– Pussy Riot – Putin zazhigayet kostry – August 2012 – Gordon Skene Sound Collection –
Pussy Riot – remember them? The Russian Punk band/Social movement who grabbed the world’s attention with a little ditty entitled Putin zazhigayet kostry (Putin Lights Fires)? And subsequently landed two of the band members in Prison for a while?
Maybe not – it was twelve years ago. And twelve years in Social Media time is roughly equivalent to about a minute and a half in real time. Nevertheless – Pussy Riot created a sensation and controversy and brought attention to just how strange this new era of Russian Government was.
We’ve come a long way from Glasnost, Perestroika, Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin. We’ve landed in new territory; one that appears to be destined for intrigues, one that appears to have fingerprints all over our Political and Election system – and one that appears to make no bones about literally wanting to get under America’s skin.
Ironic that the Cold War era and the Red Scare of the 1950s were permeated with horrifying scenarios of our government overrun with Communist spies – turning Washington into a puppet regime who took orders from Moscow. Eerie how vigilant we were – how everything from movies to comic books were geared towards this unseen Red Menace threatening our shores – how lives were shattered by the mere sniff of acknowledging the Communist Party, even in passing. Ironic that the simplest thing; a checkbook and a propensity for hacking computers would take it all down, so quickly and with such simplicity.
So here we are – 2024. Twelve years since Pussy Riot came on the scene and told us what to expect. We thought they were insane – the media portrayed them as a bunch of twisted, deranged girls with guitars. Yet, how prophetic they became.
And as a reminder – in case you forgot – here’s the song that started it all.
Play loud – very loud.
