The Birth of Pussy Riot: Six Early Songs

Screw the snitching fuckin' bosses!

Like the previous verse that condemned sexist conformists, this has the same message of condemnation. However, this lyric instead condemns the informants that work as people’s bosses but also help tip-off the Russian government to any suspicious activities being performed by their colleagues or workers. Additionally, this line was actually directly taken from Russian poet Miroslav Maratovich Nemirov’s (1961-2016) book A. S. Ter-Oganyan: Zhizn', Sud'ba i kontemporari-art (A.S. Ter-Oganyan: Life, Fate and contemporary art in English), which was dedicated to the work and fate of Russian artist Avdei Stepanovich Ter-Oganyan (b. 1961). The line is specifically from the book chapter “Militiamen” (Militsionery), which is about one of the many hardships Ter-Oganyan faced after his 1998 “Young Atheist” performance at the Art Manege-98 exhibition. His performance led to the Russian government charging him with “inciting religious hatred,” which ultimately forced him to leave Russia and move to the Czech Republic. Ter-Oganyan is still alive and lives in Prague, but this line perhaps accidentally foreshadowed Pussy Riot’s future—one that would go on to force them, like Ter-Oganyan, to leave their nation as a consequence of their performances “inciting religious hatred.”

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