Pussy Riot group. "Pussy Wright" - who are they? Feminist punk band "Pussy Wright" What is Pussy Wright

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11:43 09.05.2019

The detained Pussy Riot member and four of her friends spent the night in a police station

Pussy Riot group member Veronika Nikulshina and four of her friends, who were detained on the afternoon of May 8, were left in the capital’s Tverskaya police station until the morning without explanation, writes Mediazona. All the guys, including Nikulshina, are left overnight in the department, despite the fact that they were not shown any documents. Law enforcement officials said they would work with them tomorrow, publisher and group member Pyotr Verzilov told Interfax. It was reported the day before that a dozen police officers came to the home of the activist’s friends a few hours after

04:22 19.10.2018

The Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation appealed the decision of the ECHR on payments to Pussy Riot participants

The Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation appealed the decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to pay more than 37 thousand euros in favor of members of the punk group Pussy Riot, RIA Novosti reports with reference to the press service of the ministry. The ruling of the European Court of Human Rights “Alekhina and others against Russia”, issued in July 2018, was appealed by the Russian authorities in accordance with the established procedure, the ministry informs. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled that the Russian Federation violated a number of provisions of the European Convention on Human Rights in

04:13 13.09.2018

Pussy Riot member Pyotr Verzilov was admitted to intensive care with suspected poisoning

Member of the Pussy Riot group, publisher of Mediazona Pyotr Verzilov, on the evening of September 11, ended up in the hospital toxicology department in serious condition. Medusa writes about this. Verzilova’s girlfriend, group member Veronika Nikulshina, told the publication that he felt ill shortly after the court hearing where the administrative case against her was heard: the man began to lose his sight, speech and ability to move. When the ambulance arrived, he answered all questions that “no, I didn’t eat anything, I didn’t take any substances. He was getting faster and faster

20:11 18.07.2018

“I felt like a comrade major”: Petr Verzilov about the action at the 2018 World Cup

All members of the Pussy Riot group who ran onto the field during the final match of the 2018 World Cup received 15 days of arrest and a ban on attending sporting events for three years. The action was called Policeman Enters the Game and was dedicated to the memory of the poet Dmitry Prigov, who died 11 years ago. Pass to Putin: what the art community is saying about the Pussy Riot action Freedom, equality, love: how Pussy Riot was tried for an action at the 2018 World Cup Participants in the action demanded the release of all political prisoners, not to be imprisoned for liking on social networks, and an end to arrests on

18:18 16.07.2018

“This colonel would have already been shot and thrown into a common pit.”

The editor-in-chief of the Ekho Moskvy radio station, Alexey Venediktov, criticized a police officer who, during the interrogation of Pussy Riot who ran onto the field at the World Cup final, expressed regret that repressions had stopped in Russia. The journalist shared his opinion about this incident on the Telegram channel. The colonel, shouting and screaming at the violators who ran onto the football field of the 2018 World Cup in Luzhniki, “Creature!” Handcuffs for both of me here and a crown “It’s a pity that it’s not 1937, I didn’t understand that he was screaming and screaming,” wrote Venediktov. In glorious 1937

04:21 11.07.2018

Pussy Riot member fined 400,000 rubles for evading mandatory work

The Moscow Magistrate's Court fined Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina 400,000 rubles for evading compulsory labor, which was assigned to her for protests near the FSB building. Mediazona reported this. Bailiffs detained her as she was leaving the Izmailovsky court, where a lawsuit filed against the activist by the administration of a colony in the Nizhny Novgorod region was being considered. It is reported that two reports were drawn up against the activist under the article on evasion of administrative punishment (20.25 of the Administrative Code) and for each she was fined 200,000 rubles. Let us remind you that in

17:53 04.04.2018

A member of Pussy Riot also got into the Nizhny Novgorod colony

Nizhny Novgorod correctional colony No. 2 went to court against Pussy Riot member Maria Alekhina and the publication Sobesednik, who, in their opinion, are spoiling the reputation of the institution. According to the Mediazon publication, the penitentiary institution did not like the part of the publication in Sobesednik, where Alekhina talks about a contract for sewing medical clothes, prisoner of IK No. 2 with Avangard-special clothing at allegedly reduced prices. The plaintiff also considers the confession of a Pussy Riot member about the difficult working conditions and meager wages of prisoners to be a lie. The colony asks to recognize this

13:42 27.02.2018

In Crimea, Cossacks took the hat from Pussy Riot member Alekhina

Cossacks from the Crimean Self-Defense kicked Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina and local activist Alexei Efremov out of the cafe and took away their headdress. After this, the connection was interrupted and where they are is unknown, journalist Anton Naumlyuk told Mediazona. As Alyokhina reported, several Cossacks entered the cafe, called them enemies of the people and called them a Kubanka hat on the grounds that young people allegedly do not have the right to wear it. The activist managed to send a video in which a man insulted activists. Alekhina also sent an audio recording in which you can hear

12:24 07.08.2017

Pussy Riot appeared in Yakutsk with a banner in support of Sentsov

Members of the Pussy Riot group Maria Alekhina and Oleg Sofeev, as well as one of the creators of the Pussy Riot Theater project Olga Borisova, hung a banner with the inscription Free Sentsov on a bridge in Yakutsk not far from the colony where Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov is serving his sentence. Alekhina reported this on Facebook. Activists hung a banner with the inscription Free Sentsov on the bridge over Lake Saysary, which is located 7.5 km from the colony where Sentsov is serving his sentence, and also lit two flares. Using linen cloth and a pink spray can we made

04:52 28.10.2016

Pussy Riot released an anti-Trump video, branding Tolokonnikova with a hot iron

Thus, the punk band expressed its attitude towards the US presidential candidate. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova from the punk band Pussy Riot presented a new video directed against US presidential candidate Donald Trump. It was directed by Jonas Akerlund, who directed Lady Gaga's Telephone video. As Tolokonnikova wrote in her blog, even during her imprisonment after a punk prayer service in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, she decided that she would work with Jonas, and now this plan has been realized. In the English-language video, Tolokonnikova performs several

19:08 03.02.2016

Pussy Riot released the video "Seagull"

The infamous girls from the group Pussy Riot released a video for the song CHAIKA. This time the song became a kind of response to the lack of reaction from the official authorities to the investigations of Alexei Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation; it mentions the main persons involved, the main investigations (Irkutsk Shipping Company, the Tsapkov family, Roman Tsepovyaz and others). Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, in a form similar to the prosecutor’s, calls not to eat modest things, to consume modest things and addresses: Be humble, be meek, do not worry about perishable things, the power given by God,

16:16 09.02.2015

Russian film about Pussy Riot received an award in Amsterdam

The NTR IDFA Award for Best Mid-Length Documentary went to Pussy Versus Putin. The creators of the film are the creative team Gogol’s Wives Productions, the director participates in the festival anonymously, fearing persecution in his homeland. According to the festival jury, the film brilliantly conveys the story of Pussy Riot. The jury members note the courage of the directors who created video evidence of the sensational trial. The jury expressed hope that the victory of the documentary

12:12 04.12.2014

Pussy Riot is being driven out of America

Pussy Riot is being driven out of America because of Ferguson. The Americans are demanding that the visas of Tolokonnikova, Alekhina and Verzilov be revoked and that they be banned from entering the USA. Do you remember HOW the hooligans from Pussy Riot were received in the USA? How they were treated. Hillary Clinton met, they gave all sorts of bonuses, Petya Verzilov got in touch with Yoko Ono. Madonna called everyone to save Nadya. All kinds of senators lined up. The only thing they didn’t do was never ask me to sing. Which is understandable, not every hearing aid can withstand a wild, hysterical and absolutely unmusical scream. IN

17:38 27.11.2014

Pussy Riot is being driven out of America because of Ferguson

The Americans demand that the visas of Tolokonnikova, Alekhina and Verzilov be canceled and that they be banned from entering the United States. Do you remember HOW the hooligans from Pussy Riot were received in the USA? How they were treated. Hillary Clinton met, they gave all sorts of bonuses, Petya Verzilov got in touch with Yoko Ono. Madonna called everyone to save Nadya. All kinds of senators lined up. The only thing they didn’t do was never ask me to sing. Which is understandable, not every hearing aid can withstand a wild, hysterical and absolutely unmusical scream. In general, they were accepted as fighters against totalitarianism

07:13 28.07.2014

Members of the group Pussy Riot ask the Strasbourg court to recover 250,000 euros from Russia

Members of the Pussy Riot group Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova are asking the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to recover 120,000 euros from Russia as compensation for moral damage caused to them by criminal prosecution. This amount was stated in the girls’ objections to the position of the Russian authorities on their complaint to the ECHR. Last week, the document (Vedomosti has the text) was sent to court. This is the final stage of communication, explains Pavel Chikov, chairman of the Agora association, whose lawyers represent the girls in court. U

12:56 05.06.2014

The Russian Federation called the infringement of freedom of speech a side effect in protecting the feelings of believers from Pussy Riot

The Russian Federation called the infringement of freedom of speech a side effect in protecting the feelings of believers from Pussy Riot 06/05/2014, 12:32 Alexey Ponomarev Photo ITAR-TASS / Mitya Aleshkovsky The Russian government refused to consider the criminal prosecution of Pussy Riot members for a punk prayer service in the Cathedral of Christ an attack on freedom of speech Savior. This, as Vedomosti writes, is stated in a memorandum sent by Moscow to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The 35-page memorandum contains detailed answers to a number of questions that the ECHR previously addressed to the Russian authorities.

The Presidium of the Moscow City Court commuted the punishment of the Pussy Riot participants to 1 year and 11 months April 4, 12:06 The court found that the punk band’s concert did not incite religious hatred. The Pussy Riot group did not incite religious hatred during a punk prayer in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which allows the punishment of its members to be reduced by 1 month - up to 1 year 11 months. This decision was made by the Presidium of the Moscow City Court. The court partially satisfied the complaints of the group members, changing the legal basis for the conviction. In the final version of the verdict

16:56 03.04.2014

Pussy Riot revealed the identity of their puppeteer patron

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina met with the head of Hermitage Capital Management, William Browder, as part of their European tour. After a speech before the European Parliament in Brussels, at which Tolokonnikova and Alekhina called on parliamentarians to impose sanctions against a number of high-ranking Russians, including Dmitry Medvedev, a joint photo with their charges appeared on William Browder’s Twitter. Let us recall that at the beginning of July last year, the Tver court sentenced Browder in absentia to nine years in a general regime colony. Court

12:27 31.03.2014

Pussy Riot will demand in the European Parliament to worsen the lives of ordinary Russians

Members of the Russian punk band Pussy Riot intend to call on the West for the toughest sanctions against Russia in the European Parliament. REGNUM news agency reported this today, March 29, in the Estonian public broadcasting corporation ERR with reference to an interview with group members Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova to ERR journalists and Estonian media during a visit to Tallinn. “We are preparing for the performance. We will talk about the situation in Russia and in Ukraine. We hope that the sanctions applied to Russia will be more stringent,"

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The Moscow City Court left under arrest a Pussy Riot member who ran onto the field The Moscow City Court rejected an appeal against the arrest of one of the participants Pussy Riot Veronica Nikulshina, who ran onto the field during the World Cup final... Monday, July 23, the appeal court will consider complaints from three more members Pussy Riot. On July 15, in the 52nd minute of the final match of the World Cup...

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-class stars spoke out in defense of the girls, and representatives of Russian show business also have their own opinions on this matter.

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 in any case, this process will not benefit the image of modern Russia in the eyes of the world community. 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 viewers were able to see that the qualifications of judges and prosecutors are of the lowest level. Only one of the three examinations conducted recognized, with reference to ancient religious codes, that the “punk prayer” showed signs of religious hostility. Some professional psychologists, in turn, believed 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 fiction, 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 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. A joint open letter was sent to the Chairman of the Supreme Court on June 26. 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.

Foreign celebrities also spoke out for a pardon for Pussy Riot. 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 agencies considered this action to be 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 resonance 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 “hooliganism” article 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 by former USSR President 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.

The feminist punk rock band Pussy Riot became known to the public in 2011. The creative activity of the group consists of unauthorized actions in places not intended for such events, during which the participants cover their faces with colored balaclavas. The name can be interpreted in different ways: from “rebellion of the cats” to a vulgar and unprintable phrase.

Compound

Initially, the project does not imply a permanent composition. It is known that creative girls take part in it anonymously: artists, journalists, actresses, volunteers, poetesses. The identities of most of the participants are kept secret; the girls perform and communicate with the media using the pseudonyms “Balaklava”, “Cat”, “Manko”, “Seraphim”, “Schumacher”, “Hat” and others.

According to representatives of the group, they often exchange creative names. One of the ideas of the collective is that other participants who support the views of the movement can perform with them. The names of three girls from Pussy Riot became known after the “Virgin Mary, drive Putin away!” campaign. They turned out to be Ekaterina Samutsevich and Maria Alekhina.

Music

The team considers itself representatives of the “third wave of feminism.” The texts criticize the dictatorship, advocate the resignation of the current president and fight for women's rights. They compose the words and music for the songs themselves. After each released composition, a promotion is held where the song is performed live and filmed. The resulting video is used when editing the clip.

One of the group’s first songs was “Free the Paving Stones,” which they wrote on the eve of the State Duma elections in 2011. The girls performed the composition in the capital's public transport, capturing the roofs of trolleybuses and metro stations.

The following year, 8 members of the Pussy Riot team presented the song “Revolt in Russia - Putin is a ***” on Lobnoye Mesto on Red Square. The girls used colored smoke bombs to attract attention. The singers of the song were detained and two were fined.

After the controversial punk prayer, the band members released several more songs. During the announcement of the verdict, from the balcony of a house located opposite the Khamovnichesky Court, where the case was heard, one of the members of the group, in support of Samutsevich, Tolokonnikova and Alekhina, presented the song “Putin Lights the Fires of the Revolution.” On the same day, the composition was published on The Guardian website.

In 2014, Pussy Riot held an action in Sochi during the Olympics, which they called “Putin will teach you to love your homeland.” The IOC called the speech “shameful and inappropriate” and reminded that the Olympic Games are not a place for political action.

One of the band’s latest songs is “The Seagull,” the video for which was released in 2016. The satirical video is dedicated to the “Russian state mafia”: Tolokonnikova portrays the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation.

Scandals

Even before the creation of the group, one of the future leaders of Pussy Riot took part in the performance of the art group “War”. The event took place on February 29, 2008: in the museum, several young families simultaneously had sex and filmed the process. Tolokonnikova and her husband Verzilov also took part there, both at that time students of the Faculty of Philosophy of Moscow State University. The girl was 9 months pregnant, and a few days later she gave birth to a daughter, Hera.

The orgy was timed to coincide with the March presidential elections in the country. With the sex performance, the participants wanted to demonstrate that many citizens of the country are against the new president, who was practically appointed.

“They portrayed it as best they could and as best they could,” Nadezhda would later say.

In 2010, another member of the Voina art group, a future member of Pussy Riot, held a promotion in a supermarket in St. Petersburg, the attribute of which was frozen chicken. In front of the customers, the girl took off her underwear, placed the tray under her dress, and staged an impromptu birth on the street.

The main scandal associated with the team occurred after the “Mother of God, drive Putin away!” campaign. In February 2012, Pussy Riot filmed two short episodes: the venues were the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the Epiphany Cathedral in Yelokhov. Based on the recordings, they made a video edit, which became the material for the criminal case.

For the performance in the church, as well as for other videos, Pussy Riot was found to be involved in extremism and the leaders were sentenced to prison. Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina spent about a year in prison; Samutsevich got off with a suspended sentence.

Pussy Riot now

Back in 2013, after being released from prison, Alekhina and Tolokonnikova said at a press conference in Moscow:

"We're not Pussy Riot at the moment."

Once free, the girls created a movement to defend the rights of prisoners, “Zone of Law.” But Maria and Nadezhda are both strong personalities who could not work together for long. There is a conflict between the girls and they are not cooperating. The source reports that the project itself is alive, but no longer so active. The biography of the main members of the team developed differently.

Alekhina lives in Russia, sometimes performs around the country with punk concerts, and holds events. In 2017, the girl presented her book “Riot Days”, in which she described the scandalous rock prayer service and also spoke about the difficult fate of women in prison. In March 2018, Maria Alekhina and Olga Borisova, another member of the group, were detained for crossing the border with Ukraine while visiting Crimea.

On April 16, 2018, Maria was detained again, this time on Lubyanka Square for violating public order. The girl organized an action against the blocking of Telegram. The Dozhd TV channel on Twitter published a video from the action, where participants launched multi-colored paper airplanes.

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, together with her husband Pyotr Verzilov, performed first in the West, and now in America. In October 2016, an official page for the Pussy Riot collective was created on the Instagram page; the first photo presumably shows Tolokonnikova in a yellow balaclava. The caption for the post reads: “The Pussys are back.”

Judging by the posters and information from "Instagram", in May 2018, the Pussy Riot group will give a solo concert in Brooklyn, ticket prices start at $60. He will also take part in the three-day Bostong Calling music festival, where The Killers will also be guests.

Clips

• 2013 - “Mother of God, drive Putin away!”
• 2013 - “Like in a red prison”
• 2014 - “Putin will teach you to love your homeland”
• 2016 - “Make America Great Again”
• 2016 - “Organs”
• 2016 - “The Seagull”

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 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 began 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 theme of the American dream is not at all close. 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 behave quite toughly - 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, Hollywood actors and, from the point of view of the press, lived the high life - was, of course, a very useful year, but I still consider it a time of complete inner nothingness.

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 speeches appear on different world platforms: in the European Parliament, in the 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 here slips you a 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 released, we thought about running for election to the Moscow City Duma, 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 had not been 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 as many people as possible who you are, define yourself, describe and put it 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 really famous people invited us, and told everyone that we wanted to help prisoners, we really needed money and we would 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, and in Baltimore, if you film, that is, you do cultural activities, it’s actually tax-free, so the biggest 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, it’s a 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, met Katya there, at Kropotkinskaya, on December 31, New Year's Day from 2013 to 2014, and 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 is a 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. Ukrainian lawyer Nikolai Lyubchenko helped me in the legal proceedings; 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 with a child came to one of the exhibitions held at school: Nadya, Petya, Thief and Goat. 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.