Pussy Riot II: the closing statements

August 20th, 2012 by Charles Cameron

I also hope that you all remember well how the Jews answered Christ: “It is not for good works that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy .” [John 10:33] And finally we would do well to keep in mind the following characterization of Christ: “He is demon-possessed and raving mad.” [John 10:20]

Lastly, she makes a plea for the court (and those of us in the world outside it) to hear the Riot’s own words:

The prosecutors have refused to voice excerpts from Pussy Riot interviews, since these excerpts would only further prove the absence of any motive. Why wasn’t the following text by us — which, incidentally, appeared in the affidavit — presented by the prosecution? “We respect religion in general and the Orthodox faith in particular. This is why we are especially infuriated when Christian philosophy , which is full of light, is used in such a dirty fashion. It makes us sick to see such beautiful ideas forced to their knees.”

**

The full text of the three closing statements can be found on the N+1 magazine site.

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Posted in Charles Cameron, christianity, criminals, philosophy, putin, recommended reading, Religion, russia, Theology, Uncategorized | 14 comments

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  1. Curtis Gale Weeks:

    August 20th, 2012 at 12:22 pm

    All 3 Pussy Riot posts have been excellent, excellent.  Thanks: to you and Mark!

  2. Karen Sanders:

    August 20th, 2012 at 6:55 pm

    As with the philosophy of Solzhenitsyn and others of his experience and craft, I am impressed with how well the pieces of the puzzle in Russia’s dissent fit into the (U.S.) American scheme of a false democratic system that instead of ennobling its citizenry, tends to create a widespread society of cowardice and compliance.
    The more enlightened we become, though, to inherent cultural equality with other nations, we become embroiled in the amalgamated discussions (those imposing themselves into the discussion as sincere, being secretly manipulative) leading us to our own beheading.
    But as this particular struggle involving “Pussy Riot” attests, the struggle for all of us in finding liberty of mind and soul is individual, personal ~ yet, to become a perfect social tool, must be made available to all, complete with open history, philosophy, spiritual dialogue and general discussion.
    Thank God there are such moments as these, such bold representatives of truth-seekers as these, and such a universal platform and stage upon which we will be able to witness God’s response to these proceedings as the days flow onward.

  3. Lexington Green:

    August 20th, 2012 at 9:27 pm

    Charles, these are amazing statements.  Do we have reason to believe they are legitimate?  Do we know if these young women had help in writing these?  Is there a movement behind them that helped to draft them?  If they really wrote these, on their own, in prison, it is one more amazing example of the Russian capacity to face and denounce tyranny even in its very jaws.  Russia has had an endless series of tyrants, and a seemingly endless series of brilliant and valiant dissidents.  It is sad that the latter continue to be necessary.  

  4. Charles Cameron:

    August 20th, 2012 at 10:53 pm

    Hi Lex:
    .
    According to a Columbia University announcement:

    Bela Shayevich organized the effort to translate the closing statements into English; Marijeta Bozovic (Ph.D. 2011), Rebecca Pyatkevich (Ph.D. 2010), and current students Maksim Hanukai and Katharine Holt were among those who worked on the translations.
    .
    Click here to read statements by some of the translators.

    .
    A translator named Susan Bernofsky, who blogs as Translationista, wrote:

    I found the strength and intelligence of these young women profoundly inspiring. And then I started wondering how it was that we were able to read these statements so quickly, seeing as none of our major news organizations (with all their resources and staff translators) bothered to provide us with translations. And it turns out that this was a volunteer effort of the sort facilitated by the existence of social media. According to Katharine Holt, who was involved in the project as an editor, translator Bela Shayevich put out a call for collaborators to work on the project on Facebook last Thursday around 2:00 p.m.; and by midnight, Holt writes:
    .
    she had three translated statements that had been checked against the video of the closing statements and the original Russian copies of the statements (the hand-written statements had been posted by the radio station Ekho Moskvy, along with typed versions). In addition, all three had been edited by several native English speakers.

    Another of the translators was Elena Glazov-Corrigan, whose Emory Faculty page is here.

  5. Charles Cameron:

    August 20th, 2012 at 11:12 pm

    Zen points out to me that this page was linked by the Christian Science Monitor today, in their article titled How Russia transformed Pussy Riot into international cause célèbre (go to the second page), in this paragraph:

    Another development that changed minds during the course of the trial was the comportment of the three Pussy Riot women, who proved to be calm, well-educated, historically aware, and who delivered highly articulate final statements (excerpted here) that seem likely to become part of Russia’s enduring literature of dissent.

    This post is linked on their site at the bracketed words “excerpted here”. Thank you, Fred Weir — and I agree, the statements are indeed highly articulate.

  6. Three Russian Women vs. Putin. « littleinkblot:

    August 21st, 2012 at 2:32 am

    […] Citing another article (“Pussy Riot II: The Closing Statements“), Sullivan discusses the reasons given by the young women for choosing the altar of the […]

  7. tdaxp:

    August 21st, 2012 at 4:39 am

    This is an amazing post. Thank you, Charles.

  8. Curtis Gale Weeks:

    August 21st, 2012 at 4:47 am

    Charles, the link to CSM isn’t working for me.  I think a -video might be missing from the end of it.

  9. Charles Cameron:

    August 21st, 2012 at 6:10 am

    Hi Curtis:
    .
    I fixed it.  
    .
    It should have been http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2012/0820/How-Russia-transformed-Pussy-Riot-into-international-cause-celebre-video — but I think a hyphen got dropped somewhere in cut’n’paste. You’ll still have to load that page then go to page two for “our” paragraph, however.
    .
    And as Zen has kindly pointed out, and as the littleinkblot comment above suggests, NRO has also linked to this post, and John O’Sullivan is kind enough to say:

    Jim Bennett pointed me to a blog item by Charles Cameron on Zen Pundit about the female musicians now starting a vile three-year sentence in Russia for appearing before the altar of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow and briefly singing “Mother of God, Put Putin Away” before being hustled off and arrested. Mr. Cameron’s piece is one of three he has recently posted on the trial and is extremely informative. It consists of the court statements by the “girls” (women really, and if the statements were genuinely written by them, formidably intelligent ones), with Mr. Cameron’s occasional explanations and commentaries.
    .
    This post has changed my mind on the group as it changed Jim Bennett’s.

    I can’t take credit for that, obviously, but I’m delighted to have helped get the word out. So my thanks go to Jim B and John O’S both — and to Lex, and Dan too, and Zen… all of you.

  10. Chicago Boyz » Blog Archive » Pussy Riot Links:

    August 21st, 2012 at 6:58 pm

    […] Charles Cameron, Post 2 […]

  11. Karen Sanders:

    August 21st, 2012 at 8:06 pm

    Truth is, all expanded political centers (e.g., Russia, the U.S., China, Rome, Greece, Egypt, et al) are outfitted with tyrants and dissidents. That might be a good theme for a documentary, a finger-pointer into the very dark heart of men in power and protest.
    And while we blather on about the intelligence of these young women, admirable as it is, and about the horrid role tyrants have played in lacerating their own species, and the wonderful role dissidents have played in momentarily easing the curfews and misery of a few generations, nothing really changes.
    Where is the dialogue about real change? which is what we’re all basically approaching in our aspirations and comments. 

  12. TMLutas:

    August 21st, 2012 at 9:41 pm

    You can visibly zing Kiril I without being blasphemous. I much prefer Kiril I’s nomination for the 2012 Nobel prize in economics and his 2012 winning of the Silver Shoe award to Pussy Riot’s show in the cathedral. He won the Silver Shoe award for his disappearance of photographic evidence that he wore an extravagant watch and he was nominated for his proof that the exchange of goods for money (technically suggested donation) was not commerce. 

    Kiril I is Orthodoxy’s cross to bear. He is a transitional figure between the Soviet dominated Church and the post-Soviet one that is percolating in the breasts of the young priests and religious who fight for Orthodoxy’s reform. I do not find him admirable.

    Pussy Riot conflates Kiril’s failings with the Church’s positions and condemns both. In the end, that’s a sleight of hand that should not be passed over. 

  13. Charles Cameron:

    August 22nd, 2012 at 12:49 am

    Another nice comment, which I’ll interject here because a quick quote is easily dropped into the stream, while giving a proper response to Karen and TM’s comments will require time & nuance on my part!  So, here it is, from Helen Szamuely at Your Freedom and Ours :

    Allow me to link to two excellent pieces on the subject, both published on the other side of the Pond by two people who have actually looked at what the three defendants said in their closing statements. Having read some of their letter from prison and translated one of them into English I can see that the statements confirm what was said in the letters. Here is Charles Cameron on Zenpundit, one of the best sites around and John O’Sullivan, a man who has been quoted several times on this blog, in the NRO Corner. 

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