Introduction to Maria Alyokhina
Dressed entirely in black, Maria Alyokhina sits on stage, smoking an e-cigarette, her blonde curls falling beneath her thick knitted hat. The relentless 37-year-old activist and performance artist, best known as a member of Pussy Riot, is presenting her new book at the lit.COLOGNE literature festival in Cologne. Maria Alyokhina is one of several women who protested on the eve of Vladimir Putin’s re-election as president of Russia, a position he still holds to this day.
The Protest and Its Aftermath
That night, the group donned colorful clothing and masks and held a "punk prayer" in front of the altar of Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior, calling on the Virgin Mary to "throw out" Putin. Pussy Riot’s act of resistance attracted worldwide attention. However, the Virgin Mary did not seem to answer her prayer – Putin didn’t go anywhere. The once moderate autocrat has become a full-blown dictator. Maria Alyokhina, like tens of thousands of other young Russians, including many artists, had to flee Russia. Alyokhina now has an Icelandic passport and leads a nomadic lifestyle in the West.
A Different Russia
Sonia Mikich praises Maria – "Masha" – Alyokhina and calls her a kind of envoy from another Russia – the "radical, absurd, artistic, free country that we loved so much" and which now only lives on outside of Putin’s empire. Together with her Pussy Riot colleague Olga Borisova, Maria Alyochina has written a 500-page book in which she describes the events between December 2013 and April 2022. “From the moment I left the prison colony to the moment I reluctantly had to leave Russia,” Alyokhina explains.
Prison Conditions and Political Prisoners
The two-year sentence that Maria Alyokhina and other Pussy Riot members served in a prison colony after their protest performance in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior almost seems like a walk in the park. She explains: "We were constantly in the international spotlight, we received thousands of letters from supporters and, most importantly, there wasn’t this brutal, murderous war raging." The many political prisoners are doing much worse today, she adds. Alyokhina says that prison conditions have worsened.
Eight Years of Fighting in Russia
At the end of 2013, Alyokhina was released early from prison and returned home accompanied by a crowd of journalists. But in the years that followed, the authorities increased violence – particularly against Russian citizens. The violence culminated in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the assassination of opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Alyokhina fought for eight turbulent years – until early 2022. She took part in anti-government events, was repeatedly subjected to state violence and was repeatedly imprisoned and placed under house arrest.
Fleeing Russia and the Book
Eventually, she freed herself from her electronic ankle bracelet and fled to the West via Belarus and Lithuania, disguised as a food courier, leaving her phone behind as a decoy. Maria Alyokhina was recently sentenced in absentia to 13 years and 15 days in prison for participating in an anti-war video entitled "Mom, Don’t Believe the TV" and for other acts intended to spread false information or discredit the Russian armed forces. Her book "Political Girl" chronicles the author’s courageous and sometimes humorous actions – such as replacing the red flags at five government buildings in Moscow with rainbow flags in protest against the oppression of the LGBTQ community in Russia.
A Story of Freedom and Resistance
The stories paint a multi-dimensional picture of Russia – a morbid, sometimes brutal, but not hopeless country. Because, as Alyokhina says, there are still brave, warm-hearted people – she met them everywhere. Maria Alyokhina has clear words when it comes to the mood in Europe regarding the war in Ukraine. “There are these ultra-left voices in Germany that, in my opinion, are terribly hypocritical,” she said. Alyokhina says she is “definitely in favor of arms supplies to Ukraine.” Talking about “peace without weapons” now in the fourth year of the war, while hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have sacrificed their lives for the existence of their country, is simply “stupid and cowardly,” says the activist.
Conclusion
Alongside other Kremlin critics, Maria Alyokhina offers an example of how resistance is possible – even under the most extreme circumstances. “We do not choose the country in which we are born, but we decide how we want to live our lives,” said Alyochina. In her book, she shows readers the terrible reality of Russia – a reality in which young girls are sent to prison for a prank, a famous opposition figure is murdered, and doctors, journalists, and poets are put on trial for spreading "fake news" about the war in Ukraine. Is she scared? Alyokhina replies: “Right now I’m kind of ashamed to be afraid.”
