On 10 October, the three detained members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot held on charges of ‘hooliganism motivated by religious hatred’ faced their second appeal hearing in Moscow. The hearing lasted approximately three hours and it was announced that the two-year jail term of band member Yekaterina Samutsevich was to be suspended, but that the sentences against her fellow defendants would be upheld. Yesterday, 15 October, it was confirmed that Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina, both of whom have young children, will be required to serve out the remainder of their two-year sentences in prison colonies. We will be continuing to monitor developments in the case closely and to do whatever we can to support them over the coming months.
To help maintain awareness of their case, we’ve been posting daily tributes to the band, in the form of some extraordinary poems and images, on our website. These pieces and many more were published as an anthology, CATECHISM: POEMS FOR PUSSY RIOT, to coincide with the first appeal hearing on 1 October. Both e-book and print on demand versions of the collection are now available, with all proceeds going to Pussy Riot’s legal fund and our Writers at Risk programme.
We are determined to keep their case in the public eye and will be continuing to post more Poems for Pussy Riot on our website. Please help us by downloading, reading, sharing, tweeting, translating and remixing the amazing work produced by our Poets for Pussy Riot.
The following contribution is Tim Atkins’ translation of a poem by Marina Tsvetaeva, which was performed as part of ‘Pussy Riot and the Art of Political Protest’ in UK Parliament yesterday, 15 October.
I Love the Rich
You can see the contempt God has for money by the kind of people he gives it to
– Alexander Pope
Let me state from the outset that
What we have in common is almost fuck all
We being the 99%
Gathering wherever there is most horror in this world
We –
Humans / mothers / fathers
Written off / Beneath their greasy wheels
Inhaling the greenback gas that sparks from their arses –
This is my message
Wherever there are pencils / pussys / golden arches /
Or gulag
Oh how
I LOVE THE RICH
For their contempt for the truth
That all humans are equal
For their glass eyeballs
That shine & see nothing
For the shit that their wretched parents shovelled them & which they will in turn shovel into their kids
For their hands movement in & out
Of everyone’s coat
Pockets
I LOVE THE RICH
For their sad vowel sounds & bitter consonants
For the way they slide out –
For having
Bulldozed our public spaces / schools / faces –
& because –
Their kidneys & store-bought livers overflow with dystopia &
chips
I LOVE THE RICH
For the secretaries / lackeys / & personal assistants
Signed up to spread their STDS & misinformation
Asking how many days they have left to live in
Standing in for them at the
Pissing contest
Fucking & fighting without love or emulsion
& because in all their methods of procreation –
Bored / gilded / & wadding
I – MARINA TSVETAEVA – AM
UNTOUCHABLE
In spite of their dilapidated corpulence
Unbleached & organic private school anal cocaines bitch
Slap
& occasional ticket
Dog-faced / Almost-dawn
Nocturnal admissions of doubting…
Concerning the core of their
Values & gravitates
WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
I proclaim
That
Among all the misbegotten & cast-out
Mothers animals or insects
Nowhere else are there
Such orphans upon this earth
We all breathe in their fucked-up
Quasi-christian school-of-hard-knocks
University-of-life homilies & bloodclot
In the suburbs of their palaces
Bunga-bunga
Bukkake & excuses
Like a cockroach with shit on its boots
Walks over the surface of perfection –
For all of these things –
When one of them comes to me with
A noose round his neck & an orange
Mumbling about his “needs” & his “roots” –
I hold my negative capability up against his
essential emptiness – &
Well I
Well I
– you can hear me mumbling something –
I swear it
See & This is my method
When one’s heart is steeped in compassion
No dissention can bring disruption
Inviolable / Untouchable / Interconnected
I swear it
My practice is this –
TO –
REALLY –
REALLY –
LOVE THE RICH
30.IX.1922 / 23.VIII.2012
TAKE ACTION FOR PUSSY RIOT
– Download the e-book: ePUB, Kindle and PDF versions available
The book is distributed on the ‘Pay What You Think It’s Worth’ model popularised by Radiohead and others. We recommend £5, but any amount is welcome and you can download for free if you wish. Click here to download.
– Order your print on demand copy
Due to popular demand, a print on demand copy of CATECHISM: POEMS FOR PUSSY RIOT is now available, and costs £7.95 (+ P&P). We’d also be really grateful if you could spare a few minutes to rate and review the book. Click here to order.
All profits from both e-book and print on demand copies will go to the Pussy Riot Legal fund and the English PEN Writers at Risk Programme.
– Send letters of appeal
- Expressing shock that the two year sentences against Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova have been upheld;
- Welcoming the suspended release on appeal of Ekaterina Samusevich, but noting that her freedom is not unconditional
- Pointing out that the harsh sentence is clearly in retaliation for the lyrics of the song performed by Pussy Riot members, containing language that is strongly critical of the Church and of President Putin in particular, and is this in breach of international conventions, specifically Article 19 of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, to which Russia is a signatory;
- Therefore calling for the immediate and unconditional release of both Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova, and the complete dismissal of the charges against all three women.
You can send messages to President Putin via the Kremlin website or to the following address:
President Vladimir Putin
President of the Russian Federation
23, Ilyinka Street,
Moscow, 103132
Russia
His Excellency Dr Alexander Vladimirovich Yakovenko
6/7 Kensington Palace Gardens,
London,
W8 4QP
Fax: 020 7727 8625
– Send messages of solidarity
Messages of solidarity to the prisoners can be sent via the FreePussyRiot website: www.freepussyriot.org