Pussy Riot

Created in 2023, the large bilingual poster Kill the Sexist! (2023.030.001) references the earliest and most significant period of the now internationally acclaimed Russian feminist protest art collective Pussy Riot. The poster was donated by a founding member and the group’s major driving force, Nadya Tolokonnikova (b. 1989, Norilsk). Its bold, imperative slogan, “Kill the Sexist,” and its punchy, expressive lyrics originally formed the band’s punk-song-turned-manifesto, which challenged Russia’s patriarchal political system. 

The story stretches back to early October 2011, when two members of the street art group Voina (War), Tolokonnikova and her friend Yekaterina Samutsevich (b. 1982, Moscow), proposed a lecture titled “Punk Feminism” for a gathering of opposition and activist groups in Moscow. It was the preparation for this lecture that led to the birth of Pussy Riot’s manifesto. As Tolokonnikova later recalled, they suddenly realized that “there was feminism, and there was punk, but there was no punk feminism. The lecture was less than a day away. There was only one solution: invent punk feminism so we would have something to talk about.” [1] The women had no musical instruments, no background in music-making, and no time. So they simply used a dictaphone to record their lyrics— Ubey seksista! (Kill the sexist!)—over a sample taken from the 1979 punk song “I’m Not a Fool” by the British band Cockney Rejects. The next day, they played the recording of “Kill the Sexist!” to triumphantly conclude their lecture on Western feminist and punk movements. With that, Tolokonnikova and Samutsevich announced the creation of their new feminist punk band, whose name was initially a mix of the Russian word pisya (a childish term for genitalia) and the English word “riot.”

Pussy Riot later considered November 7, 2011, an even more crucial starting point. On that day, the band uploaded their first video clip, “Osvobodi bruschatku” (Release the Cobblestones). Unlike “Kill the Sexist!,” this new punk performance directly challenged Russian politics.

To meaningfully contextualize the group’s radicalization over just five months, it’s essential to recall the basic chronology of events. On September 24, 2011, then-president Dmitry Medvedev and prime minister Vladimir Putin announced their plan to swap positions—Putin would return to the Kremlin, while Medvedev would lead the pro-Kremlin United Russia party and the government. As expected, the parliamentary and presidential elections took place on December 4, 2011, and March 4, 2012, respectively. Widely considered undemocratic, unconstitutional, and fraudulent, these political maneuvers triggered Russia’s largest protest movement since the 1990s, with demands for fair elections and outrage over Putin’s return serving as its central themes.

In response to this volatile political climate, Pussy Riot developed an aesthetically unique and instantly recognizable protest strategy, with “Release the Cobblestones” as its first fully realized example. While the feminist stance expressed in “Kill the Sexist!” remained fundamental to all the group’s subsequent punk performances, their actions became increasingly political. Pussy Riot’s performances took the form of well-planned, safety-conscious, yet striking guerrilla-style public art interventions staged in conceptually relevant—but always unauthorized—locations. The number of performers fluctuated, at times reaching up to eight. To avoid legal trouble, members always used pseudonyms. Their signature bright, colorful balaclavas and outfits served not only to maintain anonymity but also to emphasize the artistic and somewhat silly nature of their performances. “We just didn’t want to be taken for terrorists in black balaclavas. We didn’t want to scare people,” they explained. [2] The image of a triumphant young woman in a red balaclava and dress, making a strident noise with an electric guitar, became the group’s visual symbol, featured in their performances, on banners, and in the Norton and Nancy Dodge Collection’s poster.

Musically, Pussy Riot embraced what they called “shameless dilettantism,” overt sampling, and “the concept of bad music, bad texts, and bad rhymes.” [3] A final, crucial element of their protest strategy was documenting their punk performances and transforming them into video clips for online circulation. Aesthetically raw and amateurish but politically urgent, these videos allowed Pussy Riot to reach an exponentially larger audience through Russia’s booming social media landscape. The group ran an online blog (LiveJournal platform), promoting its cause with announcements, visuals, and commentary.

In total, Pussy Riot released five video clips based on their five punk songs, each criticizing different aspects of Putin’s political regime. These videos went viral, cementing the group’s anarchist identity and ultimately leading to the imprisonment of two key members.

Their first video, “Release the Cobblestones,” spliced footage of several performances on Moscow’s public transport, drawing parallels to the Arab Spring uprisings and calling for paving stones to be used against police. Their next song, “Kropotkin-Vodka,” performed between late November and early December 2011, targeted the luxury industry’s loyalty to the regime, with performances staged at boutiques, fashion shows, and VIP parties.

On December 14, 2011, Pussy Riot debuted “Smert’ tiurme, svobodu protestu” (Death to Prison, Freedom to Protest) from the rooftop of the Special Detention Center, where many activists and opposition leaders were jailed after protesting the fraudulent parliamentary election results. A month later, on January 20, 2012, they performed “Putin zassal”  (Putin Peed His Pants) near the Kremlin, on Red Square—openly mocking Putin with their largest number of participants yet. Notably, Maria Alyokhina (b. 1988, Moscow) joined the group during this performance, soon becoming one of its most iconic members.

Finally, on February 21, 2012, Pussy Riot released their most controversial and widely recognized video, “Bogoroditsa, Putina progoni” (Mother of God, Chase Putin Away). The song was a direct response to the Russian Orthodox Church’s political entanglement—when Patriarch Kirill publicly endorsed Putin’s reelection campaign, disregarding the constitutional separation of church and state. As the church went into politics, Pussy Riot took politics to the church. Less than two weeks before the presidential election, they staged their now-infamous “punk prayer” inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior, the notorious headquarters of the Russian Orthodox Church. Shortly after, Pussy Riot’s most active members—Tolokonnikova, Samutsevich, and Alyokhina—were arrested and charged with “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.” Their anonymity was stripped away.

Despite unprecedented international attention and support from public figures, politicians, musicians, celebrities, and human rights activists, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were sentenced to two years in prison—reduced from the maximum possible sentence of seven years, likely due to international pressure. The court ruling was finalized in August 2012. Around this time, the group released all six of its punk songs as a single album, which remains freely available across various platforms. Its title, Kill the Sexist!, reaffirmed Pussy Riot’s feminist stance in its crusade against patriarchy and tyranny.

Andy Shab

Notes:

1. Tolokonnikova, Nadya. Read & Riot: A Pussy Riot Guide to Activism. New York: HarperOne, 2018: 19.

2. Tolokonnikova, Read & Riot: 21.

3. Ibid.