Nadezhda Tolokonnikova
Nadezhda Tolokonnikova
Nadezhda Andreyevna Tolokonnikova, nicknamed "Nadya Tolokno", is a Russian conceptual artist and political activist. She is a member of the anti-Putinist punk rock group Pussy Riot, and has a history of political activism with the controversial street art group Voina. On August 17, 2012, she was convicted of "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred" after a performance in Moscow Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and sentenced to two years' imprisonment. On December 23, 2013, she was released early with another Pussy...
NationalityRussian
ProfessionArtist
Date of Birth7 November 1989
CountryRussian Federation
It is possible to tolerate anything as long as it only affects you. But the method of collective punishment is bigger than that.
Modern capitalism seeks to assure us that it operates according to the principles of free creativity, endless development and diversity. It glosses over its other side in order to hide the reality that millions of people are enslaved by an all-powerful and fantastically stable norm of production. We want to reveal this lie.
We are the rebels asking for the storm, and believing that truth is only to be found in an endless search. If the 'World Spirit' touches you, do not expect that it will be painless.
I will not remain silent, resigned to watch as my fellow prisoners collapse under the strain of slavery-like conditions.
As a child, I wanted to go into advertising. I had a love affair with the advertising industry.
The words we spoke and our entire punk performance aimed to express our disapproval of a specific political event: the patriarchs' support of Vladimir Putin, who has taken an authoritarian and anti-feminist course.
In May 2013, my lawyer Dmitry Dinze filed a complaint about the conditions at PC-14 with the prosecutor's office. The deputy head of the colony, Lieutenant Colonel Kupriyanov, instantly made conditions at the camp unbearable.
Listen to us rather than to Arkady Mamontov talking about us. Don't twist and distort everything we say. Let us enter into dialogue and contact with the country, which is ours too, not just Putin's and the Patriarch's. Like Solzhenitsyn, I believe that in the end, words will crush concrete. Solzhenitsyn wrote, 'the word is more sincere than concrete, so words are not trifles. Once noble people mobilize, their words will crush concrete.'
The Olympics create a space for the complete destruction of human rights in Russia.
Thus, the word is more essential than cement. Thus, the word is not a small nothing. In this manner, noble people begin to grow, and their word will break cement.
Mordovian prisoners are afraid of their own shadows. They are completely terrified.
I also dreamt about finally meeting the leftist Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek. He is a great role model for me.
I believe in fate. And in the depths of my soul, I am an Orthodox Christian. I think the New Testament is especially important. What Jesus and his disciples preached and did was a great thing.
I was treated better than others, simply because there was so much public attention. In my case, they did adhere to the eight-hour workday required by law. The other women were often forced to slave away for up to 16 hours a day.