Pussy Riot: Kunst als Widerstand

Nach zwei Jahren Straflager tourt sie nun mit ihrem ersten Buch durch Europa: Pussy-Riot Aktivistin Maria Aljochina und Musiker  Eric J. Breitenbach im Gespräch über Musik, Protest und ihre eigenen Zwanziger

von Anne Nothtroff

Vergangene Woche war Pussy Riot Aktivistin Maria (russ. Masha) Aljochina gemeinsam mit dem Musiker Eric J. Breitenbach für die Lesung von Mashas Buch »Political Girl« im Theater Regensburg. Unsere Redakteurin Anne Nothtroff hat dort mit ihnen gesprochen und in den darauffolgenden Tagen ein Online Interview mit den beiden geführt:

Ich bin 24 Jahre alt. In diesem Alter war Masha bereits Mutter und saß in Russland im Gefängnis. Der Grund: das bekannte Punk-Gebet »Jungfrau Maria, verjage Putin«, eine Protestaktion gegen das Putin-Regime in der Moskauer Christus-Erlöser-Kathedrale im Jahr 2012. Im Gefängnis durfte niemand mit der Frau, die den Aufnäher »eine Politische« auf der Jacke trug, sprechen. Das Land, in dem sie lebt, hat sie sich nicht ausgesucht. Aber sie konnte es nicht einfach hinnehmen. Weitere Protestaktionen folgten. Im Jahr 2022 floh sie, verkleidet als Essenslieferantin, über Litauen nach Europa. Gemeinsam mit dem Musiker Eric J. Breitenbach ist sie nun auf Tour. Eric erzählt, wie sie sich begegnet sind und wie die Zusammenarbeit mit Pussy Riot seine Musik verändert hat.

Masha spricht über den Beginn ihres Aktivismus, über die aktuelle Situation in Russland und über ihren Sohn. Geschichten, die unter die Haut gehen. Am Ende frage ich die beiden, wie sie ihre Zwanziger erlebt haben, und muss lächeln, als Masha erzählt, dass sie statt in die Vorlesung lieber trampen ging. Ihre Antworten sind authentisch. Immer wieder überlegt sie, seufzt tief und zwischendurch ist das leise Ziehen an ihrer Vape zu hören.

Um dem Original treu zu bleiben, wurde das Gespräch nicht ins Deutsche übersetzt.

Lautschrift: How did your collaboration come about and how did you first meet Masha and the Pussy Riot collective?

Eric: I first met Masha, Alina, Diana and Olga in Vancouver in March 2024 when Pussy Riot came for their Velvet Terrorism exhibition and a sold-out Riot Days show. I invited them to do a smaller performance at my studio. Alina played a solo violin set, New Age Doom [the band in which Erics plays the drums] performed and Diana performed as Rosemary Loves a Blackberry. That was the start of our collaboration.

What happened next?

 Eric: In late 2024 and early 2025 I toured Europe with Diana’s Pussy Riot show Sweat and Blood, co-headlining alongside New Age Doom. When Riot Days returned to Vancouver in April 2025 they stayed at my house and that’s when they asked me to join the group. We went on to perform together across Europe and the UK with New Age Doom opening the shows.
After that I joined Masha on her »Political Girl« book tour creating and performing a live score to accompany her readings.

How would you describe your personal musical style, and how has it changed through your collaboration with Pussy Riot?

Eric: My background is in experimental and heavy music blending live drums, noise and atmosphere. I’ve always been drawn to using rhythm and texture to shape emotion rather than just keep time.
Working with Pussy Riot changed how I think about storytelling through sound. Riot Days isn’t a band performance. It’s a mix of theatre, punk and electronic music where every sound has to move the story forward. I started thinking about rhythm as a form of storytelling rather than just structure. It pushed me to connect sound with message and to make every hit, loop and texture serve the emotion behind what’s being said on stage.

Are there any artists or movements that currently inspire you?

Eric: I’m inspired by artists who treat music as a living reaction to what’s happening around them. That could be in noise, punk, jazz or electronic music. The genre doesn’t matter as much as the intent. I’m drawn to anyone using sound to challenge, question or document their time.
Right now I feel most inspired by movement itself, by collaboration, by people who use art to stay awake and connected rather than comfortable.

What message would you like to share with young people who are becoming politically active today?

Eric: If you’re becoming politically active, start by educating yourself about what’s happening in the world and in your own community. Look at where the money goes. Research your city’s operating budget, research social services and find out what happens with your tax money. Politics are everywhere. Even choosing not to be political is still a political choice.
In most places more funding still goes to policing and prisons than to schools, housing or community care. That’s what happens when greed runs unchecked and indifference becomes normal.
Real change starts with awareness. When you understand how the system works you can see who it’s built to serve and that’s when you can start pushing back.

Masha: Don‘t be indifferent, don‘t be afraid to make mistakes. Don’t demand too much from yourself. Take actions which are fun.

Do you still have hope for change in Russia and if so, where does that hope come from?

Masha: It depends on what we mean by change. There are millions of people in Russia who silently do not agree with Putin’s politics and stand against his war. In my opinion much more people stand against this war than for it. But propaganda draws another picture. These people are forced to live in silence because the price for speaking is their life, or prison for 15, 20 years. Even in these conditions there are people from the younger generation who sing songs from artists who left the country and built this bridge and connection. So this is a change. Also a change is a song which was a hymn of perestroika when the Soviet Union was collapsing: The band »Кино« translated as »cinema« was playing a song which became a hymn for people who desire freedom. And to push some assholes out Kreml does not only mean to have the desire for change. It’s as well the brave step of sending an army to Ukraine to help them to survive.

You witnessed your country turning into a dictatorship not overnight, but step by step. Where or how does that process begin?

Masha: The Soviet Union collapsed in the early 1990s. Russia then had nine years to figure out who it was as a country — not a long time compared to others. Then came inflation and the Chechen War, when Chechnya demanded independence [Weitere Infos: Erster Tschetschenienkrieg]. President Yeltsin refused and began bombing the capital. The victims were civilians. After a devastating war with heavy losses on both sides, there were no winners: Chechnya didn’t gain independence, and Russia achieved no real victory.
Two years later, the conflict flared up again. When Yeltsin resigned, he handed power to Putin, who began dismantling freedoms one by one. From the very beginning, the year 2000, it was clear: repression of the opposition and the media intensified, and eventually came the point of no return, against which we protested with the “punk prayer.”
After this point Putin invaded Ukraine, annexed media, declared the Cold War was the West’s fault and the West did not give fuck. He was continuing to repress, poison and kill people inside the country. At the same time he and his gang were sending his children to Western countries to have a good education. So this situation of pure hypocrisy was going on at least for 8 years from 2014 until 2022.

How is the situation right now?

Masha: Now we have war censorship, torture chambers, work concentration camps with around 30.000 people currently in there. I think in Russia there was nothing special at this point. We can see these signs of upcoming totalitarianism in many Western Countries, Germany included. Let’s remember: there is still no embargo on Russian gas and oil, meaning Putin has an unlimited budget to attack your countries — not with armies, but through your elections and media, using propaganda and disinformation.

In our new print magazine, we’re exploring what it means to be in your twenties — the search for a sense of home, a career path, and identity. These are questions many of our readers are dealing with. So we’d like to ask you: How did you experience your own twenties, and what issues or ideas shaped that time for you?

Eric: In my twenties I was searching for and longing for a sense of belonging which is what first drew me to playing in bands and putting on shows. It wasn’t just about music. It was about finding a community, a place where people cared about the same things and built something together from nothing.

I think that search for belonging is still at the center of what I do. Those years taught me that meaning comes from creating something honest with others and that connection can be a form of survival. Everything I do comes from that same need to connect.

Masha: Instead of going to the first year of university I went hitchhiking, because I did not want someone to choose a career for me. When I was 18 I was still in the situation that I didn‘t know who I wanted to be. Then I became a young mother and decided to keep the child which is probably the best decision of my life. I was lucky because in this situation many people are left alone, but the father of my son did not run away, I had an apartment in Moscow and a mother who did not judge me. I started to think about how other people in this situation are living and basically this pushed me to read a lot about social politics. About the amount of money the state gives to people in this situation. This pushed me into university and I accidentally became a student. I just started with climate activism when a former friend asked me to help in an action. I asked: What is an action? You will see, she said. That‘s how I became part of the group which later became Pussy Riot and took part in several protests. Later they arrested me when I was 23 and released me when I was 25. That‘s how it started.

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Mehr Informationen zu den Künstler:innen: www.riotdays.com // www.newagedoom.com // www.ericjbreitenbach.com

Den Lautschrift Artikel über die Lesung im Theater Regensburg gibt es hier: https://www.lautschrift.org/2025/11/06/widerstand-ohne-illusionen/

Titelbild:  Maria (Masha) Aljochina und Eric J. Breitenbach © Stephan Lam