POWER AND OPPOSITION: SADOMASOCHISM, INC.

I am Tsar, — I am a slave, — I am a worm, — I am God (Derzhavin.)

“The inmates entertain themselves in peculiar ways. Whereas N. caught pigeons, X. and his cellmates catch ordinary gray mice that run under the bunks at night.

To catch a mouse you need an empty milk carton. You cut a little hole and plant the bait inside. When the mouse enters the cartoon, you close the hole with your hand and then transfer the little beast to a plastic ice cream pail.

They managed to catch two mice in this simple way and decided to put them on trial and “sentenced” them to four days in prison. The mice were to serve their sentence in the plastic ice cream pail. Afterwards, they planned to “release” the rodents by throwing them out a third-floor window. But the prisoners escaped by gnawing a hole in their cell — ”

This is not a bad translation of Kafka or Dostoevsky. I am reading an insider’s blog about a visit to a Moscow jail in 2016 while doing my research for the series of articles about the Russian opposition and Art Protest for the Pussy Riot show on February 10th.

I am writing these articles so people know about the prisoners of conscience.

https://medium.com/@ZarinaZabrisky/three-years-in-jail-for-stand-alone-street-protests-ef241aa7842a#.cbz3tn1qw

Awareness might save lives. Russian authorities avoid international scandals. It is a matter of life and death — literally — to tell the world community about the human rights violations in Russia.

I got involved with the Russian opposition and Art Protest movement because I was opposed to Putin and because I am a writer. I believe that the only way to resist the oppression is through art. The Russian activists-artists — those who sprayed holy water on the Mausoleum, danced and sang in churches, put up exhibits destroyed by special police — know they face death and prison. They still protest the regime. They FIGHT FOR FREEDOM.

So, why mice? Why inexplicable cruelty? How can it be? A dear friend of mine refused to believe that it was possible. Heroes can’t be tormentors, and it must be falsification.

I checked all my facts, and I don’t think so. And it’s okay.

Hard as it is: Heroes and villains, abusers and victims belong the the world of mythologies. I wrote about it here. Myth making robs life of its complexity. It flattens our minds and preps them for wars. Power and opposition tandem belongs to this black-and-white fairy kingdoms of crusades, inquisitions, and holocausts.

Simplified vision of the world is dangerous because in the real world odd things happen. Life is not a poster-ready slogan. Good people are scared — rightly so — to act or speak up. Artists and activists get burnt out or distracted by their lives, their egos. They get manipulated by security services. Some want awards. Some want money. Some want copyright. Anonymous artists become celebrities. The anti-establishment goes commercial. Avant-garde always becomes mainstream.

And this makes me think about the nature of the resistance movement.

Is inability to unite predetermined by the very (resistant) nature of resistance? Does the defiance of individuals undermine the movement as a whole?

And, also, maybe the protest in the current situation is only a gesture?

Noble, brave, but only a symbol, not a practical step towards real changes. By February 2016 it is clear that Putin is a criminal, dictator and that Russia is a totalitarian regime with no human rights.

So, if you protest Putin in Russia expect to be imprisoned or killed.

Can we be outraged by an usurper, criminal and murderer? Does it make sense to be angry at a serial killer? Will a maniac stop killing if you express your thoughts, peacefully? You got to find some other ways to stop this person.

It is a dead end, the totalitarian state. A milk crate. You either leave, “gnaw a hole in the wall of your cell,” and then:

a) forget the horror that was once your motherland and screwed you so badly you are crippled for life with PTSD;

b) join efforts with other human rights activists and try to shed light on the situation, assist your new country in confronting the horror, or find some other productive way of changing the crap if you can’t sleep at night otherwise.

I’m doing b). It’s easier. There are other ways, though:

c) Some people stay and face the dragon of the totalitarian machine. They know that they will be burnt by the smoldering fire breath. They know that the dragon will devour them.

It had been devouring millions for the last thousand years. I have tons of respect for those who know that and still confront the dragon. I’ll do anything to support them even though their deed is doomed.

But more and more I realize that if you look through the obvious, you see the sad lining: Dragons and heroes need each other.

Heroes are using the dragon to ride it into their personal martyrdom, just as the dragon is using “the enemy” for the fight. The dragon needs a scapegoat and external danger. The dragon needs war.

They are bound together in a co-dependent union.

The new video by Pussy Riot reflects on this. The artists are not wearing balaclavas anymore. They are clad in military uniform, spiky heels and hold whips and irons, ready to torture and execute.

What really happens: Pussy Riot demands an immediate investigation against the Chief Prosecutor of Russia, his family and the top officials in his office.

What strikes me: Pussy Riot are not prisoners in this video. They are prosecutors. They swap places with their executioners. It is satire.

Satire, yes, but — one form of brutality replaces another, says one of the comments on Youtube. Brutality of mind. Brutality of imagery. The interchangeable world in which resistance inevitably turns into oppression. Victims become abusers. Mice, people. Nothing new, really. I know because I wrote a novel exploring the similarities between a BDSM dungeon and the USSR.

Also, the video is titled “Chaika” — “Seagull”. It’s a play by Chekhov, in which the shot seagull — once so free in its flight! — is a symbol of random death, violence and despotism, of a murdered dream.

Can it also be a symbol of resistance?

In Chekhov’s play, a bird is shot. In Pussy Riot’s video, a bird is eaten, consumed with gusto.

The symbol of revolt is emptied of its meaning; the riot balaclava is retired as a fashion object. A winged creature is turned into food. Opposition members are objectified. Revolution is sexualized. The conflict of ideas is translated into power game. Bondage. Domination. Sadism. Masochism.

It is a complex world: heroes torture small animals, poets kill birds, and opposition and authority can switch places at any given moment… The real world, the world outside of the fairy tale realm, is chaotic. It is driven by reptile, subterranean impulses, by homicidal rage, by forces unknown. We might never be able to grasp it.

It is fair to ask: What is a death of a bird or “an ordinary gray mouse” in this world?

***

When I was eleven I wrote an essay about Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita and an abandoned cat. I just read Master and Margarita, understood very little, but felt way too much, and wanted to express what I felt.

I wrote that the abandoned sick cat freezing in the snow was Jesus Christ.

I got an F. Of course, I was not supposed to write about Chirst. I lived in the Soviet Union. We were atheists. I also didn’t articulate it well, I couldn’t then. Now I can.

Bulgakov’s Jesus was excruciatingly humane. He had love for all. I, a little atheist, felt his compassion. The compassion of Dostoevsky’s Idiot. His humility. Pain brings equality. Christ, cat, mice, pigeons. Worms.

For we all are worms and Gods. We all are power and opposition, and no one is immune to error or failure. Compassion does not come easy, and yet polishing the reality never works. Dropping nuances for the sake of logic leads to dictatorship.

The Russian opposition needs help. It is weakened by the years of living in constant danger, complete lack of trust and hope. Its members are suffering from PTSD. They need to be liberated from jails. They need recovery programs. They need not idealization, but understanding and acceptance.

For my part, I will dig to the core of the human psyche, to the very bloody, dark, furry vessel forest down below there and see it for what it is. I know I will be terrified, but I still want to learn to feel the true compassion. Compassion for the world as is, not its Photo-shopped version. And then, we, artists, can share empathy and physical inability, impossibility to hurt others through Art and Literature.

IMPORTANT: I do not represent Pussy Riot or any other groups or organizations. My information is based on interviews with the artists. This is the fourth article of the The Arts Protest project as I find these facts relevant to the forthcoming Pussy Riot show. Read the introduction and the first article “SCANDAL: INSANITY ART-LANGUAGE” on Medium.Read second article Splendors and Myseries of Mythology and article-call for action Three Years Alone for Stand-Alone Protests. And for the closure and the show after-math read PUSSY RIOT: CLOSURE.