By and large the current process is not about
the three singers in the group Pussy Riot
if that was the case then the proceedings here would be irrelevant
It is the entire state system of the Russian Federation which is on trial
and which, to its own detriment, takes such pleasure in inflicting cruelty on people
and indifference to human respect and dignity.
As bad as the very worst of Russian history.
The simulation of a court process comes close to the standards of Stalin's "troikas" [extrajudicial panels]
to my deep regret.
Thus, we have our investigator, lawyer and judge.
And then, what’s more, what all three of them do and say and decide
is determined by a political demand for repression.
Who is guilty for what happened during
the performance at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
and the trial which followed our concert?
The authoritarian political system is guilty.
That which Pussy Riot does, is opposition art
or even politics, taking on forms developed by art.
In any case it is the kind of civil activity
under conditions of pressure from a corporate state system
on basic human rights
on civil and political freedoms.
Many people, who have been methodically robbed of their freedoms
are now rebelling.
We are looking for sincerity and simplicity
and we found both in our punk performances.
Passion, sincerity, and naivety are above hypocrisy, deceit, feigned modesty, and hiding your crime.
The country's top brass stand in cathedral with righteous faces
but they are sly, their sins are far greater than ours.
We do our political punk concerts because
the Russian state system is ruled by such
stiffness, opacity, and class
and policies are subject only to narrow corporate interests
so much so that Russian air makes us ill.
Against our wishes, we are made to act and live
with the politically coercive and violent techniques
to control social processes.
The situation, when the most important political institutions
are the state's disciplinary structures,
law enforcement, the army, the police, the security services
and the corresponding means for achieving political stability involve
prisons, preventive detention, mechanisms of strict control over the behaviour of citizens.
We also do not like the forced passivity of most of the civilian population
and also the complete domination of executive branch
over the legislature and judiciary.
In addition, we are sincerely annoyed
at the scandalously low level of political culture, built on fear
a level which consciously supports the state system and its cronies.
Just look at what Patriarch Kirill says
that Orthodox believers do not attend the demonstrations.
We are annoyed by the scandalous weakness
of community connections within society.
We do not like the state's manipulation of public opinion
easily carried out thanks to tight control over most media
by state agencies, and for example,
the exceptionally arrogant and base distortion of facts and words in the campaign against Pussy Riot,
launched in almost all Russian media,
except for independent ones, a rarity in this political system.
Nonetheless I now state that
even though this situation is authoritarian
and even though the political system is authoritarian
I still see the collapse of this political system
in its response to the three members of Pussy Riot
because that which the system depends on, was wrong.
Unfortunately for the system, Russia as a whole does not condemn us
and with every day more and more people believe us and believe in us
and think we should be free rather than behind bars.
I can see this from people I meet.
I meet people who represent the system, who work for the relevant agencies.
And every day there are more and more people who wish us well
who hope for our success and especially for our release
who say our political act was justified
More and more, people tell us
At first, we weren't sure you could have done this
but every day there are more and more people who say
Time is proving to us that your political gesture was correct.
You have exposed the cancer in this political system and dealt a blow to a nest of vipers, which then turned on you.
These people are trying to make life easier for us in whatever way they can
and we are very grateful to them for that
We are grateful to all those who, free themselves, speak out in our support.
There are a vast number, I know.
I know that a huge number of Orthodox people are standing up for us.
They are praying for us outside the courtroom
for the members of Pussy Riot who are incarcerated.
We’ve seen the booklets Orthodox people are handing out
with prayers for those in prison
This shows that there isn’t a unified social group of Orthodox believers
as the prosecution is claiming.
No such thing exists.
More and more believers are starting to defend Pussy Riot.
They don’t think what we did deserves even five months in detention
much less the three years in prison the prosecutor would like.
And every day, more and more people realize
that if this political system has ganged up to this extent against three girls
for a 30-second performance in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
it means the system is afraid of the truth
and afraid of our sincerity and directness
We haven’t dissembled, not for a second
not for a minute during this trial
but the other side is dissembling too much and people can sense it.
People can sense the truth.
Truth really does have some kind of ontological, existential superiority over lies
and this is written in the Bible, in the Old Testament in particular.
In the end, the ways of truth always triumph over the ways of wickedness, guile and lies.
And with each day that passes,
the ways of truth are more and more triumphant
even though we are still behind bars
and are likely to be here a lot longer yet.
Madonna performed yesterday [7 August].
She appeared with Pussy Riot written on her back.
More and more people can see
that we are being held here unlawfully and on a completely false charge
I’m overwhelmed by this
I am overwhelmed that truth really does triumph over lies
even though physically we are here in a cage.
We are freer than the people sitting opposite us
for the prosecution because we can say everything we like
and we do, but those people sitting there say only what political censorship allows them to say.
They can’t speak words like “punk prayer” or "Virgin Mary, Banish Putin!”
They can’t say the lines from our punk prayer that have to do with the political system.
Perhaps they think it wouldn’t be a bad thing to send us to jail
because we are rising up against Putin and his system as well
but they can’t say so because that’s not allowed either.
Their mouths are sewn shut. Unfortunately, they are mere puppets.
I hope they realize this and also take the road to freedom, truth and sincerity
because these are superior to stasis, contrived decency and hypocrisy.
Stasis and the search for truth are always in opposition to one another
and in this case, at this trial,
we can see people who are trying to find the truth
and people who are trying to enslave those who want to find the truth.
Humans are beings who always make mistakes.
They are not perfect.
They strive for wisdom but never actually have it.
That’s precisely why philosophy came into being,
precisely because philosophers are people who love wisdom and strive for it,
but never actually possesses it
and it is what drives them to act and to think
and, ultimately, to live the way they do.
This is what made us go into the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour,
and I think that Christianity, as I’ve understood it from studying the Old and New Testaments,
supports the search for truth and a constant overcoming of the self,
overcoming what you used to be.
Christ didn’t associate with prostitutes for nothing.
He said, ‘I help those who have gone astray and forgive them’
but for some reason I can’t see any of that at our trial,
which is taking place under the banner of Christianity.
I think the prosecutor is defying Christianity.
The lawyer wants nothing to do with the injured parties.
Here’s how I understand this:
Two days ago, Lawyer Taratukhin made a speech
in which he wanted everyone to understand that he had no sympathy with the people he is representing.
This means he’s not ethically comfortable representing
people who want to send the three members of Pussy Riot to jail.
Why they want to do this, I don’t know.
Perhaps it is their right.
The lawyer was embarrassed
the shouts of “Shame! Executioners!” had got to him
which goes to show that truth and goodness always triumph over lies and evil.
I think some higher powers are guiding the speeches of the lawyers for the other side
when, time after time, they make mistakes in what they say
and call us the “injured parties”.
Almost all the lawyers are doing it,
including Lawyer Pavlova who is very negatively disposed towards us.
Nevertheless, some higher powers are causing her
to say "the injured parties" about us rather than the people she’s defending, us.
I wouldn’t give people labels.
I don’t think there are winners or losers here,
injured parties or accused.
We just need to make contact,
to establish a dialogue and a joint search for truth,
to seek wisdom together,
to be philosophers together,
rather than stigmatizing and labelling people.
This is one of the worst things people can do
and Christ condemned it.
We have been subjected to abuse during this trial.
Who would have thought that a person and the state system he controls
would be repeatedly capable of entirely wanton evil?
Who would have thought that history and particularly Stalin’s Great Terror
not so very long ago, would not be taught at all?
It makes you want to weep to see how the methods of the medieval inquisition are brought out
by the law-enforcement and judicial system of the Russian Federation, which is our country.
Since the time of our arrest, however, we are no longer able to weep.
We’ve forgotten how to cry.
At our punk concerts we used to shout as best we could
about the iniquities of the authorities and now we’ve been robbed of our voice.
This whole trial refuses to hear us
and I mean hear us
which involves understanding and, moreover, thinking.
I think every individual wants to attain wisdom, to be a philosopher
not just people who happen to have studied philosophy.
That’s nothing.
Formal education is nothing in itself
and Lawyer Pavlova is constantly accusing us of not being sufficiently well-educated.
I think though that the most important thing
is the desire to know and to understand,
and that’s something people can do for themselves
outside of educational establishments,
and the trappings of academic degrees don’t mean anything in this instance.
Someone can have a vast fund of knowledge
and for all that not be human.
Pythagoras said: ‘the learning of many things does not teach understanding’.
Unfortunately, that’s something we are forced to observe here.
It’s just a stage setting and bits of the natural world,
bodies brought into the courtroom.
If, after many days of asking, talking and doing battle
our petitions are examined, they are inevitably rejected.
The court, on the other hand
unfortunately for us and for our country
listens to the prosecutor who repeatedly distorts our comments and statements with impunity
in a bid to neutralize them.
There is no attempt to conceal this breach in an adversarial system.
It even appears to be for show.
On 30th July, the first day of the trial,
we presented our response to the accusations.
The document we wrote was read by defence lawyer Volkov
because the court categorically refused to let the defendants speak.
It was the first time in five months of imprisonment that we could communicate
Prior to that we were in prison, in confinement.
We can’t do anything there.
We can’t make statements. We can’t make films.
We don’t have the internet in there.
We can’t even give our lawyer a bit of paper because that’s banned too.
Our first chance to speak came on 30th July.
We called for contact and dialogue
rather than conflict and opposition.
We reached out a hand to those
who, for some reason, assume we are their enemies.
In response they laughed at us
and spat in our outstretched hands.
You’re disingenuous, they told us.
But they needn’t have bothered.
Don’t judge others by your own standards.
We were always sincere in what we said,
saying exactly what we thought,
out of childish naïvety,
sure, but we don’t regret anything we said,
even on that day.
We are reviled but we do not intend to speak evil in return.
We are in desperate straits but do not despair.
We are persecuted but not forsaken.
It’s easy to humiliate and crush people who are open,
but when I am weak, then I am strong.
Listen to us rather than to Arkady Mamontov talking about us.
Don’t twist and distort everything we say.
Let us enter into dialogue and contact with the country,
which is ours too, not just Putin’s and the Patriarch’s.
Like Solzhenitsyn, I believe that in the end, words will crush concrete.
Solzhenitsyn wrote, “the word is more sincere than concrete, so words are not trifles.
Once noble people mobilize, their words will crush concrete.”
Katya, Masha and I are in jail
but I don’t consider that we’ve been defeated.
Just as the dissidents weren’t defeated.
When they disappeared into psychiatric hospitals and prisons,
they passed judgement on the country.
The era’s art of creating an image knew no winners or losers.
The Oberiu poets remained artists to the very end,
something impossible to explain or understand
since they were purged in 1937.
Vvedensky wrote: "We like what can’t be understood, What can’t be explained is our friend."
According to the official report, Aleksandr Vvedensky died on 20 December 1941.
We don’t know the cause,
whether it was dysentery in the train after his arrest
or a bullet from a guard.
It was somewhere on the railway line between Voronezh and Kazan.
Pussy Riot are Vvedensky’s disciples and his heirs.
His principle of ‘bad rhythm’ is our own.
He wrote: "It happens that two rhythms will come into your head,"
a good one and a bad one and I choose the bad one.
It will be the right one.
What can’t be explained is our friend.
The elitist, sophisticated occupations of the Oberiu poets,
their search for meaning on the edge of sense
was ultimately realized at the cost of their lives,
swept away in the senseless Great Terror
something impossible to explain.
At the cost of their own lives
the Oberiu poets unintentionally demonstrated
that the feeling of meaninglessness and analogy,
like a pain in the backside, was correct,
but at the same time led art into the realm of history.
The cost of taking part in creating history
is always staggeringly high for people.
But that taking part is the very spice of human life.
Being poor while bestowing riches on many,
having nothing but possessing everything.
It is believed that the OBERIU dissidents are dead,
but they live on.
They are persecuted but they do not die.
Do you remember why the young Dostoyevsky was given the death sentence?
All he had done was to spend all his time with Socialists
and at the Friday meetings of a friendly circle of free thinkers at Petrushevsky’s
he became acquainted with Charles Fourier and George Sand.
At one of the last meetings, he read out Gogol’s letter to Belinsky,
which was packed, according to the court,
and I note, with childish expressions against the Orthodox Church and the supreme authorities.
After all his preparations for the death penalty
and ten dreadful, as he put it, "impossibly frightening minutes waiting to die"
the announcement came that his sentence had been commuted
to four years hard labour followed by military service.
Socrates was accused of corrupting youth
through his philosophical discourses
and of not recognizing the gods of Athens.
Socrates had a connection to a divine inner voice
and was by no means a theomachist,
something he often said himself.
What did that matter, however, when he had angered the city
with his critical, dialectical and unprejudiced thinking?
Socrates was sentenced to death and, refusing to run away
although he was given that option,
he drank down a cup of poison in cold blood, hemlock.
Have you forgotten the circumstances under which
Stephen, follower of the Apostles, ended his earthly life?
"Then they secretly induced men to say:
'We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.'
And they stirred up the people, the elders and the scribes,
and they came upon him and dragged him away, and brought him before the Council.
And they put forward false witnesses who said
'This man incessantly speaks against this holy place, and the Law.' "
He was found guilty and stoned to death.
And I hope everyone remembers what the Jews said to Jesus:
We're stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy.
And finally it would be well worth remembering this description of Christ:
He is possessed of a demon and out of his mind.
I believe that if leaders, tsars, elders, presidents and prime ministers, the people and the judges
really understood what "I desire mercy not sacrifice" meant,
they would not condemn the innocent.
Our leaders are currently in a hurry only to condemn
and not at all to show mercy.
Incidentally, we thank Dmitry Medvedev for his latest wonderful aphorism.
If Medvedev gave his presidency the slogan: "Freedom is better than non-freedom"
then, thanks to Medvedev’s felicitous saying,
Putin’s third term has a good chance of being known by a new aphorism:
Prison is better than stoning
I would like you to think carefully
about the following reflection by Montaigne
from his Essays written in the 16th century.
He wrote: "You are holding your opinions in too high a regard if you burn people alive for them."
Is it worth accusing people and putting them in jail
on the basis of totally unfounded conjectures by the prosecution?
Since in actual fact we never were,
and are not, motivated by religious hatred and hostility,
there is nothing left for our accusers
other than to draw on the aid of false witnesses.
One of them, Motilda Ivashchenko,
was ashamed and didn’t show up in court.
That left the false witness of the expert examination
by [Vsevolod] Troitsky, [Igor] Ponkin and Mrs [Vera] Abramenkova.
And there is no evidence of any hatred or enmity on our part
other than this expert examination.
For this reason, if it is honourable and just,
the court must rule the evidence inadmissible
because it is not a strictly scientific or objective text
but a filthy, lying bit of paper
from the medieval days of the inquisition.
There is no other evidence that remotely hints at a motive.
The prosecution is reluctant to produce excerpts from the text of Pussy Riot interviews
because they are primary evidence of this lack of motive.
For the umpteenth time, I will quote this excerpt.
I think it’s important. It was from an interview with Russky Reporter
given the day after the concert at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour
Our attitude toward religion, and toward Orthodoxy in particular
is one of respect, and for this very reason we are distressed
that the great and luminous Christian philosophy is being used so shabbily.
We are very angry that something beautiful is being spoiled.
It still makes us angry and we find it very painful to watch.
The lack on our part of any show of hatred or enmity
has been attested by all the witnesses examined by the defence.
And by the evidence of our characters.
In addition to all the other character statements,
I’d like you to consider the findings of the psychiatric and psychological tests
which the investigator ordered me to undergo in detention.
The expert’s findings were as follows:
the values to which I am committed in my life are
justice, mutual respect, humanity, equality and freedom.
That’s what the expert said, someone who doesn’t know me
and Investigator Ranchenko would probably
have very much liked him to write something different.
It would appear, however, that there are more people who live and value the truth
and the Bible’s right about that.
Finally, I’d like to quote a Pussy Riot song
because, strange as it may seem
all our songs have turned out to be prophetic
including the one that says:
The KGB chief, their number one saint, will escort protestors off to jail – that’s us.
What I’d like to quote now, however, is the next line:
Open the doors, off with the shoulder-straps, join us in a taste of freedom.
That's it.
[Applause]