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The Birth of Pussy Riot: Six Early Songs

Death to prison, freedom to protest (chorus)

This verse is a play on words of the Soviet World War II Yugoslav Partisan battle cry and motto “Death to Fascism, freedom to the people!” (Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian: Smrt fašizmu, sloboda narodu!). It was popularized as a phrase after the execution of Yugoslav Partisan Stjepan Filipović (1916-1942), immediately before which he yelled the words to the crowd with his arms raised in the air. The photo of him doing so (provided down below) was then circulated and reproduced widely, thereafter becoming a symbol of anti-fascist resistance and eventually the official slogan of the Yugoslav resistance movement that fought against fascist German occupiers. Pussy Riot is therefore condemning how the Russian prison system is used to put away those who speak out against the state, particularly with political activists like Alexei Navalny and Ilya Yashin. The group is also promoting the rights of freedom of speech and of assembly, which are frequently violated and have been further restricted in Russia over the past decade.

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“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!

“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.↵
“Kontsert dlia politzakliuchennykh 5 dekabria ‘Smert’ Tiur’me, Svobodu Protestu.’”↵
Ibid.↵
Gessen, 100-101.↵
“Kontsert dlia politzakliuchennykh 5 dekabria ‘Smert’ Tiur’me, Svobodu Protestu.’”↵
Ibid.↵
Garadzha Matveeva, “PUSSY RIOT poiut politzekam na kryshe tiur’my,” YouTube video, 1:16, December 14, 2011, https://youtu.be/mmyZbJpYV0I.↵
Gessen, 100-101.↵
Pyotr Struvye, Patriotica. Politika, kul’tura, religiia, sotsializm (Saint Petersburg: LitRes, 2020), 393.↵
Asher, “Philosophy Weekend: Slavoj Zizek and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova.”↵
Struvye, 393.↵
“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.↵
“Zashchita Otechestva – konstitutsionnaia obiazannost’ grazhdanina Rossii,” IPO GARANT dlia studentov, aspirantov i prepodavateleĭ, accessed November 3, 2020, https://edu.garant.ru/education/army/1/.↵
István Deák, Europe on Trial: The Story of Collaboration, Resistance, and Retribution during World War II (New York: Routledge, 2013), 159.↵
“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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Stjepan Stevo Filipović