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| Pussy Riot collective as punks, Lobnoye Mesto, Red Square, Moscow (Denis Bochkarev) |
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| Nadia, the face of Pussy Riot |
Because of the Winter Olympics that are coming to the Black Sea resort city of Sochi, Russia, next month, Pres. Vlad Putin had Pussy Riot (the feminist collective) members released a few weeks early. They did not ask for the amnesty, nor would they have accepted it. They had no choice, and far from thanking Putin, they are condemning the atrocious gulag system that almost approaches the misery of the US Prison System with its death penalty, torture, homosexual rape, and widespread indefinite solitary detention. No other country is as bad as us, the U.S. But Russia has its own forms of abuse -- overworking inmates, starving them, threatening them... WHYY's Fresh Air with Terry Gross talks with Russian lesbian, mother, feminist, wife, journalist Masha Gessen about Pussy Riot, members of whom she interviewed after their release from prison.
"In war, you're either a collaborator or a resister. You don't get a choice to be neutral."
- Masha Gessen
Wisdom Quarterly, being forced to choose, chooses to resist. Pussy Riot and Gessen do, too.
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The Passion of Pussy Riot
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| Pussy Riot in glass cage in Moscow court, 10-10-12 ( Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images) |
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| Words Will Break Cement (256 pages, $16) |
Masha Gessen is a prominent journalist who is also a lesbian and an outspoken LGBT rights advocate in Russia. After Russia passed two anti-gay laws in June (2013), she decided it was time for her, her partner, and their children to leave. In late December, they moved to New York.
"The only thing more creepy than hearing someone suggest the likes of you should be burned alive is hearing someone suggest the likes of you should be burned alive and thinking, 'I know that guy.'"
That's what Gessen wrote recently, referring to an experience she had with one of Russia's most virulent homophobic public figures.
Gessen is the author of a critical book [A Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladamir Putin] about President Vladimir Putin, published in 2012. Her new book is about Pussy Riot, the Russian group that has used punk rock as a form of performance art to protest against Putin.
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| I have face! - Putin |
Its most famous "action" was in February 2012 inside a Moscow cathedral [in allegedly atheist Russia, which was never atheist but always quietly Christian and Buddhist] where band members danced and played air guitar as their boom box played what they called "A Punk Prayer":
"Virgin Mary, Mother of God, chase Putin out
...The phantom of liberty is up in heaven,
Gay pride sent to Siberia in a chain gang
...Virgin Mary, Mother of God, become a feminist!"
...The phantom of liberty is up in heaven,
Gay pride sent to Siberia in a chain gang
...Virgin Mary, Mother of God, become a feminist!"
The action resulted in the arrest of three members of the group. Two of them, Nadezhda [Nadia] Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, were sentenced to two years in prison.
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| Straight host Terry Gross (nymag) |
"Not coincidentally, their arrest ... launched Putin's crackdown on the opposition and on his critics, which has lasted for the last two years," Gessen tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross.
"So, in a way, both their performance and their arrests marked the beginning of a new political era in Russia."
As part of Putin's pre-Olympics prisoner amnesty, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were released last month, two months before their sentences were up. Gessen's new book is called Words Will Break Cement: The Passion Of Pussy Riot.
Interview Highlights
On the working conditions inside the women's prison where Nadezhda Tolokonnikova served time:
What had happened at her penal colony was that the sewing factory that has served as the lifeblood of every women's penitentiary institution in Russia, and many of the men's ones, was taking on more and more orders, so the inmates were forced to work longer and longer hours. By the end of the summer, the workday was about 17 hours... LISTEN TO INTERVIEW (37:52)
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