Pussy Riot: 'Punk Prayer: Mother of God, Rid Us of Putin'

On February 21st 2012, five members of the Russian punk-rock collective Pussy Riot staged an impromptu demonstration at the altar of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow. Wearing brightly-coloured balaclavas, they bowed to the ground and crossed themselves in front of the altar and began to utter the words 'Mother of God, rid us of Putin'. They were immediately dragged away by the church's security guards and placed under arrest. Supporters filming the action subsequently blended their footage of this incident with that of an action performed at a different Moscow Cathedral, the Epiphany Cathedral at Yelokhovo two days previously. On this occasion, the group brought microphones and guitars into the building and briefly mimed a rock performance at a time when the church was not being used for a service. They were quickly expelled from the building.

The result of these actions was the now well-known video to the song Punk Prayer: Mother of God, Rid Us of Putin and also a prosecution of three members of the group for 'hooliganism inspired by religious hatred'. The two-year sentences handed down to Maria Alyokhina, Ekaterina Samutsevich and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova generated an international wave of protest, with near simultaneous demonstrations held worldwide on 17th August in immediate response to the guilty verdicts.

Whilst few will disagree that the sentences handed down are crassly disproportionate to the 'crimes' committed, there probably remains some degree of misunderstanding both in Russia and internationally regarding the character of the stunt, the ideas which motivated it, and the degree to which it represented an attack on religious faith. At their trial, the actions of Pussy Riot were described as blasphemous, the defendants were found guilty of inciting hatred of religion and the lyrics of their prayer were described as obscene. Yet these pronouncements represent a serious distortion of the ideas motivating the performance if the words of the song and of the defendants are to be believed. They have consistently maintained that their real target was the state apparatus in Russia, and in particular the highly politicised character of the Russian Orthodox Church, whose leaders the band appear to accuse of betraying spiritual values in pursuit of material wealth and power.

The lyrics of the Punk Prayer give no little substance to the claims of the defence: the song is clearly satirical in purpose, and is littered with allusions to the various evils of contemporary Russian life. Reference is made to the repeated bans on the Gay Pride parades in Moscow from 2006-2012, measures which were supported with enthusiasm by Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious leaders alike. (Luzhkov, the former mayor of Moscow once even described the parade as 'satanic'.) The mass arrests which accompanied the 6-7 December demonstrations in Moscow against fraudulent Duma elections, when the detained were conveyed to prison in buses, are also mentioned. The introduction of compulsory religious education into Russian schools in 2010 is alluded to, the songwriters implying that priests brought into the schools to help teach these courses will solicit bribes in return for good grades, a problem already rife in the low-paying education sector.

The unusual background of the head of Russian Orthodox Church, the Patriarch of Moscow Kirill Gundiaev, receives mention in the song. Gundiaev made his career in the church during the Soviet period and is thus widely suspected of being an atheist ‒ this is often assumed to be the case with most of the senior Orthodox clergy holding office at that time. Many also believe that, like Putin, Gundiaev acted as an agent of the Soviet secret police, and that he was tasked with controlling religiously motivated dissent rather than running a genuine church. Thus the song presents us with the intriguing spectacle of a group of feminist punk-rockers lecturing an archbishop on the importance of believing in God, whilst declaring that his 'chief saint' is a head of the KGB.

The 'head' in question is of course Putin. The church appears to have rediscovered its political role in the post-Soviet era, one result being Gundiaev's public expression of support for the current Russia president, whose leadership he described as 'God's miracle', during the 2012 presidential election campaign. This pronouncement was made shortly before the release of Punk Prayer in early February and may well have directly inspired the song. Prior to this, the church had also secured the loan of a 'relic', the belt ('cincture') of the Virgin Mary, from a Greek monastery for a month long tour of Russian cities in October-November 2011. This tour, which brought masses of both the faithful and the curious into the streets took place in the run up to the fraudulent legislative elections of December 4, the spurious character of which soon generated street gatherings of an entirely different nature. Putin was visible at these 'adorations', which were perceived by critics as a part of a pre-election strategy in which the church and religious faith was to be used in an attempt to counteract growing discontent with his regime.

In response to this manipulation of faith for political ends, the authors of the Punk Prayer boldly and somewhat comically declare that mass meetings are superior to 'the cincture of Mary', and that the 'Mother of God' herself has defected to the side of those supporting demonstrations against the fraudulent elections. It is of course possible that the Russian Orthodox Church might regard this last statement as blasphemous, but this would seem like a strange case of double standards, given that it views Putin as a 'miracle of God'. Regardless of such theological niceties, there is nothing in the song here that suggests an unfocused hatred of religion. It is not easy to accuse somebody of boorishly aggressive atheism when they urge an archbishop to relinquish politics for God and when they declare that the most important female figure in Christian theology supports the protest movement with which they themselves are self-evidently identified.

Much has been made in some reports of the allegedly 'obscene' language used in the song: some have referred to it as 'obscenity-laced', which is clearly an exaggeration. Whilst some may complain that the refrain of song (variously translated as 'Holy Shit!' or 'Holy Crap!') represents obscenity deliberately designed to provoke worshippers, it must be emphasised that the performance as it appears in the video is essentially a confection. No 'performance' of the song (apart from the opening couplet) actually took place in any church. Apart from that, the expression actually used (срань госпондня/sran' gospondnia) is by no means among the most offensive available to a Russian speaker, even though educated Russians as a whole take a much more disapproving attitude to swearing than their Anglo-Saxon counterparts. It is in fact of fairly recent coinage and appears to be used primarily in Russian subtitles to American films. The only other controversial word in the song appears to be суха/cukha, usually translated as 'bitch', its literal meaning. In Russian this is a harsh insult, as it carries the connotation of betrayal (somewhat akin to the English 'scab'). However, the word only appears once, and even though it is directed towards an over-politicised archbishop, it is by no means of the highest order of offensiveness.

Following their convictions, a new song was released by the band, Putin Lights the Fires of Revolution in which the the vindictive sentences handed to the group and the Russian president were this time the targets of ridicule. In it, the band feign swooning admiration for the power of the penal system before going on to compare Putin to a rather dysfunctional adolescent boy. Once again the mass demonstrations against the regime are mentioned, specifically the violent clash in Moscow on 6 May, the day before Putin's inauguration as president, following the March 2012 elections. With remarkable defiance, they jeer at the notion of a seven-year sentence ‒ the maximum allowed for their 'hooliganism' ‒ and instead demand eighteen years. The chorus rehearses the idea that the Putin regime is doomed as every repressive action brings people out onto the streets in protest.

Despite this defiant stance, shortly after the verdicts were announced, several members of Pussy Riot fled abroad after the police made it known that they intended to make further arrests.

More problematically still, a Ukrainian feminist group not connected to the band responded to the conviction by cutting down a crucifix in Kiev, an action which achieved a lot of media publicity owing to the fact that one of the activists was topless. These actions appear to have been imitated in Russia, causing one spokesman of the Russian Orthodox Church to describe the Punk Prayer as a declaration of war against the church comparable to the shots fired from battleship Aurora during the Bolshevik seizure of power in 1917. In an interview with the newspaper Novaya Gazeta (7/9/12), the three gaoled band members rejected this interpretation of their actions and condemned the attacks on the crosses, Samutsevich stating that if anything, their song was a call 'to attack the anti-civil society policies of the authoritarian regime, of which Putin and his friend Patriarch Kirill (Gundiaev) have become symbols.' They went on to accuse church leaders of deliberately distorting the meaning of their song to promote hatred of the band and they condemned attacks on cultural objects connected to the Russian Orthodox Church.

At the time of writing (13/9/2012), the Russian prime minister Medvedev has just declared that it is time to release the gaoled members of the band, an announcement greeted with scepticism in some quarters. This is because Medvedev has something of a record of expressing liberal sentiments in this fashion, a habit which in itself reflects the pressure of a large section of Russian society, without actually ensuring that his recommendations are put into practice. This said, an appeal against the sentences will be heard on 1 October, which gives an opportunity for the authorities to back down. At the same time, the band's defence team have themselves been called in for questioning by police regarding their activity on the 6 May demonstration, and it cannot therefore be assumed that the appeal has a good chance of succeeding. Current opinion polls suggest that the majority of Russians regard the sentences as entirely disproportionate, but there is absolutely no guarantee that this view will be reflected in court.

There follows a translation of Pussy Riot's two most recent 'hits'.

Punk Prayer: Mother of God Rid Us of Putin

Virgin Mother of God

Rid us of Putin!

Black robe, golden epaulettes reflect

As all the faithful creep forward and genuflect.

The ghost of freedom in the heavens reigns

Gay pride is sent to Siberia in chains.

A head of the KGB, their chief saint to mention

Busses protesters to pre-trial detention

So as to respect the Holy ones' worth

Women have to love and give birth.

Crap! Crap! Crap! Holy Crap!

Virgin Mother of God

Be a feminist!

The church sings praises to rotten leaders

A sacred procession of black limousines

In school you prepare to meet the preacher

Go to class - and bring him some money!

Patriarch Gundiaev believes in Putin

Bitch, you'd be better believing in God

The cincture of Mary can't beat mass-meetings

The Eternal Virgin is with us on protests!

Virgin Mother of God,

Rid us of Putin.

* * * *

Putin Lights the Fires of Revolution

In prison, the state is stronger than timeⁱ

More arrests mean greater happiness

And every arrest comes with love for a sexist

Whose cheeks wobble like his tits and his belly.

But you can't seal us up in a box

Overthow the Chekistsⁱⁱ better and more often!

Putin kindles the fires of revolution

He is bored and alarmed by people in silence

The only thing he executes is his rotten acne

His every prison sentence brings nocturnal pollutions

The country is going, the country is going

Into the streets with insolence

The country is going, the country is going

To say goodbye to the regime

The country is going, the country is going

With a feminist spearhead

And Putin is going, Putin is going

To say goodbye to the catⁱⁱⁱ

Arrest the whole town for the May 6 demo

Seven years^iv isn't much to us - give us eighteen!

Ban shouting, slander and walking

Marry yourself off to Papa Lukashenko!^v

The Russian Section of the Committee For A Workers International Demands:

• the immediate release of Pussy Riot
• public control over the justice system
• the separation of the Church from the state
• the socialization of the holdings of the Russian Orthodox Church plc.

iThis is a play on the popular Russia saying: 'Love is stronger than time', expressing the hope that a couple, though they grow older and less attractive will continue to love one another.

iii.e. a member of the secret police. Though the original 'Cheka' (the 'Extraordinary Commission') was set up during the Russian civil war to deal with counter-revolutionaries in the Red zones but was dissolved at the end of hostilities. However, the term has been retained somewhat in conversational Russian to refer to anybody working for the state security agencies such as the KGB or the post-Soviet FSB.

iiiThis line appears to play on the idea Putin as an isolated leader who is about to resign; apart from the cat, he has no-one else to say goodbye to.

ivThe maximum sentence allowed for the 'crimes' with which Pussy Riot were charged.

vi.e. Alexander Lukashenko, the authoritarian president of Belarus. Putin is widely regarded as more sympathetic to Belarus than Medvedev and appears keen to establish a regional trading bloc made up of former Soviet states to rival the European Union.