2012
Punk Prayer: Mother of God, Drive Putin Away
On February 21, 2012 five members of Pussy Riot entered Moscow's Russian Orthodox Cathedral, smuggling in amps and guitars. Dropping their dark winter coats, they put on bright balaclavas and jumped over the gold security rail, standing in an area in front of the altar usually reserved for men. Once there they jumped around, screaming and shouting for less than a minute before security guards seized them. The short video clip of the public intervention was edited together with footage taken in another church by the members of the group, also adding on a recorded version of the punk song, which featured provocative lyrics calling out "Punk-Prayer - mother of God, Chase Putin away!" Other lyrics attacked the church, likening it to the KGB and criticising those who subserviently accept its doctrine without question, before asking the Virgin Mary to drive out Putin and his corrupt church affiliates.
The group posted the video online on the same day, and it quickly became a viral sensation. The internet was instrumental in amplifying their message to a wide audience, and, unlike their previous interventions, which had receded into relative obscurity, as a result of the video news of their protest reached church patriarch Kirill, who informed Putin. After a brief period in hiding, three members of Pussy Riot were found and arrested - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich. Charged without bail, for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred," their three-month trial period sparked international debate and a media frenzy.
Political arguments ensued about the nature of their supposed crimes, and the unfairness of their convictions, but Pussy Riot had also opened up questions of the role the Orthodox Church played in modern Russia, as well as women and LGBT groups' severely limited rights under Putin's rule. In his public response, Putin essentially ignored the content of their message, instead staging Pussy Riot as terrorists who threatened the security of the church, rather than political activists. Two of the women, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina were charged and sent to a brutal labor camp, while the third, Yekaterina Samutsevich, was given a suspended sentence as she had young children. But the international, feminist message broadcast by Pussy Riot continued to rage on around the world, serially embarrassing the Russian Government and provoking many statements of support. The legacy of the performance endures, with writer Ione Gamble arguing that, "Their fluoro balaclavas and part-art performance, part-activist ideology inspired a generation of Tumblr-raised feminists to take their activism offline." Time Magazine counted Pussy Riot among the most influential women of the century, writing, "Pussy Riot's message of defiance still inspires young women in Russia and far beyond."
Performance
