Groups like punk Kis-Kis or rock legend Shevchuk give voice to Russian dissent. Music has become the last free public space in an increasingly dictatorial country
“Khuy voyne, guerra vaff … »: the audience chants in a unanimous chorus, does not stop, raises their arms to the rhythm of the slogan. It is the 87th day of the war in Ukraine, and at the concert of the female punk band Kis-Kis, in the A2 club in Petersburg, the most massive protest in recent weeks explodes, so spontaneous and disruptive that it goes unpunished. It is impossible to arrest dozens of people, the whole room, and this feeling of not being alone amplifies the courage to do what now seemed almost unthinkable. Rock concerts are becoming the last free public territory in a now dictatorial Russia, with rebellious music by definition regaining its anti-system dimension that had given birth to it in the basements of Petersburg and Yekaterinburg in the 1970s. When Yuri Shevchuk says that “the homeland is not the president’s ass, to be siphoned and kissed all the time,” his Ufa audience explodes in a roar of approval. Words that the Kremlin could not tolerate, and the historical frontman of the DDT was indicted for “discrediting the armed forces”, and could not get away with only the fine: the case was moved from Ufa to Petersburg, to investigate other similar statements of the musician. Shevchuk refused to testify against himself, and now all of Russia eagerly awaits the trial: the speech of the language experts to prove that the phrase “the homeland is not the president’s ass” is false will be absolutely unmissable.
History has made a circle to go back 40 years, and the heroes of clandestine rock of the Soviet era, considered by many now to be grandparents clinging to “committed” traditions, return to fight the regime. Shevchuk had gotten into trouble as far back as 1980, for writing “Don’t Shoot”, a poignant denunciation of the war in Afghanistan, which is now ringing again. In 2010, he asked Vladimir Putin how long he would continue to arrest opponents in the square (the Russian leader reacted with a hypocritical and contemptuous “Excuse me, what’s your name?”, To which the Russian rock legend replied with a memorable ” I’m Yura, a musician “), and not all the cities of the Russian province dared to host the DDT concerts for fear that they might play the legendary” Putin goes around the earth, our homeland is in the m … “. But less “political” voices also took sides: Boris Grebenshikov, historic rock guru from St Petersburg, raised 12 million euros for Ukraine. Zemfira, the undisputed star of the 2000s, also showed up at her charity concert in London: her clip “Meat” – «In Mariupol it’s midnight, high-precision missiles fly, what do we do here, we’ll ask ourselves all our lives »- made one million views on YouTube in three days.
The anti-war movement brought together musicians of different generations and genres, who replaced as leaders of the protest the politicians imprisoned, exiled or censored: rapper Face was the first Russian to publicly apologize to the ukraaini, and Oxxxymiron’s concerts in Berlin, Istanbul and London have drawn the map of the new Russian emigration. An entire generation fled in a few weeks, to realize that the dream of “Russia, back!”, The Nogu Svelo video clip where soldiers and floats at the parade in Red Square, to the rhythm of a stadium choir, walk around backward to the point of disappearing, it is a utopia, and “we must prepare not to go home, perhaps for twenty years,” writes Igor Grigoryev, the former editor of Om magazine. In addition to raising money for Ukrainians, Oxxxymiron’s concerts “Russians against the war” were also an attempt to count themselves, and to launch a movement of “good Russians”, those who said no, and who hope to change one day. their country, and to heal the wound with Ukraine: «It sounds impossible», Oxxxymiron said from the stage, «but we are in Berlin, and in 1941 no one would have imagined a Russian Jew playing African American music here».
OfIt is difficult for the Putinian regime to tolerate this outbreak of protest: many singers, moreover, have already fled from Russia and perform in Europe, while those who remain at home face increasingly heavy pressures. Band B2 had one concert after another canceled after refusing to perform in a hall decorated with the large Z symbol of Russian militarism. The dilemma of escape, or silence, was summed up by Diana Arbenina in the heartbreaking “Don’t be silent”: «I’m losing myself and my home, I don’t know what will happen next, everyone is flying away, we are a cursed country». Shevchuk chooses to stay with his audience, despite the risk of prison: “Thousands of loneliness come to our concerts, they were sad in their kitchens, here they meet, sing the pathere is”.
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