The 'Snow Revolution' against Vladimir Putin

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2022

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Starting in late 2011, tens of thousands of protestors took to the streets to try to stop what they saw as a power grab by Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The demonstrators wanted to stop what they considered a fraudulent parliamentary election and a surprise announcement that Putin would run for president for a third time. The movement was not successful, but analysts say it worried the Russian leader so much that he launched a crackdown on dissent that has lasted to this day. Rachel Naylor talks to Russian rock journalist, Artemy Troitsky, who composed a song that became an anthem of what was sometimes called the "Snow Revolution".

(Photo: An anti-Putin rally in Moscow in December 2011. Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:36.0	Hello and thank you for downloading the Witness History podcast on the BBC World Service with me
0:46.0	Rachel Naylor. Today I'm taking you back a decade to some of the biggest demonstrations in
0:50.5	Russia against Vladimir Putin.
0:56.7	Tens of thousands of people protested against what they believed were rigged elections
0:59.9	and plans by Putin to consolidate his grip on power.
1:04.4	I've been speaking to a rock journalist who was at the forefront of a movement sometimes called the Snow Revolution. It's February 2012.
1:15.0	It's February 2012.
1:17.0	Our Temi Trotsky is singing a new protest song in Moscow's Bolot Naya Square in front of more than 100,000 people.
1:25.0	It's hard to imagine now, but this was still a time when Russians like Otemi were free to attack
1:29.7	Vladimir Putin. I've recorded this song one day before it at a small home studio with a surf rock band called the Vivi sectors and I sang and
1:49.7	I composed the song and wrote the lyrics and these guys they played electric guitars and bass guitar and so on and well I still think it's quite a good song.
2:01.0	And how does it go?
2:02.0	Chorus line went... good song and how does it go? Chaiqupuzya Nanari, Shapunana, Putings Gang Behind Bars. behind bars.
2:19.0	The movement dates back a few months earlier to September 2011, when many Russians concluded that Vladimir Putin was planning a power grab.
2:23.0	He had already been president for two terms,
2:25.0	but because of constitutional restrictions,
	...

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