'Virgin Mary Won't Allow This'

Yurodiviy

Russian cultural references

In connection with the Pussy Riot case, the phrase 'Bogoroditsa ne velit' has often been quoted.

The feminist punk band used as a refrain in their performance the words 'Virgin Mother, get rid of Putin'. While it has been widely quoted in Western press, the link, which is obvious to any Russian, may have been lost on the Western reader.

In fact it comes from Alexander Pushkin's epic historical drama 'Boris Godunov' (1831).

Boris was Ivan the Terrible's lieutenant. When Ivan died in 1584 leaving a weak son, Feodor, on the throne, Godunov became a de-facto ruler. And after Feodor died in 1598 Godunov was crowned as the new tsar.

He was an efficient administrator and reformer, but persistent rumours of his involvement in the alleged murder of Ivan's other son from his seventh marriage, tsarevitch Dimitriy. The rumours were, apparently, stirred by Godunov's enemies. Soon after Godunov died in 1605 his young son and widow were murdered. This marked the advent of 'the Time of Troubles', when effective rule was non-existent, the Poles invaded Russia and put their stooge, the False Dimitriy on the throne of Moscow. A popular uprising ensued and eventually the first of the Romanov's, Mikhail was selected as tsar.

Russia had to wait another hundred years for a successful reformer, Peter the Great.

Godunov's personality and the Time of Troubles have long fascinated Russian writers. To Russia, Godunov and tsarevitch Dimitriy in historical and literary terms is what Richard and the Princes in the Tower is to England.

The clip below is from Mussorgsky's classic opera 'Boris Godunov' (1868-73), based on Pushkin's poem. Tsar Boris is challenged by the city's Simpleton (Yurodiviy), here sung by Ivan Kozlovsky, to have the street boys, who had stolen a kopeck from him, to be slaughtered 'like you slaughtered tsarevitch Dimitriy.'

The tsar recoils and his aides want to arrest the Simpleton. Boris stops them and asks the Simpleton to pray for him. But the Simpletion says 'No, I can't, Virgin Mary, Mother of God (Bogoroditsa) does not allow this'.

The 'aaa-aaa' note in the Simpleton's aria is one of the most beautiful in Russian opera.



Illustration: detail of the painting by Vassily Surikov 'The Boyarinya Morozova', 1887, o/c, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

Tolstoy's verdict on Pussy Riot.

Please read the Russian version of this post, including the quote, on "Тетрадки" here.

'No one present seemed conscious that all that was going on here was the greatest blasphemy and a supreme mockery of that same Christ in whose name it was being done.'

This passage is from Chapter XL of The Resurrection, or the Awakening, translation is by Louise Maude. (The full text of the Chapter is here.) This chapter and many other passages deemed harmful to the prestige of the Russian government and the Orhtodox Church were banned by the tsar's censors and were not published until 1917. 

From the passage below, you can see how relevant Tolstoy's train of thought is to what's happening today around the feminist punk group Pussy Riot condemned to two years in a colony for 'hooliganism', i.e. doing a few jumps and hand-waves while dressed in brightly colored balaklavas, dresses and leggings. They were filmed and the footage was made into a YouTube hit 'punk-prayer' with the title 'Virgin Mary, rid us of Putin.'  

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Mariya Alekhina and Ekaterina Samutsevitch, two of them with small children, had already spent nearly half a year in pre-trial detention. They were denied bail. 

This is the quote:

'And none of those present, from the inspector down to Maslova, seemed conscious of the fact that this Jesus, whose name the priest repeated such a great number of times, and whom he praised with all these curious expressions, had forbidden the very things that were being done there; that He had prohibited not only this meaningless much-speaking and the blasphemous incantation over the bread and wine, but had also, in the clearest words, forbidden men to call other men their master, and to pray in temples; and had ordered that every one should pray in solitude, had forbidden to erect temples, saying that He had come to destroy them, and that one should worship, not in a temple, but in spirit and in truth; and, above all, that He had forbidden not only to judge, to imprison, to torment, to execute men, as was being done here, but had prohibited any kind of violence, saying that He had come to give freedom to the captives.

No one present seemed conscious that all that was going on here was the greatest blasphemy and a supreme mockery of that same Christ in whose name it was being done. No one seemed to realise that the gilt cross with the enamel medallions at the ends, which the priest held out to the people to be kissed, was nothing but the emblem of that gallows on which Christ had been executed for denouncing just what was going on here. That these priests, who imagined they were eating and drinking the body and blood of Christ in the form of bread and wine, did in reality eat and drink His flesh and His blood, but not as wine and bits of bread, but by ensnaring "these little ones" with whom He identified Himself, by depriving them of the greatest blessings and submitting them to most cruel torments, and by hiding from men the tidings of great joy which He had brought. That thought did not enter into the mind of any one present.'

The painting by Ilya Repin 'Tolstoy Barefoot' was painted in Pussy Riot colours by Tetradki/©Anichkin.

Pussy Riot Verdict. Shameful.

Shameful. 

Three young women of the Pussy Riot punk rock group were sentenced to two years in prison in Moscow today. They've already spent more than five months in detention, two of them have young children.

This is a quote from the Russian GQ editor Michael Idov's article in the Guardian, the best so far:

When you trim away everything else, three young women will spend two years in jail for dancing in a church.