August 10, 2019

When Artists Get on Board with a Russian Protest


When Artists Get on Board with a Russian Protest
Yekaterinburg-based artist Tima Radya's 2012 installation "Stability."

The protests shaking Moscow over the past month began as a rather low-profile issue: authorities refused to register opposition candidates from different capital districts for the September elections to the Moscow Duma. The Moscow Duma is a rather sleepy place, where little news has ever been generated, and few Muscovites ever vote in these polls.

Until this year: though the Russian opposition failed to muster sufficient public support for national representation in parliament, many of the activists in Moscow have been quietly building public trust in small municipal posts. This year, those municipal representatives gathered signatures in support of their candidacies for the Moscow Duma. But then those signatures were rejected (ostensibly because they were "fake," though authorities refused to consider evidence to the contrary), and a feeling of injustice pushed opposition supporters out onto the streets for weekly demos, even when the protests were not sanctioned. Police arrested thousands and investigators launched a sweeping probe into "mass riots," though no damage to property was reported. 

Images of central Moscow overrun by "cosmonauts" as the fully-equipped OMON riot police officers are informally called, have inspired artists, some of whom are joining the protests. Here are some works of art about Russian police and the multitude of feelings they elicit from the creative community.

Grapes of Wrath, a work by Vadim Sloof, an artist based in Rostov-on-Don

 

A song about OMON by rocker Andrei Makarevich of Mashina Vremeni

Скажи мне, архангел, ОМОНа атлант,
Закованный в латы, как звездный десант,
До ужаса вооружённый,
Зачем ты такой наряжённый? 

 

Credit: @Иван Алексеев
Rapper Noize MC with a track about Lyokha, whose dream about becoming an OMON cosmonaut came true

Лёха в детском саду мечтал стать космонавтом
В камуфляжном скафандре — со щитом, автоматом, 
Дубинкой — и бить гуманоидов.

"Kiss"
Artist Philippenzo's new homage to OMON police (above) calls on people not to have fear: "In our country an abnormal situation has formed when law enforcement agencies meant to fight threats often become the source of these threats. The appearance of a policeman in the line of vision of a law-abiding peaceful citizen brings the feelings of worry and danger, a desire to look elsewhere and avoid any contact. After all, this contact does not mean anything good – baseless document checks, demeaning searches, meaningless bans, beatings, detentions at peaceful rallies, planted drugs, torture, and other violations of civic rights."

 

St. Petersburg-based Rodina collective, which has long played around with the OMON logos in various projects, is offering T-shirts ahead of the protests.

All of these works have continued a long Russian tradition of using the repressive arm of the Russian government for inspiration. Here are a few other works from the past.

Yekaterinburg-based artist Tima Radya's 2012 installation "Stability"

This poster by Misha Marker uses the aesthetics of the Russian police uniform but asks "Are you daydreaming?"

 

An unknown artist's stencil in Chelyabinsk refers to the practice of policemen planting drugs, allegedly used widely to "close" drug trafficking cases.

 

A street sign by artist Slava PTRK in St. Petersburg

 

Finally, Telegram users can create their own works of art by messaging a bot which decorates any photo with rows of "cosmonauts." Here are a couple I created with the @FreeOMON bot, showing riot police marching in a snowy landscape, and admiring the impressively neat rows of pelmeni sold at a kiosk not far from my house.

 

 

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas

This exciting new trilogy by a Russian author – who has been compared to Orhan Pamuk and Umberto Eco – vividly recreates a lost world, yet its passions and characters are entirely relevant to the present day. Full of mystery, memorable characters, and non-stop adventure, The Pet Hawk of the House of Abbas is a must read for lovers of historical fiction and international thrillers.  
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
Marooned in Moscow

Marooned in Moscow

This gripping autobiography plays out against the backdrop of Russia's bloody Civil War, and was one of the first Western eyewitness accounts of life in post-revolutionary Russia. Marooned in Moscow provides a fascinating account of one woman's entry into war-torn Russia in early 1920, first-person impressions of many in the top Soviet leadership, and accounts of the author's increasingly dangerous work as a journalist and spy, to say nothing of her work on behalf of prisoners, her two arrests, and her eventual ten-month-long imprisonment, including in the infamous Lubyanka prison. It is a veritable encyclopedia of life in Russia in the early 1920s.
Fearful Majesty

Fearful Majesty

This acclaimed biography of one of Russia’s most important and tyrannical rulers is not only a rich, readable biography, it is also surprisingly timely, revealing how many of the issues Russia faces today have their roots in Ivan’s reign.
The Latchkey Murders

The Latchkey Murders

Senior Lieutenant Pavel Matyushkin is back on the case in this prequel to the popular mystery Murder at the Dacha, in which a serial killer is on the loose in Khrushchev’s Moscow...
Jews in Service to the Tsar

Jews in Service to the Tsar

Benjamin Disraeli advised, “Read no history: nothing but biography, for that is life without theory.” With Jews in Service to the Tsar, Lev Berdnikov offers us 28 biographies spanning five centuries of Russian Jewish history, and each portrait opens a new window onto the history of Eastern Europe’s Jews, illuminating dark corners and challenging widely-held conceptions about the role of Jews in Russian history.
The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

The Little Humpbacked Horse (bilingual)

A beloved Russian classic about a resourceful Russian peasant, Vanya, and his miracle-working horse, who together undergo various trials, exploits and adventures at the whim of a laughable tsar, told in rich, narrative poetry.
Murder and the Muse

Murder and the Muse

KGB Chief Andropov has tapped Matyushkin to solve a brazen jewel heist from Picasso’s wife at the posh Metropole Hotel. But when the case bleeds over into murder, machinations, and international intrigue, not everyone is eager to see where the clues might lead.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955