The Master and Margarita and Pussy Riot

August 25, 2012

The new German translation of The Master and Margarita by the Russian-German author Alexander Nitzberg, about which we informed you earlier today, will play an important role on Saturday, September 8, 2012 on a benefit event organised to support the Russian punk band Pussy Riot, of which three members were recently sentecend to a term of two years. The event is part of the Internationales Literaturfestival in Berlin (Germany).

On 21 February, 2012, Pussy Riot had been singing a punk prayer in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral in Moscow to criticize the support of the Orthodox Church for Vladimir Putin. After less than a minute, the security of the cathedral intervened and stopped the singing. Everyone thought the girls would be released after a few days, just as it happened with other opposition members who got arrested before. But that was an underestimation of the power of the Church. Patriarch Kirill I (real name Vladimir Mikhailovich Gundyaev) called the action a blasphemy and the three members of Pussy Riot remained in prison.

The girls' trial was held at the court of the Khamovnichesky District in Moscow. Since some years, this court is creating a reputation of absurd accusations and evidences dictated by the Kremlin - as they did, for example, in the case against former Yukos owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky - and which increasingly look like the accusations and evidences presented during the show trials in the Stalin era.

At the trial, the band and its environment repeatedly quoted from The Master and Margarita. Therefore, the recently published new German translation by Alexander Nitzberg will be a central part of the benefit. The authors Marion Brasch, Jacob Hein, Wladimer Kaminer and Janne Teller will read parts of it to denounce the court cases orchestrated by the Kremlin under Vladimir Putin. The Bolschewistische Kurkapelle Schwarz-Rot will ensure the musical accompaniment.

Literaturnobelpreisträger unterstützen Aufruf des ilb für Pussy Riot
Internationales Literaturfestival
September 8, 2012, 19:30

Haus der Berliner Festspiele
Schaperstraße 24
10719 Berlin
Tel +49 30 254 89-100


Pussy Riot

Click here to read more about the Pussy Riot benefit  [de]



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