study 5

I [am] the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord (John 1:23)

Reinventing fascism

Black priestly dress, golden epaulets
(…)
Patriarch Gundyav believes in Putin,
Better if he, bitch, believed in God

These lines of the song written by the punk-feminist group ‘Pussy Riot’ encapsulate the fascist turn of current Russian affairs. The West learnt about ‘Pussy Riot’ almost instantly after their first (and the last) performance of the song in the number one Russian Orthodox patriarchate cathedral in Moscow. Following the tradition of supporting social freedoms, a few months later a series of Western voices fervently protested against the two year prison sentence given to the three singers but (judging by the responses in Western mass-media) failed to recognize the significance of their performance which targeted the very core of Russian politics. “When we say “Lenin” – we mean “the Party” wrote Mayakovsky, now one may write “When we say “United Russia” (the ruling party) – we mean “the ROC” (Russian Orthodox Church).