The Birth of Pussy Riot: Six Early Songs

Introduction

In the 2010s, to protest rising authoritarianism in Russia, artists and activists started utilizing the power of social media to claim voices for themselves. Pyotr Pavlensky’s provocative 2013 demonstration of nailing his own scrotum to the paving stones of Red Square right outside the Kremlin1 and Pavel Krisevich’s bloody and fiery mock crucifixion performance across from the Federal Security Service (FSB) building in late 20202 are both recent examples of the serious lengths being taken by Russian activists to get their protests covered in the media. These protests can be dangerous, brave, thought provoking, and even mind boggling in nature at times, but they are birthed from oppression and are simply a form of expression at their core. In tandem with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s various election campaigns and victories, the past decade in Russia has been a time of major development, recognition, strain, and boundary pushing for protest artists; the most famous activists, however, may well be the group known as Pussy Riot.

Founded by around 15 anonymous young women, Pussy Riot is a Russian punk rock feminist protest art and performance group. The group rose to international fame in 2012 for an illegal guerrilla-style performance lasting only around 40 seconds at the Russian Orthodox Church’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow, Russia on February 21, 2012. Three of their members were subsequently arrested and charged with “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” in March 2012. Their identities exposed, the three women were eventually convicted by a Moscow City Court on August 12, 2012 to serve two years in former gulag-camps-turned-penal-colonies in rural Russia.3

This edition presents the six performances that led up to the arrests of Pussy Riot’s founding members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich. It includes the highly contentious song “Virgin Mary, Mother of God, Chase Putin Away” that was illegally performed at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. For each performance, I provide the original Russian lyrics with English transliterations and translations, along with contextual annotations that help to situate Pussy Riot in Russian culture and history. This edition is intended for use by scholars, researchers, students, and teachers while bringing awareness to the current issues centered around human rights and free speech in Russia.
Back to top
  1. Fernanda Eberstadt, “The Dangerous Art of Pyotr Pavlensky,” The New York Times Magazine, July 11, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/11/magazine/pyotr-pavlensky-art.html.↵
  2. Aleksandra Sivtsova, “Menia sniali s kresta i utashchili v avtozak,” meduza, November 6, 2020, https://meduza.io/feature/2020/11/06/menya-snyali-s-kresta-i-utaschili-v-avtozak/.↵
  3. Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin, Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer (London: Roast Beef Productions, 2013), DVD.↵

This page has paths: