The Birth of Pussy Riot: Six Early Songs

“Death to Prison, Freedom to Protest” (2011)

Following the final performance of “Kropotkin-Vodka” on December 7, 2011, Pussy Riot performed their next song titled “Death to Prison, Freedom to Protest,” (Smert’ tiur’me, svobodu protestu) only once, on December 14, 2011.1 Utilizing a step ladder they brought with them, three Pussy Riot members climbed onto the rooftop of the Moscow Special Detention Center’s Prison No. 1 building, quickly attracting the nearby prison guards’ attention as they stripped off their winter coats and set up their music equipment. After hanging a flag reading “Death to Prison, Freedom to Protest” in Russian off the side of the building,2 Pussy Riot began playing their song to the building facing directly opposite of them, where political activists such as Alexei Navalny, Ilya Yashin, Matvei “Skif” Krilov, and others were being held after their arrests the week before.3 They had been arrested for participating in nationwide mass protests against the results of the December 4, 2011 State Duma elections; as Pussy Riot themselves asserted in previous songs, these were widely suspected of electoral fraud. 

From Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod,Russia experienced mass protest throughout December 2011; many protesters were arrested and placed in state-run detention centers like the one atop which Pussy Riot performed.4 When many in the Russian press assumed that Pussy Riot had dedicated “Death to Prison, Freedom to Protest” to Alexei Navalny in particular, the group went so far as to clarify that their performance “was dedicated to ALL the protesters who were under arrest” (bylo posviashcheno VSEM protestuiushchim, okazavshimsia pod arestom).5 With lyrics heavily imbued with notes of protest philosophy, Pussy Riot called for these protesters’ immediate release from prison, which many received after around 15 days in state custody.6

In the following video performance of “Death to Prison, Freedom to Protest”, please note the background noise of male prisoners yelling, their hands that are gripping the window bars, and the final few seconds of Pussy Riot being thanked by the prisoners.7 These screams were from the prisoners that were cheering on Pussy Riot, who stated that “they quickly joined in on our chorus and the special detention center itself began to shake from their screams. The bars on the cell windows shook from the hands that were trying to break them.”8

Performance footage provided below, followed by lyrics and cultural commentary in annotation form:
Lyrics in Russian:Lyrics in simplified ALA-LC style:Lyrics in English:
Веселая наука захвата площадей
Воля к власти каждого, без блядских вождей
Прямое действие — будущее человечества,
ЛГБТ, феминистки, защити отечество!

Смерть тюрьме, свободу протесту!

Заставь ментов служить свободе,
Протесты ведут к хорошей погоде
Оккупируй площадь, сделай мирный захват
Отбери у всех ментов автомат

Смерть тюрьме, свободу протесту!

Заполните город, все площади, улицы,
Их много в России, отставьте устриц
Откройте все двери, снимите погоны
Почувствуйте с нами запах свободы

Смерть тюрьме, свободу протесту!		Veselaia nauka zakhvata ploshchadeĭ
Volia k vlasti kazhdogo, bez bliadskikh vozhdeĭ
Priamoe deĭstvie — budushchee chelovechestva,
LGBT, feministki, zashchiti otechestvo!

Smert’ tiur’me, svobodu protestu!

Zastav’ mentov sluzhit’ svobode,
Protesty vedut k khorosheĭ pogode
Okkupiruĭ ploshchad’, sdelaĭ mirnyĭ zakhvat
Otberi u vsekh mentov avtomat

Smert’ tiur’me, svobodu protestu!

Zapolnite gorod, vse ploshchadi, ulitsy,
Ikh mnogo v Rossii, otstav’te ustrits
Otkroĭte vse dveri, snimite pogony
Pochuvstvuĭte s nami zapakh svobody

Smert’ tiur’me, svobodu protestu!		The seizure of town squares is Joyful Wisdom9
The absence of shithead leaders is everyone’s Will to Power10
“Direct action”11 is the future of humanity,
Of the LGBT, of feminists, so defend12 the fatherland!13

Death to prison, freedom to protest!14

Make the cops serve liberty,
Protests bring good weather15
Occupy the town square, seize it peacefully
Take the assault rifles away from all of the cops

Death to prison, freedom to protest!

Fill up the city and all of its squares and streets,
There are many of them in Russia, shuck the oysters
Open all the doors, take off the shoulder marks
Breathe in the scent of freedom with us

Death to prison, freedom to protest!
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  1. “Kontsert dlia politzakliuchennykh 5 dekabria ‘Smert’ Tiur’me, Svobodu Protestu,’” Pussy Riot: Kak v krasnoĭ tiur’me, December 14, 2011, http://pussy-riot.info/blog/2011/12/14/smert-turme-svobodu-protestu.↵
  2. “Kontsert dlia politzakliuchennykh 5 dekabria ‘Smert’ Tiur’me, Svobodu Protestu.’”↵
  3. Ibid.↵
  4. Gessen, 100-101.↵
  5. “Kontsert dlia politzakliuchennykh 5 dekabria ‘Smert’ Tiur’me, Svobodu Protestu.’”↵
  6. Ibid.↵
  7. Garadzha Matveeva, “PUSSY RIOT poiut politzekam na kryshe tiur’my,” YouTube video, 1:16, December 14, 2011, https://youtu.be/mmyZbJpYV0I.↵
  8. Gessen, 100-101.↵
  9. Pyotr Struvye, Patriotica. Politika, kul’tura, religiia, sotsializm (Saint Petersburg: LitRes, 2020), 393.↵
  10. Asher, “Philosophy Weekend: Slavoj Zizek and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova.”↵
  11. Struvye, 393.↵
  12. “Zashchishchat’ Otechestvo — nasha povsednevnaia obiazannost’,” Moskovskiĭ gosudarstvennyĭ universitet imeni M.V.Lomonosova, February 23, 2018, https://www.msu.ru/news/zashchishchat-otechestvo-nash-povsednevnyy-trud.html.↵
  13. “Zashchita Otechestva – konstitutsionnaia obiazannost’ grazhdanina Rossii,” IPO GARANT dlia studentov, aspirantov i prepodavateleĭ, accessed November 3, 2020, https://edu.garant.ru/education/army/1/.↵
  14. István Deák, Europe on Trial: The Story of Collaboration, Resistance, and Retribution during World War II (New York: Routledge, 2013), 159.↵
  15.  “Ot primet k nauchnomu podkhodu,” Kul’tura.RF, accessed on November 8, 2020, https://www.culture.ru/materials/163222/ot-primet-k-nauchnomu-podkhodu.↵

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