December, 2013. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova aka Nadya Tolokno is a member of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot!, three of whom were jailed in Russia for performing their ‘punk prayer’ in a restricted altar section of Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior. The prayer was a petition to the Virgin Mary to oust Putin. Its chorus: “Virgin Mary Mother of God, Put Putin Away! Put Putin Away! Put Putin Away!”
For this, the three were tried and sentenced to two years in prison for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred”, a ridiculous lie. Two of the women are still incarcerated. The most outspoken of them all would not be silenced – until she went on hunger strike September 23rd, right after she wrote the letter describing the conditions of her imprisonment (see button above labeled NADYA'S GULAG). Her name is Nadya Tolokno. Her hunger strike led to hospitalization at the prison in Mordovia where she was being forced to work. Then suddenly, on October 22nd, Nadya vanished. She completely disappeared from all radar for nearly two weeks.
Nadya’s husband was not able to talk to her until November 16th where she was found in a medical facility in Siberia, being treated for ‘complications due to her hunger strike’. Nadya was missing, in the web of Putin’s prison system, from October 22nd to November 16th. We did not hear any news of her again until December 3rd.
Nadya was shipped off to Siberia for having written about the deplorable conditions of the work camp/prison she was being incarcerated in at Mordovia, conditions that rival descriptions of gulag life in the books of Solzhenitsyn. How quickly we forget concentration camps were also called work camps. Hitler was detaining 'subversives' in Dachau as early as 1933 while the world turned a blind eye, celebrating the Olympics in Berlin in 1936.
Vladimir Putin is terrified of Nadya Tolokno. He has transferred her from a gulag in Mordovia to a prison hospital deep in Siberia where he intended to keep her under lock and key until March 2014, but he may be changing his mind about keeping her much longer. His attempt to silence Nadya, lock her away where no one can reach or hear her until the Olympics have triumphantly come and gone from Sochi, Russia is all too obvious now.
According to Nadya’s husband as of Dec. 3rd, the hospital she is being held at in Siberia is far more comfortable than the Mordovia gulag, most likely due to the high profile of Nadya’s story. Putin is now being pressured to include Nadya and her Pussy Riot! bandmate, Maria (Masha) Alyokhina, on a list of “political prisoners” to be amnestied Dec. 12th to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of Russia’s post-Soviet constitution. Unless Putin releases Nadya and Masha before the Olympics in Sochi, which are scheduled to begin Feb 12th, he’ll have a lot to answer for during the games. The eyes of the world are on Russia right now. With December 12th just days away, we’ll soon see if Putin will shame himself on the international stage by sustaining his Stalinist punishment of 24-year-old Nadya Tolokno and 25-year-old Masha Alyokhina.
Putin’s reign of not-so-quiet terror on gays and lesbians continues unabated, as does his imprisonment of these two young women who dared speak out against him. And although he may have silenced Nadya, he cannot silence those of us who are free to speak against him without fear of imprisonment. Bringing the Olympics to Putin’s doorstep is no less than an international sanctioning of the blatant human rights violations going on in Putin’s Russia. Let us step up international pressure on Putin to stop his jailing and inhuman treatment of political dissidents and his oppression of Russia’s gays and lesbians. As we all know, any man or woman who protests that vehemently against homosexuality is, dare we say it? This link at BuzzFeed says it all.
For those of you unfamiliar with Pussy Riot!, their actions, and consequent jailing, the Feminist Press has published an excellent book which is available as a download from their website: Pussy Riot! A Punk Prayer for Freedom. The book includes letters from prison, songs, poems and courtroom statements as well as tributes from feminist artists and activists. While reading Nadya’s letters and her statements to the court, I finally had the sense of my revolutionary heart being vindicated as I heard her speak about the church and the true ethos of Christ so intelligently, and with such soul.
In reference to the idea of ‘punk prayer’, Amy Scholder of the Feminist Press poses what she calls a challenging juxtaposition: “Can a renegade, someone who believes in insurrection, also believe in a higher power? Isn’t that what prayer is – a belief that something exists beyond the visible or material world to which or to whom we can appeal for justice or relief?” I’d like to suggest we all find that ‘higher power’ in the genderless essence of science, in the energy that animates the entire natural universe. It is this same energy that can and will fuel our united insurrection. When we turn to the Virgin Mary, Shiva, Allah, the refuge of the Buddha, beneath all, it is this higher, highest essence in each other that we are turning to for justice and relief. I’ve always felt it so wrong of activists to treat those who follow religions with contempt when it is believers who make up the majority of the working, oppressed classes. They are the ones we should be having our most heartfelt dialogues with, concerning the true nature of Christ, of Mary Magdalene, Kuan Yin, Buddha and Shiva as the revolutionaries they are. In this light, we find compassion to be a most radical concept. Church leaders who use religion to shame and oppress others are evil buffoons, agreed. And they wield much power. But to reach their constituents, to cut away the lies that separate and divide us from forming a united front against toxic corporate greed and oppression, the truth of compassionate dialogue is a far sharper sword than is intellectual snobbery. To quote Jesus the revolutionary, “I come not to bring peace, but to bring a sword.” – Matthew 10:34 This is the message that needs to be communicated, felt and understood by his believers, too many of whom have been led down the darkest of paths.
The union of the true message with those believers, those who long for justice and freedom from tyranny, could prove to be the most dangerous understanding to emerge against the powers that be. An insular ‘revolution’ made up of intellectual athiests means absolutely nothing but the useless cluster-f*** of egoist wordplay and snobbery that it is.
As Patti Smith sings, “People have the power.” Nadya and the women of Pussy Riot! understand this, which is why they chose to stage their action in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, just as ACT UP! held their greatest action inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC. We must bring the hypocrisy of the church to light, and illuminate what its leaders most often choose to hide and obscure. And then, reveal the TRUTH of Christ's message to the believers. Again and again, Nadya emphasizes how Pussy Riot! are in no way enemies of the church. They are protesting against Putin, and against the marriage of church and state, through the actions of the patriarchs Father Kirill and Putin. By praying to the Virgin Mary to remove Putin, they are appealing to the mercy and compassion of Mother Russia, aka the PEOPLE. Nadya and Pussy Riot! are the bravest young women on the planet right now. May their courage and heroism inspire the youth here in the U.S. to speak out against the powers that threaten their very own futures.
In the afore-mentioned FP Press book Pussy Riot! A Punk Prayer for Freedom, it didn’t surprise me that of all the tributes, Eileen Myles went straight to the heart of Pussy Riot’s action. To quote Eileen: “I realized the other day that the one piece of what you’ve done that feels most important to me is the strange and beautiful fact that your action supported a woman’s right to pray.”
If the idea of punk prayer as insurrection interests you, if you want to read about what might be the greatest act of political valor since Rosa Parks sat down on that bus, please get this book, and follow the story of Pussy Riot.
For this, the three were tried and sentenced to two years in prison for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred”, a ridiculous lie. Two of the women are still incarcerated. The most outspoken of them all would not be silenced – until she went on hunger strike September 23rd, right after she wrote the letter describing the conditions of her imprisonment (see button above labeled NADYA'S GULAG). Her name is Nadya Tolokno. Her hunger strike led to hospitalization at the prison in Mordovia where she was being forced to work. Then suddenly, on October 22nd, Nadya vanished. She completely disappeared from all radar for nearly two weeks.
Nadya’s husband was not able to talk to her until November 16th where she was found in a medical facility in Siberia, being treated for ‘complications due to her hunger strike’. Nadya was missing, in the web of Putin’s prison system, from October 22nd to November 16th. We did not hear any news of her again until December 3rd.
Nadya was shipped off to Siberia for having written about the deplorable conditions of the work camp/prison she was being incarcerated in at Mordovia, conditions that rival descriptions of gulag life in the books of Solzhenitsyn. How quickly we forget concentration camps were also called work camps. Hitler was detaining 'subversives' in Dachau as early as 1933 while the world turned a blind eye, celebrating the Olympics in Berlin in 1936.
Vladimir Putin is terrified of Nadya Tolokno. He has transferred her from a gulag in Mordovia to a prison hospital deep in Siberia where he intended to keep her under lock and key until March 2014, but he may be changing his mind about keeping her much longer. His attempt to silence Nadya, lock her away where no one can reach or hear her until the Olympics have triumphantly come and gone from Sochi, Russia is all too obvious now.
According to Nadya’s husband as of Dec. 3rd, the hospital she is being held at in Siberia is far more comfortable than the Mordovia gulag, most likely due to the high profile of Nadya’s story. Putin is now being pressured to include Nadya and her Pussy Riot! bandmate, Maria (Masha) Alyokhina, on a list of “political prisoners” to be amnestied Dec. 12th to mark the 20th anniversary of the signing of Russia’s post-Soviet constitution. Unless Putin releases Nadya and Masha before the Olympics in Sochi, which are scheduled to begin Feb 12th, he’ll have a lot to answer for during the games. The eyes of the world are on Russia right now. With December 12th just days away, we’ll soon see if Putin will shame himself on the international stage by sustaining his Stalinist punishment of 24-year-old Nadya Tolokno and 25-year-old Masha Alyokhina.
Putin’s reign of not-so-quiet terror on gays and lesbians continues unabated, as does his imprisonment of these two young women who dared speak out against him. And although he may have silenced Nadya, he cannot silence those of us who are free to speak against him without fear of imprisonment. Bringing the Olympics to Putin’s doorstep is no less than an international sanctioning of the blatant human rights violations going on in Putin’s Russia. Let us step up international pressure on Putin to stop his jailing and inhuman treatment of political dissidents and his oppression of Russia’s gays and lesbians. As we all know, any man or woman who protests that vehemently against homosexuality is, dare we say it? This link at BuzzFeed says it all.
For those of you unfamiliar with Pussy Riot!, their actions, and consequent jailing, the Feminist Press has published an excellent book which is available as a download from their website: Pussy Riot! A Punk Prayer for Freedom. The book includes letters from prison, songs, poems and courtroom statements as well as tributes from feminist artists and activists. While reading Nadya’s letters and her statements to the court, I finally had the sense of my revolutionary heart being vindicated as I heard her speak about the church and the true ethos of Christ so intelligently, and with such soul.
In reference to the idea of ‘punk prayer’, Amy Scholder of the Feminist Press poses what she calls a challenging juxtaposition: “Can a renegade, someone who believes in insurrection, also believe in a higher power? Isn’t that what prayer is – a belief that something exists beyond the visible or material world to which or to whom we can appeal for justice or relief?” I’d like to suggest we all find that ‘higher power’ in the genderless essence of science, in the energy that animates the entire natural universe. It is this same energy that can and will fuel our united insurrection. When we turn to the Virgin Mary, Shiva, Allah, the refuge of the Buddha, beneath all, it is this higher, highest essence in each other that we are turning to for justice and relief. I’ve always felt it so wrong of activists to treat those who follow religions with contempt when it is believers who make up the majority of the working, oppressed classes. They are the ones we should be having our most heartfelt dialogues with, concerning the true nature of Christ, of Mary Magdalene, Kuan Yin, Buddha and Shiva as the revolutionaries they are. In this light, we find compassion to be a most radical concept. Church leaders who use religion to shame and oppress others are evil buffoons, agreed. And they wield much power. But to reach their constituents, to cut away the lies that separate and divide us from forming a united front against toxic corporate greed and oppression, the truth of compassionate dialogue is a far sharper sword than is intellectual snobbery. To quote Jesus the revolutionary, “I come not to bring peace, but to bring a sword.” – Matthew 10:34 This is the message that needs to be communicated, felt and understood by his believers, too many of whom have been led down the darkest of paths.
The union of the true message with those believers, those who long for justice and freedom from tyranny, could prove to be the most dangerous understanding to emerge against the powers that be. An insular ‘revolution’ made up of intellectual athiests means absolutely nothing but the useless cluster-f*** of egoist wordplay and snobbery that it is.
As Patti Smith sings, “People have the power.” Nadya and the women of Pussy Riot! understand this, which is why they chose to stage their action in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, just as ACT UP! held their greatest action inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC. We must bring the hypocrisy of the church to light, and illuminate what its leaders most often choose to hide and obscure. And then, reveal the TRUTH of Christ's message to the believers. Again and again, Nadya emphasizes how Pussy Riot! are in no way enemies of the church. They are protesting against Putin, and against the marriage of church and state, through the actions of the patriarchs Father Kirill and Putin. By praying to the Virgin Mary to remove Putin, they are appealing to the mercy and compassion of Mother Russia, aka the PEOPLE. Nadya and Pussy Riot! are the bravest young women on the planet right now. May their courage and heroism inspire the youth here in the U.S. to speak out against the powers that threaten their very own futures.
In the afore-mentioned FP Press book Pussy Riot! A Punk Prayer for Freedom, it didn’t surprise me that of all the tributes, Eileen Myles went straight to the heart of Pussy Riot’s action. To quote Eileen: “I realized the other day that the one piece of what you’ve done that feels most important to me is the strange and beautiful fact that your action supported a woman’s right to pray.”
If the idea of punk prayer as insurrection interests you, if you want to read about what might be the greatest act of political valor since Rosa Parks sat down on that bus, please get this book, and follow the story of Pussy Riot.
