Physically, we have been absent from Russia for five years. But politically, we continue to be present there'

Forwarded From Meduza — Books

'Physically, we have been absent from Russia for five years. But politically, we continue to be present there'

Activist, artist, and Pussy Riot member Maria Alyokhina has said more than once in her books and interviews that she never intended to leave Russia. But in the spring of 2022, she had to flee: dressed in a courier's uniform, Alyokhina managed to hide from Moscow police, reach the border with Belarus, and from there get to the European Union.

Here is how, four years after her escape, she describes her feelings to journalist Olesya Gerasimenko

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In the book (Political. How to Survive in Out of Russia — editor's note), you quote Alexei Navalny's words about his return. 'I traveled all over the country and everywhere I announced from the stage: "I promise I will not let you down, and I will not deceive you, and I will not abandon you." By returning, I fulfilled my promise to my voters. At some point, people have to appear in Russia who do not lie to them.' And how do you now make peace with yourself about living outside Russia?

By the way, I have actually thought about this quite a lot. Look, in February, the sentence against five Pussy Riot members, including me, was approved under the fairly standard charge of 'fake news about the Russian army.' We got from 8 to 13 years. I got 13 years plus another 15 days on top. All of this was for an anti-war video and a performance at a museum in Munich, where we printed leaflets with information about German companies that still cooperate with and supply various things, including microchips, to the Russian army.

In our system, this kind of sentence is called 'in absentia,' and in English, 'in absence.' And I kept thinking about what presence is and what absence is. Physically, we have been absent from Russia for five years. We are not standing with our feet on our own land, not hearing the sound of passing cars and the rustling of trees. But politically, we continue to be present there. Because the entire repressive machine, with its half-empty offices and empty cages where we are not, keeps working. And that machine finds the absence of a physical body convenient. It does not have to catch it, jail it, guard it, or get the shit kicked out of it if it does not obey.

So politically we are present, but physically absent. At the same time, most people who are physically present in Russia are forced to choose political absence, that is, to live with their mouths shut and their hands tied. The overwhelming majority are like that. Plus there are political prisoners, people who are now getting monstrous, unimaginable sentences for things that are completely far removed from any kind of action.

In my case, living with my mouth shut would not have worked for two reasons. First, I do not know how to shut my mouth. Second, because when I crossed the border, they were already putting me through the 'carousel' not for doing something. They were jailing me just for walking out of the house.

Plus there is this: for every political prisoner, at least so they remain physically alive, preferably not raped and not maimed, a team has to work, and we are talking about years of work. We are not talking about [a few] months of help, we are talking about, I do not know, 10 years.

You had a line in your book about 2021: 'My resistance to the police consists in the fact that I simply live in Russia right now.' And what is your resistance now?

Resistance consists in the fact that in the fifth year of the war, we continue helping Ukraine. Around 150,000 euros were raised from concerts and from our exhibition for the [children's hospital in Kyiv] Okhmatdyt and for several other initiatives, including military ones. This matters to me. And people are incredibly grateful for any help.

And resistance has long since ceased to be within Russia's borders. The problem is that very few Western residents understand this.

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Maria Alyokhina's book 'Political. How to Survive in Out of Russia' can be bought at this link. And in our 'Magaz' you can also find the activist's other books: 'Riot Days' about the punk prayer service in Christ the Savior Cathedral and 'Political. The Point of No Return' about what happened to Pussy Riot after prison.