russian-speaking audiences at the Odessa International Film Festival (OIFF). The film "Pussy Riot. Punk Prayer" by British Mark Lerner and Russian director Maxim Pozdorovkin was shown as part of the out-of-competition program. The film was filmed during the trial of punk band members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich and tells in detail the history of the group. The film contains a lot of archival documentary footage, interviews with the girls’ parents, who give their assessments of their daughters’ actions and talk about their childhood and youth. The film also contains a lot of conversations with the girls' opponents - mainly Orthodox activists. Russian viewers will be able to see the film "Pussy Riot. Punk Prayer" in December 2013 at the Artdocfest festival in Moscow.
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| Trial of the PUSSY RIOT beauties[ |
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| Trial of PUSSY RIOT beauties |
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| Trial of PUSSY RIOT beauties |
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| Trial of PUSSY RIOT beauties |
The most interesting thing is that they represent almost all types of Russian female beauty.
One with an iconographic face. You can draw Madonna from it.
The other is Botticelli, Mona Lisa.
And the third is brown-fingered. Like from the posters Soviet Union, glorifying our woman.
Icon "Virgin Mother of God, drive Putin away!" photo by Ivan Polissky
Mireille Mathieu was gagged and misrepresented on TVC
The meaning of the interview with the famous singer was changed to the opposite. The famous singer did not support the unlawful verdict of Putin’s trial, but the TVC channel decided to “silence” this phrase on air. A castrated and distorted version was aired on the TVC channel. When translating the words of the famous singer, reporter Alexandra Glotova “put” completely different words into Mireille Mathieu’s mouth, distorted the emphasis of what was said, and the final and most important phrase “But as a woman, an artist and a Christian, I wish for mercy for them.” was simply simply “Orthodox” sent to the trash.
The management of TV Center apologized to the singer through her official representatives.
This is what Mireille Mathieu actually said: “I think that these girls are not entirely aware of their actions. The temple is not a place where you can organize demonstrations, you can make demands in a different way. The temple is a place of reverent solitude and respect. This is like sacrilege, because in your churches you feel such ardent faith. But as a woman, an artist and a Christian, I wish mercy for them (a gentle attitude)."
The TVC aired ( False translation is highlighted in red): "It seems to me that they are insane. I condemn their actions. The church is not the place for such actions. (The most important part of the phrase has been cut out.) Church always was and will be a place where people come for light, for purification of the soul. This is a sacred place that must be respected. Especially Russian churches! You can feel such ardor and zeal in them!” (The main phrase has been cut out.)
Mireille Mathieu’s statements, distorted and “cut” by Alexandra Glotova, caused a storm of indignation in France:
In her LiveJournal, Alexandra Glotova wrote: “Yes, the bosses leaked me, you don’t have to track the broadcasts, I’m not there.”
P.S. The point, however, is not at all about the evil authorities. Alexandra Glotova specialized in interviews with “celebrities.” And what kind famous person After this scandalous distortion of words and gagging, will Mireille Mathieu want to give an interview to the lying journalist Alexandra Glotova?
Yoko Ono thanks Pussy Riot
John Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono, presented the Lennon-Ono Peace Prize, which she founded, to the Russian punk band Pussy Riot in New York. On behalf of the imprisoned members of the group, the award was accepted by Peter and Gera Verzilov, the husband and daughter of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. At the same time, Yoko Ono expressed gratitude to the members of the punk band for their contribution to the fight for freedom of expression for women.
Earlier in Washington, Pyotr Verzilov, Nikolai Polozov, Mark Feigin and Violetta Volkova held meetings with a number of congressmen, inviting the authors of the so-called “Sergei Magnitsky list” to expand it to include persons involved in the Pussy Riot case. Lawyers include not only the judge and prosecutors as such, but also a number of Russian journalists, including Andrei Karaulov, Alexey Pimanov and Arkady Mamontov.
OZPP: Pussy Riot prayed to the Virgin Mary in the museum
OZPP appealed to the prosecutor's office with a request to check the facts of misappropriation of funds and misuse of the premises of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
As the head of the OZPP Mikhail Anshakov explained, the metochion of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' is a religious organization, officially 7% of the territory of this temple complex. The entire temple complex, which is 55 thousand square meters, is owned by the city of Moscow, in trust management of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior Foundation. Despite the fact that the name is associated with the CHS, this organization is secular and does not have the right to carry out religious activities. On the contrary, as a secular organization, it is obliged to comply with the law, including in the field of trade. "Vasily Poddevalin, head of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior Foundation, is former employee economic management of the presidential administration... Previously, according to my information, he was sitting on cash flows that were allocated for construction. After this, he earned the trust of certain individuals, and he was put in charge of all the property of the complex. That is, this is a fairly large-scale and serious scam."
“The Foundation of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is a secular organization managed by Poddevalin and his family. Poddevalin himself is actually the manager of all the property of this temple complex. He actually turned the premises of the temple complex into a business center,” says the head of the OPP. “If you know, there are dry cleaners there ", car washes, laundries above the altar, there is a company selling seafood. In total, there are more than 15 organizations. Of these, according to my information, only seven have officially issued lease agreements."
“They are exempt from issuing cash receipts when they trade in religious objects. But the assortment there is adapted to demand, for tourists, for example, Faberge eggs cost 150 thousand rubles,” Anshakov explained. According to him, cult objects can only include icons, crosses, candles, incense and the like.
Human rights activists decided to enter into a fight with the leadership of the KhHS after consumers began to complain about the unsatisfactory quality of goods purchased on the territory of the temple complex.
“There is a brisk trade in jewelry there. And since no one controls them, as I understand it, they decided to actively trade in cheap Arab gold. Many consumers contacted us... They buy a ring or chain, bring it home, start looking at it and see there instead of the hallmark of the assay office Arabic script," said the head of the OPP. In his opinion, what attracted people to this product was that, according to the assurances of the workers of the temple complex, it was consecrated.
“The KhHS belongs to the city. It’s like a museum. It’s, in fact, a public place. And in a public place, according to the Constitution, a religious organization cannot establish its own rules,” Anshakov noted.
He agreed with Novaya's assumption that Pussy Riot, it turns out, received two years in prison for an action not in Orthodox church, and in the museum.
“Yes, in a public place. In this case, there is not even administrative responsibility,” Anshakov said. “Rather, we are talking about something else here. By the way, we also contacted the Moscow prosecutor’s office about this, but did not receive an answer. About that just the very courtyard of the Patriarch of Moscow and Russian Orthodox Church acts illegally, it is arbitrariness when they establish visiting procedures, since they have no formal relationship with this premises.”
Foreign and domestic cartoonists draw Pussi Riot
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| WITH THIS PROVOCATION ARE YOU TRYING TO DESTROY OUR ARMY FROM INSIDE, FRAU? WHEN I GET TO THE END, KICK ME STRAIGHT TO ECUADOR! |
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ABOUT NADIA TOLOKONNIKOVA'S BOOK, WHICH SHE WRITES IN PRISON
“The Art of Being Familiar” is the title of the book that Nadezhda Tolokonnikova writes in prison. This is a book about actionism, contemporary art, about the action in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which became an Archimedean fulcrum that almost turned the world upside down. Why “a little”, because the world is in the grip of Putin’s oil blackmail, and besides North Korea There must be empires of freaks who will point at geography lessons with a shaking pointer and say: “Children, you don’t need to go there, you don’t need to live there, it’s crap there.”
THREE FRAGMENTS FROM NADIA TOLOKONNIKOVA'S FUTURE BOOK "PUSSY RIOT". THE ART OF BECOMING A SIGN"
(written in pre-trial detention center No. 6 Moscow and Mordovian colony IK 14 in rare moments when Nadya could do something for herself)
Episode One.
The history of Pussy Riot. Origins: 1. Castling Putin-Medvedev 2. “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” by Picasso 1907 3. Much more.
The Pussy Riot group appeared in October 2011, a week after Medvedev’s statement. This is a direct reaction of a group of citizens to the threat of political stagnation in Russia that arose on September 24. When Medvedev announced that Putin would be president. The castling shocked everyone for whom the word “freedom” is not an empty phrase. The fate of the country was given to Putin for 12 years. That's your problem, friends, if you thought your votes meant anything. This was an outrage against Russia.
Now the investigation and the prosecutor’s office, pointing to my dual citizenship, say that I did not plan to live in the Russian Federation.
This sounds even more ridiculous. that since September 24, 2011, conversations that “we need to get out” have become more popular than ever. The emigration scenario did not suit me. I was torn with excitement for several days. Realizing that I cannot leave my native culture. Native places and native language. I understood that difficult times were coming, when we should not live “by lies” - a testament given to me by Dmitry Prigov from Solzhenitsyn, when, when asked how to live correctly, in the spring of 2007 at the “I Believe” exhibition at the winery, Prigov said: “To live not by lies.” “- it will become truly difficult to live not by a lie.
And after these few exciting days, I decided that the coming season would be for me... That I would do everything to shake this unkind political predetermination. And yet, apparently, it was destined to drink the cup of this political season to the bottom.
Pussy Riot is developing a format for a sudden punk performance. Pussy Riot is political art, like “Windows of Growth”, like A. Rodchenko’s political poster.
The movement of artistic actionism originated in Europe in the 60s. In the USSR it was developed by such groups as “collective actions”. In the 90s it was Brener, Kulik, Prigov. The works of these artists are recognized in the artistic and art history communities.
But there will always be people who will say that the Black Square and “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” are neither beautiful nor ethical...
Episode Two.
“ARE YOUR PRACTICES PURE ENOUGH TO BE A SIGN?”
Pussy Riot is the Avignon girls, naked, going down the stairs. Pussy Riot, like Duchamp and Picasso at the beginning of the twentieth century, made a revolution, an explosion, but in a sphere different from them: not in pure, almost Kantian aesthetics-for-itself, but in practical, applied aesthetics, which it became after the influence of the second half of the twentieth century with its political and group activism and mania for historical systemic changes (found by Marx in the 11th thesis on Feuerbach)
We build our lives like SIGNS. How geometric figures, with the precision of abstractions. By minimizing the human and carnal, we are ascetic. Masked figures, without faces, laconic.
The prototype of purity and conciseness is Jesus Christ. We learn minimalism from Christ.
As Picasso and Malevich did with canvas and paint, we treat our bodies and consciousness. This is O-cultivation to the highest degree. Cultivation, in fascination and capture by culture. BECOMING A SIGN IS THE HIGHEST PLEASURE FOR MAN.
Episode Three.
RELIGIOUS AND NEW BODY SYMBOLISM.
One of the functions of religion is to compress the array of earthly, carnal, vain life to the moment of the finishing touch, to the test and test before eternal, spiritual life. This compression is the meaning of the dogma about the resurrection or posthumous fiery hell and about the Last Judgment. The compression procedure entails instilling two essential awarenesses:
1. The finitude of the earthly path, its brevity, fleetingness.
2. The need to live according to the laws of the spirit, righteousness, purity, integrity, goodness, and not according to the laws of the flesh. This necessity is given, for example, by the future separation of the wheat from the chaff.
Reducing carnal life, which to a person in a natural attitude seems to be the focus of his entire existence, to a transient, vanishingly short obstacle course, to an examination task, frees a person from blind attachment to life, the flesh, and places him in that mode of existence, which I call the mode of experimentation and the mode of raising semitones to the absolute. Free, bold experimentation - this way of life, however, only happens to those living in the flesh. For someone who has undergone the procedure of compressing earthly existence, recalculating it according to the scale of the spirit, the life of a prophet, hermit, ascetic, revolutionary, decisively sharply, without pity or embarrassment, managing his body and his time, is consistent, necessary and inevitable.
The half-tones from which the spirit-led one shakes in ecstasy are half-tones only for those who are accustomed to measuring events on a large, rough scale that misses the crumbs of the vanity of vanities. For the SPIRIT-LEADED, these are vast areas.
I can and have learned to never be bored or idle, stimulating my mind with crumbs and half-tones. You say that this madness is a natural deviation from the norm, I argue that this is a skill, a skill that brings the strongest satisfaction on earth from every minute lived - even at the sixth central prison, and in the women's prison IK-14.
CONCLUSION OF A SCHOOL ESSAY ON THE TOPIC “HOW NADYA SPENT THE SUMMER AND HOW SHE SPENTS THE AUTUMN.”
I understand that many people think that the girls got carried away by going to H.H.S. They secretly approve, but want to play “good”. But do you see what's in their heads? They're artists. Yes, they fucked you. But all the same, they are artists. Artists. So behave in such a way as to... not fall under the artist’s chisel. It’s so easy to become “quite good.”
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Billy Bragg
Annie Lennox
Peter Gabriel
Nina Hagen
Kathleen Hanna
Adam "Ad-Rock" Horowitz
Mark Almond
Sting (Thomas Sumner), singer
Pussy Riot are known as a feminist punk band that shook the world community in 2012. Their performances are illegal and take place in unconventional places. Thus, actions in the metro, on the roof of a trolleybus, in a pre-trial detention center and even in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and on Red Square became famous. Pussy Riot does not have clear frontmen; the soloists perform under pseudonyms, which they often change. In public, the participants appear exclusively in balaclavas covering their faces, bright multi-colored dresses and tights.
Pussy Riot was born in 2011. According to its participants, after the Arab Spring they realized that Russia lacked sexual and political liberation. They decided to inject audacity into society, a feminist whip, and demand a female president. Politically, the group's interests revolve around feminism, the fight against law enforcement, decentralization of government and "anti-Putinism."
Representatives of Pussy Riot consider themselves to be part of the “third wave of feminism”; they have a fairly clear philosophical worldview, are critical of dictatorship and promote freedom of thought. The group actively advocates for gender freedom and calls for the abandonment of the generally accepted opposition between hetero- and homosexuality.
The views of Pussy Riot were repeatedly fleshed out by the participants. Thus, they vehemently protested against fraud in the 2011 elections and advocated for the resignation of Vladimir Putin. They classify it as a symbol of patriarchal views, citing as an example words about the tasks of women in society (childbirth and passive service to men). Pussy Riot defends the ideas of releasing political prisoners, abandoning restrictions on abortion and promoting homosexuality.
The group expresses itself creatively. First of all, the girls perform their own songs. The performances are illegal events with live performances accompanied by an electric guitar, filmed and actively distributed on the Internet.
One of the most scandalous performances, followed by punishment, was a punk prayer service in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior
“Mother of God, drive Putin away”, performed on February 21, 2012. After him, three representatives of the movement were detained - N. Tolokonnikova, M. Alyokhina and E. Samutsevich, who during the investigation did not confirm their involvement in Pussy Riot. The investigation continues under the close attention of foreign media and with the active support of Pussy Riot by residents of France, Finland, Poland and other countries, who hold rallies in defense of the girls near Russian embassies.
Video on the topic
The girls from Pussy Riot gained scandalous fame all over the world thanks to the punk prayer they performed in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior on February 21, 2012. Until this day, members of the feminist rock band had already repeatedly carried out various kinds of protests in the most unexpected places - in the subway, in the zoological museum, on Red Square, on the roof of a trolleybus, etc. But three of them were brought to criminal responsibility precisely after their speech in the temple.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich are now under arrest and face up to seven years in prison. Many world stars, such as Danny DeVito, Sting, Adam Horovits, Patti Smith, as well as members of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Who, Pet Shop Boys and others, speak out in defense of the girls. Hollywood star Danny DeVito appealed to the President of the Russian Federation in his microblog on Twitter with a request to release the participants of the punk prayer service.
American rock and pop star Patti Smith appeared on stage at one of her concerts in Oslo wearing a T-shirt with the words “Free Pussy Riot” on the chest. She told the public that she did not see the girls’ fault in what happened and that the insolence of feminists could be justified by their youth, self-confidence and beauty.
English rock musicians wrote an open letter in support of Pussy Riot, which was published in The Times newspaper. This message was signed by Neil Tennant (Pet Shop Boys), Jarvis Cocker (Pulp), Pete Townshend (The Who) and others. This action was timed to coincide with the visit of the Russian President to London. In the letter, the musicians directly appeal to Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin with a request to ensure that the trial of the girls is legal.
British writer and actor Stephen Fry also spoke out for the release of Pussy Riot members. On Twitter, he urged everyone to do everything possible to help the girls.
Famous British musician Peter Gabriel addressed his letter to the accused members of Pussy Riot. He called on the girls to pray and expressed hope that everything would end well.
German singer Nina Hagen, English musician Marc Almond and Finnish singer Iiro Rantala also spoke out for the release of Ekaterina Samutsevich, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina. In protest against the arrest of Pussy Riot members, the Finnish singer even canceled her concerts in Moscow.
A letter against the criminal prosecution of Pussy Riot members was also signed by about two hundred Russian cultural figures - actors, directors, writers and musicians. Among them: Yuri Shevchuk, Fyodor Bondarchuk, Mikhail Efremov, Eldar Ryazanov, Chulpan Khamatova, Diana Arbenina, Evgenia Dobrovolskaya and others.
Pussy Riot is a notorious female punk rock group that became famous throughout the world with a punk prayer service in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in February 2012. Currently, three of the participants are under investigation, awaiting a court decision. Many world-famous stars spoke out in defense of the girls, and representatives of Russian show business.
The Russian magazine Afisha, which covers various events in the entertainment sector, surveyed domestic musicians about their attitude to the situation that arose with the Pussy Riot group. Singer Tatyana Bulanova, who gained particular popularity in the 90s, believes that she deserves punishment. According to her, they expressed their gratitude to all believers, especially to those who were present in the Temple at that moment. In her opinion, members of a punk band should not be sent to prison, but large fines are mandatory.
Ilya Lagutenko, leader of the Mumiy Troll group, paid attention to the popularity of the Pussy Riot group. He was surprised that the number of plays of the group's albums posted on the Internet was very small. And after asking his friends, the musician realized that none of them knew anything about the work of this group.
The leader of Mashina Vremeni, Andrei Makarevich, took up arms against Western musicians, saying that T-shirts with inscriptions in support of Pussy Riot and their defensive speeches are “such a trick for protecting the persecuted.” But, the musician believes, it’s time to release them; according to him, they received their punishment.
Diana Arbenina “Night Snipers” talked about how she herself received baptism at the age of 33, quite intelligently and believing that the church is a place where she and everyone else can count on kindness and participation. But, according to her, the church, alas, is now returning “to the times of persecution of witches,” which is very disappointing.
Lena Katina, the lead singer of the Tatu group, also expressed her opinion about the incident with Pussy Riot. She believes that musicians should support their colleagues, and these, according to her, are Maria Alekhina, Ekaterina Samutsevich and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. According to Katina, the Pussy Riot soloists do not deserve punishment, much less a prison sentence.
Elena Vaenga also wrote an angry post on her Twitter microblog against the Pussy Riot group, demanding the harshest possible punishment for them. The girls, in her opinion, desecrated Orthodoxy with their boorish behavior in the temple.
Video on the topic
The sensational case of the punk group Pussy Riot is coming to an end. If no unforeseen circumstances interfere, judge Marina Syrova will begin announcing her verdict on August 17, 2012 at 15:00 Moscow time. The prosecution demanded a real prison sentence of 3 years for the troublemakers. The defense insists on a full acquittal of the scandalous trio.
The high-profile trial was very dynamic, sessions sometimes lasted until late at night, so such a long timeout before the final verdict came as a complete surprise to many observers. According to the press secretary of the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow, Daria Lyakh, on August 17, media representatives will not be allowed into the courtroom. However, this does not mean that there will be no coverage of the long-awaited event - on the contrary. A separate room will be allocated for numerous journalists, from which they will be able to follow the announcement of the verdict online. This will be even more convenient for the press - in a separate room you won’t have to listen to the judge standing, and reading the final verdict will probably take quite a lot of time.
Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich were put on trial as a result of the so-called “punk prayer” in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow on February 21, 2012. They were charged under Article 213, Part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - “Hooliganism based on religious hatred and enmity against any social group of citizens.” The accused themselves claim that they do not experience any religious hatred towards believers, but on the contrary, in the words of their song: “Mother of God, drive Putin away!” - they tried to influence the political situation in the country, and now they are being persecuted precisely for this phrase and precisely because of their civic position.
It is worth noting that no matter what motives actually guide the girls, the process is already clearly political - the resonance is too great. And if in Russia assessments of Pussy Riot’s actions vary, and attempts by individual figures in politics and show business to express their attitude towards this case are more reminiscent of PR, then in the West the scandalous trio is perceived precisely as “prisoners of conscience” and is put on a par with dissidents of the Soviet era . Peter Gabriel, Madonna, Sting, Björk openly declared their support for Pussy Riot - and this is not a complete list of figures in world show business. But it is much more important that world politicians agree with them.
So whatever the verdict, one thing is clear now - the scandalous punk band has become famous, and on a global scale, and this fame will most likely last a long time. In this regard, they can already be congratulated on a certain victory, at least as artists. But the image modern Russia In the eyes of the world community, this process will not be beneficial in any case. And within Russian society, supporters and opponents of Pussy Riot, in any case, will not soon forget the notorious “prayer service”. So political speculation around this topic is unlikely to stop even after August 17.
Sources:
- Society. Law on creating a register of prohibited Internet sites
Pussy Riot is a controversial feminist punk rock band known for performing in inappropriate places. The girls introduced the public to their work in the Moscow metro, on Red Square, on the roof of the pre-trial detention center. Their last performance took place in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.
On February 21, 2012, Pussy Riot staged its controversial “punk prayer” event in the temple. The girls sang the song “Mother of God, drive Putin away,” while making the sign of the cross over themselves. After about forty seconds, the girls were escorted outside by security guards.
On February 26, the group members were put on the wanted list. On March 3, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina were detained, and a week and a half later, Ekaterina Samutsevich. The girls have been in custody since then. At the beginning of the summer, they were charged with hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, committed by a group of people by prior conspiracy, although the participants themselves claim that their action was purely political in nature, and they in no way wanted to hurt the feelings of believers. On August 17, a sentence was passed: two years in a general regime colony, although independent human rights activists argued that such an offense is an administrative offense, and an adequate punishment for it is imprisonment for 15 days. The court's decision surprised and outraged many, including Orthodox Christians, whose feelings, according to the prosecution, were offended.
People around the world have come to the defense of Pussy Riot, but so far their actions have not had the desired effect. Many Western stars, outraged by the state of freedom of speech in Russia and considering the detention of Pussy Riot members to be arbitrary and a violation of human rights, decided to show solidarity with the scandalous singers and support the girls. Madonna, who was on tour in Russia, appeared on stage in underwear with the inscription “Pussy Riot” on the back and a balaclava hat covering her face. Later in her interview, the singer stated that she hoped that the girls would be released. Former Beatle Paul McCartney wrote an open letter to Vladimir Putin expressing similar wishes. Singer Björk posted on her Facebook account photographs of the detained girls and her comment that she hopes to see them soon released and sing with them. In an interview for the website of the human rights organization Amnesty International, Sting expressed his regret that the dissident musician in Russia faces imprisonment and said that he hopes that the government will come to its senses and allow the girls to return home.
Video on the topic
The Pussy Riot group, participants in a high-profile trial that split Russian society, had their verdict read out on August 17, 2012. Lawyers for convicted girls are given the opportunity to appeal the verdict within 10 days after its announcement. In addition, the Moscow City Court, to which the cassation will be filed, may consider it within another month. All this time the girls will be in pre-trial detention.
Members of the Pussy Riot group Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich were charged with hooliganism against the feelings of believers. The reason for this was the “punk prayer” held by the girls on March 3, 2012 on the salt of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Initially, a noisy group of girls in multi-colored short dresses with balaclavas on their heads, chanting: “Mother of God, drive Putin away!”, was simply pushed out into the street by temple employees. It would seem that this would be the end of the case, but after some time, based on statements from witness-victims, a trial was scheduled, the girls were found and taken into custody.
From the very beginning, the suspects involved in the case were subject to inappropriately strict detention measures. Since, according to the country's Constitution, the church in Russia is separated from the state, it was not very clear why hooliganism was reclassified as a criminal offense. Even those citizens, believers and atheists, who were initially disliked and rejected by the group’s actions, were subsequently concerned that their trial would turn into a real trial, where the law has no place.
It is difficult to find a rational explanation for the ongoing proceedings. The video broadcast of the trial in the Pussy Riot case also added reasons for outrage. All interested spectators were able to see that the qualifications of judges and prosecutors have the highest low level. Only one of the three examinations conducted recognized, with reference to ancient religious codes, that the “punk prayer” showed signs of religious hostility. Part professional psychologists, in turn, considered that such an examination would discredit their profession, but this opinion was not heard by the court.
The low quality of the judicial investigation, which did not take into account most of the evidence and arguments of the defense, made the sentence itself expected - two years in a general regime colony for each member of the group. Lawyers called the guilty verdict not a legal document, but a work of art, far from the letter of the law. Therefore, the public continues to worry and wait to see how the appeal will end - a cassation appeal has been filed.
Video on the topic
In February 2012, an unprecedented event took place in the main cathedral of the country, the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Four masked girls, dressed in colorful bright clothes, burst into the temple, climbed onto the pulpit, took out musical instruments and sound amplification equipment, and for several seconds performed a song, strange for this holy place, called a punk prayer.
Three participants in this bacchanalia were identified and handcuffed in March 2012. The girls called themselves the group Pussy Riot, and their vulgar behavior in the temple was nothing more than a political action. They were provoked by Patriarch Kirill’s speech on the eve of the presidential elections, in which he encouraged his flock to vote for Putin.
The public reacted ambiguously to both the action itself and the trial. Some considered the performance blasphemy, vandalism and simply the highest measure of rudeness, others - a manifestation of patriotic feelings, freedom of speech, and foreign media have already dubbed the girls “prisoners of conscience.” In essence, we can say that “this was not a place where it was worth holding any performances at all, much less singing blasphemous songs and organizing “demonic” dances.” This is approximately how the people who filed lawsuits against the members of the sensational group expressed themselves.
In mid-July 2012, the trial of three Pussy Riot members began. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich appeared in court under Article 282 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The essence of the accusation was that this was an action aimed at inciting interreligious hatred, motivated by hatred towards a certain group of religious citizens. For many observers, the whole process gave the impression of a grandiose farce. Moreover, it was a farce on both sides. The defense and the accused behaved blatantly and disrespectfully towards the victims and the judge, the victims spoke the same memorized phrases, the judge constantly exchanged sarcastic remarks with the defense, and crowds of people gathered near the court every day, divided into two camps.
Many famous artists spoke out in support of the young group. Before the sentencing, a lot of words were said that the crime committed was incorrectly classified, that the girls should suffer administrative punishment, but not criminal liability. Among the supporters of the punk group were Andrei Makarevich, Sting, Madonna and many others.
However, on August 17, 2012, when pronouncing the verdict, the judge said that, given the wide public outcry and public danger of the crime, the court could not reclassify the case. And also taking into account mitigating circumstances (the girls were involved for the first time, all of them had dependent children), the court sentenced them to two years in prison to be served in a general regime colony. The girls have already served part of their sentence, so in fact they still have a little more than a year and a half left. At the sentencing, the now convicted members of Pussy Riot smiled.
Tip 8: Which celebrities came out in support of Pussy Riot
On August 17, the members of the group Pussy Riot were sentenced. Their trial lasted several months and caused many loud protests in the press and in social networks. Many celebrities came out in support of the three feminists, including foreign stars: Sting, Madonna, etc.
Celebrities in Russia and around the world are divided into two camps due to the situation surrounding the members of the Pussy Riot group. Some agreed with the need for criminal punishment of the girls who organized a punk prayer service in an Orthodox church, others were categorically against it.
Many Russian cultural figures came out in support of Pussy Riot. To the name of the chairman Supreme Court On June 26, a joint open letter was sent. Signatures on the document were left by famous actors and directors Evgeny Mironov, Fyodor Bondarchuk, Oleg Basilashvili, Eldar Ryazanov, Andrei Konchalovsky, Igor Kvasha, Pavel Chukhrai, Liya Akhedzhakova, Mark Zakharov and Roman Viktyuk; musicians Diana Arbenina, Gleb Samoilov, Andrey Makarevich, Boris Grebenshchikov, Valery Meladze and Yuri Shevchuk; writers Lyudmila Ulitskaya and Mikhail Zhvanetsky, dancer Nikolai Tsiskaridze and others.
In the text of the letter, the authors state that the action of the punk group is not a criminal offense, and the case against the girls should be transferred to the administrative category. Moreover, it states that the prosecution of girls compromises the justice system itself and undermines public confidence in it and, in general, in the institutions of power. Actress Chulpan Khamatova supported the accused not only in word, but also in deed, coming to the court building and making a brief statement to journalists.
Pussy Riot also advocated for pardon foreign celebrities. Among them are the luminaries of the musical genre Madonna and Sting, Peter Gabriel and Mark Almond, Bjork and Nina Hagen, actor Danny deVito and writer Stephen Fry, etc. Many of them expressed their protests against the arrest of Russian feminists on their personal pages on social networks. For example, actor Elijah Wood called the intentions of their action noble, and the girls themselves beautiful and persistent in their views. Sting said that the group's act is a manifestation of dissent, which is the natural right of any citizen of a democratic state.
On August 17, 2012, the court pronounced its verdict. Three members of the group were sentenced to two years in prison. The completed trial became the loudest in Russia in recent years and caused a great resonance in other countries of the world. The progress of the trials was covered by more than 80% of the world's media and hundreds of famous bloggers. The verdict caused a new wave of indignation, including among people holding high political positions in a number of states. The girls' lawyers are going to appeal the court's decision and file an appeal, which could be considered as early as September.
On February 21, 2012, five girls performed an act at the altar of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which the media then dubbed a punk prayer. Law enforcement this action was considered hooliganism, and three members of the group - Ekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova - were detained until the end of the investigation. The investigation of Pussy Riot caused a stir not only in Russian society, but also in many countries. Rallies were organized in support of the girls in Perm, Kaliningrad, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Toronto and many other cities. World-class pop stars such as Madonna and the legendary Sir Paul McCartney demanded their release.
However, a rather lengthy investigation for the article “hooliganism” ended in a trial. Five months after the arrest, the girls appeared before the Khamovnichesky Court in Moscow. Initially, the situation was very clear: the prosecution had to prove the motive of religious hatred in order to justify the preventive measure in the form of detention (and the terms were extended three times during the investigation), which is used in cases of malicious hooliganism.
The defense had to prove the political motives of the act. According to the most widespread version in the media, Pussy Riot sang the song “Virgin Mary, drive Putin away!” But employees of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, heard on the first day of the trial, could not confirm this version. They did not hear any political statements, but the phrase “God’s crap” and insults addressed to the Patriarch sounded from the girls’ lips.
The defense failed to prove the political nature of the action, and it somewhat changed its tactics. The girls began to talk about their ignorance of the ban on women entering the pulpit. Therefore, the order in the temple was not broken out of malice. But the court obtained a video recording of the group preparing for the action, where one of the girls says: “We will serve a punk prayer service at the altar, because women are prohibited from entering there.”
Thus, these defense arguments were also eliminated. Well, the judge managed to formulate the reasoning part of the verdict, which insists on the motive of religious hatred. All girls were found guilty and received two years in a general regime colony.
Journalists were not allowed to attend the announcement of the verdict. According to eyewitnesses, about two thousand people gathered in and around the courtroom. The active group scheduled a rally in support of the defendants at 2 p.m. At this time, the girls were brought to the courthouse and they were in convoy awaiting the verdict. Soon Judge Marina Syrova began reading it. There was a live video broadcast from the courtroom. During the reading of the verdict, which lasted several hours, the defendants were handcuffed and guarded by eight police officers.
All this time, paddy wagons loaded with supporters of the acquittal of Pussy Riot members who were detained by riot police were driving away from the courthouse.
In August 2012, the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow sentenced three members of the punk group Pussy Riot to two years in prison. The girls were convicted for their action in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, where they held a punk prayer service on February 21, 2012. The court considered that their prayer with the words “Mother of God, drive Putin away” was hooliganism and incitement to religious hatred.
Boris Akunin and TV presenter Ksenia Sobchak.
And the famous conductor Valery Gergiev even interrupted the concert at Covent Garden and said that he demanded an end to the process that was disgracing Russia. He said that otherwise he would refuse to lead the Mariinsky Theater and would not return to the country where freedom of speech is violated.
Pop star Madonna, at a concert in St. Petersburg, called the Pussy Riot trial an unfair travesty and called for the girls to be released. A famous jazz musician from Finland and the band The Black Keys are on tour in Russia because of the verdict against the members of the punk band.
The decision of the judiciary was condemned by Riccardo Muti, the head of the Italian La Scala theater, tenor Placido Domingo, and Yuri Temirkanov, the head of the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra. Famous Beatles member Sir Paul McCartney, designer Philippe Starck, and popular American actor John Malkovich asked to release Pussy Riot.
Icelandic singer Björk said she strongly disagrees with the accusations against the girls and called on the authorities to release them to their children and families. And the widow of the idol of millions, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, turned to Vladimir Putin with a proposal to “leave room in prisons for real serious criminals.”
Pussy Riot was also supported ex-president USSR Mikhail Gorbachev, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, US President Barack Obama... and many other world stars: Sting, Stephen Fry, Danny DeVito, Elijah Wood, Annie Lenox, Patti Smith and others.
In addition, ordinary people also spoke out in defense of the members of the punk band. In Moscow, other cities of Russia and around the world, several dozen single pickets were held, activists organized actions near the buildings of the Khamovniki Court of the capital and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the Church of St. Nicholas in Vienna. All Russian rallies were dispersed by the authorities.
Pussy Riot - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina - are known in the West for their protests against Russian President Vladimir Putin, and were greeted like stars when they appeared at the People's Assembly on Bornholm. But do they think they have made a difference?
If not for their unusual headdress, no one at the People's Assembly would have been able to recognize them in this crowd of people among the tents where political debates are taking place, stalls with sausages and mugs of foaming beer in Allinge Havn.
But out of habit, both women, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Aleyokhina, from the Russian punk group Pussy Riot, took care of the stage design, which attracted everyone's attention to them.
One of them, Maria Alekhina, has her entire face hidden under her cap, with only slits for her eyes and mouth. Another, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, has the bunny ears on her head that usually adorn the lightly dressed Playboy Bunny Girls. In her hands is a woman's bag, decorated with an image of handcuffs.
This is completely natural, because both were sentenced to two years in prison in 2012 for “rioting motivated by religious hatred” due to “punk prayer” in the famous Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Savior. where, shortly before the presidential elections, they asked the Virgin Mary to “kick out” Vladimir Putin. Another young woman took part in this happening, but she got off with a suspended sentence.
Context
Pussy Riot - who is it?
Dagens Nyheter 05/24/2016Putin will not like the new Pussy Riot video
Expresso 02/04/2016No time to think about your own safety
Respekt 10/27/2015Pussy Riot: freedom cannot be taken away
Folha 03/31/2015 But Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina were imprisoned in different camps, but were released early because they were pardoned by Vladimir Putin in July 2013 along with 20,000 other prisoners after an amnesty was announced. The amnesty was an attempt to calm the international community, which was criticizing violations of basic human rights in Russia before the Winter Olympics in Sochi.Since then, Pussy Riot has been respected in the West, which was also noticeable at the People's Assembly. Everyone wanted to take a selfie with the protest group, including Winni Grosbøll, the burgomaster of Bornholm, who showed the Russian women around his domain.
“Allow my daughter to take a photo with you,” the burgomaster asked.
Admiration for the philosophy of the People's Assembly
Members of Pussy Riot, who were invited to Bornholm by the Internet company Samuelsen to talk about their fight for freedom of speech, are the most attractive guests of the current People's Assembly. And when the Berlingske newspaper met them in a small apartment in Alling for an interview, they spoke about how much coming here meant to them.
“We like this event, it’s fantastic, people can have discussions here freely and without any coercion,” says Nadezhda Tolokonnikova.
“In Russia in 2011 we tried to organize something similar in the forest, but it was impossible. The government banned all this. These are the things that make us oppose. To me, freedom of speech is everything. I am ready to die to give the people the opportunity to express their opinion.”
Pussy Riot are currently planning to record new music in Los Angeles. It was from there that Nadezhda Tolokonnikova came here to Denmark.
— Who do you consider yourself to be first and foremost - musicians or fighters for freedom of speech and women's rights?
"Both. These two things cannot be separated,” says Maria Alekhina.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova points to her Bunny ears, which she took off and placed on the table. She wrote slogans on her ears. One of them reads “Stop Patriarchy.” Another calls for a “riot.”
She explains what Bunny Girls' bunny ears mean to her:
“I like contrasts, I like to turn everything on its head. In this way, Bunny's ears show what Pussy Riot stands for. They show the difficulties that those fighting for diversity can face, different ways live, different ideologies. Russia and Putin today do not aim to give people the opportunity to have different views. But there are millions of different views. That's why we fight for people to have the right to have them."
Trying to change
Human rights organizations have in recent years pointed to the right path to promoting freedom of speech and democracy in Putin's Russia.
— You are popular in the West thanks to your struggle, but do you yourself believe that you were able to change something in Russia?
“It would be too arrogant to say that you alone can change anything. For me, the more important choice is between doing something or not. That's it for me. My philosophy is to give everything to Pussy Riot. If I hadn’t done this, I would have simply been one of those who gave up,” says Nadezhda Tolokonnikova.
“There were a lot of people trying to bring about change from 2011 to 2012. Not just us. I can’t say that we succeeded, but we wanted to, purely objectively. Simply because Putin is in power all the time.”
Maria Alekhina, who throughout the interview does not take off her cap, which hides her face, enters into the conversation:
“But we believe we have contributed by giving people a lot of new ideas. That they began the process of exchanging opinions among people. Even grandmothers now have words like “Pussy Riot” in their usual vocabulary.
They see Putin as an oppressor
Putin's aggressive behavior towards the West, not least towards Ukraine, is well known, and Pussy Riot also heard reports of five Russian bombers simulating an attack on Bornholm during the People's Assembly two years ago.
Visitors to the People's Assembly were not in danger, but the service military intelligence concluded that these Russian flights were "more aggressive in nature than any previous ones that could be observed for many years."
“Every time you hear something like this, you think it can’t get any worse. Yet it gets worse, and you are surprised that things continue to get worse. And every time we are indignant. But Putin continues to amaze,” says Maria Alekhina.
—Can you say at least something good about Putin today?
“Good?!” - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova explodes, almost not believing her ears.
“I have absolutely nothing good to say about him. He is destroying our culture. Russia used to have a great culture, but Putin has suppressed the thoughts and imagination of the people. I think the Russians have become wild."
Marina Alyokhina adds: “But they are brave and courageous. However, everything is suppressed. We must remember that Putin is not just a person, he is an entire regime. And at the very top is Putin. He has no stable ideology. He just wants to remain in power. And right now, maintaining power is a matter of life and death for him.”
Greetings from the Czech Republic, Anton! In Czech Facebook groups they are happy to read your article about the idiots from the art groups “War” and “Pussy Wright”. This is relevant now. The President of the Czech Republic spoke about them so naturally...in open text (!) that some “democrats” did not leave a dry thread on him, as they say! In addition, he supports your President Putin. This especially infuriates them! Best regards, Galina.After receiving this message, I looked through the latest news and saw what it was about.
The President of the Czech Republic swore on the radio, praised Putin and called Khodorkovsky a thief
All Czech newspapers are discussing the scandalous speech of Milos Zeman.
The Czech media are actively discussing the scandalous speech of the head of the country on the radio, in which Milos Zeman repeatedly used rude language, praised his Russian colleague Vladimir Putin, and criticized Western countries. The Czech president also said that he does not consider Mikhail Khodorkovsky a political prisoner. "He's more like a thief" , concluded Zeman.
The Czech Radio website posted a recording of the president's scandalous speech. Thanks to this, Milos Zeman’s speech is now actively discussed in many media. As Ukrayinska Pravda notes, the President of the Czech Republic began swearing at the moment when the conversation turned to “Soviet dissidents” who protested against the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the USSR army.
After this, Milos Zeman expressed his opinion about the policies of the current Russian authorities, in particular, he stated that the West’s attitude towards Vladimir Putin - not fair. In addition, he stated that political prisoners were in the Soviet Union, and the current Russian government does not imprison people for political reasons. This also applies to Mikhail Khodorkovsky, - Zeman said.
“I don’t think that Khodorkovsky was a political prisoner. In the 1990s, he traveled around Russia with bags stuffed with millions. I rather think that he is a thief. And if there is one thing I don’t like about Putin’s power, it’s only that he only imprisoned Khodorkovsky, and not all the oligarchs," - Zeman said.
After this, the Czech president - again, on his own initiative - moved on to criticize the punk group Pussy Riot. It was in this fragment that he went beyond censorship once again.
"You know what that means "pussy"?
This is pi-da! (the president used a swear word meaning female genital organ - ed.). And in the lyrics of this group - “pi-da here, pi-da there.”
They simply "ideal" political prisoners," Zeman said, adding that "real political prisoners He's ready to defend."
Subsequently, on air, Zeman used swear words meaning sexual intercourse And excrement.
This behavior of the head of state caused sharp criticism from other politicians, including his current partners in power.
According to Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka, the president set a bad example for young people. One of the leading Czech leaders, former Foreign Minister Karl Schwarzenberg noted that Zeman crossed all boundaries by using language that degrades the female gender.
The last words of ex-chairman Karl Schwarzenberg "Zeman has crossed all boundaries by using language that degrades the female sex" , I want to start by commenting on a Jewish joke.
The fact is that in the case of Russian “separatists” there really is no difference there is no. Anyone who wants to see this can read my two articles: , .
And now I want to show everyone with clear examples that Czech President Milos Zeman, in his radio speech, used exactly the vocabulary that can be used when you want to tell who normal people, including Putin, have to deal with in Russia. I note that it is stronger humiliate female than they did it Jewish women from the group "War" and "Pussy Wright", no one can do it anymore! So Milos Zeman, the President of the Czech Republic, has nothing to reproach for.
"Russian separatists" or "3.14-year-old chicken!"
(The faint of heart and pregnant women should not watch!!!)
I’ll say right away, reader, that below you will see in all their glory several moral freaks and monsters who consider themselves political fighters, Protestants who fight Putin and his regime in a very “original” way. Qualities such as SHAME, SHYNESS, HUMILITY, inherent in normal people, are simply alien to them.
So, the place of action is Moscow. Moral monsters - students of the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University. One day it occurred to them to create the art group "WAR" and each protest to a healthy society expressed in a particularly perverted form. Like, we, moral monsters, are not like everyone else! We declare war on society, and in war it’s like in war! That’s why they called their art group “WAR”.
What kind of war?
It turns out that the war is for COMPLETE FREEDOM in society!
For example, the art group “WAR” held an action in a Moscow supermarket under the slogan “EVERY person is born FREE, but our entire way of life gives him unfreedom.” !
To ensure that this PROTEST did not go unnoticed by anyone, the entire course of the ACTION was photographed and videoed and then put on display on the Internet. You can admire it!
.
Another high-profile action of the Jewish art group “WAR” was the drawing of a phallus on the Liteiny Bridge in St. Petersburg in front of the windows of the FSB Directorate.
In February 2008, these same moral monsters took part in an action that took place in the zoological museum - the Timiryazev Museum in Moscow. Then several more moral monsters and freaks from the art-Jewish group joined them "PUSSY WRIGHT". This name translated from English into Russian means, to put it mildly, "crazy vaginas" , and in common parlance - "crazy pussies" . These photographs tell what the action in the zoological museum looked like back then.
February 21, 2012 activists from the Jewish art group "Pussy Riot" committed malicious hooliganism in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which was later accompanied by chants when broadcast on the news "Mother of God, drive Putin away."
Why was hooliganism committed in a place holy for Christian believers? - is clear from the words of this song. Eit was a political action against Russian President Vladimir Putin!
The case ended with the fact that on August 17, 2012, the trio "crazy vaginas" was sentenced by the court to imprisonment not for political reasons, but for hooliganism. Each received two years in prison under Article 213 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The fourth participant escaped and is still wanted.
In the center - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova(nickname Oatmeal), member of a punk band "Pussy Riot" and art groups "War". Left Ekaterina Samutsevich, on right Maria Alyokhina.
I note that all three are Jewish.
It is an accident?
No, this is not an accident, this is a pattern!
The fact that Alexei Navalny and Boris Nemtsov took to the streets and held a rally in support of Pussy Wright is not surprising and understandable. They are Jews too.
They wanted to turn their fellow tribesmen, these moral monsters, into political prisoners “who suffered in the fight against the Putin regime.”
However, the actions of the girls from “Pussy Wright” did not amount to more than hooliganism!
Reference: Boris Nemtsov- Russian politician and statesman, deputy of the Yaroslavl Regional Duma of the sixth convocation, one of the founders and leaders of the Solidarity Movement, co-chairman of the political party RPR-PARNAS, member of the Coordination Council of the Russian Opposition. Nationality - Jew.
Alexey Navalny- Russian political and public figure, lawyer, investment activist, former member Board of Directors of Aeroflot. Author of one of the highest-rated socio-political blogs on LiveJournal. Known for his fight against corruption in Russia. Creator and director of the anti-corruption project "RosPil", the project "RosYama" to combat defects in the road surface, the project "RosZhKHKH" to combat violations in the housing and communal services sector. Nationality - Jew. On July 18, 2013, A. Navalny was found guilty by the Leninsky District Court of the city of Kirov of theft of property of the state company Kirovles and sentenced to five years in a general regime colony.
Something else turned out to be surprising!
On June 27, 2012, the editors of the radio station "ECHO OF MOSCOW" published a letter "Appeal from cultural and artistic figures of the Russian Federation" (in defense of Pussy Wright), which was signed by more than two hundred leading theater figures, film artists, musicians and composers. This is the appeal they signed.
We, the undersigned, have different assessments of the moral and ethical side of the actions of the participants in the February action in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, but: we believe that the actions of Pussy Riot are not a criminal offense! The girls did not kill anyone, did not rob, did not commit violence, did not destroy or steal other people’s property. Russia is a secular state, and no anti-clerical actions, if they do not fall under the articles of the Criminal Code, can be the cause of criminal prosecution. We believe that the criminal case against Pussy Riot compromises the Russian judicial system and undermines trust in government institutions as a whole. All the while the protest participants are in custody, an atmosphere of intolerance is growing in society, which leads to his split And radicalization. We see no legal basis or practical sense for further isolation from society of these young women, who do not pose any real danger. Moreover, two of them are young mothers. We are convinced that it is necessary to release Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich from custody and terminate their case or reclassify it from criminal to administrative.
There on the website of the radio station "ECHO OF MOSCOW" there was list published"Pussiriots" from the Russian art bohemia, who point blank DO NOT SEE there is no danger in the actions of these convicts individuals female.
Really they are all Jews?! It would be interesting to see their nationality. It’s a pity that the “fifth column” has been removed from Russian passports.
At the same time, the overwhelming majority of Russian citizens have a DIFFERENT opinion: COMPROMISE WITH PERVERTS IS IMPOSSIBLE, because this means concessions only in their favor! And any attempt by THEIR to bring a DEGENERATIVE CULTURE to the masses must be severely punished.
However, let us now return to the speech of the President of the Czech Republic Milos Zeman on the radio and to discussion of his speech in political circles:
Former Foreign Minister Karl Schwarzenberg: "Zeman has crossed all boundaries by using language that degrades the female sex" .
Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka: "The President of the Czech Republic has set a bad example for young people" .
Good gentlemen! Let me have my say too!
Against the backdrop of the fact that hundreds of Russian cultural figures (!) acted as a united front in support of their colleagues from the art-Jewish group “Pussy Wright” (!), what for normal people unthinkable (!), Milos Zeman's obscene language on the radio looks like nothing more than a sobering shower!
I am more than sure that Milos Zeman deliberately used unprintable expressions in order to force society to wake up and look at this terrible problem with a sober, conscious look! After all, this moral deformity demonstrated by the Jewish art groups “Pussy Wright” and “War” is like a cancerous tumor! If special measures and laws are not taken against such FREEDOM, tomorrow there will be ten times more such art groups! And if society does not properly condemn this terrible moral monstrosity, but instead discusses only the obscene words spoken by the President of the Czech Republic, then it will be possible to conclude that the entire world community is already seriously ill and needs urgent treatment!
Interview: Yulia Taratuta
Photos: 1 - Alexander Sofeev;
2, 3 - Alexander Karnyukhin
Pussy Riot members joke about the punk prayer service in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, that it was their February revolution. No one was prepared for the consequences: a church with a sword, a court with a verdict, colonies in cities that are difficult to find on the map. Five years after their performance on the pulpit, we talked with Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich about why the group broke up, how prison differs from freedom, how to maintain dignity and live up to expectations when you suddenly become a public icon.
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova
A year ago I decided to understand, what would happen if I went back to being an artist. It seemed to me that I was rapidly getting involved in administrative things and losing myself, playing the role of a mother duck and generally getting old morally until I was engaged in art. I decided to write songs, for the first time in my life - real songs. It’s not for nothing that my mother forced me to study at a music school for eight years.
I tried to do this in Russia, Germany, France, and the UK. But I found two of my best friends, with whom I now write music, in Los Angeles. I started spending time there, and although this is often interpreted as moving, I don’t at all associate myself with Los Angeles - it’s a rather scary place. Lynch, it seems to me, spoke well on this matter.
The other day I met an aging Pamela Anderson here - she still believes that men are obliged to fall at her feet. I'm not against it, it's just very scary to look at how society treats a woman, forcing her to believe that sexuality is the main thing she has.
In Russia, I wrote songs with Android, who worked with Lagutenko. He is generally a wonderful, sweet person. Made me believe that my nasal voice could be on the recording. I told him: “Listen, let’s just bring someone else, it’s impossible to listen to. I’m not trying to sell my voice, this is a completely different thing - a conceptual project.” He replied that I didn’t understand anything: “That’s the whole point. You have intonation, rhythm. If you can’t sing, at least speak.”
We came to London to perform in Dismaland, at the Banksy exhibition. My manager was an eight-year-old feminist girl who simply liked Pussy Riot and was in the class with the child of a very close colleague of Banksy. I spent a month there and during this time I managed to get acquainted not only with a crowd of wrestlers and artists from various theaters who were supposed to portray protesters and police, but also with musicians.
One of them is Tom Neville. His biggest hit is "". There are these lines: “Don’t smoke cigarettes / Don’t take any drugs / Don’t go out at night / Just fuck.” He wrote it about ten years ago, when London was still in the air. Now London has settled down, and so has Tom - he finally decided to think about social problems and started writing music with me. True, nothing came of our collaboration: we did not publish anything, except for one thing that we sang from Banksy, “Refugees in”. I completely confused the women who came as songwriters to our sessions, giving them a huge sheet of political slogans in Russian and English and demanding that they be included in the lyrics of the song. They ran away in horror.
I arrived in America in December 2015, although I was very afraid to fly. I've been here before - the first time in 2011 as a tourist. But now I already knew about Trump, I read about what was happening back in Moscow. I thought: “Lord, maybe it’s better to stay in Europe, because, of course, they also have all sorts of problems, but not as serious as Trump.” True, Los Angeles is such an enclave, a “bubble” as they call themselves, on the body of America, which is still trying to resist Trump and believes that it did not happen.
I feel like I'm a professional loser. I don't really like formulating my life's path in terms of success. And the topic is not at all close American dream. Life is a process of becoming, and in this sense, a series of failures. Ultimately, creating a product is not the main thing, the main thing is the process of creating your own niche, and absolutely not geographically. We need to create a global community: if current politicians cannot cope with this, we must do it. In that sense, what we're writing now with Dave Sitek or Ricky Reed in Los Angeles is great, it's cool, but what we're really doing is creating a spirit, a mood, and that artistic political community.
My main teacher in life is probably Dmitry Aleksandrovich Prigov. A man-project whose main slogan is to constantly run away from any given identity. Prigov never defined himself as queer, but I would designate this way of existence as queer. When Prigov was told that he was an artist, a graphic artist, he said: “In fact, I am a sculptor.” When they told him that he was a sculptor, he replied: “No, I’m a poet, look, I write poetry.” As soon as he was recognized as a poet, he turned into a political columnist, and from a columnist into a musician: “I make real performances.” This was his strategy.
Another feature of Prigov that I accepted for myself was his very strict attitude towards the nature of art: no romantic ideas about genius. An artist is an analyst, his work is akin to the work of a researcher who simply takes material, analyzes it and must present it to others in the clearest form. I guess I can define myself as an artist in this Prigovian sense. An artist who constantly runs away from predestination. At the same time, I may have a huge number of fake identities.
For example, when creating Pussy Riot, we identified ourselves as musicians, although we have never been musicians. We invented a different age for ourselves, changed our voices, said different words, reinvented ourselves, as if we were sixteen-year-old girls who had just learned about feminism and decided to perform. When we were put in prison, the problem was that our real faces were exposed.
For me, the big question is how today you can be anyone - a man, a transgender, a queer, a woman - how you can exist at all and not be a feminist. Even if on some superficial level this becomes mainstream, in reality there are people around you who are beaten every day and who cannot go to the police and write a report because no one will accept it, and when they return home, they may maybe they will kill them if they find out that they were with the police.
In prison, I have seen a large number of women who have been victims of domestic violence for decades, at some point retaliate against their abuser, kill him or cause great bodily harm, and end up in prison - simply because we do not have a law on domestic violence, and the article that talks about self-defense doesn't work.
I'm rolling here in New York from one place to another, I don’t rent a house, because the money that appears is immediately spent on Mediazona or on the production of new videos (by the way, I just made a feminist one). So I have to stay at friends' apartments, and lately I prefer to stay with women - unfortunately, men, even those who call themselves left-wing activists, feel entitled to say: "You can stay in my apartment, it's really huge, but if you do not stay in my bed, I have no room for you.” “Well, you understand that this won’t happen,” I say. “That is, I, of course, could sleep with you, but obviously not for the sake of the room.” This conversation could be taking place in New York, not somewhere in Ellensburg. That is, in a city where it is believed that feminism has finally won.
On the other hand, the great achievement of feminism is that power becomes the new attraction. You don't have to be a submissive woman to be likable and sexy. Of course, I didn’t discover this; this understanding has existed in pop culture for quite a long time. Although even during the trial I realized: it’s not so bad if you show your Political Views and you behave quite harshly - and at the same time you continue to be considered attractive. I never had the task of being unattractive, I never had the task of deliberately irritating people. And, if you like, finding me attractive is great. I love men, women, I love sex - I’m very much for everything like that.
The whole of 2014 - when we met with politicians, actors from Hollywood and, from the point of view of the press, lived social life- was, of course, a very useful year, but I still consider it a time of complete internal insignificance.
When we got free, it was obvious that we had to help the people who helped us, in some stupid sense, meet their expectations. The voice that was given to us after liberation became not only our voice. And then you realize: in order to really help, you can no longer be the punk you were before. Or there must be a new interpretation of punk - one that builds new institutions, such as organizations that defend the rights of prisoners, or creates new media. This is not an obvious idea for the punk aesthetic. First of all, because you need to allow the environment to corrupt you to some extent. This is where performances appear on different world platforms: in the European Parliament, in English parliament, in the US Senate. And you must constantly be on your guard, understanding where you are playing a role and where you are really allowing yourself to be changed.
Don't forget that in 2014 I could barely connect two words in English, I could read and translate in English, because I studied with Judith Butler at the university, but I could hardly speak at all - fear and a barrier. At some point, I realized that the translators, including Petya Verzilov, were trying to smooth out my words: I want to say “fuck,” but they don’t translate “fuck.” I say “pi...yes”, but they don’t translate. Then I realized that I needed to learn to speak on my own, and, oddly enough, I learned this on stage, because there you don’t have the opportunity to step back. In 2014, when I was dating Hillary and Madonna, I experienced some difficulties simply due to language. Besides, it seems to me that at some point Madonna simply switched to Petya. He speaks English and is a good-looking boy too.
We talked with Kevin Spacey after House of Cards, and once we even had dinner. He ran away from fans very funny. The main thing I remember about filming is that their food is very tasty, seriously, much better than in any restaurant, and they eat it three times a day. I lived on a hunger strike and I want to say that I really love to eat.
In Los Angeles, it is important not to go crazy because of the proximity of the stars or because of your own ambitions. The Uber driver is giving you a hand business card, if he knows that you have at least some connection to the industry: “But I also have a niece.” One driver once just started dancing while we were standing at an intersection because he wanted to prove to me that he could do something else. I told him: “Listen, dude, maybe you’ll still drive the car?”
At some point, I had to often repeat that I was just a political activist and was protecting prisoners. It's a very strange feeling, like you're in a people's supermarket.
Why am I singing about Trump? In principle, I can be accused of being opportunistic, but it seems to me that this is precisely the role of a political artist - to be opportunistic. Petya and I argued a lot about my phrase about keeping your nose to the wind. He says there is some fraud involved. But it seems to me that an artist must be a fraudster in this sense, because he must understand what is happening in reality, be aware of it, he must analyze. This is what I tried to do.
I worked with Ricky Reed and at some point, when I came to his studio, I realized that he was simply crushed, destroyed, this was in April. I ask: “What happened?” And he also has a wife - a feminist, a vegan. It seems to me that he works with me simply because he loves his wife very much and wants her to love him even more. And so he tells me about his existential horror after the Trump election, and I say: “Okay, let's write a song.” Art, in my opinion, is the best psychotherapy. That's how we wrote the song.
By the way, I've been discussing the idea of a video with Jonas for a long time (Akerlund, director of the video. - Ed.), whom she had known by this time for several years. We talked about this back in 2014, we wanted to compare Russian and American conservatives. The problem was that the Americans did not have a figure who could absorb everything that was terrible about the hyperconservative part of the Republicans. We thought about Palin, but by that point she seemed irrelevant.
And suddenly, two years later, history gives us a surprise. While we were trying to find a hero for the video, he appeared himself - in the image of Donald Trump. Jonas and I realized that now we definitely needed to film it, the idea for the video came to me at the moment when I was filming the video “Organs” - about Ukraine - I woke up at four in the morning and literally began to think. I came up with the idea of stigmatization - because that's what Trump does.
Hillary Clinton meets with a lot of people and when you do this, you no longer have sincerity left for each person. She behaved politely, it was a protocol meeting: “Yes, very nice”, “How is the situation in Russian politics?”, “My favorite Russian feminists”, “What do you think about doing next?”
When we were freed, we thought about getting elected to the Moscow city council, but we quickly discovered that we could not be elected for another ten years, because we had a criminal record and even with the amnesty it was not expunged.
In addition, it is quite difficult to combine queer politics with electoral politics. If you want to be queer, you must constantly work on changing your own identity, its plasticity. But as a politician, you do the exact opposite: you must convey to the maximum possible large quantity people, who you are, define yourself, describe and put them into pieces. And this is the opposite of my impulse.
Maria Alyokhina
For me, prison didn't mean anything special - this is absolutely not about a feeling of freedom or slavery. Just different scenery. That is, it seems to me that we ourselves choose - slavery or freedom, whether we sit in prison or act. So I don’t classify the period behind bars as a prison period at all. This was the beginning of human rights activities.
Defending yourself behind bars is generally the only way not to lose yourself. Besides, I was given such a privilege to fight. It is not given to everyone: you need to understand that, for example, in a women’s colony, 10–15 people out of a thousand can have a lawyer. The rest do not have money, not only for a lawyer, but for transfers and purchase of basic food and hygiene products. Therefore, I understood that since people from virtually all over the world support me, it would simply be wrong not to support those around me.
After the trial ended, we were taken to different regions: Nadya to Mordovia, and me to Berezniki. This is a small town in the Perm region, they joke about it that Berezniki (and also Solikamsk) lead straight to hell. The most famous place in Berezniki is the huge sinkholes on the site of coal mines that have not been working for a long time, the earth simply falls down and giant holes are formed. Everyone takes pictures of them from a helicopter and makes funny collages with cats that seem to be walking there. Before me, women from Moscow were not sent there. Absolute ass, this is very far away. When I was in a transit prison, in the Solikamsk pre-trial detention center, its chief told me with pride that “Shalamov was sitting here not far from us” and all that - you feel like you’re part of history.
I was transported along the stage for a month, three Stolypin carriages, three transfers - everything was just like in the book. And when they brought it, not only I, but also the entire local administration was surprised. The administration is red-cheeked, stocky men who are accustomed to the fact that there is an owner in the zone, and he is the absolute power, he does what he wants. But after I was kicked out into the cold, 35 degrees, and the girls did not have warm scarves (they were given some rags for free according to their uniform), I told human rights activists about this, and after that the administration, all these bosses, decided that I need to be closed. They put me in jail alone, and then all hell broke loose. They began to put pressure, constantly banging on the door with keys, telling me that if I didn’t immediately admit my guilt and repent, I wouldn’t have a life here, and all that.
I had a very good local lawyer - Oksana Darova, she died, unfortunately, a year ago. Together with her, we came up with a method of defense - to go to court against them. The process, which usually takes two to three hours, took us two weeks, eight hours every day, but we won. Then - the deprivation of bonuses, the dismissal of eight employees of the colony, and after some time - the bosses themselves. Renovation of all barracks, normal products in the store, reduction of working hours, in general, all that.
If you understand that you can win even there, where it seems impossible to win, an amazing feeling appears. You can no longer pretend that nothing like this happened. And the guys, the bosses, won’t pretend either, they’ve already remembered everything. If you win there, then you can extrapolate this experience to freedom, the so-called freedom. So, in fact, Nadya and I decided to make the “Zone of Law” and “Media Zone”.
We started building a human rights project in 2014, it was a bit of a movie, because the three of us - me, Nadya and Petya - had never really signed a single paper before. We tried to officially register the “Zone of Law” project, but we were sent twice. But many people around the world supported us, both in prison and afterwards. When we came out, we just started traveling around the world, giving performances, and investing the money from lectures and performances into the Mediazona project.
I remember it like this: we broke into some places where we were really invited famous people, and they told everyone that we want to help prisoners, we really need money and we will definitely succeed. People didn't really understand what we were talking about at first, because in most people's minds we were a musical group. They asked us: “Well, guys, when is your next song?”
When we were invited to Capitol Hill - to a meeting of senators and congressmen - we talked about the Bolotnaya case, then, in the spring of 2014, the first verdict was pronounced. We believed that everyone who was an accomplice in the sentencing should be included in the sanctions list. We understood that we had a rare opportunity to speak; in fact, a miracle happened - all doors opened before us. And if this happens to an ordinary person, he must act.
"House of Cards" is a story of accidents. PEN invited us to speak at a major literary event in New York. There were a lot of people there, and we met Beau Willimon, then the writer of House of Cards. He turned out to be a phenomenally interesting person. At that time, the group was planning a third season, and when he found out who we were, he asked if we could tell the details about the prison, how the cell worked and the whole system, because they had an idea to recreate that in the series. The next day, Beau invited us to the writers' room, and we spent four hours there, completely in awe of what was happening. The entire room was lined with a magnetic board along the perimeter, covered with small handwriting - every detail was recorded. And at the end they told us that in one of the episodes of the script “there will be a president of the country” and they want to film us in this scene. At first they thought of inviting Garry Kasparov, but now, maybe, us. They asked: “Will you go?”
By this point, I had already watched the previous two seasons, and I really, really liked it. In general, we decided, of course, we’ll go. A few months later we were invited to filming. They have a huge pavilion in Baltimore, next to Washington: it’s expensive to film in Washington, but in Baltimore, if you’re filming, you’re doing cultural activities, it is actually tax-free, so the largest pavilion recreating Washington was there. We spent a week in this built world, I have never seen anything like it, and it is absolutely something - a huge job, phenomenal in the quality of the organization. No one sits for a minute at all. Everything is like clockwork. Enthusiasm from people who want to do even more and better.
I think I'm a feminist. I was always somewhat confused by masculine and feminine, but in general, if I fought for something with the subtext of feminism, it would be for rights, some aspects associated with men. Society and the state forces men to do things that subsequently give bad results. We do not take women into the army; women occupy leadership positions to a lesser extent. If some men were freed from these responsibilities and women were added there, it seems to me that it would at least be more interesting for everyone. The weaker sex is supposedly less responsible for their decisions than the stronger sex, a man must decide, he must always be healthy, he must always work and never cry, whine or even say that something doesn’t suit him. In general, I am against stereotypes. According to statistics, men live shorter lives - this is not cool. Everyone should live long.
Is the story with Pavlensky important to me? There is no need to force anyone onto the clouds, there is no need to do this to anyone - not to us, not to Pavlensky, I don’t know, not to anyone. It's irresponsible. You have to act on your own, you have to believe in yourself, each of us is a hero, because everyone has a choice. Why delegate your own heroism to someone? Maybe people need images, people need icons, I don’t know. Icons, by the way, don’t smile at all. If you pay attention, look at the faces - they are extremely serious. Why didn’t funny things happen then or what was the big deal?
I was in jail with a phenomenal woman, Article 159, she was accused of stealing 40 million from the Turkmen president. The daughter of a prosecutor, who, as far as I remember, was a well-known oppositionist in Turkmenistan, he was rotted in the basement, in general, this Long story. She was extradited to Russia from Switzerland. She lived there for ten years, and spent the first year in a Swiss court. She called me “kitten”. She said: “Kitty, why did they take up arms against you?” She took great care of herself and taught me how to mix a scrub from honey and coffee grounds. We read a lot of things out loud to each other, newspapers mostly. By the way, it came out in December. She served exactly five years.
In general, a third of the women I met in the colony are behind bars for crimes related to domestic violence. That is, roughly speaking, she and her husband lived together, fought from time to time, he beat-beat-beat-beat her, at some point she decided that enough was enough and stabbed him to death.
There are no social mechanisms in our state now to solve the problem. That is, what can a woman do if he beats her? She can call the police, the police will take him away for the night. He will come in the morning with a sore head and beat her even more. She can only go to the priest, father... The father can solve some issues with his soul, but with bruises - it’s unlikely.
We met the Belarusian Free Theater, when I first came to London - to an Amnesty International panel. Before the performance, people came up to us and said that they had a theater. The directors emigrated, and the whole troupe plays in Minsk - they have an underground garage there, several performances a week, armored windows and all that. They rehearse on Skype. When I first heard about this, to be honest, I chuckled.
A year passed, they organized a festival in which Nadya took part, I wrote that I would also like to do a project with them. It was interesting because they are a theater. That is, this is their form of political art. I’ve never had anything to do with the theater before, well, that is, except when I was a child.
Then they invited me to Calais, where their colleagues made a tent for refugees, and they also made productions with them, I went there in December 2015. We spent three days with refugees, and this deserves a separate story, because Calais is a micro-town in France, absolutely dead. Previously, it was alive - production, manufactories, but now there are two bars and one hotel, at eleven o'clock in the evening there is no one on the street. But you drive five kilometers from the city to the refugees - and there life is in full swing: they bake warm bread, makeshift huge power plants, how they even did it is a mystery to me. In this camp we decided that we were making a performance.
It is about violence and resistance, told through three stories, one of which is mine. Petina (Peter Pavlensky - Ed.)- violence against the artist, the story of Sentsov - violence primarily against a person, physical torture. It is quite difficult to show them, so the directors turned to Artaud - the Theater of Cruelty. I'm talking about personal violence. Usually, when after a performance you ask someone: “Well, how did you like it?” - more often they say that it’s like they punched you in the gut. Actually, I put the main prison stories into the play.
How, for example, does a search go? A regular search, suppose you were arrested for 48 hours, taken to a detention center, put in a cell in which the search takes place. You have to strip naked, completely, and then they tell you: “Squat ten times,” so that if you have something inside, it will fall out. And then they tell you: “Bend over,” that is, turn around and spread your buns. Entering the world with beautiful bars goes something like this - you push your buns apart. This may not really please anyone, that is, no one likes it at all. And for example, it took me a year to understand that I don’t want to do this, I won’t bend over. That is, a year later I said no.
I didn’t “disagree” with Katya. We left the colony and met Katya there, at Kropotkinskaya, on December 31, at New Year from 2013 to 2014, we walked around Moscow. And then we didn’t walk any further. But it's not because I didn't want to. Something like this. I have no political or ideological differences with her. And, in my opinion, it would be cool to do something further. In general, it’s great to do something together, it’s better than not to do it. Yes, I have said more than once that we should not be perceived as a broken up group. “Mediazona” is a project that the three of us made. Now Nadya writes songs and shoots videos, and it’s absolutely phenomenal. Form is something that needs to be experimented with.
Yes, the punk prayer is actually sung by my best friend. We have been communicating with her since first grade, since she was nine years old. And this is not just a friend, she is a member of the group. She didn’t go to the pulpit with us because the night before I had been fooling her for a long time, sharing my doubts half the night - I just wanted to chat. And she is not only a member of Pussy Riot, she is also a member of the Voina group, and she introduced me to the group. As a result, the next day I went, but she didn’t. And then she came out with posters in our defense and participated in all support events. Now she is, in a sense, a co-author of a book - about our story, which I wrote, it will be published in March. We will tell it to her. She has a musical group, and I came up with the idea of combining the book with music. There will be something like a performance/concert.
Was I in church after the punk prayer? Since then I have been to KhHS once. This strange story. In 2015, by chance. I flew in from New York, realized that I had no keys, nowhere to go, and from the airport I went to Kropotkinskaya. I do not know why. Very early in the morning. Then I heard a ringing and decided to go to KhHS. Then the movie started. Firstly, there were Chinese everywhere, a lot of them, a phenomenal number of Chinese. Secondly, monitors. There were no monitors before. Thirdly, the patriarch. Oddly enough, he was in the temple. It turned out that there was a holiday, a service, something connected with Cyril and Methodius, everyone was talking about the Russian language, I got the feeling that they were celebrating our culture. At the same time, there were Chinese and guys in suits everywhere - secret service agents. I got inside, and by the way, they didn’t search me again. Me too, they don’t learn anything at all. If I hadn't heard the ringing, I wouldn't have gone.
Catherine
Samutsevich
The news that I am being released was a complete surprise. It happened on October 10, 2012, I was released right in the courtroom. I had no suspicion that this could happen. Even that day, I was absolutely sure that now we would go back. Was I offered a plea deal? What are you talking about? No, of course not, what a deal. Everything was going as if the three of us were now leaving, each to our own colony, which they would choose for us.
When I was released, there was an ambivalent feeling. On the one hand, joy. It also seemed to me that now Nadya and Masha would also be released. I remember the crowd, how I hugged my dad, then ran through this crowd to the car, I remember the journalists not letting me out of the ring. I thought that I would go out and fight, make up for everything I missed while I was away. I was worried that there was no way to react to what was happening, that I simply did not see some things.
Why was I released? I don't know. I see one difference in my behavior - I simply abandoned lawyers. Maybe it somehow attracted attention and had an impact. Perhaps public pressure played a role.
The first person I went to was my aunt, a very dear person to me. The first sensations were literally physical. You don’t move much in a pre-trial detention center. You are not given this opportunity, the cell is very small, and you are asked to sit on the bed all the time, or at best at the table. When I came out, I remember how I remembered the feeling - I could walk down the street freely. I was also pleased to see the dishes - there were no dishes in the prison.
Then many months were spent going to bar associations and courts. I tried to fight slander on the part of lawyers; after all, they staged a whole campaign against me, hinting that I had entered into an agreement to leave early. She tried to challenge the group’s trademark, which was illegally registered in the name of the wife of lawyer Feigin and her company. Commerce actually contradicted our ideas: the group was leftist, and besides, these attempts were made without the knowledge of the participants.
Without our knowledge and obviously in haste, the lawyers published the book “Pussy Riot.” What was that?”, it consisted of quotes from the LJ group. We arrived at the publishing house with my then lawyer Sergei Badamshin: the book was removed from the shelves, and the lawyers, as it turned out later, did not have time to pay for it. According to our verdict, there were several stages of appeal, the case was reviewed twice by all authorities, and as a result, two months were removed. The sentence remained in force; the court removed one wording. IN legal proceedings Ukrainian lawyer Nikolai Lyubchenko helped me; he wrote a complaint to the European Court.
Why did I disappear then? I remained in the media space exactly as long as was necessary in my position: I was the only member who was released, and a kind of link between the press and the anonymous members of the group. I wanted to make the process as open and ideologically clear as possible.
Pussy Riot positioned itself as a radical feminist left-wing punk band. Anonymity is not just hidden faces, but an attempt to avoid the emphasis on personalities, unnecessary in this case, we wanted to direct attention to our ideas. It seemed to me that many people then saw in us the possibility of changing society, including the fight against capitalism, this is a huge problem, leftists all over the world are still seriously debating how to change the situation. And then a group appeared that adhered to leftist views, feminist views, this was very clearly indicated during our anonymous performances. Both the format of our actions and their ideological background were unexpected for our country.
How did we meet the girls? I studied at Rodchenko's school. I was interested in contemporary photography and performance art in general, actionism. Four people and a child came to one of the exhibitions held at school: Nadya, Petya, Thief and Koza. They came up to me and introduced themselves. I thought, oh cool, “War.” And we exchanged contacts. Yes, Masha joined a little later. There were no strict roles in Pussy Riot. Actionist groups promote equality. If there is some kind of, roughly speaking, leader or soloist, everyone will immediately turn around and leave: it is unclear why they should obey one person, there is simply no interest, no motivation.
With the release of Masha and Nadya, the history of the Pussy Riot group, as it was originally imagined, ended. It turned out that we have different paths. I got the feeling that our past began to seem something naive to them. But against the background of wars, problems with human rights, the important topic of animal rights in Russia and much more, it is even strange to emphasize those events - our trial was one of many in a series of criminal cases that followed. Many people - Victoria Pavlenko, Svetlana Davydova, people from Bolotnaya - for some reason did not receive such attention.
After the term expired, it turned out that my punishment continued. This situation, by the way, should be familiar to many convicts, regardless of media exposure. I never found a serious job: a couple of times I successfully passed tests for a programmer position, but in the finals I was always rejected without explanation. The last stage of employment in many companies is a control check of a person: his name is entered into a search engine. This stage was failed in all cases. At the same time, for some time I organized feminist meetings in the basement that we rented at Avtozavodskaya.
Now I'm studying at HSE majoring in Computational Linguistics. I have been interested in this topic for a long time - language has enormous power over society. Now we can clearly see how a system for controlling people’s linguistic behavior is being created. On the one hand, this is interesting for linguists, on the other hand, this is one of the stages of control by the authorities. For example, you can calculate the degree of intensity of protest sentiments based on texts on the Internet. If countries are in conflict, they are often described in the media using gender stereotypical images (“strong male country” and “weak female country”) - this happens, for example, with Pakistan and India, Russia and Ukraine; in political linguistics this is called “metaphor theory” .
Before that, I studied for a year and a half in Baumanka (while working part-time in a cafe) in the broader specialty of “applied linguistics.” Some foreign language teachers used pairings as a platform to express their political beliefs. Instead of a vocabulary course, we listened to monologues about “unworthy Ukraine”, “the rotten West”, “Stephen Fry who disappointed with his orientation” - this, by the way, was said by teachers who annually went to conferences in the UK and the USA. I don’t know why they didn’t just want to teach us: some said they were tired, others said they weren’t paid enough. My classmates were diligently preparing topics at the second-grade level of the language school; they were of little interest in politics.
It’s funny, there were a lot of people around, but no one knew my story, they didn’t even identify me by last name. This, by the way, was also sobering. We had the impression that you go out into the street and everyone recognizes you. This is absolutely not true. People live their own lives. Many studied both day and evening at the same time and counted the months until they received their diploma.
Now it seems that everyone is being imprisoned, and then it was really unexpected. When they opened a case against us, I simply didn’t believe it, no one could believe it then, everyone thought: “Okay, now they’ll probably open a case, then they’ll calm down and close it.” But no, everything continued. Was it scary when you were sent to prison? No, there was no fear. There was tension that there was a lot to come, but what exactly was unknown.
It has become more difficult to engage in activism in general now. It is no longer enough to simply think through some specific action or action - you need to predict how it will be reacted to in different communities, from supporters and loved ones to the art environment and major media. You may encounter provocations, the media suddenly attacks you, not to mention an unforeseen arrest.
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