Pussy Riot’s cathedral protest

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2023

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In February 2012, Diana Burkot and other members of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot protested inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour against the church and its support for Russian president Vladimir Putin. Some members were arrested and put on a trial which made the news inside Russia and around the world. Diana kept her participation in the protest secret and avoided going to prison. She shares her memories with Alex Collins. (Photo: Diana Burkot on stage. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the witness history podcast with me, Alex Collins.
0:08.6	Today I'm taking you back 11 years to a provocative punk protest that took place inside Moscow's
0:14.8	Cathedral of Christ the Saviour.
0:19.3	It's the morning of the 21st of February 2012, Diana Burcott, along with a group of women
0:24.4	got up early.
0:26.2	They were members of the all-female performance punk band Pussy Riot.
0:32.0	They were angry with President Putin because they thought he was abusing his power.
0:36.2	They were also protesting about the church's support for him and they were about to cause
0:40.4	a scene.
0:42.9	It's quiet when Diana and the others entered the Cathedral.
0:46.5	She remembered seeing a small number of tourists taking pictures, mainly focusing their lenses
0:51.2	on the impressive artwork painted on the walls and ceiling.
0:54.8	She's also watching carefully as women in green uniforms tend to devotional candles.
1:01.0	We were walking around inside, doing laps of the church for about 10 minutes.
1:05.6	I didn't understand much about what was going on.
1:08.4	It was quite scary, so I walked away for a bit.
1:12.7	One of the members of the group approached me with a bit of an irritated voice and said,
1:17.6	we go now.
1:21.5	Diana and the others run towards the main altar throwing off their winter coats.
1:26.3	At the same time they put on bright coloured balaclavas, a signature look for Pussy Riot.
1:32.4	Diana's orange is also wearing a red dress and blue tights.
1:36.9	One member gets out an electric guitar and starts to strum some chords.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.