Sunday with Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina: ‘I’m an optimist’
Where are you this Sunday? In Goa, India. I came here for a two-week break, but my flight to Poland, where I was due to perform, was cancelled. I’ve been in lockdown since the beginning of March, although there are very few people with the virus.
How are you finding it? I’m an optimist, so I’m happy to be in a place where there’s sun, and I’ve met some amazing people. I miss my son, though. He’s with his father in a village around 100km from Moscow. Being creative now isn’t easy, but it never ever is.
What was Sunday like in prison? Before sentencing for our 2012 Moscow [Punk Prayer] protest performance, I was in Moscow’s only women’s jail. Sunday was like any day: you could read, exercise and eat salad. After that, at the penal colony, we had a day off from making Russian army uniforms, but if I was caught writing I’d be sent to break ice near the barracks.
What were Sundays like growing up? Through my teenage years I’d go to the centre of Moscow and busk with my guitar for money. Other kids my age would go out to clubs, but I was more interested in music and reading. After school finished I hitchhiked through
Russia, and then I had a child, so weekends stopped meaning anything.
How do you relax? Taking walks and listening to the waves, otherwise I’m reading. I’ve got two books on the go: Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat, Pray, Love, which I haven’t read for a decade, but it’s partly set in India, and It’s me, Eddie by Eduard Limonov [a Russian dissident and writer]. He died in March this year. Our political views are very different, but he’s an interesting figure.
A Sunday afternoon in Moscow ? I’d show you Lubyanka Square, where we always have demonstrations, and the offices of MediaZona, the outlet we launched after prison. We’d take a walk to the forest near where I grew up in the west of the city. And then I’d take you to my apartment to show you the gifts I’ve received from supporters around the world. It’s these things that give me hope.
Maria Alyokhina is a member of the advisory board of Artists at Risk (AR)