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Pussy Riot: Performance, Protest, and Politics

Imprisoned, persecuted, and exiled from their home country, Pussy riot has been through a lot. They're a Russian 'feminist-punk' band who have been enemies of the Russian establishment for decades. 

How do you picture the perfect leader / Who do you want him to be / Has he promoted the use of torture and killing families? / Did your mama come from Mexico? / Papa come from Palestine / Sneaking all through Syria / Crossing all the border lines / Let other people in / Listen to your women / Stop killing black children / Make America Great Again

That's Pussy Riot in 2016, a full 2 weeks before Trump's election. 

In 2012, they entered the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow and climbed to the Cathedral's soleus, where they performed (or attempted to perform) a song entitled 'Mother of God, Drive Putin Away!' The performance lasted only 40 seconds before security threw the five women out of the building. The recording of this performance, along with the recordings of a few similar performances, were used in the song's music video, which grossed a massive 600,000 views on YouTube, not bad for 2012. The song in question, an absolute banger, was labeled by Pussy Riot as a 'punk prayer' and features criticism of the Russian Orthodox Church and its complicity in Putin's regime. They really were ahead of their time. This criticism expressed all too transparently to the beat of a punk rock jam, is only amplified in the song's chorus with a plea for the Virgin Mary to 'become a feminist,' 'drive Putin away,' and 'join us in Protest,' set to the melody of an airy hymn. 

In the following months, Pussy Riot was torn apart by Russia's internet, which dismissed the group as anti-patriotic, and Russia-haters. On March 4th, the day of Putin's re-election, two of the band's members: Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina, were arrested, and the third one, Ekaterina Samutsevich was jailed on March 15th. All three were eventually charged with hooliganism, a charge that the Russian state carries up to 7 years behind bars. This affair cumulated on August 17, 2012, with the conviction of the three band members for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred and the sentencing of all three to two years in prison.

During the preceding 'trial,' the women's lawyers tried to proclaim it 'worse than in Stalin's times, a statement that I doubt helped the women's case. The trial also received international attention, with the Russian government being criticized for the handling of both their case and their handling of other hooliganism cases. The band received high-profile support from Madonna to Red Hot Chili Peppers. The case later became the subject of intense social, political, and philosophical arguments both inside and outside Russia, broaching a huge range of diverse and unique questions and provoking conversation on stagnating issues. 

Since their imprisonment, Pussy Riot has been predicting the downfall of democracy globally: from Trump's election to Russia's war in Ukraine. If you see they've released a new song, I'd recommend giving it a listen - if only to better anticipate the next step in authoritarianism's plan to take over our rapidly less free world. 

I'd recommend streaming 2017's Police State, 2021's Purge the Poison (with MARINA,) and 2018's Bad Apples. It's great music, and you might find a new thing to be angry about. 

07/02/2022

by Frankie E.J. Robinson


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