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Home , Masha Gessen, Pussy Riot, Pyotr Verzilov

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Sophie Pinkham

Dissent, Volume 61, Number 3, Summer 2014, pp. 85-90 (Article)

3XEOLVKHGE\8QLYHUVLW\RI3HQQV\OYDQLD3UHVV DOI: 10.1353/dss.2014.0052

For additional information about this article http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/dss/summary/v061/61.3.pinkham.html

Access provided by New York University (6 Feb 2016 18:19 GMT) BOOKS

Pussy Riot in Translation

SOPHIE PINKHAM hatred.” designated the women “prisoners of conscience,” and many Words Will Break Cement: Western political leaders, The Passion of Riot included, expressed their criticism of the by verdict. Various international celebrities, Riverhead Books, 2014, 308 pp. mostly musicians, voiced their support; they perceived as a musical group, though it would have been more accurate to On February 21, 2012, five young women call them conceptual artists. In fact, many of in brightly colored tights and dresses entered Pussy Riot’s supporters had only the vaguest the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in central idea of what Pussy Riot stood for. One still- . There was no service in progress, anonymous Pussy Riot member commented, and there were only a few people in the “We’re flattered, of course, that and cathedral. The women pulled on neon bala- Björk have offered to perform with us. But clavas, stepped onto the stage-like area at the the only performances we’ll participate in are foot of the altar, and, jumping, punching, and illegal ones. We refuse to perform as part of kicking, shouted out a song that began: the capitalist system, at concerts where they Virgin Mary, Mother of God, chase Putin out. sell tickets.” Security guards carried one of the women, The international media showed the punk Yekaterina Samutsevich, out of the cathedral prayer music video occasionally and reprinted before she could even start performing. The some of the lyrics, though rarely all of them. other four women were hustled out about a Mostly it told a story of bravery in the face of minute into their performance, before they tyranny and showed photos of the women on could get all the footage they wanted. That trial: beautiful, behind bars, smiling beatifi- day, they felt that the action had failed. But cally. Their art wasn’t the important thing; they spliced the footage together with some what mattered was their sacrifice, and their clips they had filmed in previous days, in image. Pussy Riot’s martyr narrative gained other cathedrals with less security. They added steam when Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina a prerecorded audio track and then posted the began reporting on the terrible conditions video online. to which they were subjected in prison. Tolokonnikova declared a hunger strike for which she was eventually hospitalized. This “punk prayer” turned out to be Pussy For the West, the Pussy Riot trial was Riot’s greatest success by far, leading to an appealing in part because it seemed to be international scandal that reverberates even a familiar story with a modern twist. Once today. After a period of hiding, three Pussy again, authoritarian was oppressing Riot members—Samutsevich, Nadezhda dissident artists—but this time, instead of Tolokonnikova, and —were being grumpy old men like Solzhenitsyn, arrested and held without bail. The ensuing retyping dogeared manuscripts in dingy show trial became an emblem of Russia’s communal apartments, the artists in question new repressiveness, and it made Pussy were young, attractive, charismatic women Riot famous. Alyokhina, Samutsevich, and who invoked and Slavoj Žižek. Tolokonnikova received two-year sentences Tolokonnikova particularly captured the for “ motivated by religious public imagination. Photographs of her in the

SUMMER 2014 DISSENT 85 BOOKS courtroom cage, smiling defiantly in her blue did their message come through in the way “¡No Pasaran!” T-shirt, were everywhere. And they had intended? Could these performances, she didn’t just look great; she spoke compel- designed to respond to the particular nature lingly, movingly, drawing on a wide range of of power in Russia, to “seize public space references and demonstrating a deep sense of in Moscow,” as one anonymous Pussy Riot moral conviction. member put it, be intelligible to Western audi- Clearly, the Pussy Riot affair—the ences? In response to criticisms that his work sensation, the controversy, the appalling trial, was out of date, a throwback to Viennese and the outrageous sentence—was about Actionism (which also rejected the commodi- much more than words spoken against Putin. fication and institutionalization of art and There is censorship in Russia, but people say used artists’ bodies to make political state- bad things about Putin and his government ments), Pavlensky told the Russian magazine all the time. The punk prayer wasn’t particu- Snob, “Our political context is absolutely larly eloquent, either, though it served its different from that of the West. This action is purpose: the lyrics include lines like, “Shit, only worth considering in our specific place, shit, holy shit! Patriarch Gundyayev believes in the nest of power. In the West, the system in Putin/Bitch, better believe in God instead.” works differently—this action wouldn’t have Pussy Riot’s songs were a primitive frame on succeeded there.” which to hang a much larger set of arguments Though Russia now receives fairly about the state and the body, about men and extensive coverage in the Western media, women, and about public space. The pros- discussion of the country still relies heavily ecution picked and chose the lyrics it repeated on tropes that date back to the Cold War in court, removing the parts of the song that and a different political system: the , were about Putin and focusing on the parts Stalin, Solzhenitsyn. This picture of the bad about the Orthodox Church; the goal was to old Russia has been updated with images of prove that Pussy Riot had committed an act of the weird new Russia: Putin wrestling bears, “religious hatred” rather than political protest. dash-cam crash videos, and photos of sad- Yet Pussy Riot’s words weren’t the only thing looking women in tracksuits and too much the court held against them; there was also makeup, posing seductively in front of carpets the question of their young female bodies, hung on walls. In both cases, Russia is a bit of legs and arms exposed, dancing profanely in an enigma. For some people, Pavlensky’s self- a space where women were expected to have nailing was a freakish joke, a good opening their bodies covered. for bad puns; for others, it was a desperate act committed in a scary, totalitarian state. It was hard even for Russians to parse, let alone for The members of Pussy Riot are not the only foreigners. Russians who have used their bodies to make Today, it’s easier than ever to send a a point. A young artist named Pyotr Pavlensky message from Russia, but there’s no guarantee nailed his scrotum to a year after that the message will be understood. Perhaps Pussy Riot’s performance. He had previously more importantly, there is no certainty that it wrapped himself in barbed wire and, on will have any effect on Russian reality. For all another occasion, sewn his mouth shut and their popularity in the international media, held a banner that read, “The performance Pussy Riot attracted relatively little sympathy of Pussy Riot was a replay of Christ’s in Russia; in fact, by making it seem that famous action (Methodius 21:12-13).” He told the political opposition is full of anarchist a reporter, “In our country, the line between feminist blasphemers, Pussy Riot may have what happens in the prisons and in everyday done Putin a favor, strengthening his support life is disappearing. . . . The entire country is from his conservative core constituency. In slowly transforming into one huge prison.” the West, sympathy for Pussy Riot was also Both Pussy Riot and Pavlensky sought mixed with confusion. Were they musicians or to use their bodies to reconfigure politically performance artists? Did their imprisonment charged spaces. They got a lot of attention, but mean that Russia had gone back to its Soviet

86 DISSENT SUMMER 2014 BOOKS ways? Had Pussy Riot changed the course of participating in a group like Pussy Riot. Russian history, or had its members merely Alyokhina was an alcoholic teenage hippie, thrust themselves into the international lime- hanging around the Moscow streets with her light? friends, in love with Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream. She eventually stopped drinking and became an ardent, if somewhat eccentric, Masha Gessen is one of the most important journalists covering Russian politics for a Western audience. A liberal Russian American who is completely bilingual and has lived and For all its popularity in the international worked in both countries, she has played an media, Pussy Riot attracted relatively little essential role in interpreting Russia for her readers. Words Will Break Cement: The Passion of sympathy in Russia. Pussy Riot provides the most detailed account to date of the Pussy Riot story, based on exclusive access to Pussy Riot and their family members. Gessen offers much interesting new environmental activist and yoga enthusiast, material about the lives of Tolokonnikova, and she joined Pussy Riot relatively late in Alyokhina, and Samutsevich; about the devel- the game. She went on to become a jailhouse opment of the art collective (“War” lawyer, ferociously defending the rights of her in Russian), from which Pussy Riot even- fellow prisoners and winning many victories. tually splintered off; about the lead-up to In Pussy Riot, she found her purpose. The the protest performance in the Cathedral of same was true for Samutsevich: a dissatisfied Christ the Savior, including debates within engineer from a strange family, she felt left out Pussy Riot (several members chose not to of the new Russia and was in need of friends. participate, either for religious reasons or for When she met Tolokonnikova, a born leader, fear of arrest); about the immediate aftermath she finally found a sense of direction. of the performance; and about the trial and Tolokonnikova is the star of the book, imprisonment of the three women. Gessen partly because Gessen had the most contact also interviewed other, still-anonymous Pussy with her and partly because of her charisma. Riot members, providing valuable new infor- Tolokonnikova was a precocious student mation about the group’s internal workings. in , a polluted city in the Russian Gessen captures the sense of purpose, Far North. As a teenager, she was already belonging, and exaltation that comes from a dissident, rebelling against school rules and reading widely. While still in secondary school, she fell in love with the work of the great Conceptualist poet, performer, and visual artist Dmitri Prigov. He was the inspiration for Voina, which Tolokonnikova founded with her husband, , and another couple. Tolokonnikova and Verzilov had met during a brief stint in the philosophy department of . As the Russian protest movement began to gain steam in 2007–08, the young couple turned their attention to art and protest. Gessen’s book Protester in on the Pussy Riot Global Day of Action, August 17, shows to what extent Voina and 2012. Photo: Sean Comiskey/Eyes on Rights/Flickr. later Pussy Riot (founded in 2011)

SUMMER 2014 DISSENT 87 BOOKS were part of this larger protest movement, and the Word was God.”) But the dissidents which received much less attention than Pussy weren’t unique in their logocentrism. Russian Riot did in the Western media. In 2011–12, society has been obsessed with the power as the protests became increasingly dramatic, of words for centuries, which helps explain Voina and then Pussy Riot took bigger risks, its tradition of strict censorship. Stalin was because that was the only way to stand out. obsessed with eliminating double meanings, This was when Pussy Riot conceived of the and Gessen seems to share his preoccupation: performance in the Cathedral of Christ the she praises Pussy Riot for “painting a portrait Savior. of Russia in words that could mean nothing Gessen has a gift for swift, engaging else.” Her discussion of Russian history and narrative: Words Will Break Cement is a page- the power of words is often reductive. She turner with compelling characters. But for informs us, for instance, that “real words the most part, Gessen contents herself with that corresponded to actual facts and feelings crafting a heroic story that will be easily broke through in a sudden, catastrophic flood digestible for Western readers. She does not and brought down the .” In fact, engage with the thornier questions raised by the fall of the Soviet Union was the result the Pussy Riot affair, such as Russian liberals’ of a complicated mix of economic, political, disgust with the cathedral action, or the claims social, and other factors. Glasnost—which is made by Russian feminists that Pussy Riot translated as “openness,” but which comes members didn’t know what they were talking from the word for “voice”—was the result about. Words Will Break Cement also seems torn of a long process of weakening and decay. between two competing theses: one about Gessen’s emphasis on the monosemic nature the power of words, indebted to the history of Pussy Riot’s work also does a disservice to of Soviet dissidence, and one about using them as artists, since art thrives on ambiguity the body when words have lost their power. and multiple meanings—and because Pussy This seems a false binary given the close Riot’s art, in particular, relies on the body, connection, in Soviet history and Russian art, on unsanctioned physical interventions into between protest through language and protest public space. with the body. Eager to make its members The longing for truth in a world of lies, heroes, Gessen diminishes the complexity for words that can only mean one thing, of Pussy Riot’s art and downplays its largely takes a strange form in Gessen’s portrayal negative reception within Russia. of Samutsevich—who was seen by some as having betrayed the cause by switching lawyers and thus escaping prison time. Gessen Gessen’s title, Words Will Break Cement, is portrays her as socially clueless, unable to a quote from Solzhenitsyn used in the solve problems or think of new ideas, with a courtroom by Tolokonnikova, who has suspiciously indirect way of speaking. While often compared herself to the great Soviet Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina bravely speak dissidents. The other person to whom truth to power, Samutsevich, according to Tolokonnikova likes to compare herself is Gessen, has a roundabout way of expressing Jesus Christ, a comparison Gessen repeats her thoughts. Yet Gessen too takes a round- in the book’s subtitle, “The Passion of Pussy about approach; the sections on Samutsevich Riot.” (Other members of Pussy Riot, espe- are marred by heavy use of indirect quotation. cially Alyokhina, have also spoken exten- For reasons that are not explained, Gessen sively about religion and the Bible.) crafts a novelistic third-person narrative rather Much of Gessen’s rhetoric, borrowed from than quoting Samutsevich’s own words. her subjects, is based on an almost religious This makes for easy reading and a rather faith in the power of words. This is in keeping compelling story, but it also makes it unclear with the Soviet dissident tradition, which where Samutsevich ends and Gessen begins. was based largely around illicit texts, and also At other points in the book, Gessen with the Christian one. (“In the beginning suggests that Russian words have lost their was the Word, and the Word was with God, power entirely. This is where discussion of

88 DISSENT SUMMER 2014 BOOKS the body begins. Although she does not fully and prisoners. Marchenko wrote about one develop this point, Gessen suggests that Pussy prisoner who had the words “Khrushchev’s Riot and Voina differed from Soviet dissidents slave” tattooed on his forehead. The prison in that they emerged in a society in which medical staff removed the skin that bore the words had lost their power. She declares, in offending words and stitched it up. As soon as a rather dramatic overstatement, “Voina faced a challenge that perhaps exceeded challenges faced by any other artist in history: they wanted to confront a language of lies that had Gessen captures the sense of purpose, once been effectively confronted but had since belonging, and exaltation that comes from been reconstructed and reinforced, discred- iting the language of confrontation itself. participating in a group like Pussy Riot. There were no words left.” It’s true that Putin’s government has proved adept at incorporating the opposition’s narratives into its rhetoric in order to defuse them. (This tactic has been it healed, the prisoner had the words “slave of mastered by many American politicians as the USSR” tattooed in the same place. Again well, but they don’t have the advantage of a he was sent to the hospital to have his skin non-democracy and a well-censored press.) removed and stitched back up; by the time it It’s also true that Russian literature no longer healed, his skin was so tight that he could no holds the remarkable political power that it longer close his eyes. had in the Soviet Union; today, it competes with many other forms of media and has lost the aura of courage and truth-telling that it Anya Bernstein, an anthropologist who had when it was subject to strict censorship. researches religion, secularism, and censorship But does that really mean that there were in post-Soviet Russia, has offered an inter- “no words left” in Russia, circa 2007? Why esting perspective on Pussy Riot, one that then does Tolokonnikova keep making contrasts markedly with Gessen’s reading. speeches? Why does she keep talking about Bernstein argues that the Pussy Riot affair is Solzhenitsyn? Why is she so preoccupied with part of a “new Russian biopolitics.” Examples “truth,” as conveyed by words? What about include the Olympics, which combined other Russian opposition writers who have spectacular physical feats, shameless exploi- formulated powerful protests in words? They tation of migrant labor, and the looming threat are a small minority—but so were the Soviet of suicide bombings; the Russian govern- dissidents. ment’s campaign against homosexuality; the Pussy Riot’s emphasis on the body also ban on foreign adoptions; and the rounding has clear links to the Soviet past. As Gessen up of migrants. Bernstein argues that Russian tells us, while in prison, Tolokonnikova policy treats individual bodies (athletes, requested a copy of the memoirs of Anatoly migrants, orphans) metonymically, using Marchenko, a late Soviet dissident who died them to “strengthen the collective body of the after a lengthy hunger strike in the Gulag. (As nation.” Pussy Riot’s punk prayer also used Slavicist Anastasia Kayiatos pointed out late bodies, but to a different end. By inserting last year, Marchenko’s memoirs include an young female bodies into the cathedral, entire chapter on self-mutilation, including Pussy Riot drew attention to the corrupt rela- a story about an inmate who nailed his tionship between church and state in Russia. scrotum to a bench in an act of protest.) In Putin countered by throwing the bodies of 2013 Tolokonnikova declared her own hunger three Pussy Riot members in prison. Then, strike, announcing, “I will not remain silent, by declaring amnesty for numerous political watching in resignation as my fellow pris- prisoners, including Tolokonnikova and oners collapse under slave-like conditions.” Alyokhina, in the run-up to the Olympics, he Words and bodies are closely connected for offered prisoners as a peace offering, in the Pussy Riot, as they were for Soviet dissidents hope that the world’s full attention would

SUMMER 2014 DISSENT 89 BOOKS now be devoted to the spectacular bodies often glossed over the content of their protest, showcased at Sochi. returning to a more normative idea of the body Putin, Pussy Riot, and Pavlensky are not by emphasizing Pussy Riot’s femininity and alone in placing the human body at the center the fact that Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina of Russian political discourse. Pussy Riot’s had small children. performance was followed by widespread Now that Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina discussion of sexualized forms of corporal have been released, some of their detractors punishment. It was suggested that instead have managed to realize their sadistic of being put in prison, the women should fantasies. In Sochi, whipped the be spanked, pinched, stripped naked and two women, and at a McDonald’s in Nizhny whipped, covered in honey and feathers, Novgorod, men threw trash and green anti- and thrown out in the cold. The idea was septic in their faces, calling them whores to treat the women like naughty little girls and telling them to go to America. In both rather than as artists making a serious cases, the men who attacked them did not political statement. Such proposals did not feel it necessary to cover their faces, though come only from hardline Putinists or from the attacks were filmed. No arrests were the Orthodox Church; they came from liberal made. During the attacks, Tolokonnikova opposition figures as well. Boris Nemtsov, and Alyokhina remained remarkably calm. leader of a liberal-democratic coalition, said, Maybe this was because they knew that their “If I could get my way, I would spank these attackers, like Putin, like the prosecutors in girls and let them go.” Many Russian liberals their trial, were just playing their roles in a were horrified by the overreaction of the work of art that continues to ripple outward— state, but they were also offended by Pussy from Moscow, to the provinces, and into the Riot’s performance, or contemptuous of it, wider world. dismissing the women as attention seekers. Pussy Riot’s anti-capitalist, anarchist, radical Sophie Pinkham is a doctoral student in Columbia feminist views were unpalatable for many University’s Slavic Studies program. She has written for the Russian liberals, as well as for conservatives. London Review of Books, the Nation, n+1, and other publica- Appeals to keep Pussy Riot out of prison tions.

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