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Subculture Movements and the Multi-Faceted Nature of Resistance: When Dissidence Starts by Wearing Green Socks Milàn Czerny

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Subculture Movements and the Multi-Faceted Nature of Resistance: When Dissidence Starts by Wearing Green Socks Milàn Czerny Subculture Movements and the Multi-faceted Nature of Resistance: when Dissidence Starts by Wearing Green Socks Milàn Czerny To cite this version: Milàn Czerny. Subculture Movements and the Multi-faceted Nature of Resistance: when Dissidence Starts by Wearing Green Socks. Slovo, Presses de l’INALCO, 2021, Les Voyages lointains des écrivains polonais (XX-XXIe siècles). hal-03200447 HAL Id: hal-03200447 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03200447 Submitted on 16 Apr 2021 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Subculture Movements and the Multi‑faceted Nature of Resistance: when Dissidence Starts by Wearing Green Socks Milàn Czerny In November 2018, the underground Russian rapper “Husky” was flmed climbing and rapping atop a car afer one of his concerts was canceled without explanation. “Husky” was sentenced to 12 days in jail for hooliganism. 1 Tis video was widely shared on social media by dissidents opposing the “culture war” waged by the Kremlin. Vladimir Putin’s regime restricts what constitutes “acceptable entertainment” in Russia. Te rapper became a symbol of opposition to censorship: a concert in his support was staged and leaders of the opposition such as Alexei Navalny attended. Tis event highlights how an artist can cross a thin line: cultural productions from sub‑culture groups can turn into a form of resistance against an authoritarian regime. We tend to defne dissidence in authoritarian regimes by marking a clear‑cut Manichean division between the authorities and protesters. However, an analysis of subculture and underground movements, defned as alternatives to dominant cultural patterns set forward by authorities, highlights the multidimensionality of resistance. For Alexei Yurchak, subculture groups are not necessarily opposing authoritarian regime, but they can perform “parallel” practices to the ones promoted by authoritarian States, through music, style or dress. 2 Teir behaviors are within and outside of society at once, as their actions are in relation, one way 1. MacFarquhar, 2018. 2. Yurchak, 2013. SLOVO 292 Les Voyages lointains des écrivains polonais (xxe‑xxie siècles) – n° 51 or another, with the ofcially‑promoted cultural patterns. Sub‑cultures members revendicate alternatives ways of thinking to the hegemonic cultural practices imposed by authorities. Subculture groups strive to create spheres of freedom not necessarily directed frontally against authorities but not entirely controlled by it either. Still, an authoritarian regime is likely to aim at certain degrees of control over counter‑culture movements as the latter seek greater freedom. Authorities shaping dominant culture form can appropriate themselves elements originally from subculture groups to enhance their legitimacy. As such, the relations between ofcially promoted cultural forms of expression and the manifestations of grass‑root‑driven culture are fuid and subject to continuous process of negotiation. Tree successive counterculture movements have emerged in Russia since the “Taw,” a period marking the birth of the frst signifcant youth informal social movement: the “stilyagi” [hipsters] of the 1950s, the rockers of the 1980s and the punks in the 2010s. Tree flms produced in these last ten years have addressed these three successive underground musical movements: Valery Todorovsky’s, 2008, musical flm Stilyagi [Te Hipsters], Kirill Serebrenikov’s, 2018, Leto [Summer] and the documentary Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer released in 2013. Te three flms represent successive generations of young people united in their will to “be diferent,” to distinguish themselves from the mass and express creativity through music, clothes, argot, ritual. Tey refect the existence of a spectrum of resistance and the various forms dissidence can take, from styles to direct actions aimed at social changes. As such, an analysis of Stilyagi, Leto and Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer will permit to investigate the ways creativity can become a political statement. We must however underline the noticeable diference between Stilyagi and Leto, which are fctional productions, and Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer a documentary which recount the trial that sentenced three members of the Pussy Riot band to two years in a penal colony. A clear distinction must be kept in mind between the lived suferings of the punk Pussy Riots activists and the mere representation of the persecutions of rockers and hipsters. However, this article argues that these three productions resonates in comparable ways in current‑day Russia. Te political climate under the leadership of Vladimir Putin led Todorovsky and Serebrenikov to refect on Soviet sub‑culture groups in their flms while, at the same time, the Pussy Riots were opposing in the reality the Kremlin’s cultural policy. Tis cultural policy, which is defned by David Trosby as “the promotion or prohibition of cultural practices or values by governments, corporations, other institutions and individuals” to reinforce the legitimacy of rulers, stands in opposition to sub‑culture Subculture Movements and the Multi-faceted Nature of Resistance: when Dissidence Starts by Wearing Green Socks 293 Milàn Czerny movements. 3 Hence, the three productions can be put in a dialogue to further our understanding of the meanings and values of counter‑culture movements in an authoritarian state. Tis article will ask how cinema can permit to shed light on the perpetual renegotiation between a dominant culture, imposed by an authoritarian regime, and a sub‑culture, originating from grass‑roots movements, which can be tolerated or repressed? I will argue that these three flms advocate for greater freedom through the representation of sub‑culture movements and underline the multi‑faceted nature of resistance. Afer a short presentation of the three productions, I will highlight the creativity of the three subcultures movements and the ways they are represented in the flms. Subculture groups cultivate their diferences from the imposed cultural forms of authorities. It leads them to refect on the dominant culture and develop creative behaviors. I will then move on to analyze the struggle over history taking place in Stilyagi, Leto and Punk Prayer. Te productions echo current issues in Russia and refect upon various epochs from a contemporary point of view. Tey underline the intemporal need for freedom and advocate emancipation from cultural patterns controlled by authorities within an historical context. Finally, I will turn to the relations of the young musicians to the authorities to underline the shifing boundaries of what is deemed as tolerable by the government. Presentation Set in 1955, afer the death of Stalin but before Krushchev’s secret speech, Stilyagi refects upon the frst notable subculture movement that emerged in USSR. It depicts “stilyagi,” young hipsters from the Soviet elite, exposed to western music, style and dance, trying to express themselves in a society composed of “squares,” homogenized citizens forming a gray masse. Te minimal plot focuses on Mels, a young boy named afer Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, making his way from a communal apartment inhabited by the proletariat to the world of the stilyagi. Te technicolor palate of the flm permits to mark a clear‑cut binary division between the Soviets, following the inhibiting ofcially promoted way of life, and the stilyagi wearing bright color clothes. It is a light‑hearted musical which reads at frst as a farce, destined for a mass audience and devoid of all critical weight. Te flm acquired a cult status in Russia and was supported by state‑controlled television channels, PervyiKanal and Rossiia. 3. Throsby, 2010, p. 8. SLOVO 294 Les Voyages lointains des écrivains polonais (xxe‑xxie siècles) – n° 51 However, an analysis that goes beyond the Disney‑like songs and non‑diegetic cartoon captions permit to uncover a genuine countercultural movement, striving for greater liberty. Te director of Stilyagi, Valery Todorovsky draw parallels between the stilyagi of the 1950s and the Soviet rock of groups of the 1980s by incorporating songs from the Perestroika period. In fact, there are great similarities between Stilyagi and Leto, a flm released in 2018 focusing on the early career of Viktor Tsoi, the rock legend of the 1980s, and his band “Kino.” Rock played a signifcant role in the youth counterculture of the early 1980s, a period marked by the emergence of antiestablishment discourses, conveyed notably through music. In the 1980s, Viktor Tsoi, the protagonist of Leto, called for radical political changes and became the leader of youth dissidence for creating the “anthem” of the Perestroika: “My zhdem peremen” (We are waiting for changes”). 4 Leto is a musical in black and white punctuated by occasional hot burst of colorful handwritten drawings. It is a graceful, poetic flm celebrating the energy of youths in a period where freedom seemed attainable. Te representation of this hope in emancipation clashes with the context of production of Leto, giving to the flm its deeper signifcance. Kirill Serebrenikov, the flm director, was detained in house-arrest for more than a year on fraud charges, a sentence that many Russian actors denounced as political motivated. As such, the flm had a very restricted distribution in Russia, despite winning an award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2018. 5 Te documentary Pussy Riot- A Punk Prayer released in 2013 also faced censorship in Russia. It was destined to western audience and received a special award at the 2013 Sundance Festival for its “punk spirit.” 6 As for Leto and Stilyagi, the will to advocate for greater freedom through music is at the center of the Pussy Riot feminist punk band.
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