Pussy Riot

Mon Mar 19 07:09:53 UTC 2012

Whoa! I have almost missed all the show!

Vladimir, if you honestly don't see how the church and the political power
are intertwined in modern Russia then the Pussy Riot case is a dramatic
example. I think that article by Stanislav Belkovsky dots all the i's and
crosses all the t's:

http://www.mk.ru/politics/article/2012/03/10/679850-russkaya-panktserkov-mos
kovskogo-patriarhata.html

Modern Russian Orthodox Church has very little to do with Orthodoxy and
Christianity. It's a business structure and the main purpose of it is
justifying the regime of crooks and thieves. A classic "opiate for the
masses" comes to mind. If the girls were dancing and shooting something like
"Hail Satan!" nobody cared too much about it. The situation is the same as
with Khodorkovsky who indeed is guilty of some economic crimes but that's
not the reason why he is in jail.

The Pussy Riot case coincided with the terrible crime in the Dalnij police
station. Thus we can see the logic of the system: raping a man with a
champagne bottle to death is a far less socially dangerous act than making a
performance against Putin in the cathedral. In the first case the criminal
was granted house arrest and in the second one it was impossible.

Best regards,
Maxim Marusenkov

-----Original Message-----
From: SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list
[mailto:SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu] On Behalf Of Vladimir Orlov
Sent: Monday, March 19, 2012 2:47 AM
To: SEELANGS at bama.ua.edu
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Pussy Riot

Sorry Seelangers for appearing here too often, but I have already made my
bed and now I have to lie on it.

Maybe because the beginning of this polemics was in Russian, the following
aspect is not obvious enough, so let me please repeat it.

1) The accusing formulation of Pussy Riot is 'hooliganism'. You can check it
out. That is, no linkage to Bolshevism or to any form of oppression against
the church is provided by Russian justice. I mean it.
Significantly, there IS a law article that sounds разжигание религиозной
вражды (fomentation of the religious strife, don't know if my translation is
exact or not), but this is NOT what activists of PR are accused for.
(Thankfully.) Indeed, the accuracy and the extent of real justice
demonstrated by the law in Russia awaits to be seen.
However, only the court decision could provide the valid argument in the
debate whether PR deserves to be defended, or not, in my opinion.

NB: Yevgeniy had noted hat PR's collaborators will be accused by that
article. Lets see what will really happen.

2) Ivan Esaulov makes a direct link between Holocaust and the tragedy of
Orthodox church under Soviet regime. As seems, many people do not share this
view. But many people do.

May I please provide the following example: wearing swastika and singing
Nazi songs is not prohibited by the law in many countries.
These include Engand, for instance.
But does it say that you are alowed to make Nazi protest in an English
synagogue interrupting the service, forced out by the security and escaping
afterwards, without being prosecuted?

I bet this whole story would have followed by the great lawsuit,
irrespective that Nazi ideology is not illegal in this country -- and
irrespective to what some people might think, even if they support these
so-called 'liberal activists'.

In conclusion I will say that many people (myself including) do not see PR
as 'liberal'. Liberalism is something different -- which, sadly, does not
exist in today's Russia. But this is a matter of a different discussion.

PS:
Re Svitlana Kobets.

In my view, that is a very interesting observation. PR themselves, however,
do not associate themselves with this yurodivy tradition, described by
Likhachev. As many people in Russian media say, PR demand Christian mercy,
but they never asked for forgiveness. Nonetheless, it would have been better
for them to mention something like you showed, indicating that the church
has already undergone through these practices without any special harm for
it.

PPS:
Re Yevgeniy Slivkin.

Спасибо Вам за замечание,
я, разумеется, могу сообщить Вам много возражений. В первую очередь --
нельзя полностью доверять изданию грани.ру, спонсируемому Борисом
Абрамовичем (против которого возбуждены уголовные дела уже, кажется, в пяти
странах). Другие издания не дают информации о вовлечённости РПЦ (что,
конечно, вполне вероятно, я понимаю). В любом случае, я думаю, надо
дождаться сначала, кого в действительности арестуют по этой статье, и потом
уже делать выводы.

Если нужно, я готов продолжить нашу дискуссию публично, но я надеюсь, Вы
согласитесь, что в этом нет необходимости (если её не обозначат специально).
Разумеется, мне было важно и интересно услышать Ваше мнение.

Regards,

--
Dr. Vladimir Orlov
PhD in Musicology (Cantab)
http://cambridge.academia.edu/VladimirOrlov
Trustee of Cultural and Artistic Affairs, Russian Cambridge Foundation
www.russiancambridge.org
+7 8332 375760 (home)

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